Abigail Wright honestly can’t remember wanting to become anything but a teacher. “My mom has videos and picture of me playing school when I was in preschool, and all of my friends had to be the students. I was always the teacher,”
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 moreCollege enrollment continues to climb
One year ago, the NIU College of Education found reason for celebration in rising enrollment numbers compared to the fall of 2018. That upward trend continues this fall as the college welcomes 2,539 total students, of whom 1,319 are in bachelor’s degree
Read morePerfect! COE licensure-candidates post 100% pass rate on edTPA despite waiver
Chris Gomes submitted his edTPA Feb. 23, two months before the Illinois State Board of Education decided this spring to waive that requirement for COVID-19. Passage of the edTPA, which measures a teacher-candidate’s competence in planning, instruction and assessment, is usually necessary
Read moreEducate Global reaches Spain via Zoom, participants will join in online seminars
As the initial dust of COVID-19 settled in the spring, Laurie Elish-Piper and David Walker began mulling what the virus meant for the near future of the college’s signature hands-on learning programs. “It became pretty apparent that our entire Educate and Engage
Read moreAll-College Meeting goes virtual, shares optimism for a ‘modified’ fall semester
Laurie Elish-Piper opened Tuesday’s All-College Meeting by quickly acknowledging the elephant in the virtual room. COVID-19 continues to impact the world, and returning to a new semester of teaching and learning will bring “challenges and situations that are quite different than what
Read moreOnline teacher-prep resources available to model best practices during COVID-19
As students of all levels return to class this fall while the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, the format for delivery varies from town to town, district to district and school to school. Some are online only. Some are strictly face-to-face. Some are
Read moreCI, College of DuPage ink 2+2 agreement for seamless Elementary Education path
Future B.S.Ed. in Elementary Education majors who want to start their studies at the College of DuPage can transfer seamlessly into the NIU College of Education. Thanks to a newly signed, non-cohort-based 2+2 agreement between COD and the Department of Curriculum and
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 moreRochelle school leaders partner with NIU to identify, prepare, hire bilingual teachers
Jason Harper, superintendent of schools in nearby Rochelle, knows that the diversity of his community is evolving. Forty percent of the Hub City’s current population is Hispanic, a number that only will continue to rise in coming years. Harper also understands that
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 moreProject CUP research illustrates challenge of managing tough home lives of students
Jan Solano arrived at the home of virtual strangers to watch, like a fly on the wall, how they prepared themselves for the day. It was 6 a.m. The mother of the family knew that Solano, a junior Middle Level Teaching and
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