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Welcome to the UC Department of Education!
In the May 6, 2002, issue, Time projected that public school teaching will be the career with the most job opportunities in the current decade. In West Virginia, an estimated 25% of the current teaching force is expected to retire in the next five years. If you choose a degree in Education at the University of Charleston, you will have bright prospects for a fulfilling career as a teacher who makes a difference in the lives of children or teenagers.
The faculty in the Education Program at the University of Charleston prepare graduates to address the social and emotional as well as academic needs of students. Education Alumni IN THE NEWS!
Future teachers learn research-based strategies for leaving no child behind. Service learning opportunities, which integrate classroom learning with practical experience, continue throughout the four years, providing future teachers with numerous opportunities to interact with students in public school settings prior to student teaching.
Will Shaffer
Will Shaffer graduated from the University of Charleston in May 2007 with teacher certification in Social Studies 5-12 and Universal Design for Learning (Multicategorical Special Education) K-12. Will was a 2007 recipient of the James Madison Fellowship, a scholarship awarded to only 25 undergraduates nationwide. He is now a graduate student at the University of Virginia.
Student teacher wins constitution fellowship
by Jessica M. Karmasek, Daily Mail staff
A former college football player and ex-Marine, 27-year-old Will Schaffer emphasizes dedication, respect, discipline and teamwork to his students at South Charleston High School.
Schaffer, a senior at University of Charleston who has been teaching at the high school for the last 14 weeks, has called his student-teaching experience a positive one.
He spent half of his time at the school teaching in the behavior disorder classroom, working with special education students, and the other half teaching a civics and sociology class.
"The teaching experience has helped me greatly," he said. "It's given me a chance to try things and use the skills I've learned."
Schaffer, a social science education major at the university, was recently named one of this year's recipients of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship.
The fellowships were established in 1986 by Congress for the purpose of improving the teaching of the U.S. Constitution in secondary schools. It was created in honor of former U.S. President James Madison.
He was one of 50 to receive the fellowship, and one of only 25 undergraduates to receive the award. The value of the fellowship is $24,000.
Amanda Ansel
Amanda Ansel graduated in 2002 with a teacher certification in Elementary Education. She currently teaches at Piedmont Elementary. She is participating in a NASA program that hopes to "kick start the nation's future science, technology, engineering and mathmatics work force."
Up, Up and Away: Piedmont Teachers Prep for 'Weightless Wonder' Experiment
by Davin White, Charleston Gazette staff
Kim Landers didn't mind living on rabbit food for a while. She had to drop 20 pounds - not because of a New Year's resolution, but so she could take a ride on what her Piedmont Elementary students call "the Vomit Comet." Landers and her colleagues refer to the airplane by its more socially correct title, the Weightless Wonder. The modified DC-9 aircraft simulates weightless conditions for astronauts. Piedmont was recognized as a NASA Explorer School last year. The three-year partnership is meant to help kick- start the nation's future science, technology, engineering and mathematics work force. Landers, a fifth-grade teacher at Piedmont, will fly on the plane next month with colleagues Amanda Ansell, Lindsay Lucas and Rebecca Revercomb. The Piedmont staffers will head to Ellington Field and the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Feb. 6. The four teachers will test a student-designed experiment aboard the McDonnell Douglas jetliner. The DC-9 flies at angles that mimic a parabola and produce 18 to 25 seconds of weightlessness at a time, according to NASA. One of the teachers compared the ride to "an hourlong, roller coaster free fall." Landers' preflight physical exam called for her to lose 20 pounds. Her thoughts? "I am going to do this," she said. "I'm not going to miss this. "This is as close as we're ever going to get to be an astronaut." Over several weeks, she ate lettuce and other low-calorie foods. She struggled to resist a lasagna, garlic bread and salad lunch held at school one day for a student's birthday. "I ate lettuce while they were eating lunch," she said. At her official weigh-in in November, she discovered she'd lost 21 pounds - one more than necessary. The NASA partnership is having some of the desired effects. The Piedmont teachers said their students can't wait for science each day. "They know when they get back from lunch they're going to do science," Lucas said. "They love science." Ansell, a third-grade teacher, says her young students see limitless opportunities with science and don't doubt their ability to do well. "Now if we could get those multiplication tables down, we're set," she said. The students' experiment involves a modified Nerf gun, a homemade drop box that Ansell's father helped create over Thanksgiving and a marshmallow shooter, or makeshift blowgun. The tools will be used to test the laws ofmotion and principles of flight in a weightless environment. The drop box releases toy bears, frogs, penguins and, yes, marshmallows to see if they all fall at the same speed. All have different weights. The experiment changed quite a few times in recent months. "I think all the trial and error has been one of the best educational tools," Ansell said. NASA officials will videotape the experiment for Piedmont students. The drop box, Nerf gun and marshmallow shooter will be secured in place while the teachers swim and somersault through space to them. Landers is uneasy about one thing: the training. For one, their bodies' mettle will be tested in a hyperbaric chamber. "That makes me more nervous than the flight," she said.
CONTACT:
Dr. Paige Carney
University of Charleston
2300 MacCorkle Ave., S.E.
Charleston, WV 25304
Phone: (304) 357-4726
Fax: (304) 357-4709
E-mail: paigecarney@ucwv.edu
CONTACT:
Dr. Paige Carney
University of Charleston
2300 MacCorkle Ave., S.E.
Charleston, WV 25304
Phone: (304) 357-4726
Fax: (304) 357-4709
E-mail: paigecarney@ucwv.edu
Dr. Paige Carney
University of Charleston
2300 MacCorkle Ave., S.E.
Charleston, WV 25304
Phone: (304) 357-4726
Fax: (304) 357-4709
E-mail: paigecarney@ucwv.edu