College of Education Newsletter

In January I started a journey that has been a dream of mine for many, many years. I took a pottery class. Art was my refuge in high school. I spent as much time as possible hanging out in the art room and when I went to college I envisioned an art minor. That didn't happen. The intensity of a dual licensure program in elementary and special education made it unrealistic. I ended up dropping the art program right before the ceramics sequence. So, I've had a dream to become a potter since I was 19.

I'm in love with ceramics, wheel throwing, and handbuilding. I love everything about it....even the failures. One of the reasons that I'm obsessed with ceramics is that it's caused me to rediscover life lessons. I'd like to share some of these with you.

Throwing pottery requires patience and persistence. The wheel demands a steady hand and a calm mind, as the process of centering the clay and shaping it into the desired form can be challenging. Similar to life, where success often requires sustained effort, pottery teaches us the value of not giving up when faced with initial difficulties, Through repeated practice, we learn that progress is achievable with patience and unwavering determination. Productive failure is real!

The act of throwing pottery demands intense concentration and focus. A wandering mind can lead to misshapen creations. This teaches us the significance of mindfulness – being fully present in the moment – both in pottery and in life. By immersing ourselves in the process, we become attuned to the subtle shifts and sensations. This mindfulness extends beyond the wheel, encouraging us to appreciate the simple pleasures and details that often go unnoticed

One of the most beautiful aspects of pottery is its imperfections. Every piece carries the maker's unique touch. Learning to throw pottery teaches us to embrace imperfections in both art and life. In a world that often demands flawlessness, pottery reminds us that there is beauty in the irregular, asymmetrical, and imperfect. These qualities not only make each piece special but also remind us of our own uniqueness.

As we begin this academic year, I'd like to remind us all to remember to center ourselves, offer patience, remain persistent, create spaces for mindfulness, and embrace our own imperfections while we offer space for growth.

Welcome to the 23-24 Academic Year!

- Vicki

**A picture of me in high school with my art teacher, Ms. Darcy Wilkinson.

The College of Education once again offered the free virtual Professional Development Series. While we do have attendees from many states, this series is geared towards Arkansas educators and each session attended is worth two hours of Arkansas professional development credit approved by Department of Elementary and Secondary Education/Arkansas Department of Education (DESE/ADE).

This summer we offered 18 webinar sessions and had over 800 attendees over all sessions. Five of those sessions featured literacy-themed speakers facilitated by Dr. Amy Thompson (Department of Elementary, Literacy, and Special Education) and were funded by a Graduate School Recruitment Grant and a UCA Foundation Parent Grant. We would like to thank all of our speakers that gave of their time to present a session.

For a full list of sessions you can visit https://uca.edu/education/coe-pd/. There you will find session descriptions and a link to the recorded YouTube video if recording was permitted.

You can view information of our past COE PD Series by going to https://uca.edu/education/coe-pd-archives/. You can subscribe to our YouTube Channel by going to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6UMV0F0ZR-vsnrVNjwK5Qg.

The College of Education Technology Learning Center (TLC) once again offered summer Grab and Go Maker Kits. Targeted towards grades K-6, each kit included a book, a project to build that was created on our Glowforge, supplemental activity, and all materials needed to construct the project. The 50 kits (10 of each theme) are traditionally distributed in July and are free while supplies last. This year we were able to offer 55 kits. The themes featured this year were:

Dinosaurs (K-2) - Includes a book, wood dinosaurs and pipe cleaners to decorate them, dinosaur wood puzzle, etc. (Sponsored by Dr. Erin Shaw from the Department of Leadership Studies)

Letters (K-2) - Includes a book, journal, magnetic letters, acrylic letter tracing board, etc. (Sponsored by Dr. Amy Thompson of the Department of Elementary, Literacy, and Special Education)

Toucan/Birds (K-2) - Includes a book, wood toucan to put together, wood toucan puzzle, etc.

Hieroglyphics (3-5) - Includes a book, wood hieroglyphic stencil ruler, wood King Tut puzzle, etc.

Constellations (3-5) - Includes a book, wood constellation viewer to put together, etc.

Planets (4-6) - Includes a book, wood and acrylic light up planet set to put together, etc.

The wood and acrylic activities are printed on the Glowforge by Melissa Earls (TLC Technology Specialist) and additional activities, books, instructions, etc., were created and assembled by Ashley Cooksey (TLC Director).

We would especially like to thank The UCA Bookstore and the COE Dean's Office for donating UCA swag for the kits.

*See photos below (from left to right):

Waylon Baker assembling the Toucan kit, Hieroglyphics kit, Light up planets

We had an amazing day on August 17, 2023, as we hosted the 1:1 Mobile Relaunch Day. Our talented faculty, key players in the Apple 1:1 iPad Initiative program, gathered for a day of professional growth. A highlight was our fantastic keynote speaker, Katie Gardner, an ESL teacher from North Carolina. She's an Apple Distinguished Educator (Class of 2017), a National Board-certified teacher in English as a new language, and a trailblazer in education innovation.

Together, we dove into breakout sessions, enhancing our skills and knowledge.

Breakout sessions offered were:

• Visible Thinking and Collaborative Note-taking with Freeform (Dr. Jessica Herring Watson)
  
• Introduction Videos with Clips (Melissa Bland, Apple)
  
• Keynote & Live Video (Dr. Michael Mills)
  
• Goal-setting & Material/Activity Development: (Facilitated by: Katie Gardner, Dr. Herring Watson, Dr. Vicki Groves-Scott, Melissa Earls, Melissa Bland, and Dr. Jason Trumble).
  

Dr. Nathan White (Department of Leadership Studies) secured the High Quality Instructional Materials grant that is provided by the Arkansas Department of Education. The $25,000 grant makes available High Quality Instructional Material for teacher candidates, other education students, and instructors to use in their studies or classes. Dr. White said, "We purchased reading materials covering Kindergarten, 2nd Grade, 4th Grade, and 8th Grade. We also purchased mathematics materials covering 2nd Grade, 4th Grade, 8th Grade, Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. We utilized different vendors and publishers so that our students could see many different styles of High Quality Instructional Materials."

The High Quality Instructional Materials are located in the Technology Learning Center (Mashburn 102) and are available for checkout by College of Education faculty and students. Below you will find a PDF of the available materials.

For more information about the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials you can visit https://aredreports.ade.arkansas.gov/.

* Photo info: Dr. Nathan White shows off the new High Quality Instructional Materials.

The UCA Mashburn Center for Learning is working with DESE this year to explore housing AR SIM online courses in Arkansas IDEAS for Arkansas teachers to access and expand the number of courses we currently offer to Arkansas teachers. These self-paced interactive courses allow teachers from across the state to learn and implement learning strategies for struggling learners as well as receive coaching from members of the UCA Mashburn Center team.

In addition to developing and offering these courses, the UCA MCL is partnering with the University of Kansas (KUCRL) and DESE to provide a FREE SIM virtual conference in October. This conference is free to all Arkansas educators interested in SIM. See https://sim.ku.edu/sim-event-2023-ar-sim-conference for registration information.This is only the beginning!! The MCL offers a wide range of services delivered to educators from all sectors of the state on a variety of critical topics: Content Enhancement Routines, Learning Strategies, Inclusive Practices, and Collaborative Teaming to name a few.

Hannah is the new Director of the AmeriCorps Program at the University of Central Arkansas. She has been at UCA full-time since graduating with her Bachelor’s in Philosophy & Political Science in 2018 and is slated to complete her Master’s in College Student Personnel Administration this December. She completed a term of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA in UCA's Division of Outreach and Community Engagement and also currently serves as a faculty/staff advisor for UCA's Students for the Arts and PRISM. She's very passionate about supporting underrepresented and underserved student populations. Perhaps most importantly, she has two cats that are basically her whole world, and loves coffee, crafting, and Star Wars.

Jessica Fletcher (2022 MSE Reading graduate) and Jessica Ziel (2022 MSE Reading graduate) are making headway in their state of Idaho. Fletcher and Ziel are leading the way to forming a Reading League chapter in their state. Dr. Louisa Moats and Dr. Deb Glaser have agreed to act as their advisory council.

Photo info (from left to right): Jessica Fletcher and Jessica Ziel.

Dr. Michelle Buchanan (Department of Teaching and Learning) was a guest speaker at a "Teacher Leadership & Teacher Education" course for a doctoral program at the University of New Mexico. The instructor, Dr. Deena Gould, invited Michelle to present her 2021 AERA presentation "Becoming and Being a Leader: One Teacher's Story," which was based on her dissertation. Michelle met the class virtually in July, and discussed her research and qualitative research design.

Dr. Jessica Herring Watson (Department of Teaching and Learning) and Dr. Nykela Jackson (Department of Teaching and Learning), along with their colleague Dr. Chelsie Dubay (Middle Tennessee State University) had an article published this summer in Teacher Education Quarterly. The article is about their work using case-based learning to cultivate preservice teachers' culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy.

Herring Watson, J., Jackson, N., & Dubay, C. (2023). Examining the effect of case-based learning on preservice teachers' culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy. Teacher Education Quarterly 50(2), 29-53.

You can read their article by going to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KTGsCMski1Eq9uYq-1BzXOe7d_mXYXd1/view.

Photo info (from left to right): Dr. Herring Watson and Dr. Jackson.

Dr. Stefanie Sorbet (Department of Elementary, Literacy, and Special Education) was invited to present two sessions on conducting Morning Meetings in the Elementary Classroom as part of the Arch Ford Novice Teacher Institute. Participants engaged in a Morning Meeting simulation and discussed the importance of social and emotional learning and investing in our students to create a positive learning environment in our classrooms.

Missed an issue? You can view past issues of the COE Newsletter by going to https://uca.edu/education/coenewsletter/.