The Southern Nevada Writing Project (SNWP) will host our third annual Summer Writing Camp for students entering grades 1-12 in the fall of 2012. This is an incredible opportunity for any student who loves to write. Class sizes are small and led by SNWP teachers and at least one other certified CCSD teacher per class.

Camps will be June 18 - 29 at the following locations: Grades 1-6, Paradise Elementary School (on the UNLV campus) and Grades 7-12, Carlson Education Building (CEB) at UNLV. The cost is $200 for 10 half days; this includes a mid-morning snack, a commemorative tee shirt, and an anthology of student writing. If you wish to sponsor a student who cannot afford the tuition, please contact Sue Hendricks.

Registration and information forms in English and Spanish are available at the link below. Registration deadline is June 1. For inquiries, please contact the following:

• Grades 1-6: Sue Hendricks 702-895-2969
• Grades 7-12: Jessica Carroll, 702-799-1010 ext. 5413

Dr. Shaoan Zhang of the Department of Teaching & Learning, is a recipient of a Faculty Opportunity Award. Dr. Zhang received the award for his project titled: "A study of teacher identity development through microteaching". The awarded will be funded through the Scholarly and Creative Work category.

The Faculty Opportunity Awards Program is intended to increase innovative research where support is needed for development of research areas where there is potential for continued funding by extramural funding agencies, private foundations, or industry, or modest support is needed to complete scholarly/creative works by faculty in disciplines outside of engineering, physical and natural sciences, and health.

Department of Teaching & Learning Professor Dr. Jane McCarthy was featured on the home page of the Association of Teacher Educators where she delivered the "Distinguished Educator Lecture" at the Association of Teacher Educator's 2012 Annual Event Meeting that was held in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. McCarthy is also featured throughout the conference slideshow.

In the past, Dr. McCarthy has served as the Dean of the College of Education, Department Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Chair of the UNLV Faculty Senate. She has an extensive record of research and publication in the fields of school reform, classroom management, and effective teaching strategies for students in at-risk situations. She has been a faculty member at the University of Houston, Rice University, and a project director at Stanford University before coming to UNLV sixteen years ago. Dr. McCarthy is a member of numerous boards and committees.

Congratulations to Ms. Cynthia Kimball (Doctoral Student and Teaching Assistant in Career & Technical and Postsecondary Education). Cynthia was selected receive a $500 Stipend to attend the Region V Association for Career and Technical Education Conference in Jackson Hole Wyoming in April. She will be presenting, along with Dr. McClain, a workshop entitled, "How to Engage Your CTE Classrooms the Zappos Way: Through Hope-Based Leadership"!

The deadline to apply to take a Fall 2012 field experience course is April 1, 2012. These courses are:

• EDEL 311: Elementary Methods Practicum I
• EDEL 313: Elementary Methods Practicum II
• EDEL 481: Elementary Supervised Student Teaching
• EDSC 311: Secondary Methods Practicum I
• EDSC 313: Secondary Methods Practicum II
• EDSC 481A/B: Secondary Supervised Student Teaching
• CIS 602: Secondary School Practicum

Note: You must also apply for the course in MyUNLV.

Failure to apply both on the Field Experience website, and in MyUNLV, may lead to you being administratively dropped at the beginning of the semester.

For more information about how to apply, as well as application requirements, visit the Office of Field Experience website.

Effective Immediately: The Department Office has moved just a little farther down the hallway. The new office location is CEB 359B.

In response to market and student demand, which coincides nicely with President Obama’s new Community College to Career Fund initiative, it is with great excitement that we announce our NEW masters degree programs and our NEW doctoral degree program in the College of Education. These new graduate programs that concentrate on Career & Technical and Postsecondary Education (CTPE) have been recently added to the new Department of Teaching and Learning.

The primary mission of the CPTE degree programs is to prepare educational leaders in advanced theory and practice, thus enabling them to better serve young adults and adults as they pursue careers and vocations in the workplace and in the community. The programs serve professional educators and trainers, counselors, administrators, and policymakers who are involved in public and private secondary, postsecondary and adult career and technical education.

The graduate programs are designed to prepare persons for careers in teacher education, research and evaluation, career and technical education administration, secondary and post-secondary teaching, local and state agencies (e.g., government), and public and private organizations (e.g., business/industry, consultants).

We are very excited about these new programs and are currently accepting applications to both degree programs for Fall 2012 admittance. The admission process and requirements (i.e., minimum GPA, GRE requirements for the doctoral program, etc.) are provided on the Graduate College website.

In her role as Director of the Southern Nevada Writing Project Professor Marilyn McKinney's work and research connect her with 196 other writing project sites across the country through the National Writing Project (NWP). Recently, Dr. McKinney participated with NWP site leaders to review site reports and create an online resource of promising practices gleaned from the reports; upon her return she heard good news. The U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the award of nearly $24.6 million for three grants to improve student achievement by increasing the effectiveness of teachers and principals. Funded under the Supporting Effective Educators Development (SEED) program was the National Writing Project. Based in Berkeley, Calif., the NWP will use its $11.3 million grant to train 3,000 K-12 teacher-leaders in the teaching of writing, who will then conduct professional development for teachers in local schools and districts in all 50 states. They are expected to reach some 12,000 students during the 2012-13 school year. The training will be conducted at intensive summer institutes for teachers on university campuses as well as through online programs. Another focus of the National Writing Project grant is to provide at least 30 hours of professional development in writing instruction throughout the school year for teachers serving high-need students in 100 schools and districts across the country. Though the SNWP is not a direct recipient of the funding, Dr. McKinney's team will benefit from this national award.

Department of Teaching & Learning doctoral student Kyle Kaalberg is interviewed by local station (Channel 8) for his work with UNLV Cares. Kyle is the acting Vice President at the UNLV Cares Food Pantry.

UNLV Cares is a student organization that is an entity separate from UNLV, but provides a support system for any UNLV community member who may be struggling due to devastating budget cuts. Well over 100 were served during the first two months of 2012, with hundreds served during the fall semester. It is a discreet system where individuals associated with UNLV may receive non-perishable food items. UNLV Cares is located across from campus on the second floor of the Promenade Center, and relies solely on food donations from the campus. Within the next few weeks, UNLV cares will be able to accept cash donations as well. Donations are essential to the sustainability of this organization, and anyone wishing to donate can use the drop boxes located around campus or email unlvcaresfoodpantry@gmail.com to have food picked-up. To learn more about UNLV Cares visit the UNLV Cares Facebook page.

The UNLV Curriculum Materials Library will be hosting their first annual Gayle A. Zeiter Children's Literature Conference on Saturday March 17. The featured authors this year are Pat Mora (author of such award-winning titles as Tomas and the Library Lady and Dona Flor ), and James Ransome with his wife, Lesa Cline-Ransome (collaborative team behind such star-reviewed books as Before There Was Mozart and Words Set Me Free). This is a fantastic opportunity to hear from award-winning authors/illustrators at a local event!  

Registration Fee:

$20.00 for community members

$10.00 for UNLV students

Time:

8:00am - 2:00pm

Venue:

UNLV Greenspun Hall

**Please click on the flyer attached for more information about this event!

Graduation Deadlines for Spring 2012

March 1st, 2012
Final day to apply and submit application for graduation through MyUNLV account (Graduation application instruction).

Please note: A $75 graduation and commencement fee will be placed on your student account (one fee per degree/certificate) beginning the first day of registration for the semester in which you have applied to graduate, or, if registration has already opened, your fee will be applied within two business days.

March 31st, 2012
Final day for doctoral students to order your official robe and hood from the UNLV Bookstore in time to ensure delivery prior to Commencement.

Saturday, April 14th
Last day to take comprehensive exam, or to defend your thesis or dissertation.

Friday, April 20th
Last day to submit the final,properly formatted hard copy of your thesis or dissertation on 20lb watermark bond paper to the Graduate College for final format review; all final exam results and final documents must be submitted to the Graduate College by this date.

Tuesday, May 1st
Last day for electronic submission of final thesis/dissertation (with formatting pre-approved by the Graduate College) to ProQuest.

The College of Education is now accepting applications for the 2012-2013 College of Education Scholarships! The application deadline is March 19, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. PST. No applications will be accepted after this date and time. For a list of the available scholarships, and a link to the application, visit: http://education.unlv.edu/scholarships.html

Please make sure you are registered under your advisor's section for CIG 697 for 1 credit. If you do not know who your advisor is, please contact the Teaching and Learning Main office at 702-895-3597.

Currently, we have 23 sections. If you can't find your advisor's section from the main page of the course, please click on "VIEW ALL SECTIONS" and scroll down or you can use the arrow on the left corner of the page. See below screen shot of CIG 697 at MYUNLV.

It is the students responsibility to ensure that they are registered under their assigned advisor in a timely manner, Otherwise students may incur late fees and/or received no credit for CIG 697.

Attention Graduate Students:
Make sure you take the time to review the Graduate Student Scholarships and Fellowships for the Fall 2012/Spring 2013 terms offered through the UNLV Graduate College. Information on how to apply, as well as due dates, are available at the UNLV Graduate College website.

Dr. Quinn will serve as a moderator for the 2011 Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum. The forum will be held on Tuesday, November 22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The Sun Youth Forum was established in 1955, by Hank Greenspun Founder and Publisher of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, as a way for students to comment on major issues of the day. The first Sun Youth Forum was held in 1956 in which 96 students from five high schools and high school programs participated in the Sun Youth Forum at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Approximately 1000 students from 52 high schools in the Las Vegas valley will participate in the forum this year. The students will have the chance to receive a scholarship from the Ruthe Deskin Scholarship Fund. 

Did you recently apply for full admission to the Elementary or Secondary Education program and were notified that your admission was pending?

If so, that is because you were missing one or more requirements to become a full-major. What this means is that the committee will admit you as a full major ONCE YOU HAVE COMPLETED those missing requirements (i.e. passing PPST scores, 2.75 GPA, required courses, etc.). Once you have met those requirements, your major status will be changed. In some cases, this may mean having to wait until the end of the semester.

We understand that this may cause a delay in registration of certain courses, but please keep in mind that the committee chose not to disapprove those with pending requirements, which would have resulted in having to wait until the next application period (March 1) to reapply.

If you have any questions, please contact the College of Education Advising & Field Placement Center at 702-895-1537, or stop by CEB 221.

**Attention Education Students**

Effective Spring 2012, the College of Education will no longer require EDU 210-Nevada School Law as a program requirement. HOWEVER, the Nevada Department of Education DOES require Nevada School Law for licensure. Students will now have the OPTION to either take EDU 210 (2cr), which we expect will continue to be offered for elective credits, or take the equivalent test-out exam. Information about this exam can be found at http://www.unr.edu/educ/el/nvlaw/. For those students on a non-licensure program, this requirement is no longer necessary. You may still enroll in EDU 210 for elective credits.

**Please keep in mind, should you take the test-out option instead of EDU 210, you may need to make up those 2 credits with electives to reach 124.**

If you have any questions, please contact the College of Education Advising & Field Placement Center at 702-895-1537, or stop by CEB 221.

The Department of Teaching and Learning is pleased to announce that Dr. Quinn and CCSD's Betsey Giles have been awarded a grant in the amount of $10,000 from State Farm to support teachers seeking National Board Certification.

Dr. Quinn is an annual contributor to national meetings of the American Educational Research Association, the Association of Teacher Educators, and the Northern Rocky Mountain Educational Research Association. Reports of her research have been published in journals and as book chapters. She recently co-authored an introduction to teacher text book.

Dr. Tom Bean's book Multimodal Learning for the 21st Century Adolescent has been nominated by the Association of the Educational Publishers for a Distinguished Achievement Award.

Dr. Bean is considered a leading scholar in content area literacy. He is the co-author of 15 books, 21 book chapters, and 88 journal articles. He currently serves as co-editor of the International Reading Association Literacy Studies Series centering on the publication of high quality research monographs.