News2012February

CCT News

24 February 2012
See also previous news, alum news and exchanges, items for the upcoming news, and CCT calendar.
Inform cct@umb.edu if you have news OR want to be emailed when there's a new news compilation (no more than once/month) OR want to be removed from such mailings.

Contents: Student matters, CCT community, CCT events, alums, other events, opportunities, resources, food for thought, humor

Student Matters

A new UMB Teacher Leadership Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies track includes an Educational Change concentration that serves a wider range of teacher leaders than found in K-12 schools. Many CCT courses count for that Concentration (and, indeed, several count for the standard CAGS).

CCT Community

Taking Yourself Seriously: Processes of Research and Engagement by Peter Taylor and Jeremy Szteiter is now available. This is a "field-book of tools and processes to help readers in all fields develop as researchers, writers, and agents of change." (For more details and how to purchase: http://bit.ly/TYS2012) At the CCT network event on March 5th a group of CCT alums will reflect on the tools and processes they have used since graduation that are in the book, http://www.cct.umb.edu/CCTNetwork5Mar12.html

CCT Events
CCT Graduate Program Open House:
"Our Lives and Other Worlds IX: CCT and Taking Yourself Seriously"
Monday, March 5, 2012; 6:45pm-9:00pm
Location: Campus Center, 2nd Floor, Room 2545
Email cct@umb.edu to RSVP and for additional details.

This CCT Network event doubles as a book launching for Taking Yourself Seriously: Processes of Research and Engagement by Peter Taylor and Jeremy Szteiter. This is a field-book of tools and processes to help readers in all fields develop as researchers, writers, and agents of change (http://bit.ly/TYS2012). A group of CCT alums will reflect on the tools and processes they have used since graduation that are in the book. Each of them will have something to say about using tools and processes to develop as researchers, writers, and agents of change.

Open to all, including prospective students and guests from outside the university. Refreshments provided.
Future events are scheduled for Monday evenings of April 2nd and April 30th.

Alum and CCT associates Notes

Srijula Yongstar ('03) reports from Thailand: "I will start my new career as program coordinator/media for democracy in this coming march. The program is part of the heinrich boll stiftung from germany. It was my passion to work in the field of media reform and freedom of speech. It took me many years to be successful in looking for a position like this. Wish me good luck."

Jan Coe ('07) reports from Western Australia: "I moved down to Busselton on WA's south coast last December to be closer to my daughter Bec and new grandson. I'm still working 3 days a week up in Perth at the library and I go up and back on the Australind train service - a wonderful trip of 2.5 hours each way. Thursday is a breather day and then on Friday I've started volunteering at the Busselton Health Study - doing questionnaire follow-up for a fantastic study - the Busselton Healthy Aging Study... People down here are very friendly and it's a great place to live (now only 1 block from beach and bicycling trails!)."

Events

UMass Boston Symposium on Teacher Education: Learning in Action
Featuring presentations covering several areas of the exploration of teaching.
Saturday, May 12, 2012, 9:00am-1:00pm
Location: UMass Boston, rooms TBA
Sponsored by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, in partnership with Teach Next Year, Boston Teacher Residency and the Boston Science Partnership

Opportunities

Applications are now being accepted for summer employment positions at Camp Shriver.
For those with free summers, you may be interested in working on the camp staff for the 4-week summer session (July 9 - August 3) at Camp Shriver, an inclusive summer program for children with and without intellectual disabilities.
For more details, application materials, and contact information, please see the web site:
http://www.csde.umb.edu/shriver.html

Resources

Food for Thought

Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, pg. 289-90
“Madame Michel,“ she replies, “you know, you are giving me hope again.”
“Hope?” I say, snuffling pathetically.
“Yes,“ she say, “it seems it might be possible to change one’s fate after all.”
...
This is what I felt: listening to Madame Michel and seeing her cry, but above all seeing how it made her feel better to be able to tell her story to me, I understood something. I understood that I was suffering because I couldn’t make anyone else around me feel better....

When political coverage started sounding so much like sports broadcasts:
http://onlyagame.wbur.org/2012/01/17/political-play-by-play

Ten Reasons the Tests are Lowering Our Standards:
http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/10-reasons-the-tests-are-lowering-our-standards/

Three cognitive scientists walk into a bar...

Urban algae farms: A new way to garden?:
http://www.good.is/post/is-cyber-gardening-the-new-urban-gardening

"...teaching on most college campuses has not changed much...", according to participants at a recent Harvard conference:
http://chronicle.com/article/Harvard-Seeks-to-Jolt/130683

Why Morning Routines are Creativity Killers:
http://ideas.time.com/2012/02/01/why-morning-routines-are-creativity-killers/

99 Tiny Stories to Make You Think, Smile and Cry
http://www.marcandangel.com/2012/02/05/99-tiny-stories/

Humor
The health affects of bad grammer (sic): http://www.explosm.net/comics/2712/