Congratulations to our new Google Certified Educators- Level 1!

Students taking EED 409- 21st Century Teaching and Learning II worked hard this summer to successfully complete the modules and receive Google Certification.

Google Certified Educators can leverage a multitude of Google applications including Google Classroom, Docs, Forms, Meet, Sheets, Sites, JamBoard, and Slides to enhance teaching and learning. Way to go!

Mrs. Sheryl Pesnell is the administrative assistant for the Curriculum and Instruction department. She has been employed at JSU for three months. Sheryl is also a JSU alumni. She loves working in higher education and has a passion to help young adults.

Sheryl and her family moved back home to the local area at the beginning of this year from Mobile, AL. While in Mobile, she was employed by the University of South Alabama where she worked with the College of Medicine.

One of the things Sheryl loves most about JSU is the people! Everyone has welcomed her with open arms and treats her like they have known her for years. The atmosphere is peaceful, and she feels right at home.

In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her husband and their three children. She is a mom of teenage twin boys and an 8-year-old little girl. She loves to serve her community and her church. She also loves to bake. Some of her favorite things about baking is trying new recipes, baking for others and it helps relieve stress.

She is looking forward to meeting new students in the fall and doing her part to help them succeed at JSU.

JSU's SGA President is a Secondary Education major.

Hello JSU students, prospective students, faculty, and staff.

I am Jewelishia Johnson, also known as Jewel. I am a junior majoring in Secondary Education with a concentration in English Language Arts.

I decided to attend JSU after the death of my father. I wanted to move back home from New York, but I did not want to be super close to family. JSU is the perfect distance for me to travel home if needed.

I was scared to get involved at first, but I noticed the lack of diversity on campus and wanted to be the inspiration for other minorities to step forward and be involved. It took a lot of time and dedication to be able to run for the Vice President of Public Relations SGA executive position. Serving as the Vice President of Public Relations was an honor. I learned so many things about higher education that will help me with my career in the future.

Insight into the operations of higher education caused me to run for SGA President. I saw a need for a dedicated individual. This position needed someone that is willing to go out on a limb and put students first. I ran my campaign off the 3 A’s. Advocate, Accommodate, and Activate. This year I will advocate for the students and their needs. I will accommodate myself to understand the different opinions of the students. Lastly, I will Activate the student's power. Using these 3 A’s will allow me to introduce the students to the opportunities that I saw when I came to JSU! Keep Striving Gamecocks!

-Jewel

Jacksonville State University FCS Department participates in the Alabama Association for Career Technical Education Conference in Mobile, AL.

The annual ALACTE conference was held in Mobile, AL. Over 1400 Career and Technical Education professionals gathered in person for the first time since the global pandemic. The conference is three days of professional development, technical update, networking, and leadership development opportunities for members.

Faculty members from the FCS Department presented at the annual conference to over 150 Family and Consumer Sciences teachers across the state as part of the Alabama Association Teachers of FCS section (AATFCS) of the conference. Miss Erica Hardy Merchandising program chair and Miss Kimberly Mitchell CTE program chair both presented various sections at the conference for teachers.

Miss Mitchell serves on the ALACTE State Executive Board of Directors as the organizations Public Policy Chair, and she is also serving as the AATFCS State President for the upcoming year. JSU FCS Education major Kinya Perkins Hibbler will also be serving on the AATFCS State Board as the Post-Secondary Student representative for the upcoming year where she will be networking with other FCS professionals from across the state while developing her leadership skills by assisting the AATFCS board for the upcoming year. Miss Hibbler is a senior and from Oxford, AL.

Dr. Stacie Wolbert, Department Head - Secondary Education, Dr. Christi Trucks, Acting Department Head - Family & Consumer Sciences, and Dr. Christie Calhoun, Acting Department Head - Curriculum and Instruction presented at the MEGA Conference in Mobile, AL. The title of their presentation was - No Shortage Here! How JSU is Tackling the Need for Teachers in Alabama.

The conference was hosted by the Alabama State Department of Education. This year’s conference provided attendees with opportunities to engage in meaningful discussions, attend in-depth training sessions, and learn from leading experts in fields across the educational spectrum.

Dr. Kyoko Johns received her bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education from JSU and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Alabama. She currently serves as Professor in College of Education and Professional Studies at JSU. Prior to coming back to JSU in 2010, she taught 11 years in elementary schools and Cherokee and Etowah County. She currently teaches elementary mathematics methods at the credential level and supervises teacher candidates. Her areas of interest include examining students’ thinking processes when solving mathematical problems, investigating social and cultural effects on mathematics education, and exploring student identity and diversity in the classroom. Dr. Johns remembers how JSU provided a welcoming environment for her when she first came to campus as a student and strives to provide that same welcoming learning environment for the current and future JSU students.

Dr. Johns loves spending time outside with her friends and family in her spare time. She also enjoys traveling, cooking, hiking, and kayaking. She is originally from Osaka, Japan and currently lives in Gadsden with her husband and three dogs. She enjoys visiting her friends and family in Japan during the summer or winter break but has not been able to visit Japan since 2019 because of the pandemic. She is looking forward to being able to visit Japan soon.