Fourteen NIU College of Education students will travel to Kenya and Tanzania in 2022 for a personal immersion to understand the challenges of not only learning another language but learning in it. Pending COVID restrictions at the time, the new Educate Global
Read moreBlack, Brown & Bilingüe: Alums launch podcast while leading suburban schools
For Lissette Jacobson and Maurice McDavid, the connection began Day One. Both began working in DeKalb in August of 2011, when they attended an orientation for new teachers – and Jacobson couldn’t help but notice McDavid’s commanding voice in the room: “You’re
Read morePLEDGE program aims to ease shortage of teachers, boost teacher diversity
Illinois schools, like schools nationwide, desperately need more teachers – as well as more teachers who look like their students – to serve in growingly diverse classrooms. According to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, nearly 50% of teachers leave
Read moreEnseño en Español: DeKalb, Elgin enrolls teachers in new NIU course on biliteracy
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 moreSocial Justice Summer Camp 4.0 turns to podcasts to continue vital momentum
Joe Flynn heard the news without any sense of surprise. “It came out in late April that there was a disproportionate representation of African Americans and Latinos who have been contracting and, most importantly, dying from the virus,” says Flynn, an associate
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 moreFrom Tonga with Love: Alumna completes Peace Corps service, returns for licensure
During the fall semester of 2015, Bernadette Chatman served as a Northern Lights Ambassador for the NIU College of Education. What, she was asked for a web profile, were her ambitions? The sophomore Special Education major in the Department of Special and
Read moreDoctoral students from Indonesia provide valuable insight for COE research mentors
In what seems like an “of course it is” bit of trivia, the official language of Indonesia is – yes, Indonesian. Linguists, according to WorldAtlas.com, categorize Indonesian as “a standardized register of Riau Malay” and “among the languages of the Austronesian language
Read moreJames Cohen studies novel ideas to teach English during Fulbright visit to Uruguay
James Cohen will remember the dirt roads, and the long drives to reach the most rural schools in Uruguay. He’ll remember touring those buildings, seeing the kitchens where the teachers and students eat and the bedrooms where the teachers sleep during the
Read moreAll-College: Summer enrollment climbs, fall forecast shows continued optimism
Good news is easy to find in the College of Education – and that includes enrollment. The college’s summer headcount for 2019 rose by 7.39 percent, or 89 students, over the year before – and the fall enrollment forecast expects to continue
Read more‘Keep talking’: Educators witness strength, advocacy at Social Justice Summer Camp
They were different women of different ages, sitting in different rooms, hearing different words on different subjects at different times. Yet their response – their natural, human reaction – was the same. The proverbial lumps in the throat, the moisture of not-quite-yet
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,
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