Sonoma State University

The School of Education will host an Educator Job Fair on Friday, April 19, 2:00-5:00 in the Student Recreation Center on campus. The fair is an opportunity for new and recently credentialed teachers from the School of Education's programs to meet school and district administrators and discuss what job openings are currently available or coming on the horizon. Employers from schools all over Northern California will participate in the fair, including schools from Alameda, Lake, Marin, Napa, Sacramento, Sonoma, Solano and Mendocino counties--public schools and charter public schools will be represented.  Some employers are coming to collect resumes as they are still not certain about openings in their districts, while others have present needs and hope to conduct preliminary interviews on site.

It has been well over a decade since the School of Education has hosted a recruitment fair like this.  Student Services Coordinator Maricela Ibarra noted that she often receives requests for an event like this, "I always thought it would be a great idea to offer a job fair where offices of education and school districts could present information about jobs available, and conduct interviews. Seeing that this is finally happening creates a special kind of atmosphere for the entire school. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to provide this opportunity to our graduating students and alumni."  Ibarra is hopeful this will be an annual event each spring, and that faculty and staff can continue to support students in their job search. 

Teacher candidates and graduate students have been gearing up for the event.  The Single Subject Credential Program and the Administrative Credential Program help students with resume preparation and conduct mock interviews to help prepare candidates for the job market.  Associate Professor Susan Campbell who teaches in the Multiple Subject Credential Program says the full time students who are finishing the program are excited about this opportunity to meet potential employers here on campus. Campbell noted they are very grateful to our education community for making the effort to come here to meet them and talk about jobs in their schools and districts.

The market for teaching jobs in the Bay Area has been tight over the last several years, but there has still remained a consistent need for teachers in Special Education, Mathematics and Science.  The Dean's Office in the School of Education had been receiving many more requests from school districts to post job announcements than usual, and took that as a sign that the time was right for a recruitment event. A significant increase in the teacher retirement rate is one factor causing new opportunities in the job market for teachers, and researchers predict the trend to continue for the next several years. Other factors that may have influenced the job outlook for educators are the passage of Proposition 30, which may have brought more predictability to California public school funding, and the fact that statewide, fewer new teachers have come through credential programs over the last several years.    

To read more about the Job Fair at Sonoma State University, see www.sonoma.edu/education/jobfair.

The Sonoma State School of Social Sciences and University Library are honored to host the exhibition Anne Frank: A History for Today. The exhibit provides a glimpse into the story of Anne Frank and her family, which is juxtaposed against world events before, during, and after the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.

Anne Frank: A History for Today coincides with the planting at SSU of a sapling from the chestnut tree Anne Frank so often wrote about in her diary. The tree which gave Anne so much inspiration was set to be destroyed due to disease. SSU is one of 11 locations in the the United States to receive one of the saplings. "The addition of the Anne Frank tree will solidify the SSU campus as a major center on the West Coast for the study of the Holocaust and genocide," says Elaine Leeder, Dean, Social Sciences. "It will provide eventually a vast canopy under which the University Holocaust Lecture Series can continue for generations." The sapling will be planted at the Erna and Arthur Salm Holocaust & Genocide Memorial Grove at SSU mid-April, 2013.

Anne Frank: A History for Today is on display on the second floor of the University Library at the Schulz Information Center. The exhibit runs through April 22, 2013. A reception with light snacks will take place on April 12, 2013 from 12:30 - 2:00 on the second floor of the University Library.

For more information about the exhibit, please visit: http://library.sonoma.edu/about/frank.php or contact University LIbrarian Karen Brodsky at karen.brodsky@sonoma.edu For information about the sapling planting at SSU, contact Dr. Elaine Leeder, Dean, School of Social Sciences, elaine.leeder@sonoma.edu, (707) 664-2120.

Article by Melissa Marengo, School of Education Multimedia Student Assistant

Rebecca Lynne Lucas is the 2013 Patricia Nourot Memorial Scholarship recipient! In honor of Dr. Patricia Nourot, every year the scholarship is given to a student to cover expenses in the Early Childhood Studies program.

Rebecca grew up in Vallejo, California and had a great experience at her own elementary school, Dan Mini Elementary. This made her want to start volunteering with children as she got older. She volunteered at the school's after school program for three years. Rebecca has also contributed many hours of community service with children through her church and Vallejo High School.

Currently, Rebecca works with Join Us Making Progess (a.k.a. JUMP) on campus as a student leader for their Hunger and Homelessness program. She also volunteers as a coordinator for Catholic Charities Family Support Center. In the future she hopes to work with non-profits that help children and their families enrich their lives or become an elementary school teacher. She believes that with enough support and encouragement, every child should be able to grow up the confidence to follow their hopes and dreams, and not be limited by their present situation. After earning her degree, Rebecca is hoping she can get a job working with children, be part of that support system for children, and continue to be inspired every day by their energy and optimism.

Article by Jessica K. Parker, Assistant Professor

What's one of the best things about living in the digital era? With access to the Internet, we can all be authors! This wasn't always the case. I grew up a consumer and I watched TV and listened to the radio. The only things I created were mixed tapes and video recordings of athletic events. Today, youth grow up as both consumers and producers. Why not capitalize on this by having students create media texts! Here are three powerful tools that students can use to author their own content and demonstrate understanding.

Storybird: Storybird is an online collaborative storytelling tool that gives users the ability to read, create, and share books online using original art and their own writing ideas. Students can make visual stories with artwork from illustrators and animators around the world! Storybird can inspire anyone to turn images into narratives. Want to learn more? Here is a digital handout on Storybird designed by School of Education Master's students, Kristina Beltz and Carol Wise.

Capzles: Curate your own multimedia presentation with images, audio, and video with Capzles! Dr. Carlos Ayala is using Capzles to have his students discuss important historical events in education.

Jing: Use Jing to take free screenshots or make screencasts. Have credential students annotate aspects of student work or images of their classroom walls. Have math students talk through their process of solving a problem by recording their own computer screen. Give directions for homework by annotating the document using Jing. You will need to download the software, and Jing saves all your work to your computer. I attached my own example of an annotated Yoda!

Article by Jessica K. Parker, Assistant Professor

How did we survive without these essential resource and reference tools?

WolframAlpha is a computational knowledge engine. Want to find the answers that aren't in the back of the math and science textbooks? Still trying to solve that chemistry equation from HS? Or are you more interested in people and history, culture and media, music, words and linguistics, education, or even weather--because WolframAlpha can rock your world in about a nanosecond. Check it out some examples and then let's chat about traditional assessments in math, science, history, etc., since one can easily solve for X with this computational knowledge engine.

Popplet

is an online mind mapping tool. Want a way to create multimedia galleries, record your thoughts, explore ideas, and organize your insights? Popplet is your online tool for mind mapping with text, images, videos, AND you can collaborate with colleagues and students! Easily zoom in and out and just use your cursor to move around your map. Here is an example from a group of students who shared their summary of the book, Reading the Media, in the EDCT 559 class.

StudyBlue Flashcards helps you create your own digital flashcards! Geared towards students, this site allows you to build flashcards, practice on any device, and share your cards with peers.

Article by Dr. Jessica K. Parker

Here is another installment of our biweekly Ed Tech Tips blog articles from the Sonoma State School of Education. In this platform we will share thoughts and practical advice on technology and ideas for how to use these tools and applications for good teaching practice.

1) TED Talks: You love TED talks, but are you aware of all their amazing features? Not only can you embed the TED talk in a Moodle page or your latest blog post, but you can also email the link to colleagues and students. Feel free to turn on subtitles for talks as well and download the talk to use later, EVEN if you don't have access to the Internet. Not interested in watching a video but would rather listen to a TED talk? Then subscribe to the RSS audio feed and start listening via iTunes!

2) TED Ed: Love TED talks and want to use them creatively in your class? Check out the TED Ed videos that allow you to customize supplemental material such as quizzes, questions, and additional readings and activities for a specific Ed video. Just click on the "flip this video" button and you can turn a TED Ed video into a customized lesson. Take the TED Ed tour to learn more.

3) TED Books: Wishing you could read a multimedia TED book? Now you can download the TED Books app and choose a TED book from their library for either $2.99 per book or $4.99 per month for all access. Plus, the TED books are short and inspiring. TED books work with the iPad, Kindle, and the Nook.

Congratulations to School of Education Assistant Professor Megan Taylor for recently being accepted as a 2013 STaR Fellow! The Service, Teaching and Research (STaR) Project is an induction program for recent doctoral graduates in mathematics education. The program, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a 12-month experience that networks early career mathematics educators (in the first or second year of their first academic appointment). The Program focuses on three themes: research, teaching and service as well as leadership development To be eligible for this program you must have your doctorate in mathematics education and be in your first or second year of tenure track at an institution of higher education in the U.S. As a STaR Fellow, Megan will have the opportunity to attend a week-long Park City Mathematics Institute this summer, get extra support as she continues her research agenda and collaborate with a strong cohort of other mathematics faculty to strengthen her teaching practice.

Megan Taylor is the newest faculty member in the Curriculum Studies and Secondary Education department and the Single Subject Credential Program here at Sonoma State. Her research focuses on secondary mathematics and teacher education. Megan has taught 6th-12th grade for twelve years and believes that in order to improve public mathematics education in the U.S., improvements on teacher education are necessary. Her recent work investigates how mathematics teachers use textbooks and explores ways they can be do it more effectively to improve classroom learning.

Roxana Leiva, Single Subject Credential Program Candidate in Art and student teacher in the Art Quest program at Santa Rosa High School knows what it is like to be an immigrant. She has done it herself-- twice. First, she moved to Petaluma at the age of 13 from her homeland of El Salvador. She recalls the experience as terrible--an incredibly difficult cultural transition--and vowed that after she grew up and finished school she would move back to home country. After high school, she earned her B.F.A. in Art/Illustration and her M.A. in Latin American Art and Culture at Long Beach State University and then she followed her heart and returned to El Salvador. She had a great job at the Art Museum of El Salvador, and even worked as the project director to establish a government funded arts school for youth. She was making a difference in the lives of hundreds of children through her arts education program there, but after several years, Leiva felt a need to come back to California and be near family, so once again she became an immigrant.

Leiva recalls the culture shock she experienced both times she moved to the U.S., and how she felt out of place, and marginalized socially. Although she is Salvadoran, she was often referred to as Mexican, and she felt that people she interacted with didn't treat her as an educated woman. Even now, as a credential candidate at Sonoma State she says people that she meets and talks to often assume she is training to be a Spanish teacher, not an art teacher, just because she is from Latin America. Leiva is motivated to break through these stereotypes, and aims to work on building cultural understanding through teaching art and art history--both in the classroom and in the broader community. As an artist and an educator, Leiva understands that art is a powerful medium which can help express ideas and feelings and expose people to new ways of thinking about culture.

Leiva is on a career path for arts education, and realized her employment options would be much wider if she had a Single Subject Credential in art. As she looked for jobs in arts education both in non profits and in public schools, most required that she hold a credential.

In the Single Subject Program, students work directly with young people as they learn the teaching profession. Leiva's field site is the Art Quest program at Santa Rosa High School. She loves the program and the opportunity to work side by side with an experienced mentor teacher and share both art and art history with high school students.

At the same time she was starting the credential program, she decided to build on her graduate school research too. Continuing her exploration of art, culture and civil war in 1980s El Salvador, Leiva applied for and received a grant the SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco to be a Commons Curator in Residence. Her project, Mourning and Scars: 20 Years After the War presents new artwork by Salvadoran immigrant artists and exposes their life straddling two cultures 20 years after the signing the Peace Accords which ended civil war. Leiva hopes that the show, which opens on February 1 and runs through the end of the month, will be a catalyst for dialogue on ethical, political and cultural matters and that it will help the reconciliation process needed after experiencing trauma and war.

The exhibit features work in a variety of media, including paintings, video, textile sculpture and large-scale multimedia installations by prominent contemporary artists, all immigrants from El Salvador, including Victor Cartagena, Carlos Rogel, Tessie Barrer-Scharaga and Juan Carlos Mendizabal and others.

Leiva wants the Sonoma State community to join in the dialogue too, and is partnering with The Hub, our on campus multicultural center, to host a panel discussion on February 28. Three noted cultural scholars Beatriz Cortez, Karina Zelaya, and Douglas Carranza will speak at the noon event. Leiva is exploring the possibility of bringing the art exhibition to Sonoma State next year as well.

The SOMArts Opening Reception for Mourning and Scars: 20 Years After the War will take place on Friday, February 1, from 6:00-9:00 PM. The event is free and open to the public. SOMArts is located at 934 Brannan St., San Francisco (between 8th and 9th streets). The exhibition will be on view through February 28. http://www.somarts.org/mourningopens/

Article written by SSU Student Melissa Marengo

Franklin Matthews never thought he would one day become a teacher. At SSU during his undergraduate studies, he originally declared a business major. Eventually, he switched his major to Kinesiology where he began working as a basketball coach and personal trainer. Parents of kids that he was working with suggested to him that he become a Physical Education teacher because he seemed to work well with children and enjoy teaching them. He thought he would give it a try and began taking some pre-requisites for the credential program during his senior year in 2008.

He then took a brief leave of absence from the school and moved down to the Peninsula with his wife. Wanting to continue his schooling and get his teaching credential he went to San Jose State who would not accept his transfer credits. Instead of starting over with them, he spoke with Dr. Karen Grady here at SSU who encouraged him to do the program up in the North Bay, despite the long commute. Franklin said that all of his teachers worked around his schedule and his busy commute to allow him to get his credential and fulfill his dream of becoming a Physical Education teacher.

Franklin would commute by bus everyday from East Palo Alto to his classes in Rohnert Park. He got his student teaching opportunity at Petaluma High School, which he described as a "blessing in disguise". He was having a hard time finding a student teaching job and Petaluma High was his last hope. He said his experience there was great and he learned a lot about full inclusion for all students. During his time in the credential program what he learned most was classroom management, the importance of gaining student respect and understanding, and developing strong relationships with your students that will leave a lasting impact on their lives.

With the help of all of his professors and fellow students at SSU, Franklin was able to graduate from the Single Subject Credential Program for Physical Education and is now working with kids in the South Bay. Franklin works at a non-profit organization which partners with Stanford University called East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring. He works with about 25 students every other day after school as the High School Group Coordinator. He teaches them life experience as well as offers help with college applications. Franklin Matthews would like to thank Dr. Grady, Dr. Marker, Dr. Victor, and the entire Sonoma State faculty and staff for being so supportive and flexible with him through out his credential program experience. He says he would not have made it where he is today without them.