Yearly Archives: 2013

In the classroom or on the screen — or both, the College of Education continues to rethink where, and how, learning occurs

By Nicole Geary

Have you taken a course online? How about a hybrid program?

The College of Education led the charge into web-based teaching more than a decade ago and currently claims nearly 900 students pursuing degrees completely online. That population accounts for almost two-thirds of all master’s candidates in the college—and that doesn’t include hundreds of others who now take online courses as part of traditional (face-to-face) programs.

The mission hasn’t changed, but the reach is far greater.

Online programs make higher education opportunities available to more people in more places. Fewer students feel they can sacrifice time and professional commitments to travel to campus, and improving technology and web accessibility means they don’t have to.

More than ever, professors are prepared to foster learning online without sacrificing the quality of instruction that Michigan State University is known for. At least a third of the full-time faculty now teaches online.

BUT BEING ONLINE ISN’T ENOUGH.
Recent media coverage has marveled over making online education even more expansive — take the movement toward massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that can enroll more than 100,000 students in a single class, for example.

In the MSU College of Education, the question is not how many students can be reached. The question is how the online experience — like any other educational experience — can become more meaningful.

“We used to ask questions like whether we should or not, and if the technology will actually work,” said Cary Roseth, assistant professor of educational psychology.

In 2013, he says, instructors must be prepared to ask themselves which software platforms and instructional methods best match the tasks assigned and the students involved. It’s the rationale outlined by the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework, developed at MSU and adopted by educators around the world: rather than being just a vehicle for transmitting knowledge, technology must be an integral component of the teaching and learning process.

Keeping the goals of the course or particular lesson in mind, instructors must think about the boundary conditions, as some refer to it. At what point does the technology being used no longer make sense?

“Up against the boundary, I have to adjust and I start wondering about what I can accomplish,” Roseth said. “Teachers make these kinds of decisions all the time, like what to do in the time left before recess. The online world forces us to think about another context.”

The questions have become:

•  WHEN should students work independently (asynchronously) and when should they interact live (synchronously)? 
• WHERE should they interact, whether online, face-to-face or some combination of formats (hybrid)?

Graduate education in today’s universities is becoming a complicated mix of these hybrid options, and the College of Education offers one of the most innovative so far: a hybrid doctoral program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology (EPET).

“The hybrid was developed to meet a need in the mix of doctoral students we wanted to attract to the four-year program — namely, mid-career leaders in education,” said Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education Chairperson Richard Prawat. “The resident or face-to-face program was successful in drawing those with recent BA degrees and those who wanted to change careers, but not necessarily those who could not afford to put their careers on hold for a length of time.”

With 24 professionals enrolled across 10 states (and one in Dubai), the hybrid program must run completely online — in concert with the traditional doctoral group — except for two weeks each summer. The first students have been able to integrate doctoral coursework and research projects into their world of practice somewhat seamlessly, which in turn contributes more realistic and grounded knowledge to the conversations on campus.

With their faculty leaders, the hybrid Ph.D. students are establishing a brave new model for scholarly community, and a laboratory for the rest of the college.

“It’s an urgency that drives innovation,” said John Bell, co-coordinator of the program. For example, Bell has been developing ways for the hybrid Ph.D. students to participate in face-to-face classes via video conferencing systems (GoToMeeting is a favorite) and the use of iPads mounted to desks. The tablets become what he calls “physical avatars,” which represent the remote students’ spaces in the room.

Bell also is director of the new CEPSE/COE Design Studio, a physical and philosophical gathering space for experimenting with and implementing new technologies in teaching. Launched in 2012, professors from every department within the college are testing and employing the use of synchronous technologies, reconfigurable chairs called Node chairs, remote controlled cameras and other equipment in their classes. They are sharing knowledge from their hybrid or online teaching experiences with each other more frequently through roundtable discussions and featured lectures.

The Design Studio builds on existing resources in the college such as the Center for Teaching and Technology and helps professors address emerging needs in their teaching, from creating Khan Academy-style videos with green screen technology to building new online course infrastructure and testing real-time learning assessments that pop up on students’ screens. The studio includes four staff and graduate assistants, two designated classrooms and about $300,000 worth of technology on the fourth floor of Erickson Hall. Research is integrated throughout their projects.

“We are a resource for faculty and instructors, but a very proactive one. We strive to push the conversation forward,” said Bell, whose father Norman retired as a College of Education faculty member specializing in educational technology after more than 30 years.

“The goal is to use our own expertise to guide ourselves.”

Why synchronous?

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The first fully online program in the College of Education, the Master of Arts in Education (MAED), started in fall 2001 with just over 50 students. It now claims more than 600 graduates and is one of six fully online master’s programs within the college. Other programs in teaching and curriculum, special education, higher education, educational technology and health professions education all began within the last five years, with more expected in the future.

College of Education faculty members often win awards on campus and from outside organizations (read more about the 2013 Best Practice Award from AACTE) for their use of and research on technology in teaching. One of the top challenges continues to be finding ways to cover the same amount of content from a face-to-face class in a virtual group format. Computer-mediated communication can take up to four times as long, according to MSU Communication Professor Joseph Walther.

Faculty members say synchronous technologies like Google Hangouts for group video discussions and Etherpad for real-time collaborative editing can help cover more material while leading to much richer learning.

And happier students.

When Tanya Wright began teaching in the online Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum (MATC)—a program for teachers including those hoping to become reading specialists—students told her that their online courses had often felt too much like independent study. They longed for “real instruction” and discussions that didn’t feel “staged.”

So, like many other professors who find themselves problem-solving in the online world, she got creative. She hosts live Adobe Connect meetings to discuss case studies about struggling readers. The sessions are optional, but more than 90 percent of students participate. Wright also sets up professional book clubs that meet synchronously by time zone. She makes video presentations through which students actually see and hear her, either live or on their own time.

“Even at a distance, students crave interaction with one another and want to know the faculty member as a person,” she said.

When communicating in-person, both teachers and students know more immediately whether their messages are being understood. However, asynchronous interactions are also valuable because they give students opportunities to reflect, review materials or resources and, for those less likely to speak up in large groups, a chance to contribute more actively to discussions.

For instructors, teaching in online or hybrid formats is more labor intensive. They have the added responsibility of sorting through technical problems, time logistics and a stream of student communication that doesn’t start and stop with one class session. But students aren’t the only ones learning through the process.

“I have learned far more about my teaching through online teaching than I have face-to-face,” said Marilyn Amey, chairperson of the Department of Educational Administration, during a college-wide roundtable event last fall. “It’s caused me to really question my assumptions about learning, about how I know students are learning. It’s changed, fundamentally, how I teach a face-to-face class as a result.”

The hybrid experiments

Synchronous learning takes on different dimensions with hybrid courses, in which students gather live at least some of the time. In vertical hybrids, students flip between attending face-to-face classes and engaging in various web-based interactions. In horizontal hybrids, some students see their instructor in person while others participate from elsewhere.

MSU teaching interns placed in Chicago schools, for example, rely on Polycom video conferencing to connect with fellow interns and their instructors on campus. Teachers and school leaders enrolled in the off-campus K-12 Educational Administration master’s programs based in Birmingham and Detroit learn through a mix of face-to-face sessions and online activity — both asynchronous and synchronous — designed to mesh with their professional lives.

Professors such as Kenneth Frank from the Measurement and Quantitative Methods faculty alternate teaching between two locations. Others including Roseth, Matthew Koehler, Punya Mishra, Christine Greenhow and Douglas Hartman are experimenting with connecting students from multiple locations to a single live classroom.

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In Erickson Hall’s Room 452, they are testing ways to make remote students feel almost as though they are sitting amid the group, able to see and hear all details of class.

And participate in small groups, too.

One night during Mishra’s CEP 917 course in Room 452, Tracy Russo sat at her laptop, silently chatting and creating a document along with one student sitting on the other side of the room and two others sitting in their homes hundreds or thousands of miles away. In total, 10 students were in the room and 10 were off-site. When the whole group came back together, the faces of students from Texas, Idaho and Utah appeared on the large screen, which they call “the balcony.”

The groups struggled a little to summarize what they had just communicated with each other (through writing) on Etherpad: “You can spew a bit more online, but it’s hard to rein it in at the same time,” said Andy Driska, a kinesiology doctoral student in the class.

Sometimes, an iPad attached to a tripod serves as a camera that can be moved around the room to help remote students follow the person who is speaking more closely (and read facial expressions). They jokingly call it the TriPad and, yes, it is not a perfect system.

Yet.

Students and faculty in the College of Education embrace a spirit of experimentation and a shared goal no matter what new technology is being integrated: to improve learning.

According to Professor Patrick Dickson, the Design Studio and EPET hybrid program are beginning to add powerful contributions to a conversation about best practices in teaching with technology that is long-running within the college—and rare.

“There are not many institutions that have this kind of discourse,” he said. And graduates of the college, who have taken online or hybrid courses and/or taught them themselves, are leaving with the knowledge they will need to lead future models in K-12 and higher education settings.

With online learning integrated into every discipline offered, “it’s in the DNA of their study,” Dickson said.

“Our students will, no doubt, be instructors online. They will be collaborating and writing with people at a distance.”

It is the reality, ready or not.

Center for Teaching and Technology

Housed just off the lobby in Erickson Hall, the Center for Teaching and Technology provides a variety of services to help faculty, staff and students use technology in teaching and learning. This includes offering workshops, lending equipment such as cameras, digital audio recorders and iClickers, and providing in-classroom support. In 2012, the center launched an iPad loaner program allowing instructors and their students to explore the device’s potential throughout an entire course.

BY SARAH WARDELL

The perception of a young Amita Chudgar—now an assistant professor of educational administration at the College of Education—may be described as anything but ordinary.

Growing up in India, Chudgar lived in a non-traditional, middle-class Mumbai household with surgeon parents. At the end of 10th grade, Chudgar made a choice that many schoolchildren in India must make: the direction of their career path.

Chudgar chose social science—“a less prestigious decision,” she says—in comparison to her peers who opted mainly for commerce, engineering or medicine. The choice wasn’t a popular one.

“The decision broke from a perceived social norm, which freed me from seeing the world through a narrow lens,” Chudgar adds.

She even had a school principal tell her that she had ruined her future.

While the societal opposition she faced was steep, Chudgar went on to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics with a quantitative concentration at University of Mumbai. She graduated with honors and received a prestigious gold medal in economics.

Take that, naysayers.

Chudgar then went on to discover her passion for social issues while teaching economics to undergrads in Mumbai. It was here she had one of many aha moments concerning her desire to contribute to pressing social challenges using sophisticated research and analysis.

“Economics are beautiful, really,” Chudgar says with a smile. “It’s beautiful to be presented with complex situations and to find simple, elegant patterns … It’s really very exciting to me and I am fascinated by research that systematically makes sense of human behavior.”

After turning down a full ride at University of Oxford, Chudgar continued her journey at University of Cambridge to pursue a multidisciplinary master of philosophy in development studies. After Cambridge, Chudgar worked for a year on multiple research projects in rural India. It was here that she identified education policy and equity as the primary social issue she wanted to focus on, and pursuing a Ph.D. in Economics of Education at Stanford University was the next logical step.

“There are so many issues in this world, and I have decided to focus on educational challenges more closely,” Chudgar says. “I went to far-flung schools in India and saw deplorable teaching-learning conditions. I have seen classrooms with hardly any furniture or learning material, teachers teaching with few resources and bright, enthusiastic children short-changed by an under-resourced system.”

Chudgar adds: “Deep-rooted gender inequities and unfair social norms often make these challenges even harder to address. The consequences of these disadvantages are similar everywhere, even Detroit—all our children are unable to access quality education. It’s simply not okay anywhere for this to be happening.”

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Fast-forward to today, and one sees clearly that Chudgar has established herself as a leading researcher in the study area of disadvantaged children worldwide, and the implications of their resource-constrained conditions. In October 2012, Chudgar released study findings that contradicted past research by concluding there is no systematic benefit for school-aged children to attend private versus public schools, if the vast differences in their home backgrounds are carefully accounted for.

Now, with several awards and honors throughout her career, Chudgar remains humble, saying that she feels very privileged to do the work she does. “I feel fortunate. I love what I do. This is my passion—this work breaks my heart and brings me to tears.”

Chudgar places a high value on mentoring, and is currently working with three graduate students, James Pippin, Ben Creed and Madhur Chandra. Along with colleagues from Claremont Graduate University, the team is generating a cross-national understanding of teacher distribution across more than 20 countries through a $229,000 UNICEF-funded grant project that will wrap up in late 2013.

A Global Partnership

In partnership with the Azim Premji Foundation in India, Chudgar and Chandra are currently working with Radhika Iyengar from Teachers College, Columbia University on the Child Friendly School Initiative (CFSI). The team has collected two waves of data from 90 schools, which includes about 3,000 children, to examine the association between learning levels and community attributes.

“Perhaps the most exciting outcome of this joint research project is a panel I have organized at the upcoming Comparative and International Education Society’s Annual Conference in March 2013,” she says. The panel will consist of four papers related to the project, and Chudgar says she’s expecting three to four members from the foundation’s research team to attend.

“I am very glad that just as we are able to benefit from their research and data collection capabilities on the ground, we are able to share this international exposure and attention with them,” she says.

When asked about her future plans, Chudgar says she intends to expand her work with bolder projects. “The research community at MSU has been incredibly supportive, and I appreciate the institution’s commitment to global issues,” she adds.

Exploring urban education may also be on the horizon for Chudgar, as the relevancy of her current work in resource-constrained environments abroad would be a natural foray into an area with similar issues and challenges closer to home.

For now, Chudgar is content living a multi-continental lifestyle, speaking at international conferences and performing groundbreaking research—with her biggest “problem” being that her passport is too full.

Music education student shines as leader of growing youth ensemble

“Ready? One, two, ready, go.”

The conductor’s baton drops and swirls into the beat, while a stageful of teen musicians practice a Trans-Siberian Orchestra piece for an upcoming concert.

The auditorium is empty and there is laughter between each song. But their leader is preparing them for something bigger than their next performance.

A talented violinist, Lyndra Tingley spent her childhood becoming serious about beautiful music. Now she is serious about teaching.

And beautiful music.

She was hired as director of the Mason Philharmonic Orchestra when she was just a sophomore in the music education program at Michigan State University. Two years later, the extracurricular group has tripled in size from 20 to more than 60 kids—and growing.

As members joined from other nearby communities, Tingley arranged to move rehearsals from the group’s base in Mason to Okemos, where the central location and school-based strings program have helped the group flourish. She has planned concerts, summer camps and a visit to Michigan’s well-known Interlochen Center for the Arts, from which she graduated in 2008.

Playing in an orchestra can be a rare opportunity for youth as schools struggle to keep or expand arts programs, especially those including string instruments. In the Mason Philharmonic, Tingley has created a community where fun and confidence seem to flow along with music from the strings, woodwinds and brass sections.

“She really motivates the kids and keeps them interested,” said Kay Lancour, whose son and daughter are members of the orchestra. With Tingley’s encouragement, they both have received opportunities to play solos and even, in Joey Lancour’s case, a chance to conduct a piece at the winter show.

“I just see a lot of growth in my kids,” Kay said. “I don’t know how she does it all.”

This fall, Tingley completed her teaching internship, a one-semester requirement for MSU music education students, at St. Johns Public Schools. Meanwhile, she also continued teaching private violin lessons for over 40 students, played with her quartet at special events nearly every   weekend and started a violin club for preschoolers.

It’s a schedule that demands commitment, particularly with what it takes to meet the expectations of the music education program at MSU — a mix of requirements from the College of Music and the College of Education.

“There’s nothing that I have right now I am willing to give up,” Tingley said, not long before graduating from MSU in December. “I care so much about all these kids.”

The path to teaching

The daughter of a violin teacher, Tingley started playing at age 3 in her hometown of Batavia, Ill. She was only one of two violinists accepted to attend Interlochen as a high school freshman and she dreamed of recording movie soundtracks with a professional orchestra.

When she came to MSU, she was a music performance major.  She changed her major soon after she began interacting with the music education faculty and teaching private lessons based on referrals from local teachers.

“Once I got teaching, it just really opened a door,” said Tingley, who had not attended public schools herself. “I love being able to share my musical knowledge with my students and make great music together.”

Michael Steele is an assistant professor of mathematics education in the College of Education and current president of the Mason Orchestral Society, the parent organization of the youth orchestra. Tingley was up against veteran musicians and doctoral students when she got the director job.

“What stands out is that, at her young age, everything for her is a teaching and learning opportunity,” Steele said. “Every interaction I see her have with kids, even when there are 45 of them bouncing around a rehearsal room, is about little learning moments.”

And those moments can be challenging to achieve in music, while managing multiple students, instruments and ability levels. Mitchell Robinson, chair of music education, says music teacher candidates at MSU begin in-school field experiences as freshmen and focus on building skills for “teaching people, not music.” They also are encouraged to serve the community in entrepreneurial ways.

“Lyndra took so much initiative to do things outside her coursework,” said Associate Professor Judy Palac, who specializes in strings and has been a mentor for Tingley. “She has a good handle on how to treat kids, when to smile and when not to smile. And she is unusually mature.”

With her positive and ambitious spirit, Tingley keeps finding ways to bring music to more people. She earns respect from both students and parents, pushes her pupils to deliver performances they thought they couldn’t handle and shares her responsibilities with MSU classmates. Charlie Lukkari, a junior music education student specializing in the tuba, served as assistant director of the Mason Philharmonic.

Tingley recently received a job offer from a school for gifted students in Peoria, Ill., but she turned it down. She has a long-term substitute teaching assignment in St. Johns for former mentor teacher Jenn Parker. Meanwhile, she has begun her job search, hoping to start one next fall and keep working with her orchestra and private students.

She is serious about helping them make beautiful music.

And sharing what they have learned throughout life.

“Yes, I want them to be successful and play their best,” Tingley said. “But at the end of the day, my goal is that they will walk out of here with a passion and that they will want their children to one day have that same experience.”

Last year, MSU teaching intern Alexandra Beels spent a lot of time visiting BOB — the Basic Observation Buoy. Floating in Lake Erie or Lake St. Clair, BOB took water quality measurements every hour and, once or twice a week, Beels and seventh graders from Harper Woods Middle School near Detroit waded out to recalibrate his sensors.

BOB, BIF — a Basic Information Flotation device that monitors water pollutants — and a host of related hands-on activities became part of a yearlong project focused on environmental stewardship that was led by Beels and her mentor, former Michigan Teacher of the Year June Teisan. Together, they showcased their innovative efforts to teach science to urban youth during the Microsoft Partners in Learning forum attended by 100 educators in Seattle last summer. Then, as one of just 11 teams selected to win awards at the U.S. event, Beels and Teisan were invited to attend the program’s Global Forum in Prague in November. The forums highlight the world’s most creative uses of technology to transform learning.

“It honestly felt like a dream to be surrounded by so many talented educators that supported one another and were genuinely interested in our project,” said Beels, a secondary education (biology) graduate from St. Clair Shores, Mich. “Being able to collaborate with people from around the globe … for seventh-graders, I think that’s absolutely amazing. We really helped them understand how anybody at any age can be a scientist.”

A full-time intern with Teisan now, Beels actually had to delay her MSU teaching internship for one year because she didn’t pass the required Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) on time — by two questions. Teisan, who was looking for strong intern candidates, had already met Beels and begun talking about the year ahead. The two women clicked.

“My heart was broken for her but I saw the potential for a beneficial partnership,” Teisan said. So she asked Beels to help with the new grant-funded water project getting underway the following fall in Future Think, a class for high-achieving students at Harper Woods. “When our students hit a wall, we have to help them climb over the wall, and I think that’s what Alex and I ended up doing together when it was her wall to climb.”

Beels worked closely with Teisan and the Future Think group throughout the year, thinking through lesson plans, arranging BOB visits and even helping students win three national competitions — and a $10,000 prize! Meanwhile, Beels passed the MTTC and secured a long-term substitute teaching position in Fraser Public Schools.

Now Beels is in the classroom with Teisan every day, working on her final semester in the MSU teacher preparation program and dreaming up unusual, community-based learning experiences for her own future students.

“I don’t know why she picked me … She is a blessing in my life,” she said. “I have heard, ‘You are only a student teacher and you already set the bar this high. What are you going to do next’? I’ll be able to take what I’ve learned and apply it to bigger, better things down the road.”

Teisan is now working with Future Think students on a project focused on infusing art into science, technology, engineering and math — which she calls STEAM — through the Detroit Institute of Arts and the murals of Diego Rivera. MSU teaching intern, Kelly Herberholz, is assisting. 

A group of future teachers from Michigan State University — and their mentor teachers — will travel to Tanzania during summer 2014 for a unique experience in learning to teach global perspectives. The university has received funding under the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program to offer the five-week trip, along with related activities before and afterward.

The goal of the project is to help educators gain expertise for teaching about Africa in K-12 schools. Each of the selected teacher candidates will be paired with their mentor teacher for the forthcoming internship year (2014-15), during which they will integrate what they have learned through lesson plans and other interactions with students.

“In this way, both the teacher and the mentor can develop as teachers who are able to teach for global competence,” said Margo Glew of the Department of Teacher Education. Glew is co-directing the project with John Metzler of the MSU African Studies Center. The Center for Advanced Study in International Development (CASID) is also a partner.

Prior to the trip, participants will take a spring semester course specifically developed for the program. Their tour of Tanzania will provide in-depth understanding of history, culture, politics, economics and more in Eastern Africa. Overall, they will learn how to situate that knowledge within the major themes of social studies and humanities across the K-12 curricula, including new state standards and benchmarks.

Laura Apol, associate professor of teacher education, serves as curriculum director for the program and will join Metzler on the tour in Tanzania. Kyle Greenwalt, also a faculty member in teacher education, is a consultant.

All education students at MSU, and particularly members of the Global Educators Cohort Program (GECP), are encouraged to broaden their knowledge and perspectives for teaching through international travel. Glew, who coordinates GECP, said pairing teacher candidates with their mentor teacher for study abroad is unusual.

“We are really committed as a program to making these global experiences as accessible as possible, not only for GECP students but for all teacher candidates in our program. All teachers need to be able to teach today’s children for tomorrow’s world.”

Students can apply for the Tanzania program starting in fall 2013. Contact glewmarg@msu.edu for more information.

Another experience: Costa Rica

Some College of Education students will be going to Costa Rica this summer as part of another Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program for teachers. That trip, led by Kristin Janka Millar of the MSU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, will empower both practicing and pre-service teachers to explore the UN Millennium Development Goals using Costa Rica as their laboratory. Participants will be immersed in the Spanish language and stay with local families.

Recruiting is now underway, and some slots have been reserved for GECP students. Contact kristin@msu.edu for more information.

Alumni often feel connected to one another as graduates of an institution and, even more so, as graduates of a particular degree program. Sometimes, a single course can tie people together — and leave a lasting legacy.

In the case of EAD 315 (formerly 415): Student Leadership Training, more than 500 former instructors — the majority of whom are graduates of the College of Education — share in a tradition of preparing student leaders at Michigan State University that goes back to the 1950s.

Faculty and staff from the university’s Division of Student Affairs and Services and the Department of Educational Administration have collaborated throughout the course’s history to provide a powerful learning experience for any undergraduate on campus interested in becoming a leader.

Along the way, teaching the elective course has become a valuable and popular opportunity for graduate students from two program areas, Student Affairs Administration (SAA) and Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE).

Last spring, many former EAD 315/415 instructors gathered in Erickson Hall and during special receptions in conjunction with national conferences in those fields. They shared stories about their experiences — the first time teaching for many — and received pins to show their affinity to the unique group.

“My co-instructor and I had the opportunity to connect with students, explore their interests and creatively engage them in discussions about leadership, diversity and social justice,” says Briana Martin, a master’s student in SAA. “This experience definitely ignited a passion within me to teach.”

More than 5,700 students have enrolled since the current course format (315) was established in 1992. A summer online-only version was added in 2007.

“It has made a significant difference in the quality of the leadership of the students that then get involved with different student governments … the residence halls, sororities and fraternities and other off-campus groups,” said Professor Emeritus Louis Hekhuis, one of the course’s early instructors and coordinators. “It gave the students an opportunity to meet together and to form a better idea of how they could participate and contribute in their positions as student leaders.”

EAD 315 continues to draw a particularly high percentage of students of color and diverse backgrounds. Known for transforming both student and instructor perspectives, it has often been replicated at other institutions.

Patricia Enos oversaw the course from 1985 until she retired as a faculty member and assistant vice president for student affairs last year, passing on the role to EAD Assistant Professor William Arnold.

“I want you all to know what I know, which is how this course goes across generations and people,” Enos said. “It’s really very special and thank you so much for making it that way.”

Do you have your pin?

If you taught EAD 315 or 415 at Michigan State University, the department wants to hear from you. Contact William Arnold at arnoldwh@msu.edu or (517) 355-6613 to request your affinity pin and to provide your up-to-date contact information.

Alumna receives national biology teacher award

Mentor teacher and College of Education alumna Heather Peterson (’98, secondary teaching certificate) has received the 2012 National Outstanding Biology Teacher Award.

Peterson received the award from the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) during the association’s recent professional development conference in Dallas.

“We don’t get a lot of recognition in teaching, so it feels nice to have the recognition from peers and professors,” said Peterson. “We’ve also had a supportive school and community — our doors are always open.”

Now in her 21st year of teaching, Peterson (BS ’92, MS ’97, MSU College of Natural Science) is a biology teacher at Holt High School and has served as a mentor teacher to dozens of teacher candidates and interns. This year, she is working with four MSU seniors.

“She [Peterson] is a wonderful mentor, and a great example of professional growth,” said associate professor of teacher education Gail Richmond. “She advocates for ambitious pedagogy and models what she teaches. She is a significant force at Holt and she shares her knowledge not just within but outside the classroom.”

Peterson is also head coach of the Holt Science Olympiad team. She is the science department chair and participates regularly on numerous panels and committees related to the field of biology. In addition to biology, Peterson also teaches human physiology and botany.

More Alumni News

Peter Flynn

College of Education alumnus Peter Flynn, MA ’69, Ph.D. ’71 (Curriculum, Secondary Teacher Education), has received the 2012 Superintendent of the Year award from the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA). Flynn retired earlier this year as superintendent of the Freeport School District 145 in Freeport, Ill. after 12 years.

During his 41-year career, he spent time as a teacher, assistant professor and, prior to joining the Freeport school district, served as superintendent of schools in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Kentucky.

Michael DeGagne

Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education alumnus Michael DeGagné, Ph.D. ’02, has been selected as the president and vice chancellor of Nipissing University in Ontario, Canada, beginning a five-year term in January 2013. Nipissing is a public, liberal arts institution. Before his selection, he was serving as the executive director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation in Ottawa, Ontario.

Dan Vaughn, Ph.D. ’05 (Kinesiology), has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy (JMMT). Vaughn is based at the Physical Therapy Program at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he has both teaching and clinical practice responsibilities. His research at Grand Valley has focused on the efficacy of manual therapy interventions and the influence of therapeutic exercise on spinal posture.

Ericka (Olson) Fatura, MA ’06 (Curriculum and Teaching), was named the 2013 Michigan High School Science Teacher of the Year by the board of the Michigan Science Teachers Association. Fatura is a teacher at Pentwater Public Schools. She was chosen for inspiring her students, demonstrating innovative teaching strategies, being an excellent role model for students and other teachers and exhibiting a passion for science and teaching. She will be honored at an awards ceremony during the 2013 MSTA Conference.

“Wow, I really regret that workout,” said no one ever.

Walk into State of Fitness on an average day and visitors not only see that statement painted on the wall, but they will enter into a cacophony of sound and activity.

Amid weights clanging, upbeat music and machines humming, it’s Thursday and Michigan State University kinesiology alumnus Justin Grinnell is working with a small group of high school students involved with the Sports Performance Academy.

The kids are scattered around the gym. There are those working with Grinnell, and others who are working with trainers—nearly all of whom are either current MSU students or recent graduates of the university’s kinesiology programs.

Grinnell is intently watching the kids do jumping squats while lifting five-pound weights with one arm. It’s a tricky move and some of them aren’t doing the squat correctly—but Grinnell is patient. He doesn’t get mad or frustrated; he simply demonstrates the move and asks them to try again.

An incredibly driven person, “How bad do you want it?” has become a mantra of Grinnell’s. Those who know him describe him as ambitious, assertive and motivated.

So, where did one of the highest-grossing trainers to ever come out of the Michigan Athletic Club learn the science of movement?

The fundamentals

At 19, Grinnell was studying business at MSU and working at a local health supplement store to make extra money.

Was he happy? Not so much.

Restless? Definitely.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do, but people were saying I had a knack for training,” Grinnell said. “It was when I began training my brother for the Major League Baseball draft that I thought, ‘I can do this.’”

An athlete in high school, Grinnell was always interested in fitness and had become a bodybuilder. Heading into his sophomore year at MSU, Grinnell decided to take it to the next level and switched his major to kinesiology, health promotion; he became a certified trainer and worked in a local gym.

“The first thing I realized was that I needed to learn more about the science behind exercise. I knew about nutrition but I needed the base the ‘Kin’ major offered me,” Grinnell said. “It gave me the scientific knowledge that backed up what I had already learned in the real world.”

But Grinnell didn’t want to just graduate, he wanted to be the best—“not just a meathead bodybuilder,” he added.

“There were a couple professors who really pushed me,” Grinnell said. “While at MSU, I had opportunities to work with those who were autistic or in wheelchairs … basically, I learned how to work with people. I conversed with other experts and trainers in the field so I knew what I was talking about.”

Things took off after graduation in 2004. Grinnell got married—to another kinesiology graduate—and began working at the MAC in East Lansing as a trainer. While there, he built an intern program that became highly sought-after by kinesiology students.

After four years and loads of hard work, Grinnell began asking questions many pose throughout their professional lives: “How can I get better? What’s next for my career?”

At the same time, kinesiology graduate and physical trainer Rebecca Klinger was asking the same question. And, after some prompting from a real estate friend to open State of Fitness in its current location, Grinnell and Klinger became willing to take the risk of business ownership.

And into the deep end they jumped.

A new chapter

Grinnell, now 31, and Klinger are co-owners of State of Fitness, a unique exercise and training facility for all ages and fitness levels, located on Grand River in East Lansing. The gym has become a well-oiled machine, fueled by the high energy of its owners and staff. At the end of 2012, there were six MSU kinesiology graduates and 13 MSU student interns working with Grinnell.

Ben Boudro, an exercise physiology graduate student and current trainer at State of Fitness, said Grinnell embodies all the qualities of a true leader.

“I sometimes get to the gym at 4:30 a.m. and Justin is already there, and he’ll stay until seven at night,” said Boudro. “He also meshes well with different personalities—he finds a way to connect then uses that connection to make it the best workout a person has ever had.”

Grinnell has created an innovative intern program and considers it a feeder system. He says that, on occasion, there are even those that return for a second internship.

Jo Hartwell, lead advisor for the Department of Kinesiology, has known Grinnell a number of years. “We encourage the students in the kinesiology program to get out and do,” Hartwell said. “Justin is a good example of an alumnus giving back to the community and encouraging students to do the same.”

Each month, Hartwell sends out a newsletter to students and graduates that typically highlights jobs or internships, and nearly every month Grinnell is seeking one or both.

“A lot of interns don’t get much out of their internships, and I don’t think that’s fair,” remarked Grinnell. “I’ve got to always be on my toes, so they get the best education. I have to hold up my end and give students a great experience.”

Now, after three years in business, Grinnell feels the company is doing well with a solid business model and efficient staff. Marketing-wise, Grinnell has written columns for a number of years for local fitness magazine Healthy & Fit as well as national magazine Muscle & Fitness. He also has a blog (www.grinnelltraining.com) and is currently working on an e-book about different approaches to nutrition.

Yet, challenges within the industry remain.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t many places like this [State of Fitness] that are qualified to offer sound advice,” Grinnell adds. “We are going to start seeing fewer and fewer massive gyms, and in the next five years I know we’ll see an explosion in the demand for personal trainers.”

Hartwell couldn’t agree more.

“Personal trainers are definitely in demand,” she said. “A Bachelor of Science in kinesiology provides an excellent foundation. Students are prepared by learning everything there is to know about the human body—and that, combined with a recognized personal trainer certification, makes our graduates very marketable.”

As for the future, Grinnell and Klinger hope to open another facility within the next couple of years, which means more staff—good news for the local economy and MSU kinesiology graduates.

Until then, Grinnell will keep asking himself: “How bad do you want it?”

And then he’ll go get it.

BY SARAH WARDELL

Create a Strong Job Search Strategy

“Why isn’t my job search getting me anywhere?”

As the director of alumni career services for the MSU Alumni Association, I frequently get this question from graduates. Let me give an example.

A recent call came from Kate (not her real name), who is a 2008 MSU College of Education graduate. She secured a position immediately, but found herself on a job hunt in 2012 after an unexpected layoff.

At the time of her call, Kate was three months into her search and frustrated. Not only was she not getting job offers—she wasn’t even getting calls from résumé submissions and applications.

What was wrong with Kate? Nothing. Kate was a great elementary school teacher who happened to be a terrible job seeker. Most professionals are better at doing their life’s work than looking for work; however, the current job market demands that professionals have a strong job search strategy.

Kate had three main trouble spots.

The first was overly-generic content in her cover letters and résumé. With the exception of changing the name and address of the school in her cover letter, all submissions were identical. Though there are many universal similarities among what schools value when it comes to educating children, there are differences. The differences are often what set schools apart.

What Kate was failing to recognize was that she wasn’t selling her background in connection with what was unique about each school in terms of its mission, philosophy, programming, student population, parent involvement, innovation strategy and the like.

By treating each institution as “just another school,” she was being treated as “just another candidate.” Kate solved the problem by:

• Reading annual welcome letters from principals and superintendents on school websites
• Studying schools’ mission statements
• Reviewing Board of Education minutes
• Researching communities the schools served
• Absorbing the information found in staff bios and school newsletters

She used the information she found to pinpoint what the schools valued—and tailored each submission accordingly.

The second trouble spot was an impersonal approach when engaging prospective employers. Kate’s cover letters began with: “Dear Hiring Manager.” By using this impersonal label, Kate was missing an easy way to show respect for (and interest in) the person she hoped to work for some day.

In her defense, contact names were not provided in the original postings. Most schools, however, are extremely transparent when it comes to staff directories. She solved the problem by inserting the principal’s name when the primary contact wasn’t clear. If a school has an opening, it’s a safe bet the principal will be involved.

The third—and probably most significant—trouble spot was relying on superficial contact to get herself noticed. While pressing submit on an electronic application, Kate would cross her fingers, hoping that someone on the other end of the digital black hole would 1.) see her,

2.) realize how great she was and 3.) pluck her out of a sea of other qualified applicants.
Today, even with a targeted message and personal approach, getting noticed may not happen. Knowing someone within the inner-workings of an organization greatly increases the odds of success. Kate’s challenge was that she didn’t have any direct contacts in the schools she was approaching. The good news is that individuals who work within education tend to be approachable, visible and enthusiastic about meeting other people who do what they do.

So to build connections where none had existed before, Kate contacted teachers, administrators, parent leaders and board members involved with the schools to build awareness of her interest in joining their community. She even sought out their perspectives on the school’s goals, accomplishments and culture.

Kate also began networking through LinkedIn and other channels to see if any Spartans worked for the school. For the districts near her, Kate made schools aware of her willingness to volunteer and substitute, so they’d have chances to get to know her.

Because of her hard work and willingness to step out of her cookie-cutter job search approach, Kate is closing in on a new opportunity and enjoying the momentum she’s experiencing. She’s discovered she is not only a great teacher—she is a great learner.

Upcoming Events:

March 9
Get a Job event. To volunteer as an interviewer for current interns visit: http://ow.ly/gQjkG

April 15
Teacher & Administrator Recruitment Fair http://ow.ly/gycG8