Some people are born into their callings. Consider Melanie Koss. “I just grew up loving books. I don’t ever remember a time when I wasn’t a book lover. I learned to read very young, and even before I learned to read, I
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 moreSTEM Read Summer Institute prepares educators to bring books, curiosity to life
Melanie Koss donned a headpiece that gave her deer ears, reclined motionless on a couch in the Gabel Hall Learning Center, closed her eyes and played the role of a deceased doe. And that wasn’t even the strangest sight at July’s NIU
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 moreKoss named Senior Faculty Fellow
Melanie Koss is the NIU College of Education’s first Senior Faculty Fellow. Launched this spring, the program recognizes and rewards high-performing, tenured faculty and promotes research and/or scholarly activity in the college. Recipients of the Senior Faculty Fellow title receive either $3,500
Read moreSTEM Read Institute sparks educators
Macy Gray’s journey as a teacher began at Mayatan Bilingual School, a non-profit in Honduras where she taught sixth-graders. When she returned to Illinois this summer to begin a new job this fall teaching sixth- and seventh-graders at Chicago’s Altus Academy, the
Read moreSTEM Read Summer Institute to teach educators to transfer books ‘off the page’
Bringing books to life – transporting an author’s words and worlds from typewritten pages into physical spaces – marvelously rouses the passion for reading within young readers. Just imagine your excitement if you learned that Tad Lincoln had lost his famous father’s
Read moreMelanie Koss enjoys opportunity to honor Congressman Lewis
Melanie Koss knows a great book – or a great graphic novel – when she reads one. And, Koss says, Congressman John Lewis’ “March: Book Three” is a triumph. Its sweep of the American Library Association awards for 2017 includes the prestigious
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