INTERIM DEAN WELCOME
Faculty and Staff,
I hope the summer has given you time to refresh from last year and given you the energy to prepare for the 2015-16 school year. I am excited to serve as your interim dean and look forward to working with each of you as we strive to remain a top education school in the state and region.
The Dean’s Office will continue to support you in your endeavors this year, and I am excited to join its enthusiastic and conscientious staff. I want to thank Dr. Karen Wixson for placing her trust in me to lead the School of Education and am excited to guide the SOE this year.
Please know that I welcome any questions, suggestions, or concerns and can be reached at rdpenfie@uncg.edu or at 334.3394.
Sincerely,
Randy Penfield
Interim Dean, School of Education
UPCOMING EVENTS
You are Invited to Attend UNCG’s Learning Factory Summer Camp Maker Faire
The SOE’s TQP grant, Transforming Teaching Through Technology, in partnership with Guilford County Schools and Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools, is sponsoring The Learning Factory Summer Camp for select students from those districts in grades 1 – 8. The camp for middle grades students is July 13-17 and the elementary school camp is July 20-24. Classroom teachers from the partner districts will lead hands-on activities in the SELF Design Studio as campers learn about story elements, phases of the moon, weather, character perspective and point of view, slope and coordinate planes, and the culture of masks. To celebrate the campers’ projects, Maker Faires will be held in the front lobby of the School of Education Building on Friday, July 17, 11:15-12:30 (middle grades projects), and on Friday, July 24, 11:15-12:30 (elementary school projects).
Join the campers on one or both of these dates and see the projects created during the Learning Factory Summer Camp.
Save the Date for the All-School Meeting and Welcome Back Reception on Friday, August 21
The SOE’s annual All-School meeting is set for Friday, August 21 at 8:30 a.m. in the Virginia Dare room at the Alumni House. Coffee and pastries, as well as lunch, will be provided. Please let Laura Caroline (lcspell@uncg.edu) know if you are vegetarian/vegan by next Wednesday, July 29 so catering can be arranged.
Following the meeting, faculty and staff will gather at Dr. Randy Penfield’s house (address to be provided) at 4 p.m. for heavy hors d’oeurvres and drinks.
TECHNOLOGY
SOE Instructional Technology Blog – Now Live!
This blog is a way for faculty to learn more about current instructional technology trends, new web 2.0 tool releases, UNCG tech events, Canvas updates, and more. There is a feature for faculty and staff to sign up to get an email every time there is a new post, as well as adding the blog to a RSS feed. Hopefully this is a way for SOE faculty to stay up to date with SOE IT without receiving mass emails from us!
The direct link to the blog is: http://uncgsoeit.blogspot.com/
It’s also featured on the SOE IT website under tech news: http://intech.uncg.edu/tech-news/
IT Guides and Tutorials Now Available
We have added a new tab to the website on instructional technology guides and tutorials. These guides are intended to help SOE instructors implement technology and online course design in their teaching.
Here is a blog post for more information: http://uncgsoeit.blogspot.com/2015/05/soe-it-website-guides-tutorials.html
FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
David F. Ayers has been named associate editor of Community College Review. The journal has led the nation for 40 years in the publication of scholarly, peer-reviewed research and commentary on community colleges. CCR publishes articles on all aspects of community college administration, education, and policy.
Additional info on the journal is here: http://crw.sagepub.com