Sigma Bulletin: October 23-28, 2006

A. Dean's Updates
B. Calendar
C. Looking Ahead

A. DEAN'S UPDATES

Last week was a very active and busy week! I provide here a few highlights and follow-up information, and also inform you of some upcoming tasks and opportunities.

1. Our superintendents' advisory meeting was a success. Over 40 area school leaders attended on Saturday morning, from 7:30 till 12 noon. Ray Reilly, Associate Dean for Executive Education for the Ross School of Business and I both talked about the partnership between our two schools to develop an Education Leadership Center. Ken Burnley presented the ideas that he and Roger Goddard and Brian Rowan have been developing for the Center, in consultation with other school leaders. There was a lively discussion and enthusiasm for the idea of starting such a Center. Thanks to Percy Bates and Laura Roop, along with Ken, Roger, and Brian for organizing this successful advisory meeting. The ideas for this Center, as well as plans for raising money for it, are developing well. Thanks also to the several doctoral students - Seneca Rosenberg, Beth Saunders, Dan Berebitsky, Serena Salloum, and Christine Neumereski - who participated and took notes in the breakout groups, as well as the staff, especially Trish Kraus and Priscilla Rice, who helped design and stage the event so gracefully and hospitably.

2. We held our Fall 2006 all-School meeting last Thursday, October 19 from 9:00 - 10:00 am in Schorling Auditorium. Over 175 faculty, staff, and students attended. Copies of the new case statement and the Innovator, as well as the SOE handbook for 2006-07 are available outside of 1123B on the first floor across from the dean's office. Please let me know if you have questions or comments. Become involved with the initiatives for the year by contacting the leaders listed in the SOE handbook.

3. Development updates: We held a luncheon on Friday for some of our major donors and prospects, as well as friends of the School of Education. Several faculty presented briefly about their work and chatted with the guests -- Joanne Carlisle, Deborah Carter, Roger Goddard, Diane Larsen-Freeman, Joe Krajcik, Elizabeth Moje, Cathy Reischl, Nancy Songer, Ed St. John. They did a great job! I heard many positive comments about the School of Education and about the work we are doing. Thanks to Kathryn Taylor, associate director of development for organizing this event so well.

Across the “mid-campaign” gala events held this weekend, I met and talked with many current donors and new prospects. There is a lot of interest in the School's work and in supporting it. I'll be asking you to help with this in a variety of ways. Please also let me know if you are interested in being involved in fundraising.

4. Communications: Laura Roop has agreed to coordinate our communications efforts internally and externally for the rest of this year. We are studying how best to organize and support our increasing needs for communications -- within the School, on campus, with the media, for development and recruitment, in our publications and products -- and I am grateful to Laura for her willingness to provide leadership and coordination in this important area. Laura brings a flair for writing along with a deep sensibility about our multiple constituencies and stakeholders. Working with Laura is our Communications Team: Marti Dalley, events; Chris Myers, webmaster; Yvonne Pappas, art director; Eugenie Potter, information officer; along with Lori Helvey and Kathryn Taylor. I thank all of them for their energy and hard work! We are seeing the fruits of their efforts everywhere.

5. Website: Related to the previous item is that we are beginning a redesign of the SOE website -- in look, content, and function. Chris Myers is heading up this project and will be working with Michigan Marketing and Design, a division of central campus Communications, to create the newly improved website. The website will also be designed with our new colors and “look” (or “identity”) as seen in the new case statement and will also have new features and design with an eye to the different types of people (including us!) who come to our website, and what they are looking for or need. Please send ideas for the website to Chris (myersca) or Laura Roop (laurroop).

6. Alumni event: On Saturday, October 28, we are hosting our annual fall alumni event, “Fall Gathering.” The event begins at 8:30 am and concludes around 10:30 am and will take place in Whitney and in the Tribute Room. We are expecting a nice turnout. Our alumni love to meet former teachers and staff, as well as newer members of the SOE community. Please consider coming and let Lois Hunter (lrhunter) know if you plan to attend. We will have the formal part of the program around 9:00 am.

B. CALENDAR
Check Calendar events via the website: http://www.soe.umich.edu/calendar

- October 23-27: Investing in Ability Week presentations. Information: to disability at umich.edu.

- October 24: Depression in the Workplace panel presentation, Rackham Amphitheater, 10-11:30.

- October 24: “Make a Difference: Teach!” An information session for current UM undergraduates interested in learning more about what it takes to become an elementary school, middle school, or high school teacher, 5:30-7:00 P.M., Whitney Auditorium.

- October 25: CPEP Colloquium: Kai Cortina, "Statistical Tidbits: Part 1: How much "control" do control variables exercise? Some suggestions to deal with measurement error in multiple regression" 12:10 - 1:00 pm, 1322 SEB (Tribute Room)

- October 25: Society for College and University Planners (SCUP) webcast: "Where Is Your Campus On the Continuum of Integrated Sustainability Planning?" 12:30. Information: www.scup.org/csd/4/

- October 26: StudioCode video analysis presentations. 10-12 room 2225; 1-3 room 4212. RSVP and information: Orrin Murray omurray at umich.edu

- October 27: Dean Ball's Fireside Chat with graduate students. 12:00-1:00, Dean's Conference Room. RSVP, add agenda items, information: ebonyt at umich.edu

- October 27: Application deadline: Angus International Travel Award and Spencer Mini-Grants. Information and application materials: http://sitemaker.soe.umich.edu/soe.awards/

- October 28: School of Education's annual alumni event, Fall Gathering. Information: http://www.soe.umich.edu/fallgathering/index.html

C. LOOKING AHEAD

- October 30: Application deadline: Rackham One-Terms and SOE Dissertation Finishing Grants. Information and application materials: http://sitemaker.soe.umich.edu/soe.awards/

- November 1: Nominations for Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award due to Pat Natalie pnatalie at umich.edu

- November 3-5: National Urban Alliance for Effective Education Conference, Minneapolis, MN (co-sponsored by the SoE's Programs for Educational Opportunity). "Teaching for Intelligence: Believe To Achieve" Information and on-line registration: http://www.Believetoachieve.org. Students and educatore can receive scholarships which will cover registration costs. For
scholarship information (prior to registering), contact Iva Smith: phone--763-9910 or e-mail--eixa at umich.edu.

- November 8: Educational Studies Colloquium: Scott Paris, “Constrained Skills:
Implications for Reading Development, Instruction, and Assessment,” noon-1:00, Brownlee.

- November 13: Stamping cards to send to soldiers. All welcomed to help. 12:30-1:30pm Whitney. All supplies furnished. Bonita 764-7470.

- November 8-12 National Association for Multicultural Education
conference in Phoenix, Arizona on the theme: Honoring Multicultural
Communities, Stories and Struggles in a Contested Land. Information and
online registration: http://www.nameorg.org

- November 9: UN Millennium Development Goals presentations. 2-4:30pm Michigan League, Henderson Room. Information: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

- November 10: Linguistics colloquium: Mary Schleppegrell, “Writing and the Generation 1.5 student: The linguistic construal of elaboration, stance, and logical reasoning.” 4:00 in 4151 USB. Information: http://ling.lsa.umich.edu/home/colloquium.html#2006.11.10

- November 11: Kappa Delta Pi Fall conference

- November 13: Ethics in Public Life Initiative: Dr. Muriel Bebeau, "Can Ethics Be Taught? A Research Talk" 3-5PM in the CRLT SSEminar Room, 1013 Palmer Commons. To register: visit www.crlt.umich.edu or call 764-0505.

- December 6: CPEP Colloquium: Nick Ellis, "Language Use, Language Change, Language Acquisition and Language Instruction: The Dynamics of SLA" 12:10-1:00, Tribute. Information: frodrig at umich.edu or 647-0626
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- December 14: Educational Studies Colloquium: Jeffrey Stanzler, “Serious Play: Using Simulation to Create Compelling Contexts for Thinking,” noon-1:00, Brownlee.

- 12-14 January 2007: 4th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TEACHER EDUCATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, University of Illinois-Chicago, U.S.A. Information: http://antioppressiveeducation.org/2007conference.html

- October 20, 2007: School of Education Graduate Information Day. Information: http://www.soe.umich.edu/gradinformationday