Page 1Spring 2014 • Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter

Educational Theory and Practice

Spring 2014 Issue 2 • Volume 1

N e w s l e t t e r

Dr. Bettina Love’s TED Talk

Educational Theory and Practice

Dr. Bettina Love is eminently recognized in the College of Education, UGA, the region, and throughout the country for her expertise in Hip Hop education, as well as for her illustrious teaching abilities. Because of her reputation, Dr. Love was chosen to give a presentation on her teaching and research in learning through Hip Hop music. In her Ted Talk, she describes how her elementary students learn by embodying Hip Hop music and poetry. Hip Hop, she asserts, is “a cultural learning tool,” and it is effective because it draws from students’ cultural knowledge and understanding. “Hip Hop is the latest iteration of Black genius,” that taps into a cultural legacy, and builds

upon social and emotional intelligence, grit and resiliency, curiosity, and the ability of students’ improvisations and theatrical techniques. She describes how learning through Hip Hop aids in bringing about children’s imaginative strengths, and how Hip Hop serves as a medium through which children learn and from which they can sculpt new and unique meaning. Hip Hop provides the cultural framework through which many children see the world, and this musical genre makes possible new learning experiences that both inform and that are informed by children’s cultural sensibilities. To view Dr. Love’s stimulating Ted Talk and to get a glimpse into the fascinating work she is doing in our department and in the College of Education, click on the following link: http://tedxuga.com/love/

D e p a r t m e n t o f

What’s inside:• Program News and

Updates... page 2

• Awards... page 3

• The Awesome Clubhouse... page 4

• Faculty Book... page 5

Upcoming FundraiserDrawing Change: The ART of Teacher Education

6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.May 14, 2014

Taylor-Grady House634 Prince Avenue

"Drawing Change: The ART of Teacher Education." To include music by Papa Legba All proceeds and donations benefit the Awesome Clubhouse @ la escuelita, a community-based educational space created through a partnership with the Department of Educational Theory and Practice and the Northeast Georgia FoodBank.

The clubhouse is inspired by Reggio Emilia philosophies in education as well as critical perspectives of identity, power, and pedagogy for equity and justice.

The Department of Educational Theory and Practice's Stephanie Jones directs the clubhouse where approximately 30-45 children between the ages of 5 and 12 participate in after school and summer programming. While the clubhouse does not invite "volunteers" to spend time at the clubhouse, the clubhouse occasionally does invite unpaid teacher candidates who are in a teacher education program to cultivate their practices of being present, mindful, creative, supportive, responsive and relational in a community-based setting.

Bettina Love

Page 2 Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter • Spring 2014

Program News & UpdatesEndowed ProfessorProfessor Cory Buxton has been named the UGA Athletic Association Professor in Education. Professor Buxton was chosen for his extraordinary record of research and teaching in science and middle-school education. The Endowment is awarded for a three-year renewable term.

GrantsThe following ETAP faculty members won summer research grants: Dr. Cory Buxton, Dr. Martha Allexsaht-Snider, Dr. Jerome Morris, and Dr. Ajay Sharma.

The following ETAP faculty members won Instructional Innovation Grants: Dr. Todd Dinkelman, Dr. Brian Dotts, Dr. Jim Garrett, Dr. Sonia Janis, and Dr. Marti Schmeichel.

New Faculty MemberDr. Bob Capuozzo, a clinical assistant professor in the department of educational theory and practice (ETAP), came to UGA from the University of Alaska Anchorage where he spent six years of his career. Prior to completing his doctorate from Arizona State University he worked in the

classroom, mostly with preschool-aged children, for almost seven years. His research interests include the development of father involvement programs, teacher preparation, and program evaluation. Bob is happily married with three young children.

Staff MembersAmanda Cole: ETAP is delighted to announce that Ms. Amanda Cole’s position has been reclassified. Amanda is now the departmental accounting assistant. Amanda joined the department in 2006 and recently received her associate’s degree in accounting from Colorado Technical Institute. Beginning fall 2014, Amanda will be in room 630D and will be ready to assist with all the services you have come to expect.

Anne Rigsby: New to the department, Anne Rigsby started with UGA in 1995 at the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in Tifton, GA, working in the sample receiving department. She worked her way up and became business manager from 2000-2006. She moved to Athens in March 2006 when she was promoted to senior accountant for

the special education department here at COE. She and her husband also owned an agricultural research business, which they sold in 2011 when they became part owners of a small electrical contracting company based out of North Carolina. In February, Anne was hired as ETAP’s senior accountant. She graduated from North Carolina State University with a BS in statistics and a minor in genetics. She has been married to her husband, David, for 20 years. Together they have five children, four boys and one girl, two dogs and two cats. Her oldest son, Wayne, lives in Orlando and will be getting married over the Thanksgiving holiday. Her son, Chase, and daughter, Savannah, both attend college locally and live at home. They have one son in high school, Chandler, and their youngest son, Chaney, is in middle school. Anne enjoys spending time with her family and pets.

Doctoral Student voted “Teacher of the Year”Mr. Steven Havick, a doctoral student majoring in Social Studies Education, was recognized by the Rockdale County Public Schools as one of their “Teachers of the Year” for his leadership and teaching excellence.

New Student OrganizationA group of ETAP graduate students have co-founded a new student organization, Feminist Scholar-Activists to bridge the gap between scholarship and activism through feminist theories. Feminist Scholar Activists is becoming intensely conscious about the world around us; exploring people, ourselves, and the politics of social interaction and injustice; to bring people together for reasons of solidarity, and consciously merging intellectual feminist theories and everyday practice in life to work for social change. The group aims to create an environment that is conducive to the justice for historically and politically underrepresented, oppressed, and misrecognized people. Six of the eight co-founders of this organization are ETAP doctoral students: Beth Pittard, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Elif Karsli, Cindy Blair, Marsha Francis, and Rouhollah Aghasaleh. The organization’s faculty advisors are associate professor, Stephanie Jones, professor Bettie St. Pierre, and professor Cory Buxton.

Cory Buxton

Bob Capuozzo

Amanda Cole

Page 3Spring 2014 • Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter

AwardsProfessor Jerome Morris received the William A. Owens Award for Creative Research, a university award recognizing his outstanding body of nationally and internationally scholarly and creative activities in the social and behavioral sciences.

Assistant Professor Bettina Love received the inaugural Michael F. Adams Early Career Scholar Award, a university award recognizing her outstanding accomplishments and evidence of potential future success in scholarship, creative work and research.

Associate Professor Cheryl Fields-Smith won the Carl Glickman Faculty Fellow Award recognizing her distinguished accomplishments and potential for future contributions in fulfilling the mission of the University through teaching, research, and service.

Associate Professor Jennifer Hauver James won the Ira E. Aaron Award for Teaching Excellence and Collegiality Award, recognizing her outstanding teaching and setting examples for collegiality.

Associate Professor Kyunghwa Lee won the Jenny Penney Oliver Diversity Award, recognizing her research, teaching and service in promoting a more diverse local, university and/or global community.

Assistant Clinical Professor Brian Dotts won the Donald O. Schneider Award for Mentoring recognizing his excellence in mentoring UGA students.

Associate Professor Amy Parks won the D. Keith Osborn Award, recognizing her teaching excellence.

Stacey Kerr won the Outstanding Paper Award for her paper, Rethinking Mapping for Geography Teacher Education, at the Association of American Geographers National Conference in Tampa, FL.

Erin Adams won first place in the Theoretical/Conceptual Division at the COE Graduate Student & Faculty Research Conference last week for her paper Mapping, Walking, and Talking at Two Farmer’s Markets.

Jerome Morris Brian Dotts

Amy ParksBettina Love

Cheryl Fields-Smith

Jennifer James

Kyunghwa Lee

Page 4 Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter • Spring 2014

The Awesome ClubhouseThe “Awesome Clubhouse @ la escuelita” is an informal educational space, research site, and teacher education site embedded in a working-class/poor community serving more than 40 African American and Latino children between the ages of 4-12, about 10 adults in English language classes, and is expanding its programming to include youth ages 12-16 and more community adults. At the Clubhouse, children experience an arts- and nature-based educational environment that emphasizes a social class-sensitive and l e a r n e r - c e n t e r e d approach to intellectual and social growth. Children also have access to weekly specialty classes including Photography, Drawing, Book-Making, Community Research, and Cooking. Teacher education students studying to teach English as an additional language are placed at the Clubhouse for their practicum where they learn to support children, youth, and adults’ language expansion through authentic

interactions embedded in high-interest activity. Dr. Stephanie Jones, an award-winning scholar of social class and education in the department of educational theory and practice, directs the center and has established collaborations with the Food Bank of Northeast Georg ia

and Wild Intelligence to support the sustainability of the Clubhouse.

The Clubhouse is an important applied part of Dr. Jones’ larger CLASSroom Project @ uga, which is a research, teaching, and outreach

project focused on educational equity for working-class and poor children and youth. The CLASSroom Project: has been featured on the covers of both Georgia Trend and Georgia magazines; has worked with 1,500 Georgia educators on class-sensitive teaching approaches; has established a sister site at the University of Minnesota; supports doctoral students studying issues of class and equity in education; produces scholarship for some of the top research journals in education including publications in Educational Researcher and Curriculum Inquiry; consults with educators at other Georgia universities on meeting the needs of working-class and poor students; and consults with community groups regarding meeting the needs of economically vulnerable families and children.

Stephanie Jones

Page 5Spring 2014 • Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter

Faculty Book

Stephanie Jones

Writing and Teaching to Change the World: Connecting with Our Most Vulnerable Students

Editor and chapter contributor: Stephanie Jones

Joint Publication by Teachers College Press and National Writing Project

The book is one result of a two-year Teacher Inquiry Community project funded by the National Writing Project. Classroom teachers studied and wrote about their interactions with and decision-making about their most "vulnerable" student for one year. We used poetry, prose, metaphor, and autobiographical writing to rethink what is meant by "critical pedagogy" and work toward an ethic of uncertainty and aesthetics to invite marginalized students back into the educational project.

The following is from the TC Press website:

“This is an important book for all teachers to read—beginners and experienced, as it confronts all of us as teachers to pay attention to the social and political contexts within which we work and consider what we often ignore—our student’s lives outside of school.”—From the Foreword by Ann Lieberman, Senior Scholar at Stanford University

“Kudos to Stephanie Jones and her colleagues for making moral sense of the day-to-day craft of education”—Carl Glickman, educator and author of The Trembling Field: Stories of Wonder, Possibilities, and Downright Craziness

Perfect for use in teacher preparation courses and professional learning groups, this book shows what critical pedagogy looks like and identifies the conditions needed for it to emerge in the K–12 classroom. Focusing on and documenting their experiences with one of their most disenfranchised students, six teachers analyze and rethink what they do in the classroom and why they do it. In so doing, each comes to re-imagine who they are as teachers and as individuals. This engaging collection illuminates writing as a powerful tool for thinking deeply about how and why teachers respond to students in particular ways.

Book Features:

• Prompts and suggested writing exercises at the end of each chapter to support teacher-writer groups.

• Guiding questions at the end of each chapter to support the instructional practices of K-12 teachers.

• Powerful stories of teachers' and students' experiences with standards, tracking practices, evaluation practices, and life.

• Helpful appendices, including books for further reading and an essay about the Oral Inquiry Process by Bob Fecho.

Stephanie Jones is associate professor in the department of educational theory and practice at The University of Georgia, and co-director of the Red Clay Writing Project. Her books include The Reading Turn-Around: A Five-Part Framework for Differentiated Instruction.

Page 6 Educational Theory and Practice Newsletter • Spring 2014

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Department of Educational Theory and Practice • 630 Aderhold • The University of Georgia • Athens, GA 30602Phone: (706) 542-4244 • Fax: (706) 542-4277 • Email: esse@uga.edu • Web: www.coe.uga.edu/esse