Following her first year as a math teacher at Smith High School in Greensboro, Kenyona Bethea was moved to tears when she found out that she had been selected as the Guilford County Schools Rookie Teacher of the Year.
Many students learn best by doing or building. Teachers can learn the same way. UNC Greensboro’s School of Education students – as well as current teachers – need spaces where they can experiment, learn from mistakes, and fine-tune ideas so that they feel more confident in their classrooms.
After earning degrees in anthropology and linguistics, along with minors in environmental studies and Spanish, from UNC Greensboro in 2004 Walter Moore embarked on a winding career path that would ultimately bring him to the point where he was recently named the Rockingham County Schools Teacher of the Year.
In April of 2023, 16 UNC Greensboro School of Education student teachers traveled to Oulu, Finland, to extend their student teaching experience. Finland is one of the world’s highest achieving countries according to the PISA, the international exam for measuring educational achievement.
UNC Greensboro’s Innovation to Grow, Nurture, and Inspire Teachers of English-learners (IGNITE) trains Spartans to be at the forefront of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL). The IGNITE program began in 2022 and offers six different programs for learners on different career paths, including a fully-funded opportunity through the UNCG TESOL master of arts in teaching (MAT) program.
The Smiley Award, which supports global educational opportunities for current School of Education undergraduate and graduate students, has been presented to undergraduate student Dauria Harrison and graduate student Kevin Hogan. These students will represent the SOE as Global Education Ambassadors through international or local engagement.
Three School of Education students walked away with honors at the completion of the annual Graduate Research and Creativity Showcase held by the UNC Greensboro Graduate School on Tuesday, April 4. Earning recognition were Chibor Chibor (Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education), Paula Hernandez (Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations), and Natasha Monteith (Department of Educational Research Methodology).
Undergraduate students in the UNC Greensboro School of Education can now take advantage of new support services thanks to the launch of the SOE Academic Support Hub. The center is the combined work of the SOE Office of Student Success, Michel Family Teaching Resources Center, Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education, Department of Specialized Education Services, and Department of Library and Information Science.
Students, families, and educators celebrated their completion of the 2023 Spanish Heritage Language Academy (HLA) at UNC Greensboro on March 11. HLA is a long-standing partnership between UNCG and Asheboro City Schools. This program engages both students and families in project-based heritage language and cultural exchanges facilitated by ACS educators. Through the HLA program, students are not only learning the Spanish language, but also engaged in learning with their parents.
The din of adolescent chatter fills Sarah Born’s fourth grade classroom as small groups discuss which laws there should be for a hypothetical new colony on Mars. They excitedly debate what should be this new society’s norm and what’s reasonable to expect of its citizens. This small group discussion is the first step in one of Born’s critical thinking exercises for her students.