The Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) at the University of Minnesota will present its 12th Annual FREE Child Welfare conference, “Social Media, Smart Phones, and Safety: How Technology is Changing Child Welfare Practice” on April 21, 2010, 8:30 am to 12:30 pm.
For more information and to register to attend in person or via Web stream, please follow this link.
The conference will feature keynote presenter Dr. Dale Fitch, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Missouri. Dr. Fitch will address concerns and hesitations of the field of child welfare to use technology and social media and discuss opportunities to embrace these tools to the benefit of youth and families.
Following the keynote presentation, a panel of current and former foster youth, who are members of a local Foster Club chapter, will discuss their thoughts and experiences with technology and social media use as youth in out of home placement.
Finally, we have invited Frances Allegra and Pat Smith from Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe, Inc. to discuss the fascinating ways their organization is helping to transform child welfare practice in Florida by harnessing the power of technology.
The EDRC Up Close… Urban Leadership Academy
The Urban Leadership Academy (ULA) is a professional development program for new and experienced school leaders and is offered through the Educator Development and Research Center, in partnership with the Department of Organizational Leadership & Organization (OLPD), and six metro area school districts. The program brings together educators from Minneapolis, Mounds View, North Saint Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, Osseo, South Washington County, and Spring Lake Park Public Schools and provides professional development opportunities based on topics they have identified as relevant to their own educational contexts. “The past four years, partners have identified a need for more preparation in areas of equity and diversity,” notes Vanessa Abanu, Coordinator of College Collaborations for Field-Based Professionals in the EDRC, “It has been exciting to watch school leaders engage in their own learning. They have so many other responsibilities; they often do not get a chance to talk about their own concerns. ULA gives them the space to do that.”
ULA workshops cover a variety of topics intended to allow school leaders to approach equity and school change from multiple angles. “We try to bring in presenters that address the complexity of meeting the academic needs of all students,” Abanu discusses, “Like our last workshop – Reshaping Mathematics Education for the 21st Century. It wasn’t just about teaching math, and it wasn’t just about teaching diversity. Our presenters looked at what it means to address diversity in math instruction. I like that about this year’s workshops.”
ULA is governed by an advisory board made up of teacher leaders, principals, associate superintendents, and representative staff from OLPD. Past workshop topics have addressed themes related to achieving excellence and equity through school design, understanding factors that contribute to the achievement gap, and modeling leadership despite adversity and resistance.
“ULA’s urban framework is important. We’re a first-ring suburb, and we’re facing many of the same challenges as urban schools. ULA brings together a nice blend of research and practice in an on-going dialog, not a one-shot deal. We can learn from others.”
-Ellen Delaney
associate principal, Spring Lake Park Schools
For more information on ULA workshops in April and May, check the Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities section below, or go to http://www.cehd.umn.edu/PPG/default.html.
Weiss publishes in National Academy of Kinesiology Papers
Maureen Weiss, professor in the School of Kinesiology and co-director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, published in the National Academy of Kinesiology Papers on Bridging Kinesiology and Society. In Weiss’s paper, “Teach the Children Well: A Holistic Approach to Developing Psychosocial and Behavioral Competencies through Physical Education,” she argues that school physical education is an important context for promoting both motor skill development and health and fitness outcomes, rather than having to adopt an either/or approach. To accomplish both objectives, Weiss contends that a positive youth development approach, featuring supportive teacher behaviors, a positive classroom climate, and skill-building activities, is optimal to helping students acquire psychosocial and behavioral competencies that can transfer to other life domains currently and with increasing age.
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CASCW featured in Star Tribune article on child protection employment
The Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare’s Title IV-E stipend program was featured in a Star Tribune article on the need for diversity in the child protection workforce on Wednesday. Check out the article here.
Fox 9 features Kinesiology’s LaVoi on the Lingerie Football League
Dr. Nicole LaVoi, lecturer in the School of Kinesiology and associate director of the Tucker Center, will be on Fox 9 News at 5:00 P.M. tonight discussing the new Lingerie Football League franchise just awarded to Minneapolis.
Link to Fox 9 News piece:
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/sports/doc%3A-lingerie-football-downplays-sport-mar-24-2011
LaVoi awarded AAHPERD Research Consortium grant
Dr. Nicole LaVoi, lecturer in Kinesiology and associate director of the Tucker Center, and Dr. Cindra Kamphoff, assistant professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato, have been awarded a research grant from the American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD) Research Consortium for their collaborative longitudinal project, “Females in Positions of Power within Interscholastic U.S. Sports.”
Uganda soccer coaches to visit campus, give public presentation
Four soccer coaches from Uganda, including the current Women’s National Team coach, Majidah Nantanda, will visit the University of Minnesota March 30-April 5 as part of the International Sport Connection (ISC) Coach Training/Cultural Exchange Program, which is funded by the SportsUnited Division of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, associate professor in the School of Kinesiology, and former advisee Jens Omli, assistant professor at Texas Tech University, are two of the partners in ISC. Last spring they hosted several Ugandan coaches in a training program in the Twin Cities designed to develop coaching curriculum for children and youth. Last May, Omli, Wiese-Bjornstal, lecturer Stacy Ingraham, and others traveled to Kampala, Uganda to provide training to 181 youth coaches in the area.
Coach Nantanda, along with Elsie Namagambe, Martin Mugabi, and Daniel Kiwanuka, will tour U of M athletic facilities, meet with kinesiology students and faculty members, and share their experiences with the community. All are invited to their public presentation on Friday, April 1, 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m. in 206 Cooke Hall, to hear the coaches discuss sport in Uganda and their unique approaches to coaching youth soccer players.
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Burns’ RTI work referenced in Education Week
The work of Professor Matthew Burns, Educational Psychology, was referenced in a February 28 Education Week article on response-to-intervention programs in schools.
Cynthia Lewis presents at the Assembly for Research of the National Council of Teachers of English conference
Cynthia Lewis, Professor of critical literacy and english education (department of Curriculum and Instruction), presented a featured session at the Assembly for Research of the National Council of Teachers of English conference in Madison, Wisconsin on February 19th. Also presenting in the session entitled “Digital Media as Activism and Academics in an Urban High School: The DigMe Program” were English teacher and DigMe co-developer, Delainia Haug and David Cruz Nava, a graduate of Roosevelt High School who showed videos he created while a student in Haug’s English classes and discussed his films as activism related to immigration reform. The session provided an overview of the digital media curriculum and the findings of a study on students’ critical engagement in the class.
Eight graduate students from literacy education also attended the conference. Three students presented papers: Candance Doerr-Stevens presented “Forging Space for New Identities and Literacy Practices through Digital Media Consumption of Radio Documentaries”; Heidi Jones presented “Oscillating Identities: Utlizing and Online Role Play in a Writing Methods Course”; and Rachel Hatten presented 21st Century Skills, the Push for Blended Classrooms, and the View from the Trenches.”
Roosevelt High students speak about their work in the DigMe program
English teacher Molly Vasich, a graduate from the M.Ed./initial licensure program in English education, and four students from the Digital Media Studies Program (DigMe) at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School visited instructor Rick Lybeck’s English Education (teaching writing) class on March 3. Vasich and the students shared their experiences with DigMe, a partnership between Roosevelt and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (CI), led by Cynthia Lewis and Cassie Scharber, who are studying the intersection of critical engagement, disciplinary learning, and digital media within a technology-mediated program in an urban high school.
Vasich discussed her curriculum incorporating both analysis and production of digital media in her English classes. Students Tiffany Alva, Dyami King, Yesenia Perez-Ramirez, and Olga Uraga talked about specific digital media projects, with a particular focus on how new literacy practices such as digital media composition compare and contrast with more traditional writing practices. Lewis, English education coordinator in CI, invited the guests to support pre-service English teachers in their developing understanding of the changing landscape of English as a discipline and the need for them to provide their future students with opportunities to analyze, interpret, and produce meaning through digital media.
Vavrus keynote speaker for Gender and Education in Tanzania event at University of Michigan
Frances Vavrus, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD) was the keynote speaker at the Gender and Education in Tanzania event at the University of Michigan on Friday, March 11. Sponsored by the University’s African Studies Center and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, the event was designed to promote awareness of the importance of promoting secondary and tertiary education for women in the country. Organizers included members of a new student group on campus, the AfricAid Club, which is raising funds to support a Tanzanian women seeking to complete her secondary school education.
Ostvig featured in U Connects Kids on Campus program
Tex Ostvig, master’s degree student in youth development leadership, coordinates the U Connects Kids on Campus program, designed to bring Minnesota youth to campus and expose them to the possibilities of a college education. His efforts were recently featured in a University story on the program, which has attracted more than 10,000 young people to campus since it began in 2007.
Ostvig, who attended General College and has a B.A in Spanish from the University, has served on the CEHD Alumni Society Board since 2006 and was president of the board in 2008-09. He is committed to being an ambassador for the University and the college, especially for youth who might not otherwise consider higher education. “It wasn’t until I came [to the University of Minnesota] that I figured out what my identity was,” Ostvig explains in the article. College “allows you to discover who you want to be.”
Davison and Davenport’s article listed as one of top 10 articles on regression
An article published by Mark Davison and Ernest Davenport, faculty in the Quantitative Methods of Education track in the Department of Educational Psychology, has been listed by BioMedLib as one of the top 10 articles in its domain since its publication. The article, “Identifying criterion-related patterns of predictor scores using multiple regression,” appeared in the American Psychological Association journal Psychological Methods in 2002. It describes a regression method for identifying a pattern of scores in a battery of tests such that the pattern is associated with high scores on a criterion variable. It also proposes a measure of the pattern’s validity, the proportion of variation in the criterion variable that can be accounted for by the identified pattern.
Brownlee comments on Joe Mauer’s shampoo endorsement
Many have wondered why All-Star, multiple batting champ and celebrity Joe Mauer was growing his hair longer these days. It turns out that the Twins catcher will become the latest athlete to endorse Head & Shoulders shampoo. Eric Brownlee, Sport Management lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, says the shampoo is a perfect fit for Mauer’s all-American image. To watch, go to:
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/entertainment/mauer-shampoo-head-shoulders-feb-22-2011
Categories: Kinesiology • Physical Development & Sport • Sport Management
Altman, Christensen, and Vang present on Universal Design at conference
Jason Altman, Laurene Christensen, and Mai Vang of the Institute on Community Integration presented at the Minnesota Council for Exceptional Children conference on March 3. Their session was titled, “Universal Design and Accommodations in Classroom Assessment.”
Everson publishes in ELearn Magazine
Michelle Everson, Ph.D., lecturer in Educational Psychology, recently published an article, “Academic Honesty in the Online Environment,” in ELearn Magazine.
A focus on autism in Zambia
A delegation from the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) will fly to Zambia on March 30 for two weeks of work with disability rights leaders developing and improving services and supports for people with disabilities and their families. The trip is part of the work of the Twin Cities Zambia Disability Connection — a partnership of ICI, Arc Greater Twin Cities, Fraser, Opportunity Partners, and Zambian disability rights leaders — which was formed in 2008.
This will be the fourth time ICI staff have traveled to Zambia (Zambian delegations visited the Twin Cities in 2008 and 2010), and it will be the first time there has been an emphasis on autism. “The last time our Zambian colleagues were here they had a chance to visit the autism spectrum disorders clinic at the University and a number of autism-specific programs in Minnesota,” notes Amy Hewitt, project director. “They asked us to help them build autism expertise in Zambia. This trip is hopefully the first of many exchanges that will focus on autism.” To learn more, see the ICI staff newsletter.
CEED co-director Amy Susman-Stillman speaks about child care on Mom Enough
Finding the Best Childcare Setting for Your Child: Tools, Resources and Words of Wisdom
What tools and resources are available to help you evaluate and choose childcare that will serve your children well?
Parents consider many factors when selecting childcare, from licensure to curricula to health and safety standards to cost. Dr. Amy Susman-Stillman, co-director of the Center for Early Education and Development, joins hosts Martha Farrell Erickson and her daughter Erin to discuss how to find and recognize a quality childcare facility and how to tailor your decision to the unique strengths, needs and personality of your child.
Garfield and delMas deliver invited presentations in Japan
Joan Garfield and Bob delMas (both faculty in QME, Educational Psychology) gave three invited presentations in Tokyo, Japan, as guests of Rikkyo University and The University of Tokyo. On March 5 they presented Using Activity-Based Instruction to Develop Students’ Understanding of Statistics at the Japanese Conference on Teaching Statistics. On March 6 they presented Assessing Important Learning Outcomes for a First Course in Statistics at the annual meeting of the Japanese Statistical Society. On March 8 they gave three talks about their NSF-funded work in statistics education to the faculty affiliated with the Center for Statistics and Information (CSI) of Rikkyo University.
Two new online learning modules for child welfare professionals!
CASCW has developed, in collaboration with faculty members, a series of online learning modules, designed to present the latest practice-relevant child welfare research from top researchers at the University of Minnesota in a format that is timely, efficient and easy to use for today’s busy child welfare professionals.
On March 14, CASCW added to its library of online learning modules two new modules on the following topics: Learning Dreams (1 CEH available) and Attachment through Music, Movement, & Mirth (1.5 CEHs available).