For students of the UNL MA specializing in Elementary Teaching. Dr. Swidler uses this blog to communicate with the cohort members and to archive those communications.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Saturday, July 23, 2016
The Wedding Crasher of Lincoln, Neb.
This is hilarious.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
How Republicans went from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump, in 13 maps
Andrew Prokop writes today that the:
Republican Party has nominated Donald J. Trump for president of the United States. This is a remarkable turn of events, and it only gets more remarkable when you think back to how the party began its existence: fighting against the expansion of slavery.
But over the past century and a half, the party of Abraham Lincoln has changed dramatically. It went from a party that was racially progressive for its times, to one that gets little support from nonwhite voters.
Friday, July 15, 2016
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Comprehensive Exam Results
You can find the results of the grading of your comprehensive exam responses in Blackboard.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Comprehensive Exam Questions
The exam questions are available in Blackboard.
Labels:
Blackboard,
Comps
Location:68588
Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
Friday, June 17, 2016
Monday, June 13, 2016
Avoiding Plagiarism
Here is the UNL statement on plagiarism:
The UNL Student Code of Conduct, section 4.2.a.3, defines plagiarism as: Presenting the work of another as one’s own (i.e., without proper acknowledgment of the source) and submitting examinations, theses, reports, speeches, drawings, laboratory notes or other academic work in whole or in part as one’s own when such work has been prepared by another person or copied from another person.You can read more here>>>
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Frog and Toad
Frog and Toad are “of the same sex, and they love each other,” she told me. “It was quite ahead of its time in that respect.” In 1974, four years after the first book in the series was published, Lobel came out to his family as gay. “I think ‘Frog and Toad’ really was the beginning of him coming out,” Adrianne told me. Lobel never publicly discussed a connection between the series and his sexuality, but he did comment on the ways in which personal material made its way into his stories. In a 1977 interview with the children’s-book journal The Lion and the Unicorn, he said:
You know, if an adult has an unhappy love affair, he writes about it. He exorcises it out of himself, perhaps, by writing a novel about it. Well, if I have an unhappy love affair, I have to somehow use all that pain and suffering but turn it into a work for children.
Lobel died in 1987, an early victim of the aids crisis. “He was only fifty-four,” Adrianne told me. “Think of all the stories we missed.”Read more>>>
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Reminder for tomorrow: find scholarly articles not practitioner periodicals
As indicated in the syllabus, the new, extending knowledge articles (books or book chapters) you find for tomorrow and for which you write an annotation must be scholarly:
These should NOT include: commercial textbooks or textbook chapters (methods or otherwise), district curriculum materials, trade or practitioner periodicals (such as The Reading Teacher or Phi Delta Kappan), self-published books, or videos*. Why none of these kinds of texts? They are not acceptable forms of scholarship to be used as evidence in your comprehensive exam responses.
Here are examples of "practitioner periodicals" or magazines that are out of bounds:
- Education Week
Also, do not use things from the What Works Clearinghouse.
Remember the rule of thumb: These kinds of texts are not useless! Rather, you must see them as resources: (1) that can help you see how ideas (such as assessment) can be organized and how language is used and (2) that have their own bibliographies that can lead you to scholarly works. ________________
*E.g., TED talks.
Fill out form
Please fill out the form that you just received via e-mail from Steve and send it back to him today. You can also find it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vzlof8uwp5c5zpd/Masters-FinalExamForm.pdf?dl=0
Friday, June 3, 2016
TEAC 889 meets in 16, not 116
TEAC 889 is meeting in 16 Henzlik Hall, not in 116 as previously noted.
Friday, May 27, 2016
June 6 and 7
As you see, the first seminar session is on June 7, a Tuesday. The UNL first 5 week Summer Session begins Monday, June 6. I am asking that you come prepared to the seminar June 7, ready to hit the ground running to review the issue of assessment that will be the focus of the first comprehensive exam question, and it will be a tough one. What I envisioned is for you to use June 6 to complete getting ready for June 7, organizing the scholarly materials from your coursework on assessment and to compose the annotated bibliography.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Professional Standards
As you prepare for reviewing knowledge of and for the first seminar topic, assessment, I would like for you to bring with you June 7 the professional standards for reading/English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. These are the standards that you encountered in you methods classes. These are NOT the Nebraska State Standards or Lincoln or Omaha district standards, but national professional standards, e.g., NCTM, NSTA, ILA/NCTE, NCSS.
Start sorting...
I urge you to start sorting through and inventorying course materials now so you can identify the scholarly texts from your classes for the first TEAC 889 seminar topic, assessment. This will help you to create the annotated bibliography for June 7.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Apply for August Graduation
If you planning to graduate in August, you need to apply by June 10. You do this by signing into MyRED for the online Graduation Application form.
You can find instructions for filling out the application here.
You can find instructions for filling out the application here.
Monday, May 23, 2016
TEAC 889 Blackboard
TEAC 889 is now up and running in Blackboard.
Trust the student
This is one of the best cases against teacher-centered classrooms that I have heard in a long time.
Friday, May 13, 2016
TEAC 889 and Comprehensive Exam Process
Here is an outline of TEAC 889 and how the masters comprehensive examination process will work this summer, if you choose to enroll and complete this summer.
TEAC 889 is a seminar designed to support your preparation for the
Masters Comprehensive Examination. All masters students at UNL are required to take a comprehensive examination, even those whose degrees are geared toward
certification. TEAC 889 will have 3 weeks of preparation and 2 weeks for the 3
written responses that comprise the examination.
The seminar will be organized around reviewing and extending
knowledge in 3 major topics in elementary education. These topics will be decided by the graduate faculty in TLTE. These will be named by the end of the month in the TEAC 889 Blackboard area.
Each of these topics has been covered extensively through
the coursework in your program of study and each is important in teaching
practice. None should come as a surprise to you. These are the topics for which you will receive 3 questions for your comprehensive
examination. In the seminar, you will
review the theoretical and applied issues of each topic by revisiting the
scholarship from your courses and enhancing your knowledge with new
scholarship. This will help you prepare
for the time-limited comprehensive exam.
Seminar Ground
Rules
The seminar sessions are for the benefit of students who are
motivated to prepare for the comprehensive exam and come ready to participate
fully. Attending the seminar meeting sessions is optional. However, if you do
choose to attend, then you must commit to the assignments below. For each week,
there are 2 meeting sessions, Monday (or Tuesday in week 1) and Thursday. You should not attend the seminar sessions
if you have not done the assigned work.
Assignments
I. Reviewing knowledge. Sessions 1, 3 and 5: Bring all materials to each session from your
coursework related to the topic. Bring an annotated bibliography that
includes each item from the materials that address the topic: all research
articles, books, and book chapters. These materials are limited to scholarly,
written materials. These are works you have encountered as readings in your
coursework. Upload this annotated bibliography in Bb before coming to class and bring a hard copy to class.
These should not
include: commercial textbooks or text book chapters (methods or otherwise),
district curriculum materials, trade or practitioner periodicals (such as The Reading Teacher or Phi Delta Kappan), self-published
books, or videos.
An annotation is a bibliographic summary, paragraph length
(1-3 sentences). You did these in TEAC 800 last summer and you can easily do a Google search
for examples of an annotated bibliography (see: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/03).
If you have not
completed the assignment, please do not attend the sessions.
II. Extending knowledge. Sessions 2, 4 and 6: Locate
and summarize AT LEAST ONE NEW scholarly work for each main elementary
curriculum (article or book chapters) that inform and support your
understanding of the topic.
For instance, for Thursday, June 9 of Week 1, you will
locate 4 new articles/book chapters that address the topic. These
are works that are not found in your
course materials (this would be redundant from I). For each of these works you
should similarly create an annotated bibliography. Upload this annotated bibliography in Bb
before coming to class and bring a hard copy to class.
Like with your assignments for reviewing knowledge, these may
not be: textbooks or textbook
chapters (methods or otherwise), district curriculum materials, trade or practitioner
periodicals self-published books, or videos.
If you have not
completed the assignment, please do not attend the sessions.
Evaluation
The seminar is graded on a Pass/No Pass basis. Passing the seminar is contingent upon your
passing the ALL 3 of the comprehensive exam questions. If you fail any one question,
your grade will be an Incomplete and will remain Incomplete until you successfully
re-do the portions of the exam you have failed. You cannot re-take any portion
of the comprehensive exam in the same semester (the Summer Sessions are
considered together a single semester). You must wait until a subsequent
semester to complete re-taking of the failed exam portions. You can only
re-take the comprehensive exam once (if you fail twice, you cannot be awarded
the degree).
Examination
Process
The examination process takes place June 27-July 7. On
Monday, June 27, 8:00 AM you will receive the questions. There will be 3
questions, one for each of the topics of the seminar. Each requires three
separate, written responses of approximately 3000 words. Each response will be
graded on a Pass/No Pass basis. A mark of “High Pass” will be reserved
for students who produce exceptional work. Faculty enjoy reading and
recognizing distinguished work.
The separate responses are due at the scheduled times (see
the cohort calendar). All of your exam responses will be blinded and any identifying information
will be removed. Your response will be read by 3 faculty members. They will
evaluate your examination for (1) the appropriateness and substance of your
responses and (2) the quality and clarity of your writing.
A Note on Writing in Comps
Poorly composed, overly conversational, moralizing or otherwise abstruse writing
inevitably detracts from communication of intellectual content and will be
graded as stringently as writing that does not answer the question directly and substantively.
You should not count on the readers having knowledge of you or your personal or
program experiences to offer you “benefit of the doubt” in any of your exam
responses. While you will be encouraged to reflect and draw upon your professional education experiences, these cannot be construed as sufficient evidence unless properly analyzed and connected to scholarship. Readers will not know, nor will they care, whether you have successfully completed
student teaching or if you have a job offer. All they will have to go by, and the only
thing they will judge, is your written response.
The best way to prepare for the questions is to be knowledgeable
and confident in the grasp of the topic. The hallmarks of well-crafted prose
about teaching and curriculum, in any subject, around any topic, are thoughtful,
reflective, informed, and well organized analytical and interpretive statements
that transcend your personal experience and are grounded with evidence.
I'll hopefully see you June 7!
Monday, May 9, 2016
TEAC 889 Enrollment Info
Please enroll for:
TEAC 889 Section 502
Class #3893
Enroll for 3 credit hours.
Enroll for 3 credit hours.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
TEAC 889 Syllabus
You will be able to access the syllabus for TEAC 889 by May 30 in Blackboard. When you see the syllabus, you will see that I am asking that you come prepared Monday, June 6.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
TEAC 889
You will be receiving info on enrolling in TEAC 889 from Jess shortly. This will be for the First Five Week Session of the UNL Summer Semester.
I thought I would take the opportunity to clarify some technical aspects of completing a masters degree at UNL in general and in your program of study in particular and that is represented in your Memorandum of Courses.
The design of the MAet is that you can become eligible for a NE teaching license AND earn a masters degree in 14 months. These are, however, 2 separate things.
1) At the conclusion of successful student teaching, at the end of the public school year in a few weeks, you will have completed all certification and endorsement requirements for the State of Nebraska for elementary education. We will be sending over to NDE UNL's "recommendation" that you be certified (meaning, we attest to your having completed all requirements). Yeah! Happy moment!
2) However, this is not sufficient to automatically award you a masters degree. University standards for completion of a graduate degree are not the same as the minimal requirements for a state teaching license. The state awards you a teaching license; UNL awards you a graduate degree.
What you have remaining after this semester is TEAC 889, the Masters Seminar. This is a required course for all M.A. students in TLTE. Please refer to p. 7 in the TLTE Masters Handbook. As it says in the handbook, this is a capstone that culminates in an exam or defense. This is not an optional course or one that can be waived for automatic credit. Passing the class means passing the exam/defense and the seminar is designed to prepare and support you to successfully pass the exam/defense (this is determined by the faculty, not me alone).
Some students in past cohorts have expressed that they feel that this is unnecessary and that TEAC 889 is a "hoop" they have to jump through after successfully completing students teaching. They say that they would like to prioritize their summer for something other than a course. But passing student teaching is passing TEAC 897, not TEAC 889.
I can see how they arrive at this conclusion and ask Why do I have to do this? The answer is simply that there is the MA in MAet and they will not be able to say they have an earned masters degree without successful completion of TEAC 889.
What this means is that you do not have to do TEAC 889 this summer. Really. You can earn your license and, therefore, start your first job in the fall (unless your job offer is contingent upon your finishing the M.A.). You simply will not have your masters degree in hand this fall and will not graduate in August, 2016. You can enroll in a later semester and take the exam/defense and graduate then. Or you do not have to do it at all and move on without a masters :(
If you do forgo taking TEAC 889 this summer, it is highly inadvisable to enroll, for example, in the Fall 2016 or Spring 2017. These are semesters where you will be teaching full-time and consumed with your first year of your professional career. TEAC 889 will require time, energy and focused study that will prove to be difficult even for the most organized student. It will inevitably detract from your performance in your crucial first year of teaching. It is better to wait until summer 2017.
Please make and appointment to come talk with me about this if you have any questions! I'd love to talk with you more about it.
I thought I would take the opportunity to clarify some technical aspects of completing a masters degree at UNL in general and in your program of study in particular and that is represented in your Memorandum of Courses.
The design of the MAet is that you can become eligible for a NE teaching license AND earn a masters degree in 14 months. These are, however, 2 separate things.
1) At the conclusion of successful student teaching, at the end of the public school year in a few weeks, you will have completed all certification and endorsement requirements for the State of Nebraska for elementary education. We will be sending over to NDE UNL's "recommendation" that you be certified (meaning, we attest to your having completed all requirements). Yeah! Happy moment!
2) However, this is not sufficient to automatically award you a masters degree. University standards for completion of a graduate degree are not the same as the minimal requirements for a state teaching license. The state awards you a teaching license; UNL awards you a graduate degree.
What you have remaining after this semester is TEAC 889, the Masters Seminar. This is a required course for all M.A. students in TLTE. Please refer to p. 7 in the TLTE Masters Handbook. As it says in the handbook, this is a capstone that culminates in an exam or defense. This is not an optional course or one that can be waived for automatic credit. Passing the class means passing the exam/defense and the seminar is designed to prepare and support you to successfully pass the exam/defense (this is determined by the faculty, not me alone).
Some students in past cohorts have expressed that they feel that this is unnecessary and that TEAC 889 is a "hoop" they have to jump through after successfully completing students teaching. They say that they would like to prioritize their summer for something other than a course. But passing student teaching is passing TEAC 897, not TEAC 889.
I can see how they arrive at this conclusion and ask Why do I have to do this? The answer is simply that there is the MA in MAet and they will not be able to say they have an earned masters degree without successful completion of TEAC 889.
What this means is that you do not have to do TEAC 889 this summer. Really. You can earn your license and, therefore, start your first job in the fall (unless your job offer is contingent upon your finishing the M.A.). You simply will not have your masters degree in hand this fall and will not graduate in August, 2016. You can enroll in a later semester and take the exam/defense and graduate then. Or you do not have to do it at all and move on without a masters :(
If you do forgo taking TEAC 889 this summer, it is highly inadvisable to enroll, for example, in the Fall 2016 or Spring 2017. These are semesters where you will be teaching full-time and consumed with your first year of your professional career. TEAC 889 will require time, energy and focused study that will prove to be difficult even for the most organized student. It will inevitably detract from your performance in your crucial first year of teaching. It is better to wait until summer 2017.
Please make and appointment to come talk with me about this if you have any questions! I'd love to talk with you more about it.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Turns Out You Really Do Think Brilliant Thoughts in the Shower
Scientific American says:
Because such processing occurs largely outside a person’s awareness, it is all or nothing—a fully formed answer either comes to mind or it doesn’t. This hypothesis is supported by EEG and functional MRI scans, which revealed in previous studies that just before insight takes place, the occipital cortex, which is responsible for visual processing, momentarily shuts down, or “blinks,” so that ideas can “bubble into consciousness”. As a result, insights are less likely to be incorrect. Analytical thinking, in contrast, happens consciously and is therefore more subject to rushing and lapses in reasoning.reade more>>>
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Mental Health Break
RADIANCE from Lake Superior Photo on Vimeo.
Friday, March 11, 2016
Homework is wrecking our kids
This reflects well the the state of the research. It is also mirrors what I have been saying for years. I wrote an op-ed in the Lincoln Journal Star some years back when I was a community columnist saying that homework should have no bearing on grades since I knew that the research said that it has no influences on elementary children's achievement and cultivates resentment of academic work and the people who assign it. It also excuses poor teaching and infringes on family life, sending the ineffective teachers' work home. I got a lot of hate mail for that.
Here is what Heather Shumaker says:
Read more>>>
Here is what Heather Shumaker says:
A child just beginning school deserves the chance to
develop a love of learning. Instead, homework at a young age causes many kids
to turn against school, future homework and academic learning. And it’s a
long road. A child in kindergarten is facing 13 years of homework ahead of
her.
Then there’s the damage to personal relationships. In
thousands of homes across the country, families battle over homework nightly.
|
Read more>>>
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Brains
There is no such thing as a male or female brain.
Monday, February 8, 2016
LiveText Fair, February 10
CEHS is hosting a LiveText Fair, Wednesday, February 10 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM in the Hub, Henzlik Hall.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Monday, January 4, 2016
Jan. 11 - Feb. 5
Please see the schedule for the first part of the UNL semester. Note the follow-up for TEAC 801 for every other week--see the Blackboard website for more info.
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