Sigma Bulletin: November 6-11, 2006

A. DEAN'S UPDATES

1. Tuesday, November 7 (tomorrow) is Election Day. Please remember to vote. Among the many important races and issues on the ballot are the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (proposal 2) and the Regents election.
Helpful information about the ballot proposal is available at http://www.cew.umich.edu/educatemcri/mcriquestions.htm. Please be well informed about this legislation, including its precise language and consequences. There are two University of Michigan Regents seats on the ballots and two of our current regents are standing for re-election:
Dave Brandon and Kathy White. Please vote deliberately for the Board of Regents. It matters.

2. The School handbook, distributed at the all-school meeting on October 19, is now available online at:
http://www.soe.umich.edu/handbook.

3. We are updating the list of research center and project Web sites affiliated with the School of Education. Please visit:
http://www.soe.umich.edu/research/centersprojects/ index.html and check to see if your center is listed. If not, send Chris Myers
( myersca@umich.edu) the web address and he can get it added. Also, it is important to let us know when you establish a new project website.
It will help us show the great things that go on here and the exposure from our site could greatly help people find your site.

4. As you can see from the calendar, candidates for faculty positions will be visiting here over the next few weeks for our quantitative research methods (QRM) and director of teacher education searches.
Candidates will give public presentations; I encourage students, staff, and faculty to attend and to provide feedback to the search committees.
Steve DesJardins is chair of the QRM search and Magdalene Lampert chairs the director of teacher education search. You will receive more information about the details of each search and the particular candidates. Both are very important searches for the School this year, and I hope you will participate in helping decide whom to bring here.

5. The second seminar in this year's series on teacher education will take place on November 30 with Dr. Carol Lee, associate professor of African American Studies in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Dr. Lee studies what is involved in using the resources that traditionally under-served students bring to the classroom to build bridges to the knowledge and practices of the academic disciplines. In her seminar with us, she will explore that work of teaching and the demands it places on teachers, and how such understanding can inform the preparation of beginning teachers. Dr.
Lee's presentation will be on Thursday, November 30, at 2:00 pm in the Tribute Room. On the day after the seminar, Friday, December 1, from 10:00 - 12:00 in the Brownlee Room, we will hold a smaller discussion session in which we will talk in more depth about the issues Dr. Lee raises. Participation in the discussion is limited to 25. If you are interested in attending the discussion, please send an email to Francesca Forzani ( fforzani@umich.edu).

6. Three “identity packages,” including powerpoint slide templates and name badges, are available on the School of Education web site at:
http://www.soe.umich.edu/identity/packages/index.html.

I encourage you to use these for your presentations and events. If you would like assistance in learning how to access and use these identity packages, Chris Myers will be available for about 1/2 hour after the next faculty meeting (i.e.,Thurs. Nov. 16, at 12:00 p.m.) and the next all-staff meeting (i.e., Wed. 12/6, at 11:30 a.m.) to provide a brief tutorial. All (students, faculty, staff) are welcome to participate in either of these sessions; we will also announce one additional time.
It would be handy if you could bring a laptop with wireless access for the tutorial, but Chris will show you using his laptop, if that isn't possible.

B. THIS WEEK'S CALENDAR
- November 7:
a. CPEP Colloquium: Eva Pomerantz, “How parents shape children's
motivation: The role of children's competence experiences," 11:00 - 12:00, 1322 SEB (Tribute Room). Information: frodrig@umich.edu or 647-0626.

b. Geoffrey Borman, incoming candidate for the Quantitative Research Methods faculty position, presentation: "Final Reading Outcomes of the National Randomized Field Trial of Success for All," 12:00-1:00 p.m., Brownlee Room.

c. The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA) Dialogue on
Diversity: Documentary showing and discussion of “Campus Diversity,
Student Voices,” produced by the Rackham Graduate School.
12:00-1:00, SEB 2334.

d. Bioethics Program and the Life Sciences & Society Program
presentation: David Shalowitz, UM Medical Student, “Re-examining Our Assumptions about Surrogate Decision-Making,” 4:00-5:30, 7th Floor Conference Room (7C09) in the 300 North Ingalls at the corner of N.
Ingalls and Catherine.

- November 8:
a. Educational Studies Colloquium Brown Bag Seminar: Professor Scott Paris, “Constrained skills: Implications for reading development, instruction, and assessment,” 12:00-1:00 p.m., location TBA.

b. Four recent U-M Ph.D. recipients discuss the job searching process.
Panelists include two assistant professors (Amelia Gotwals and Annelise Halvorsen), one post-doc fellow (David Johnson), and an SOE outreach coordinator (Laura Roop). Come with questions broad or narrow. This will be a great chance to hear about the challenges many of us will face in a few months or years. 3:30-5:00, Brownlee Room (SEB 2327).
Information: Pin-Ju Chen, Graduate Student Community Organization.

- November 8-12 National Association for Multicultural Education conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Tasha Lebow, president. Theme:
“Honoring Multicultural Communities, Stories and Struggles in a Contested Land.” Information and online registration: http://www.nameorg.org

- November 9:
a. Demonstration by Orrin Murray of video analysis software, Transana, developed at the University of Wisconsin's Center for Education Research and ELAN software developed by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguists. 12:00-2:00, conference room in suite 2400.
Information: RSVP omurray at umich.edu

b.UN Millennium Development Goals presentations. 2:00-4:30 p.m.
Michigan League, Henderson Room. Information:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

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

b. The Interdisciplinary Committee on Organizational Studies (ICOS) presentations on the topic: "Lessons Learned about School Improvement from Comprehensive School Reform Providers." Presenters: Gene Chasin, Director, Accelerated Schools; Marc Tucker,President, National Center on Education and the Economy and Co-founder, America's Choice; Robert Slavin (Chairman) and Nancy Madden (President), Success for All Foundation; Marshall Smith, Director, Education Program of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Room 4212 at 1:30 pm (sharp).
Information: http://www.si.umich.edu/ICOS/

- November 11: Kappa Delta Pi Fall Conference, 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.--register at http://www.umich.edu/~tauep/conference/html
Concurrent with Handheld Computing in Education Symposium, 9:00 a.m.
-12:30 p.m. School of Education. Information on the conference:
http://www.macul.org

C. LOOKING AHEAD

- November 13: Stamping cards to send to soldiers. All welcomed to help. 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. 1309 SEB (Whitney Room). All supplies furnished. Bonita 764-7470.

- November 13: Ethics in Public Life Initiative: Dr. Muriel Bebeau, "Can ethics be taught? A research talk," 3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. in the CRLT Seminar Room, 1013 Palmer Commons. To register: visit www.crlt.umich.edu or call 764-0505.

- November 14: The Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics
(CPTM) presentation:
Cognition Based Assessment in Elementary Mathematics: Student and Teacher Learning Michael T. Battista, Michigan State University, 12:00-1:30 p.m., Brownlee Room (Room 2327)

- November 28: Graduate Brown Bag: Joan McCoy and Brian Jones Question/Answer session: “Navigating the Road to Completion of Your Graduate Program,” 12:00 - 1:30 P.M., Brownlee Room (Room 2327). Email your question or topic to Joan ( jemccoy@umich.edu) prior to the event.

- November 30: Second seminar in the Teach Education series: Dr. Carol Lee. Dr. Lee is associate professor of African American Studies in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, 2:00 pm in 1322 SEB (Tribute Room). On Friday, December 1, we will hold a smaller discussion session in which we will talk in more depth about the issues Dr. Lee raises. Participation in the discussion is limited to 25. If you are interested in attending the discussion, please send an email to Francesca Forzani ( fforzani at umich.edu).

- December 6: CPEP Colloquium: Nick Ellis, "Language use, language change, language acquisition and language instruction: The dynamics of SLA," 12:10 p.m.-1:00 p.m., 1322 SEB (Tribute Room). Information:
frodrig at umich.edu or 647-0626

- December 8: Educational Studies Colloquium: Geoff Williams, "Semiotic tools for exploring texts with young children," 12:00-1:00 p.m., 1322 SEB (Tribute Room). Information: mjschlep at umich.edu or 647-2449

- December 14: Educational Studies Colloquium: Jeffrey Stanzler, “Serious play: Using simulation to create compelling contexts for thinking,” noon-1:00 p.m., 2327 SEB (Brownlee Room).

- January 12-14, 2007: 4th International Conference on Teacher Education and Social Justice, University of Illinois-Chicago, U.S.A.
Information: http://antioppressiveeducation.org/2007conference.html

- January 14, 2007: Winter Reception to be held at Cobblestone Farm, 3-6pm. Details forthcoming.