Growing up in Rockford, Amber Lee-Black found a home – and a life’s direction – on the basketball courts. “I didn’t want to go to work every day dreading going to work,” said Lee-Black, who played hoops for Auburn High School, Highland
Read moreCollege of Education, RPS 205 launch Rockford Principal Residency Program
The Northern Illinois University College of Education and Rockford Public Schools will launch this fall an innovative partnership to develop school leaders to serve the needs of Rockford-area schools. This cohort-based program is designed to improve academic and social-emotional learning outcomes from
Read moreEducational Administration alumni lead school districts through COVID-19 crisis
Brian Harris, M.S.Ed. ’91, Ph.D. ’01, had visited the bustling cafeteria of Barrington High School many times before. He had never regarded it the way he did March 12, however, through the social-distancing lens of COVID-19. “We have 650 kids eating lunch
Read moreMay 2019 alumna Hanna Fewell receives NIU Career Services intern scholarship
Special Education major Hanna Fewell received an unexpected welcome at Kingston Elementary School, where she began her student-teaching in the spring of 2019. “My teacher was kind of overwhelmed, and on the first day I walked in, she was like, ‘Surprise! You’re
Read moreSeven Golden Apple of Rockford finalists share NIU College of Education heritage
Seven of this year’s 20 Golden Apple of Rockford finalists are graduates of the NIU College of Education. They teach in Rockford, Belvidere, Durand, Machesney Park, Rockton and South Beloit. They teach preschool, kindergarten, third-grade, fourth-grade and fifth-grade. They came to teaching
Read moreFirst-year high school principal builds strong foundation with NIU preparation
During the six years Matthew Bennett and his wife, Erin, spent teaching school in Nevada, he realized his professional future might lie outside the classroom. “We just had a lot of turnover in the administrative ranks,” Bennett says. “I thought, ‘There’s got
Read moreAce! College of Ed licensure students nail 100 percent passage on Spring 2019 edTPA
Anna Morrison loves interactions with children. “Being around them brings a lot of joy into my life – just with certain things kids say, and the way they act, they’re a lot of fun,” says Morrison, a May 2019 graduate of the
Read moreNIU to improve math content knowledge for teachers from Rockford, Sauk Valley
Northern Illinois University has received a $1.6 million grant from the Illinois State Board of Education to provide professional development in math pedagogy to 160 teachers from Rockford and the Sauk Valley area. Grant dollars also will fund the development of online
Read moreRockford sixth-graders help Hsu study makerspaces, scientific argumentation
Six sixth-graders at Rockford Environmental Science Academy are exploring Next Generation Science Standards – and having a blast at the same time. Pi-Sui Hsu, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, is making weekly travels to Rockford
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