Alayna Calhoun recognized by SRATE as David Watts Scholar
Alayna Calhoun, a UF Unified Elementary ProTeach preservice student, was recently recognized as a David Watts Scholar by the Southeastern Regional Association of Teacher Educators (SRATE).
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Paying It Forward
Shelley Warm, senior lecturer and Site-based Implementation of Teacher Education (SITE) program director, has been honored as Florida’s Outstanding Teacher Educator of the Year by the Florida Association of Teacher Educators (FATE). The Mary L. Collins award recognizes dedication to the field of teacher education and advocate of high-quality education.
Florida chapter named ‘Outstanding Unit’ by Association of Teacher Educators
The Florida Association of Teacher Educators (FATE) has been named the Association of Teacher Educators’ 2014 Outstanding Unit, marking the first time the Florida chapter has brought home the national organization’s second highest honor.
FATE president-elect Crystal Timmons
The award, which is based on the unit’s accomplishments in programs and services, membership and management, and articulation with the national office, was presented at this year’s national conference in Phoenix, Ariz.
FATE president-elect Crystal Timmons, a UF professor-in-residence with the College of Education’s Teacher Leadership for School Improvement program in Duval County, said all 200 members of her unit can be proud of what they’ve accomplished during the past year.
“We were the first unit to recognize all of our state’s district teachers of the year by inviting them to this year’s conference,” she said.
“FATE was well represented,” Timmons added. “We had five Florida school district members who served on the featured panel, and there were three University of Florida faculty members who facilitated a special professional development session for teachers of the year.”
She said the award comes with $500, which will be used to further FATE’s goals and objectives. Some of the money will help fund annual stipends of $500 each that FATE awards to four undergraduate teacher education students in Florida. The cash awards are part of FATE’s annual Fanchon F. Funk Scholars Award program.
“We were confident that our Outstanding Unit application clearly outlined FATE’s commitment to higher education and Florida’s public school system,” Timmons said. “We were hopeful that the committee could see the careful design and implementation of our various programs and activities.”
Contacts
Liaison: Larry Lansford, director, College of Education Office of News and Communications; llansford@coe.ufl.edu; phone 352-273-4137.
Writer: Stephen Kindland, College of Education Office of News and Communications; skindland@coe.ufl.edu; phone 352-273-3449.
State, regional groups honor Pringle as top science teacher educator
Two major professional groups of teacher educators have honored University of Florida College of Education faculty member Rose Pringle with their top science teacher educator awards for 2014.
Pringle, a UF associate professor in science education, received a state honor from the Florida Association of Teacher Educators (FATE) and a regional award from the Southeastern Association of Science Teacher Education (SASTE).
Pringle traveled to Savannah, Ga. to receive the John Shrum Award for excellence in the education of science teachers at the SASTE annual conference Sept. 26-27.
A week later, FATE presented Pringle with the Mary L. Collins Teacher Educator of the Year Award at its conference Oct.4-5 in Boca Raton for her significant contributions to teacher education in Florida.
“This is affirmation that my colleagues not only notice what I’m doing, but value what I’m doing,” she said.
Pringle teaches science education courses to college undergraduate and graduate students both face-to-face and online. She helps develop, implement and evaluate teaching curricula consistent with education reform efforts for 21st century science learning.
According to Natalie King, UF science education doctoral student, colleagues and students alike turn to Pringle for mentorship. Pringle oversees graduate teaching assistants in the College of Education who use curricula she has developed over the years.
“She has proved to be a caring mentor who leads by example and with humility,” King said. “She not only recognized my passion, but also tapped into my potential to be a successful graduate student and an advocate for change in science education.”
Through mentorship, Pringle has developed meaningful relationships with many of her doctoral students. King nominated her for the SASTE award and UF doctoral student Natalie Ridgewell nominated Pringle for the FATE award.
“In every capacity, Dr. Pringle strengthens both our program and field, and she helps to create an outstanding learning community,” Ridgewell said.
Pringle has garnered more than $7 million in federal and state grants at UF to support her work. Her special research interests include elements of effective science instruction, assessment and increasing the participation of minorities, especially girls of African descent, in science and mathematics.
Working with Lynda Hayes, director of UF’s P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, Pringle is a co-principal investigator on a $5 million grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation, designed to transform middle-school science education in Florida. The project, known as U-FUTuRES (University of Florida Unites Teachers to Reform Education in Science), involves creating cadres of highly trained science teacher leaders around the state who will educate and energize other teachers in their school districts with a new kind of science teaching.
“My goal is to have every science classroom in Florida have students studying science in ways that are meaningful and equitable for all learners,” Pringle said.
These recent awards aren’t Pringle’s first recognition as a premier teacher educator. A COE faculty member since 2000, she is a two-time recipient of the college’s Teacher of the Year Award, selected in 2002 and 2000.
Contacts
Source: Rose Pringle; rpringle@coe.ufl.edu; 352.273.4190
Writer: Candice Wynter, College of Education Office of News and Communications; cwynter@ufl.edu; phone 813-317-8735.
Gainesville Sun — Rose Pringle named top science teacher
The Gainesville Sun
10-6-14
Rose Pringle honored as top science teacher
The Gainesville Sun ran a brief in its business announcements section about COE science in education associate professor Rose Pringle being honored by the Southeastern Association of Science Teacher Education with the John Shrum Award for Excellence in the Education of Science, as well as the Mary L. Collins Teacher Educator of the Year Award from the Florida Association of Teacher Educators.
FATE has Timmons on presidential track
Crystal Timmons
Crystal Timmons, a UF professor-in-residence in the Duval County school district for the College of Education’s Lastinger Center for Learning, is the new president-elect of the Florida Association of Teacher Educators.
Her one-year term as president-elect, starting in October, puts her on track to automatically assume the presidency of FATE in 2015-16. She will continue serving on the group’s board of directors the following year as immediate past president.
“I’m asking for support and feedback from anyone who is involved with FATE to help us strengthen our mission to improve the effectiveness of teacher education,” Timmons said. “A strong state unit ultimately enhances the efforts of the national Association of Teacher Educators.”
North Florida educators converge on UF for FATE showcase
GAINESVILLE, FL – More than 300 practicing and future teachers, teacher educators and educational administrators—mainly from North Florida’s I-10 corridor—converged on the University of Florida campus April 21 for the 2012 multi-regional conference and inquiry showcase of the Florida Association of Teacher Educators (FATE).
The conference theme was “Teacher Learning and Practice Across the I-10 Corridor,” with participating educators hailing from the western Florida Panhandle counties to Jacksonville on Florida’s east coast, and as far south as the Alachua County and Marion County school districts in northcentral Florida.
All conference sessions and activities will be in Gainesville at UF’s Norman Hall, home of UF’s College of Education, from 9:45 a.m. until 4 p.m. Norman Hall is located on the southeast corner of UF’s campus at 605 SW 13th Street.
Darby Delane
Conference sessions showcased successful applications of teacher inquiry—also called action research—with attending educators sharing their findings from classroom-oriented research projects conducted to improve their own teaching practices, with enhanced student learning as the metric for success.
“Inquiry, or action research, is gaining popularity as an effective strategy for job-embedded, teacher professional development and school improvement,” said Darby Delane, school-university partnerships coordinator at UF’s College of Education.
Darby and UF lecturer Shelley Warm, who coordinates the college’s SITE educational preparation institute, represented UF on the 2012 FATE conference planning committee.
Several North Florida school districts and teacher-education programs from UF, University of North Florida, Florida A&M, Tallahassee Community College and Daytona State College will be represented at the conference, along with several higher-education institutions and school districts from central Florida regions of FATE.
Pertinent session topics included:
— Preparing African-American, low-income and first-generation students for college achievement
— Social media as a learning tool
— Saving rural and inner-city schools through university-school partnerships
— Social studies: the disappearing subject
— Help stop the revolving door of science teachers
— Cultural competence: Essential skills for new teachers
— Professional Development Schools
A sampling of presentations by UF education faculty and students includes:
— The UF Literacy Initiative, a promising intervention model for preventing reading difficulties in young children
— How race and gender play a role in students’ classroom discipline
— How UF is shifting its elementary teacher preparation program to meet today’s education needs
— Behavior management without raising your voice
— Breaking the code: an approach to increasing math FCAT scores
CONTACTS
SOURCE: Darby Delane, university-school partnerships coordinator, UF College of Education, delane@coe.ufl.edu; (w) 352-273-4191
WRITER: Larry Lansford, director, news and communications, UF College of Education; llansford@coe.ufl.edu; 352-273-4137
