This semester, I've had the privilege of teaching a class of 14 amazing undergraduate elementary and special education majors in ELSE 3308. Although I've worked extensively with the College Ambassadors, I haven't taught a class for a while. Although this is definitely an added responsibility, I must admit that teaching this class is sometimes the one thing I look forward to each week. The students are engaged, funny, passionate, and bright. I've pushed them to think about educational equity and inclusion and they have responded with incredible insight and openness. Every class discussion reminds me of the love I had (still have) for K-12 teaching and the hope I have for the future of education. If these young people (along with the other COE students) hold the future in their hands, we are in a good place. Here's to our students, undergraduate and graduate. Your work is preparing them to lead the way.

Vicki -

The most recent issue of the COE newsletter is outstanding, and I know it doesn't begin to capture all of the things going on in, and out of, the classroom. My sincere congratulations to the impressive, engaged, and connected faculty, staff, students and alumni of the COE! Thank you for making sure I'm on the distribution list. The newsletter brightened this rainy October day.

Patty

*****

Patricia S. Poulter, EdD

Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs

The Mid-South Educational Research Association (MSERA) had its first-ever virtual conference on October 28-29 and the leadership team diligently worked to ensure that it was high-quality, engaging, and enjoyable. This year’s theme was 20/20 Vision for Educational Research. There was a huge COE faculty presence throughout the conference, and they were involved in the following areas: leadership team, keynote speaker, mentors, professional development, and presenters. The following COE faculty were part of the leadership team: Rachelle Miller (President), Michael Mills (Program Chair), Nykela Jackson (Arkansas Director), and Stefanie Sorbet (Membership Committee Chair). Candice Barnes provided a dynamic keynote session titled, “Research Through the Lens of Equity,” that generated much engaging conversation. Rachelle Miller and Nykela Jackson mentored graduate students and new professional members during the MSERA Mentor Session. COE faculty were also involved in another ‘first’ for MSERA by offering MSERA’s first-ever post conference workshop. The workshop was titled, “Education Equity,” and it was a huge success. The following faculty conducted this workshop: Charlotte Green, Candice Barnes, Vicki Groves-Scott, Melissa Smith, and Donna Wake. In addition, our COE faculty presented numerous presentations throughout the conference. Their presentations are listed below:

Stefanie Sorbet and Candice Barnes - Using Positive Behavior Role Plays to Prepare Teacher Candidates for the Classroom: An Exercise for Classroom Management

Shannon D. Williams, Nancy P. Gallavan, Rhonda McClellan, Amy Baldwin, Taine Duncan, and Angela Webster - Relationships and Influences of Racial Identity Development and Leadership Identity Development on Black Men's Undergraduate College Persistence

Louis Nadelson, Shelly Albritton, Thomas Bruick, Valerie Couture, Charlotte Green, Stacey Loyless, Michael Mills, and Odunola Oyeniyi - The Education Equity Mindset of Post-Secondary Faculty Members

Stefanie Sorbet and Charles E. Notar - Establishing a Positive Classroom Design to Meet All Learners

Susan Perry and Stephanie Copes - The Debate between Decodable and Leveled Text and Meeting the Needs of All Students

Donna Wake, Julie Workman, and Karen Norton - Supporting Novice Teacher Induction for Increased Teacher Retention

Haihong (Helen) Hu and Uma Garimella - Algebra Connecting Concepts: An Evaluation of a Professional Development Program

Debbie Dailey, Jason Trumble, Michelle Buchanan, and Alicia Cotabish - Developing Engineering Design Skills in a Children's Summer Camp

Odunola Oyeniyi and Valerie Couture - A Comparison of First-Year Undergraduate and Graduate International Students’ Adjustment to College

Jessica Herring-Watson - Predicting Pre-Service Teachers’ Intention to Use Technology-Enabled Learning

Helen Hu, Donna Wake, and Erin Shaw - The Voices of AMI: From District Library Media and Instructional Technology Specialists

TeYhaunna Jackson and Nykela Jackson - Teachers’ Perceptions of Competency Based Curriculum

MSERA Achievements

COE faculty and graduates received several accolades throughout this conference. Michael Mills was elected as President Elect and Stefanie Sorbet was elected as Arkansas Director. Michael will complete his presidency in 2022, and the MSERA annual conference will be held in Little Rock that year.

Shannon Williams, a graduate from the Ph.D. Interdisciplinary Leadership Program was the recipient of the Herbert M. Handley Outstanding Dissertation Award. Jessica Watson-Herring, a faculty member in the Teaching and Learning Department, was the recipient of the Research In-Progress Award.

"We are living history and the documentation of our experiences is vital to future research." Tracie Rushing, Lecturer I in the department of Elementary Literacy and Special Education,

started the Living History Pandemic Project in the spring, after classes moved to online instruction, to give students a voice by collecting their experiences for the University Archives. Tracy said, "This summer, I asked the UCA Archives to digitize sections of their 9/11 collection. Students from my fall Instructional Strategies for K-6 Social Studies courses worked with these primary sources as an introduction to teaching history through primary source documents. This included the accounts of UCA students during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. From reading these, my students saw the value of preserving first-hand accounts and were eager to contribute artifacts to a collection on the pandemic."

Tracy was asked to share a five-minute video from this project at the CAHSS Webinar on the causes and consequences of pandemics. The following video is compiled from submissions received during a one-week period. No submissions or main thoughts were omitted.

Tracy said, "This is a powerful and honest statement of where our students are today. The video includes the reflections of UCA Education majors, along with two of our international students from Japan." She added, "I invite all who are interested in submitting their own written or recorded contributions and those who are interested in activities partnering with our international students to contact me at trushing@uca.edu. I hope this will offer insight into how the pandemic is affecting our student body."