On April 9, 2012 Literacy, Language, and Culture faculty members Dr. Cathie Fallona and Dr. Andrea Stairs met with Associate Professor of Reading Education, Dr. Ying Wang, from Mississippi Valley State University as faculty from the historically black university visited USM. Drs. Fallona and Stairs learned about Dr. Wang’s efforts to promote literacy in the Mississippi delta through teacher professional development, while Drs. Fallona and Stairs shared information on USM’s Summer Reading and Writing Workshop, which has been continuously serving the local community for more than 40 years, and other literacy and ESL initiatives.

About Mississippi Valley State University

Mississippi Valley State University, located in Leflore County, is a Carnegie Master’s I institution, which provides accessible, relevant and quality academic and public service programs. While the University has historically drawn the majority the majority of its students from throughout the Delta, the institution recognizes the need to provide greater services to the south and east Delta areas. MVSU, which recognizes the need to be efficient, effective and productive in all of its operations, offers concentrated study in the arts, business, education, humanities, public services, pre-professional health services, social sciences, sciences, social work, and technology. Master’s level programs are offered in criminal justice, elementary education, environmental health, special education, and teaching. The University also endeavors to provide additional programs that are vital and unique to the needs of the population it serves. MVSU emphasizes the study and applications of technology, basic and applied research, service learning, health and wellness, and economic and cultural affairs. The University expands its emphasis to incorporate an international focus on governmental, economic, and cultural affairs. Out of this concept, the Delta Research and Cultural Institute provides the avenue for faculty and students to engage in theoretical and applied research on subject matter related to the cultural, social, economic and political concerns of the Delta.

Kate Kennedy, Director of the Southern Maine Writing Project, and Danielle Hall, a Southern Maine Writing Project Teacher Consultant contributed articles to What Teaching Means: Stories from America’s Classrooms  by Rogue Faculty Press in Omaha.

The book is a collection of teachers’ nonfiction stories about their own classrooms, their own experiences and reflections about teaching.  The book includes thirty-nine insightful essays written by teachers hailing from classrooms all over America.  The essays—which include everything from the recounting of an unlikely kindergarten classroom friendship to the rugged epiphanies experienced in a high school ESL class—detail the sometimes joyful, sometimes tragic teaching experiences of the professional educators who’ve rendered them in prose.

What Teaching Means offers a glimpse into the everyday lives of teachers across America. It is an ideal text for teacher education programs, and will also appeal to lovers of well-crafted creative nonfiction.

The book will be available to order on April 28 through Rogue Faculty Press.

For more information about the book or to read an excerpt please visit http://dboster.blogspot.com/

The 2012 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
Honor the Nation’s Most Talented Teen Artists and Writers

Gorham, Maine, March 30, 2012 – Two students from Maine have received a prestigious national Award for their exceptional writing through The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the 89-year-old national program that recognizes outstanding creative teenagers and offers scholarship opportunities for graduating high school seniors.

The nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, which administers the annual Awards, will honor national winners during a special ceremony at the world-famous Carnegie Hall in New York City on June 1, 2012. Select Award-winning art and writing will be exhibited at Parsons The New School for Design in Manhattan from June 1through June 16, 2012.  To kick off the week of celebrations, the Empire State Building will be lit gold in honor of the students’ achievements the night of May 31.

This year’s local Award recipients are Morgan Elkins and Allison Pierpont.  Morgan, 14, a student at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb, won the American Voices Medal for her Personal Essay/Memoir titled The Key.  Allison, 17, a student at Noble High School in North Berwick, is the recipient of the Silver Medal for her poetry submission:  Lonely Bush Kraals, Makeup-Masked Soldiers, The Perfection of Dream, Heated Hearted Love, Fried-Cake Fridays, Banners and Old Muskets, Taste the Light, Rush, and The Lot of Twisted Crosses.

The first level of recognition for these students’ outstanding work took place through The Scholastic Writing Awards/Maine Region, one of 116 affiliate organizations nationwide that, in partnership with the Alliance, conduct The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

This year, with the support of the Betterment Fund and The Southern Maine Writing Project, The Scholastic Writing Awards/Maine Region, located in the Literacy, Language, and Culture Department at the University of Southern Maine, had a 130 student submissions with 9 Gold Key winners, 21 Silver Key Winners, 38 Honorable Mentions, a University of Southern Maine/Southern Maine Writing Project (USM/SMWP) Gold Certificate, and a USM/SMWP Silver Certificate.    Awards were distributed to recipients in a ceremony held on the USM Portland campus on March 16, where students, parents, and teachers celebrated the creative talents of these teen writers.

The pieces receiving top honors locally were then submitted for national adjudication by a panel of jurors comprised of artists, authors, educators, and other industry professionals.  This year, more than 200,000 submissions were entered by students in grades 7-12. 1,600 received national recognition. The works of art and writing were evaluated on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal vision or voice. Notable past and current national jurors include Robert Frost, Chuck Palahniuk, Gary Panter, Frank McCourt, Judy Blume, Billy Collins, Peggy Noonan, William Saroyan, Kiki Smith, Lesley Stahl, David Sedaris, Mary Ellen Mark, Edwidge Danticat, and Roz Chast.

“The 2012 Scholastic Art & Writing Award winners have once again proven the broad and brilliant capacity of our nation’s teens to produce exquisite works of art and writing,” said Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.  “The Awards continues to be the largest source of scholarships and recognition for our nation’s student artists and writers, and our program’s reach only grows as we recruit new partners each year to join us in honoring creative teens and providing the necessary support for them to explore their potential. After meeting these students and viewing their work, you can’t help but feel optimistic and excited about the future of America’s creative leadership.”

The 2012 Award winners join the ranks of some of our country’s most revered artists and writers who received Scholastic Art & Writing Awards when they were in high school, including New Yorker illustrator Edward Sorel, who will join them at Carnegie Hall this year, plus Robert Redford, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, John Lithgow, Joyce Carol Oates, John Baldessari, Philip Pearlstein, Zac Posen, Sylvia Plath, Richard Avedon, Robert Indiana and Abdi Farah (first-season winner of the Bravo reality show Work of Art: The Next Great Artist).

Founded in 1923, the Awards is the longest-running, most prestigious program of its kind, having fostered the creativity and talent of millions of students through recognition, exhibitions and publications. Over the past five years, students have submitted nearly 700,000 pieces of work, and over $25 million has been made available in scholarships and awards to top winning participants. As the program prepares for its 90^th anniversary in 2013, the Alliance is calling all Award alumni to reconnect and join in the celebration.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is generously supported by Scholastic Inc., the Maurice R. Robinson Fund, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, AMD Foundation, Command Web Offset Co., Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, The New York Times, Blick Art Materials, Ovation, New York Life, Amazon.com, Bloomberg L.P., the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Worldcolor, and additional contributions from numerous other individual, foundation, and corporate funders.

For more information, please visit www.artandwriting.org

FMI Contact: Denise Enrico, Coordinator for The Scholastic Writing Awards/Maine Region
Literacy, Language, and Culture Department, University of Southern Maine
denrico@usm.maine.edu

The New England Consortium on Life Stories

Active Caring: Life Stories of Helping in a Challenging Environment

April 26 and 27, 2012
University of Southern Maine
Portland Campus
Wishcamper Center

Sponsored by
The University of Southern Maine
School of Education and Human Development
and
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

 . . . made possible by a generous grant from the Libra Foundation

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
This first biennial New England Consortium on Life Stories is focused on the theme of active caring. Active caring is seen as a choice to help, in some way, in the face of violence and/or oppression. It has been compared, by Irwin Staub, to bystanding, the choice to do nothing. It may manifest in a very day-to-day manner, for instance responding actively to bullying in a work or school environment, or it may take on heroic proportions, as it does in the face of genocidal violence. Staub and Kristen Monroe have pointed out that day-to-day efforts by individuals, to actively care, generally precede heroic efforts to help. Stories of active caring may focus on a specific time of helping within a life story, or they may trace the threads of active caring that run throughout an entire life story.

For more information about the upcoming conference please visit http://www.usm.maine.edu/pdc/active-caring-life-stories-helping-challenging-environment

Maine students sent 130 submissions to

The Scholastic Writing Awards

this year.

Of those:

• 9 Gold Keys were awarded to the most accomplished works.  Gold Key writing will be forwarded to the national-level of The Scholastic Writing Awards.  National judging occurs in mid-March.

• 21 Silver Keys were awarded to distinguished works from Maine.
  

• 38 Honorable Mentions were awarded to notable works from Maine.

 CONGRATULATIONS AWARD WINNERS!

For more information about the Scholastic Writing Awards please visit:

www.artandwriting.org

Morgan Cuthbert, a graduate of the USM School of Education and Human Development’s, M.S. Ed in Teaching and Learning (ETEP) received the 2011 Milken Educator Award  for being an outstanding educator. The Milken Educator Award through the Milken Family Foundation recognizes only 40 educators across the country each year. Cuthbert joins  several other USM School of Education and Human Development alumni who have received the Milken Educator Award.

Read the full story in today’s Portland Press Herald.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/yarmouth-teacher-makes-the-grade_2011-10-25.html

The Maine Region of the Scholastic Writing Awards Now Accepting entries from the Nation’s most creative teens for The 2012 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Winners Gain National Recognition & Become Eligible for Scholarships Totaling Nearly $4 Million

 Gorham, Maine (September 19, 2011) – In partnership with the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to recognizing the nation’s most talented teen artists and writers, The Maine Region Of The Scholastic Writing Awards has launched its call for entries for the 2012 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The Awards competition, entering its 89^th year, is the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for student achievement in the visual and literary arts.

 Creative teens in grades 7-12 are invited to submit work in 28 categories of art and writing, including film and animation, video game design, sculpture, photography, fashion design, poetry, journalism, humor, dramatic script and science fiction.  The Maine Region, one of 115 affiliate organizations nationwide, administers The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in all of Maine.  The submissions are first judged locally with top winning works then presented to national panels of creative leaders to determine which receive the highest honors.  This year, joining author Edwidge Danticat as a national juror will be curators from major museums, leading journalists, gallerists, artists and established alumnae. Past jurors have included Tony Hawk, Lesley Stahl, Wangechi Mutu, Bill Murray, Judy Blume, and Nikki Giovanni.

“With the generous support of The Betterment Fund and with the Southern Maine Writing Project as an affiliate, The Maine Region of The Scholastic Writing Awards is able to offer this opportunity to Maine students,” said Denise Enrico, Coordinator for The Maine Region.  “Students could win state or even national recognition and be affirmed in their creative efforts in this country’s longest-running and prestigious contest.”

“Amazing partnerships with committed organizations are key to the success of the Scholastic Awards,” said Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. “The regional affiliate network, outreach partners, schools, teachers and funders who support our work share our commitment to young people, and affirm that creative accomplishment is a gateway to success in many different fields. Our students thrive with the support of scholarship partners including Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Kenyon College, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Carnegie Mellon University.”

 Fifteen graduating high school seniors will be awarded with Portfolio Gold Medals, which include a $10,000 scholarship for each winner. Additional scholarships are made available to Portfolio Silver Medalists and through sponsored awards and stipends to summer arts programs.  The Alliance will offer more then $270,000 in direct scholarships and awards this year. Teachers of award winners also receive recognition, and hundreds of high school senior award winners are eligible for nearly $4 million in scholarships through a network of more than 60 colleges and universities that recognize the significance of the Awards.

 Since 1923, nine million students have been recognized through exhibitions and publications and have shared in more than $25 million in awards and scholarships. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has a long list of distinguished alumni who rose to the top of their creative fields since they won their awards in high school, including Andy Warhol, Robert Redford, Sue Miller, Richard Avedon, Zac Posen, Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Otterness, Sylvia Plath, John Lithgow, Ned Vizzini, Philip Pearlstein and John Baldessari. As the program prepares for its 90^th anniversary in 2013, the Alliance is calling all alumni to reconnect and join in the celebration.

 For more information about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, how to enter, reconnecting as an alumni or exhibit details, visit www.artandwriting.org.  Plus, find the Awards on Facebook and Twitter.

For additional press information, please visit www.mediaroom.scholastic.com/artandwriting.

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
Implementing PBIS K-12: Tier 1 and 2 School-Wide and Classroom

November 8, 2011
8:30am-3:30pm
Augusta Civic Center, Augusta Maine

This conference includes an “Implementor’s Forum,” implementation sessions in which several Maine schools  will share their experiences implementing PBIS, including preparation, unique practices and systems, and outcomes thus far. Other sessions are designed to support schools seeking to start up or sustain PBIS efforts, including topics such as Primary and Secondary Tier interventions, SWIS (School Wide Information System), RTI, Social Skills, classroom interventions and more.

Teachers, special educators, principals, special education directors, social workers, school counselors, and state leaders are all encouraged to attend.  Ideally, a school or district will send a team comprised of representatives of various grade levels, roles and administration.

Conference Keynoters

George Sugai, Ph.D.

Dr. Sugai is Neag endowed chair and professor with tenure at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. He is currently co-director of the national Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports which has been established by the Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education to give schools capacity-building information and technical assistance for identifying, adapting, and sustaining effective school-wide disciplinary practices.

Dr. George Sugai is one of the nation’s leaders in proactive school-wide discipline, social skills instruction, preventive classroom and behavior management, and positive behavior support for students with serious emotional and behavioral disorders. A former public school teacher and project director, George Sugai publishes article, teaches courses, and conducts workshops for teachers, administrators, school psychologists, and counselors on effective school-wide management practices and systems. Dr. Sugai has made important contributions to the improvement of school-wide discipline practices at the state, district, county, and school levels.

Kathleen Lane, Ph.D.

Kathleen Lynne Lane, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at Peabody College, where she is also an Investigator in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development and the Learning Sciences Institute. Dr. Lane’s research interests focus on school-based interventions (academic and behavioral) with students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). She has designed, implemented, and evaluated multilevel prevention models in elementary, middle, and high school settings to prevent the development of EBD and improve behavioral outcome within schools.

Dr. Lane is a primary investigator (PI) of an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)-directed project studying positive behavior support at the high school level and an OSEP field-initiated project studying prevention of EBD at the elementary level. Her research has resulted in co-authoring four books including Developing Schoolwide Programs to Prevent and Manage Problem Behaviors: A Step-by-Step Approach.

In addition to delivering a conference keynote, Dr. George Sugai and Dr. Kathleen Lane will lead workshop sessions focusing on PBIS.

For more information please visit http://www.usm.maine.edu/pdc/fall-2011-pbis-conference-0

Maine educators from more than twenty school districts and organizations from around the state attended the 2011 RTI Summer Academy on the USM Portland Campus and, through the technology of interactive video conferencing, at the University of Maine, Presque Isle, June 27 through July 1.  The RTI Summer Academy was offered to assist Maine schools in developing and implementing district-wide RTI plans for student support.  Sessions included keynote presentations and workshops with RTI leaders, as well as smaller breakout sessions for school teams to work on their RTI policies and plans.  The event was sponsored by the Professional Development Center of the University of Southern Maine’s School of Education in collaboration with the Maine Department of Education.

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a scientifically-based methodology for evaluating student progress toward development of academic and social skills. The RTI Summer Academy was designed to help Maine educators develop and implement multi-tier systems of intervention and assessment, as required by Maine law.  RTI allows teachers to know which of their students are making progress and which ones need focused instruction in specific skills.

The program coordinator of the RTI Summer Academy was Rachel Brown-Chidsey, Associate Professor and Coordinator of the School Psychology Program at the University of Southern Maine. Prior to joining the USM faculty she taught general and special education for 10 years.  Dr. Brown-Chidsey’s research focuses on implementing research-based interventions to support all students.  She is the author of three books and numerous research articles concerning academic interventions and promoting student success.

The featured keynote presenter, Steve Goodman, currently serves as Co-Director for Michigan’s Integrated Behavior and Learning Support Initiative (MiBLSi), a statewide project to improve the behavior and reading outcomes in over 600 elementary and middle schools. His area of expertise includes school-wide positive behavior supports and an integrated approach to reading and behavior supports.  His 29 years in the field of education involve teaching in special education and at the university level, as well as providing teacher consultant services. Dr. Goodman has co-authored research articles in professional journals and several book chapters.  He is currently serving on the board of directors for the Association for Positive Behavior Support.

Other presenters include national RTI experts, Maine educators experienced with RTI, and Maine Department of Education staff involved in RTI implementation.  Also, as a special feature of the Academy, teams of teachers from Maine schools outlined their on-going progress and next steps in implementing RTI school-wide.

For information about RTI professional development offerings through the USM Professional Development Center, please visit www.usm.maine.edu