During her years as a Cuban living in rural Galesburg, Ill., Mayra Daniel impressed on her family the need for fluency in her native tongue of Spanish. But that language was rare in this community of 35,000 in Knox County. “Few spoke
Read moreTeachers from Uruguay visit NIU, observe U.S. counterparts in DeKalb, Elgin schools
Valentina González and Analia Piantanida rarely see cultural diversity in the homogenous society of Uruguay, where both are English teachers in middle schools and high schools. Coming to Illinois as part of the NIU College of Education’s Uruguay Fulbright Teachers Program, however,
Read moreCOE Student Spotlight: Jeron Shelton
Hometown: Rockford, Ill. Program: Ph.D. Educational Psychology Status: Dissertating What inspired you to pursue this degree/career? I am in my 13th year as a seventh-grade English and social studies teacher at Abbott Middle School in Elgin U-46. Originally, I was teaching gifted
Read moreElgin U-46 partners with NIU to prepare new Special Ed teachers from within
With teachers in short supply throughout Illinois and across the United States, the responsibility of confronting that challenge is often left to school districts. Elgin U-46 has found an answer in the NIU College of Education. Serving nearly 40,000 students in 11
Read moreElementary Ed’s Elgin 2+2 off to good start
Esme wants “to give something back to my community, and what better way to do it than by educating the leaders of tomorrow.” Lisset loves “working and interacting with children. I have always looked up to my teachers as role models, and
Read moreSocial Justice Summer Camp 3.0 to foster growth via discomfort, ‘intellectual threat’
Jennie Hueber felt uncomfortable at NIU’s first Social Justice Summer Camp in 2017 – and that was a good thing. Hueber, the director of curriculum and instruction for DeKalb School District 428, already had begun her personal and professional journey to recognize,
Read moreSocial Justice Summer Camp 2.0 pushes educators to confront issues of diversity
Participants in last summer’s debut of NIU’s Social Justice Summer Camp gave James Cohen, Joseph Flynn and Michael Manderino a clear directive as they departed for home. Please, please do this again. And so they did, even if they had planned to
Read moreNIU working with ECC to offer Elementary Ed degree in Elgin
Beginning in Fall 2018, students at Elgin Community College need not travel to DeKalb to earn bachelor’s degrees in Elementary Education from Northern Illinois University. Administrators of the NIU College of Education and Elgin Community College are preparing a “2+2” agreement that
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