Audrey Breen's Archive

The Curry Community Gingerbread-Style

Minter Wonderland

Minter Wonderland

Curry folks like to socialize—that is no secret.

We have picnics to kick off the year in the fall and end the year in the spring.  We find a whole variety of reasons to have potluck lunches throughout the academic year.  We don’t require “Likes to socialize” on our admissions or employment applications, but it is a common characteristic across the Curry community.

For me, our parties aren’t just about the food (which is usually fabulous. There are a surprising amount of foodies here!).  The times our students, faculty, and staff gather outside of our classrooms, clinics, and offices help build meaningful connections within the Curry community.

One party, in particular, is my favorite reflection of the spirit of the Curry faculty and staff.  Each year we have an annual holiday party that typically takes place after most of our students have finished up their fall semester.

Last year, a colleague came up with an idea that we should have a gingerbread house competition during the holiday party.  I must confess that I wasn’t impressed with the idea.

Yes.  It’s true.  I doubted both the holiday spirit and competitive nature of my fellow Curryians.

Thankfully, I was outvoted and we went forward with the idea and…well, let’s just say I was unequivocally proven wrong.

This year, 11 teams of all sorts of combinations of faculty and staff designed, schemed, and dreamed up this year’s houses.  Each team was given a simple gingerbread kit with the only rule that they must use the kit in the creation of their house.

(One team even requested their kit before Thanksgiving.  Turns out, we take this competition very seriously.)

This year, the teams did not disappoint.  Check out the pics here.

There are many times we attempt to articulate what makes the Curry community so special—as we recruit our students, new faculty and staff or reflect on our community during events such as retirements and Final Exercises.

It is truly an extraordinary place and a remarkable community of which to be a part.  Our students, scholars, researchers, faculty, and staff very much understand that the learning that takes place here, the solutions created to combat our society’s most significant problems, and the new ideas discovered in our labs and clinics don’t happen in isolation of this greater thing called life.

That life is honored in so many ways, like when our faculty members share their very personal life lessons and when we rally around colleagues and students during major life events, like the birth of new babies or the passing of family members.

It is also honored in these times when we gather and play.  And though this party happens while the students are away, it is a reminder of the kind of community that welcomes our students in, pouring into their scholarship and their lives.

  • Posted on:
  • December 17, 2012

Comments

0

Cohen Honored for Her Role in Teacher Ed Leadership

Sandra CohenThe 2011-12 academic year marked the end of an era in the Curry School of Education’s Teacher Education program: after serving as director of the program for more than 15 years, Professor Sandra Cohen has stepped down.

“It’s impossible to describe all that Sandi Cohen has done for the Curry teacher education program,” said Stephanie van Hover, interim chair of the Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education department.

“Sandi has been a remarkable leader of our teacher preparation,” said Curry School Dean Bob Pianta.  “During her tenure as director, our teacher preparation programs have not only prepared some of the best-qualified and skilled young teachers anywhere, but has also been regarded by peers and through rankings as a top-ten program nationally. To achieve this level of regard for such a long period of time is truly exceptional and a direct reflection of Sandi’s leadership.“

By 1996 Professor Sandra Cohen had already been teaching Special Education at the Curry School for 21 years.  She was then asked to take over as Director of Teacher Education.  This school year marked the last that Dr. Cohen would serve in this role.  We couldn’t let her step down without looking back at the remarkable job she did during her sixteen-year tenure.

In her first year as Director, Professor Cohen’s priority was to be sure everyone in the Virginia State government knew about the goings on at the Curry School.  She got right to work attending meetings of all sorts of committees and organizations focused on PreK-12 education in the Commonwealth.  As a result, the Curry School became a significant voice at the table in discussions around state education.

Leaders in the school and program continue to have a strong reputation in supporting the formulation of teacher education policies and have been able to incorporate changes to licensure and testing policies into the classroom curricula.

“Sandi’s commitment to students and to the profession of teaching, her passion for preparing young people to be successful in the classroom, her vision for the program, and her engagement and leadership at the national level are all hallmarks of Sandi’s contributions.”

“Sandi’s commitment to students and to the profession of teaching, her passion for preparing young people to be successful in the classroom, her vision for the program, and her engagement and leadership at the national level are all hallmarks of Sandi’s contributions,” said Pianta.

In reflecting on her greatest accomplishments over her tenure as Director, Curry’s increased involvement at the state level isn’t even one of them.

“Perhaps I am most proud of providing students with a broader experience than we could provide only in Charlottesville and Albemarle County,” said Cohen.  “We were able to create student teaching programs that reached into Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., to YES Prep, a charter school in Houston, TX, and even internationally, including Cambridge, England and this fall starting in Belfast, Northern Ireland.”

A second achievement of which Cohen is particularly proud is establishing a way for students to accelerate through the program, allowing them to graduate a semester early—typically in December.  This is not only a benefit to the student, but often to school systems.  These students often step into classrooms full time immediately to fill a gap left by a teacher taking extended leave.

Even when Teacher Education students graduate in May, they are quickly hired by school systems both locally and even internationally.  Members of Curry’s class of 2012 will be teaching this upcoming year in Ethiopia, Morocco, Hungary, and Cambodia.

“The Curry Teacher Education program recruits great students,” said Cohen.  “They are bright, inquisitive, and attack problems in a positive vein.  They really want to make a difference in classrooms.”

It is a combination of those great students and a program that offers extensive fieldwork linked to coursework and incredible supervision that contributes to the program’s strong national reputation and ranking.  According to the 2013 US News & World Report Rankings Curry’s Special Education program is ranks 5th in the nation, Secondary education 8th and Elementary Education 10th.

According to Cohen, the relationships built between the faculty and students also make a huge difference in setting the program apart from others.

“The real, nurturing relationships between our faculty and students make our students want to work hard and do well.  And they make our faculty want to do better and better,” said Cohen.

According to Cohen, the level of excellence in Curry’s teacher education students is so high that to fix the issues plaguing K-12 education she would put a Curry graduate in every classroom in the country.

While that is, of course, not quite possible, the Curry School is taking very serious its role in leading Teacher Education programs around the nation and it’s ability to do that stems largely from the program built while Cohen was director.

“It goes without saying that she leaves a tremendous void, yet at the same time her successes as director foreshadow continued excellence for one of the Curry School’s signature programs,” said Pianta.

“Sandi has worked tirelessly to successfully guide teacher education through any number of administrative challenges—accreditation, program approval, and more,” said van Hover.  “She has served as the lynchpin and rock of our program, providing faculty with constant support.  And, she has touched the lives of innumerable current and future teachers through her thoughtful and caring mentorship, counseling and teaching. Her leadership will be sorely missed.”

  • Posted on:
  • August 27, 2012

Comments

19

Summer Reading

We’re closing in on the end of July already. Where has the summer gone?

In case you still have a vacation in your future and are looking for a good book, here’s what some of our Curry professors are currently reading:

Hawaii – A Novel by James A. Michener
Stephen Plaskon, Teacher Education

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
Sarah Powell, Special Education

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Dewey Cornell, Youth-Nex, The Center for Effective Youth Development
and
David Breneman, Higher Education

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel by Mary Ann Shaffer
Herb Richards, Professor Emeritus

Alphabet Juice by Roy Blount, Jr.
John Lloyd, Special Education

Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele
Sara Rimm-Kaufman, Educational Psychology – Applied Developmental Science

The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs us Jobs, Justice and Lives by Stephen Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskey
Jay Hertel, Sports Medicine

I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior by Howard E. Wasdin
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
One Rough Man by Brad Taylor
Diane Hoffman, Social Foundations of Education

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Sonia Cabell, CASTL Research Scientist

Creating Innovators by Tony Wagner
Carol Tomlinson, Gifted Education

Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Pam Tucker, Administration and Supervision

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Jane Hansen, Reading Education

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
A State of Wonder by Anne Patchett
This Body of Death by Elizabeth George
Eleanor Wilson, Teacher Education

Have you read any good books this summer? Let us know via the Comments box on the right of this screen!

  • Posted on:
  • July 16, 2012

Comments

0

Paying Attention at Final Exercises

Next month will mark my 4th anniversary at the Curry School.  This past weekend was my third Final Exercises (that means graduation, for all the non-UVA folks out there).  The energy of the weekend is palpable.  The Grounds are stunningly beautiful and the traffic, patience-inducing.  This year I was sure to stop for a moment and really take it in.  And in doing so, I saw a few things I had missed in years past:

1.  I was amazed by how much life takes place during our doctoral students’ studies: weddings, births (sometimes several), full-time jobs, promotions (like running an entire school division).  What these students achieve while their lives are so full is truly great.

2.  For the hooding ceremony, each faculty advisor writes 100 words to their doctoral graduate.  The amount of love, care and pride the faculty members squeeze into such few words is impressive, revealing a tremendous level of commitment to each individual student.

3.  The staff at UVA and at the Curry School love this place.  The attention to detail that each staff member pays to make this most-special weekend a success is a sight to behold, especially at a time when none of them have seen a raise in several years.

4.  Someone at UVA, perhaps at the Curry School, should post a tutorial on the proper way to wear one’s hood with one’s cap & gown.  I’m not pointing fingers, but let’s just say I saw a wide variety and some very creative ways to wear a hood.  Perhaps something for the Curry Youtube channel?

5.  The Curry faculty do two of the classiest things I’ve seen for their graduating students: 1) the aforementioned 100 words are printed on beautiful stationery and signed—a keepsake for each doctoral graduate. 2) Each graduate gets a collection of essays written by Curry faculty about lessons they learned early in their careers. The essays cover topics from learning to teach, the value of a mentor, remembering to breathe, and even “What My Advisor Neglected to Mention.”

6.  This world is in good hands.  I have a 2 year old and I can’t wait for him to have a Curry graduate as a teacher, or principal, or reading specialist, or athletic trainer (and the list goes on).  These incredibly bright, thoughtful, engaged and deeply caring students—excuse me—graduates, are going to take very good care of him and the rest of the individuals with whom they engage, teach, treat, and encourage.

Kudos, Class of 2012!  You deserve our great respect and you have it.  Now just keep in touch.  We want to hear about your continued success.

  • Posted on:
  • May 22, 2012

Comments

0

Reflections on a very special event

Every once in a while, there are moments in my job that seem to transcend time and even Curry itself. Monday night we hosted a panel of four educators, three of whom were smack in the middle of the turmoil of desegregating schools in Virginia.  For those of you not familiar with the story of desegregation in Virginia, the resistance to desegregation was so prolific and fierce that it actually has a name: Massive Resistance.

Mrs. Branch was a principal of an all black elementary school.  She was one of the very few (perhaps the only one; we can’t be sure) not demoted during the implementation of the desegregation policies and retained her principalship at an integrated school.  Drs. Hank Allen (who is now 92!) and Jim Bash helped create and run Curry’s Desegregation Center, a resource for schools, administrators and teachers during desegregation.  The fourth panelist, Dr. Rosa Atkins, is the current superintendent of Charlottesville City Schools, who was an elementary school student during desegregation.

It is difficult to describe the power of having all 4 of them share their memories and reflections of that time.  But there was one moment I will never forget.

Mrs. Branch spoke so beautifully about the teachers at her school, both the white and black teachers.  She spoke about the “tenderness” with which the teachers engaged their students.

What a beautiful word.  Tenderness.

I imagine their acts of tenderness served as a sponge, soaking up the pervasive hate around them.  Their tenderness with their students eventually turning into tenderness toward one another.

Then, as if in speaking about tenderness Mrs. Branch was able to wrap those of us in the room with it, Dr. Atkins reached out and held onto Mrs. Branch’s hand with a tremendous tenderness.

Dr. Atkins thanked Mrs. Branch for her tenderness.  She recalled how, as a little girl, the tenderness and quiet strength she saw in her own teachers served as a model for her.

“Listening to her, I know that is where I developed my love and passion for education,” she said.

Dr. Atkins and Mrs. Branch looked directly at one another.  Dr. Atkins smiled and Mrs. Branch nodded.

Tenderness.

I can’t help but think about how striking that word was to me in the context of education, teachers and students, in classrooms.  Perhaps we should add that back into our lexicon as we continue to examine equal education for all children.

  • Posted on:
  • January 27, 2012

Comments

1

Introductions

Welcome to the new Curry Blog. Our goal here is to give you a little bit of insight into the goings on here in a casual, personal way.  We know.  There already are press releases, articles, magazines, newsletters and a website full of information about Curry.

But here, we want you to know us: those of us writing those stories, how we stumble across the compelling stories of our alumni, those of us teaching and researching.  You’ll find a variety of voices here, a picture of this complex place.

I’m one of those voices.  So, I suppose I ought to introduce myself.

‪I think my first crush on U.Va. happened in 1993…yes, I mean a crush on the University.  My brother was the first one in my family to go to college and he arrived on Grounds ‬as a first year in the fall of 1993.  I was starting my senior in high school and, shockingly, my brother and I were (and still are) pretty close buddies.  So he generously shared his college experience with me, welcoming me on Grounds to visit whenever I could.  U.Va. is a breathtaking place and seemed like a dreamland to a 17 year old.

Then, just when I thought things couldn’t get better, my brother joined an a cappella group.  It was at that point, I know, that my crush turned into a long term love.

Sure enough, nearly twenty years later (twenty! ouch!), I still adore this place.  My husband is an alumnus and our two-year old is beginning his U.Va. career very early at the U.Va. child development center.  We are a bone fide U.Va. family!

It should then come as no surprise that I count it a great privilege to work at this great institution.  And not just at U.Va., but at the Curry School of Education.

It was an accidental turn of events that brought out my passion for education.  After graduate school, I returned to my alma mater, Furman University in SC, to be a part of an institute that was created by fellow Furman alumnus and former U.S. Secretary of Education, Richard Riley.  Secretary Riley’s passion for improving education for all children in the United States was contagious and spurred in me a commitment to work toward that goal.

At Curry, we are all working to improve the lives of students of every age, through teaching and learning, physical therapy or speech therapy, through counseling and mentoring.  It so exciting to work at a place where research and scholarship turns into tangible improvements in so many lives.

I look forward to sharing these stories with you.

  • Posted on:
  • January 10, 2012

Comments

0