NIU’s Department of Special and Early Education welcomed three new tenure-track faculty in fall 2020. Familiar face and SEED alumna Lydia Gerzel-Short is joined by Rachel Donegan and Molly Pasley, who also holds a degree from the NIU College of Education. Chair
Read moreBlack students share COE experiences, offer recommendations for improvement
Four Black students in the NIU College of Education joined the Jan. 7 spring all-college meeting to share their personal stories and offer guidance for how faculty and staff can better empower them during their academic journeys. The quartet included one undergraduate
Read moreSupporting students of color: Faculty share ideas to expand concept of equity
As the powerful messages from a panel of Black students concluded during the Jan. 7 all-college meeting, Dean Laurie Elish-Piper shifted the conversation to action. “I’ve asked each department to share an initiative that directly relates to supporting students of color, broadening
Read moreBest of both worlds: Educate U.S. takes virtual trip to Houston during pandemic
COVID-19 could not cancel the NIU College of Education’s January 2021 edition of Educate U.S. with the Houston Independent School District. Even as the pandemic did prevent travel to Texas for the 14 teacher-licensure candidates chosen to participate in the real-world learning,
Read moreSpecial Ed major’s honors project offers advice for teachers with COVID burnout
Lindsey Comeau was only 6 when she began volunteering for the National Association for Down Syndrome’s annual Bowl-A-Thon. The senior Special Education major from Romeoville drew her motivation from a family friend with Down Syndrome, eventually becoming a counselor at a Northern
Read more‘Book of record’: NIU faculty, alums help write new ‘bible’ on vision rehab therapy
Sue Dalton, a longtime instructor in the Department of Special and Early Education’s Visual Impairments program, is the author of two chapters in the newly published “Foundations of Vision Rehabilitation Therapy.” Its publication is heralded as a landmark moment by practitioners in
Read moreCongratulations!
Congratulations to these NIU College of Education students and faculty! Eight College of Education students have been named Dean’s Achievement Scholars! Dylan Banker, Kinesiology Roger Bezares, Kinesiology Hannah Clark, Elementary Education-Elementary Mathematics Education Esperanza Correa, Elementary Education-Reading Teacher Genesis Miranda, Special Education-Visual
Read moreTeacher-licensure candidates thrive, grow amid COVID-impacted clinicals
For future teachers, the professional semesters of their higher education provide the classroom immersion and real-life, hands-on experience that apply the icing to the cake. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, most schools simply aren’t operating as usual. Some are all face-to-face, some
Read moreSarah Johnston-Rodriguez’s retirement leaves ‘think backward’ mantra to grads
Once Sarah Johnston-Rodriguez dismissed her early notions to become a ballerina or an archaeologist, she turned her attention to nuclear physics. “I used to have a lab in our basement and blow things up,” Johnston-Rodriguez says. “But I had a career counselor
Read moreRobin Miller Young writing next chapter in retiring from Early Childhood faculty
Robin Miller Young always knew that she wanted a career making positive differences for children and families. How to meet and exceed that goal, however, has evolved continually since the beginning of her pursuit – and, unsurprisingly, another chapter is soon to
Read moreFood for thought: Special Ed faculty tap technology to maintain early clinicals
Faculty from the Department of Special and Early Education (SEED) knew that their technological pivot of early clinical teaching requirements during COVID-19 was making lemonade from lemons. Among the things they learned from the abrupt shift from actual K-12 classrooms to Blackboard
Read moreAlumna Yuni Lopez experiences strike, COVID-19 in wild first year of teaching
Had life gone as planned, Yuni Lopez would be a nurse by now. And, given the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, that career choice would have generated quite the extraordinary first year out of college. But that doesn’t mean the last 12 months have
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