On Monday, April 4th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for EDCI, Associate Professor, Michele Back, met with certified “EDCI 1100: If you Love It, Teach It” Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Dr. Michael Dominguez, Assistant Professor, San Diego State University led a conversation incorporating critical and decolonizing approaches to the course. He shared ideas on how to make the course more culturally sustaining, relevant, and engaging for students, as well as how instructors can instill these ideas in their students’ perceptions of themselves as future teachers.

UConn Education courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday, April 5^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Geosciences, Robert (Thor) Thorson, met with certified “GSCI 1051: Earth’s Dynamic Environment” Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The group shared how they are teaching the course in their high school settings this year. Later Thor discussed the upcoming change from GSCI to ERTH, sits visits, text books, the Climate Underground Podcast and NSF ECE Recruitment. Also discussed is UConn’s Geopath’s initiative and how Early College Experience offering UConn’s GSCI 1051 fits into the greater plans for fostering interest in high school students to continue their post-secondary education in the geoscience field.

UConn Geosciences courses offered through ECE.

On Wednesday, April 27^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for French, Prof. Florence Marsal, met with ECE certified French Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Presentations included:

• “Le mentir-vrai et l’authenticité de la traduction littéraire”

(The true lie and the authenticity of literary translation)

–Dawn Cornelio, Professeure et Coordinatrice de la Maîtrise en Études Françaises, University of Guelph | Guelph, ON Canada

 

• Une autre modernité: le contre-flâneur dans le Paris du XIXe siècle”

(Another modernity: the counter flâneur in 19th century Paris)

– Pauline Levy Valensi, Editorial Assistant for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES

 

• “La face “caché” de l’occident: le français postcolonial”

(The “hidden” face of the West: postcolonial French)

– Hassanaly Ladha, Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature

Graduate Director, French and Francophone Studies, UConn

 

After a short break the group reconvened to hear from Aaliyah Castleberry, Career Consultant, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Center for Career Development, UConn who spoke about: “Articulating the Value of a French Degree to Various Audiences”

 

UConn French courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday, April 26th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Allied Health, Dr. Bruce Blanchard met with certified UConn ECE Allied Health Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The group discussed and shared best practices for teaching AHS courses including sharing course content, HuskyCT sites, and assessments. They also spent time talking through the challenges they are facing and their concerns and strategies for improvement.

UConn Allied Health courses offered through UConn ECE.

On Tuesday, May 10^th , UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Human Development and Family Sciences, Shannon Weaver, met with ECE certified HDFS Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Special guest speakers from UConn’s HDFS Department, Brian Chapman and Laura Donorfio spoke to the instructors on Aging. Later, the group shared about the courses they are teaching this year.

UConn HDFS Courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday April 12th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for German, Prof. Anke Finger  met with certified UConn German Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The group discussed Art in the German Language Classroom and German Instruction during and after COVID-19.

UConn German courses offered through ECE.

On Friday, April 1^st,  UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Italian, Dr. Tina Chiappetta-Miller met with certified Italian Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The day included:

• Remarks by Gina Gallo (Bristol Central High School) speaking about her experience in the Ph.D. program at UConn.
• Special Guest Speaker: Anna Marra, Ph.D., Lecturer in Classics, Humanities and Italian Studies at the University of New Hampshire: “Or ti riman, lettor, sovra ‘l tuo banco: In dialogue with Dante”
• Instructor resource and activity sharing

UConn Italian courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Monday, April 4th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Human Rights, Assistant Professor in Residence, Sandra Sirota, met with certified ECE Human Rights Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The Keynote presentation was given by Nancy Flowers – “HRE: Building on the Past, Looking to the Future”. Nancy Flowers is a writer and consultant for human rights education. She has worked to develop Amnesty International’s education program and is a founding member of Human Rights Educators USA, a national human rights education network. As a consultant to governments, nongovernmental organizations, and UN agencies, she has helped establish national and international networks of educators, develop materials, and train activists and professionals in many countries. She is the author and editor of many articles and books on human rights education.

ECE Faculty Coordinator, Sandra Sirota also shared a presentation and led a discussion on Human Rights advocacy from the classroom and instructors had time to share resources and discuss the courses they are teaching (or plan to teach) as well.

UConn Human Rights courses offered through ECE.

On Thursday, March 31^st  UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators from English, Profs. Scott Campbell and Jason Courtmanche, and GA Kari Daly met with certified English Instructors for their professional development conference.

The group discussed what’s new—particularly UConn’s ENGL 1007: Seminar and Studio in Academic Writing and Multimodal Composition course. Topics included, the studio experience, designing studio activities, and designing course inquiry. Instructors worked in small groups throughout the day connecting and learning from each other as we prepare for the shift to ENGL 1007 for 2022-2023.

UConn English courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday, March 24^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators for Animal Science, Dr. Jen Nadeau and Dr. Amy Safran met with certified Animal Science Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Drs. Safran and Nadeau went over guidelines for all ECE instructors including sample syllabi with course descriptions and philosophy, required books, and grading policies. The group also discussed how their courses are going this year before a short break and then visited an ANSC 1602 Behavior and Training of Domestic Animals course where they heard from a representative from Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

 

UConn Animal Science courses offered through Early College Experience.