Education Department News

Michelle Cuddy '09, a History major in Teacher Education Program, has been awarded the 2009 Outstanding Educator Award by the New England Association for Employment in Education. This award recognizes the professional aspirations of an outstanding educator and provides a financial stipend to the new professional. Michelle was an honored guest at the association's annual conference in May 2009.

The department is now in year two of a project funded with a three-year $150,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, Improving Teacher Quality program. The goal of the grant is to strengthen teachers' ability to improve their students' mathematics skills, especially in contexts linked to science. A special focus of this project is on middle school STEM learning. This summer, Pr. Rick Herrick, professor of chemistry, and Pr. Sharon Frechette, associate professor of mathematics, are teaching a course on the “Interface between Mathematics and Chemistry.”  Pr. Danuta Bukatko is the principal investigator. For further information, see: http://www.holycross.edu/publicaffairs/features/2009-2010/science_workshops_09.

The department is pleased to announce the award of $900,000 from the National Science Foundation for the Noyce Scholarship Program. The grant will provide scholarship support of $19,000 per year, for up to two years, to STEM students who participate in the Holy Cross Teacher Education Program and then teach in under-resourced school districts for four years following graduation. Five members of the Holy Cross faculty will oversee the activities of the grant, including Danuta Bukatko, Joseph H. Maguire ’58 Professor of Education; Beverley Bell, director of the Teacher Education Program; Daniel Bitran, professor of psychology and science coordinator; Catherine Roberts, associate professor of mathematics; and Janine Shertzer, professor of physics.  Several components of the project will be conducted in collaboration with the Worcester Public Schools. For further information, see http://www.holycross.edu/publicaffairs/press_releases/2008-2009/09_06_09.

Pr. Ricardo Dobles gave the keynote address at the Lawrence Bread Loaf Teacher Network professional development conference on March 7, 2009. His talk was titled “Building Community and Literacy in the Classroom.”  Pr. Dobles has a long-standing relationship with Andover Bread Loaf, a private, non-profit organization that works with school teachers and students to enhance the teaching and learning of writing in a way that fosters educational renewal. Andover Bread Loaf works in collaboration with Phillips Academy, a private college preparatory high school, and the Bread Loaf School of English, at Middlebury College.

Pr. Beverley Bell gave a paper entitled “It Takes a Whole School to Raise a Single Teacher” at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) in Dallas in February of 2009.

Pr. Ericka Fisher gave a presentation called “A Study of African Heritage and Latina Student Attribution and Engagement” at the National Multicultural Conference and Summit, New Orleans in January, 2009.