Sigma Bulletin, November 13-19, 2006

A. DEAN'S UPDATES
B. CALENDAR
C. LOOKING AHEAD

A. DEAN'S UPDATES
1. The summary of the evaluation of my performance as dean during 2005-06 and my comments on it are available at http://sitemaker.soe.umich.edu/soe.dean/updates
Please let me know if you have comments.
(Please note that he SACUA evaluation of administrators is open for all tenure-track faculty this week until Wednesday at http://aec.umich.edu
Please complete this evaluation if you have not already done so.)
We will again conduct an internal school evaluation of the dean, open to all faculty, students, and staff, in the spring of 2007.

2. We are launching a two-month “full court press” to increase applications to our teacher certification programs and some selected master's programs for the 2007 admissions cycle. To do so, we will be exploring several different avenues for reaching prospective students and developing some new activities to engage them in learning more about our programs. Please let Laura Roop know if you are interested in helping with any aspect of this - from materials to activities/outreach to suggesting ideas.

3. Chris Myers will be available on Thursday at 12:00 p.m. in the Tribute Room to help people learn to use the new Powerpoint and nametag templates in the “identity packages” (http://www.soe.umich.edu/identity/packages/index.html). All (students, faculty, staff) are welcome to participate in this session. A second session will be offered after the next All Staff Meeting on Wednesday, December 6, at 11:30 a.m. in the Whitney Room. Please bring a laptop with wireless access for the tutorial if you can, although Chris will be projecting using his laptop so you can see how it works.

B. THIS WEEK'S CALENDAR

- November 13: Stamping cards to send to soldiers. All welcomed to help. 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Room 1309 (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: Director of Teacher Education Candidate, Donald Freeman: “Designs for Practice: (un)doing the known Some observations on Michigan's Teacher Education Initiative” 10:00-11:00, Room 2327 (Brownlee).

- November 14: Quantitative Research Methods faculty candidate Kenneth Frank, "The Social Dynamics of Mathematics Course-Taking for Boys and Girls" 12:00 - 1:00, Tribute Room.

- 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., Room 2327 (Brownlee)

- November 14: Institute for Research on Women and Gender talk: Vera Rubin, "Women Scientists in the U.S., 1840-1960" 4:00 PM , Michigan League--Michigan Room (Second Floor). Information: (734) 647-9359; http://www.umich.edu/~advproj

- November 15: Director of Teacher Education leadership talk: Donald Freeman, 1:30 until 2:30, Room 2327 (Brownlee).

- November 15: Quantitative Research Methods faculty candidate Kenneth Frank, "Practicing what I Preach...And from Preaching to Practice" 3:00 - 4:00, Tribute Room.

- November 17: Deadline for Rackham Predoctoral Fellowships to be turned in to Becki Spangler, Dean's Office.

- November 17: Graduate Student Community Organization (GSCO) free movie (“Paper Clips”) and pizza night: 5:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., Whitney Auditorium.

- November 18: MIFA is hosting the Original Interpretation Tournament Saturday Nov. 18 at the SOE. Information is available on our web site.

C. LOOKING AHEAD

- November 21: CPEP colloquium: Robert Jagers," Social-emotional competence promotion among urban Black youth: Findings and frontiers from an integrity-based perspective" 11:00 am - 12:00, Tribute Room.

- 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., Room 2327 (Brownlee). 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 Room 1322 (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., Room 1322 (Tribute). Information: frodrig@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., Room 1322 (Tribute). Information: mjschlep@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., Room 2327 (Brownlee).

- 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, 3:00-6:00 p.m. Details forthcoming.

- October 20, 2007: Graduate Information Day.