Freshmen Orientation

Summer is here and speeding by very quickly! Last weekend I had the privilege of participating in freshmen orientation on campus. I loved meeting our new education students as well as helping them create their new schedule.

It was fun listening to the students who have a passion for teaching - some desire a particular grade level or age of students, while others have a desire to work with underprivileged children. Several students even would like to teach abroad.

Where is your passion? Do you have a passion to teach? Lead? Help the underprivileged? Teach internationally? Self-reflection is good. Take your time; identify and evaluate your current activities. What to you enjoy doing? Where is God leading you?

Soon you may be taking part in a freshman orientation for college and your future.

Laura Crawford - Children's Author

The Education Department sponsored the first annual children's author event on campus. It was really exciting. We had Laura Crawford, a children's author who also teaches in Deer Creek Elementary School as a reading specialist. She has written 5 books and has another book which will be published and available in September, 2009.

Her current books are excellent nonfiction writings: Pilgrim's Thanksgiving A to Z; Postcards from Chicago; Postcards from Washington D. C.; Postcards from New York City; and In Actic Waters. Her new book coming out is The American Revolution A to Z.

She told about her experiences with rejections before becoming published. Her first book was rejected 23 times before it was ready for publication. Having a children's author on campus was like having a children's book "celebrity!"

We are looking forward to planning another event like this next year. Publicity is definitely a key.

Are You Frozen?

Well, the semester began in quite an unusual way. We went to school for 2 days and 2 days off! It kind of caused us to "begin again" almost the next week. We had wind chills of 40 below!

This has been a great semester so far. Friday, I'm taking my Children's Literature class to the Limestone Public Library which is about 15 minutes from the campus. This is a small public library that has amazing resources for teachers and even our students can check them out for their field experiences and student teaching.

Have you checked out the new Newbery and Caldecott book winners? Go to ala.org and you'll get the list of all the new award winning children's books for 2009. The new Illinois Rebecca Caudill book list for 2010 is also recently published. Go to islma.org, click on awards and then Rebecca Caudill. These are books recommended for 4th - 8th graders. Take time to read some of them - I love reading these books.

I'll also keep you posted - I am so excited because on Monday March 23, we're having a children's author Laura Crawford on campus. More information will be coming!

Stay warm!

Happy New Year!

Aruba was amazing! My husband and I spent 8 days there and went to the pool and white sands beach. Rest and relaxation! Now it's time to get back to the real world. We have a winter weather advisory and more snow this morning on the ground.

Time now to prepare the final syllabi for classes and be ready to go on Tuesday, Jan. 13 to start a new semester. It's always exciting to meet the students I haven't had yet and to catch up with those that I've had in previous semesters.

Do you make New Year's resolutions? I'm working on a few "life changes" this year - one is always the diet - but rather than dieting, my husband and I are trying to change the foods we eat.

Dissertation work is coming but always a challenge. I want to be prepared for the new semester and spend time every day writing some for the dissertation - my goal is to be done by June. I'll keep you posted!

Hope you had a wonderful start to the new year! New beginnings and new adventures await us!