On Friday, April 26^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from English, Prof. Scott Campbell and Graduate Assistant Adam McLain met with a group of almost 80 UConn ECE certified English Instructors for an in person professional development workshop on UConn’s Hartford campus.

The theme for the Spring 2024 conference was “Inquiring About Writing: Syllabi and Texts in the ECE English High School Classroom”. The conference brought together ECE English teachers to reflect on how to improve syllabi, use different texts with teaching, and implement first-year writing in high school classrooms for the next school year.

Sessions included:

“Barbie, Literary Theory, and Art” Course Unit Discussion

Advisory Board Member Kevin Barbero provided an example of a course arc focused around Barbie, literary theory, and art, showcasing his assignments and syllabus architecture for this unit. Teachers engaged in a workshop discussion about course inquiry and teaching units in the ECE English high school classroom with Kevin’s example as the jumping off point.

Wadsworth Atheneum: Engaging with Inquiry, Identity, and Writing

Arri Weeks took a group to the Wadsworth Museum in downtown Hartford. The group thought about inquiry, texts, identity, and writing as it relates to an exhibit in the museum.

New(er) Teacher Intensive Workshop

Kyle Candia-Bovi and Alexa Kydd works with new(er) ECE English teachers thinking about the yearlong ENGL 1004 or 1007 classroom in the high school setting. They provided examples from their syllabi about how to turn the usually semester-long ENGL 1007 into a yearlong course.

Group Working Room

Emily Genser and Ramona Puchalski-Piretti hosted a session for those looking to have some quiet time to work on course materials in an hour-long guided working session.

“The Good Place, Literary Theory, and Philosophy” Course Unit Discussion

Kristen Rotherham provided an example of a course arc focused on The Good Place, literary theory, and philosophy, showcasing her assignments and syllabus architecture for this unit. Teachers engaged in a workshop discussion about course inquiry and teaching units in the ECE English high school classroom with Kristen’s example as the jumping off point.

 

UConn English courses offered through ECE

On Monday, May 13^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from U.S. History, Prof. Matt McKenzie met with a group of 50 UConn ECE certified U.S. History Instructors for a professional development workshop.

After welcoming comments from Prof. Mckenzie the teachers took time to introduce themselves and listened to Prof. McKenzie’s talk titled “Using Experience as an Archive for Historical Research: Methods and Examples”.

After a short break the group broke into a large discussion about the differences between AP and UConn courses through ECE and what kinds of support and resources they would like more of to help promote UConn courses in their high schools.

UConn U.S. History courses offered through ECE

On Tuesday, May 7^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from Human Development and Family Sciences, Shannon Weaver met with a group of 32 UConn ECE certified HDFS Instructors for a professional development workshop.

The day began with introductions and welcoming remarks and ECE program updates. Later, Dr. Weaver spoke about “The New Reality of Aging: Impact on Families” and the teachers broke into small groups to discuss course objectives for Later Adulthood

After a short break there was an open instructor forum and more group conversations and later a student showcase. The group broke for lunch and later heard from Student Success and Engagement Librarian, Ery Caswell, who provided teachers with an overview of resources available to instructors and students. The teachers also reviewed Microsoft Teams & HuskyCT.

UConn HDFS courses offered through ECE

On Thursday, March 7^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from German, Prof. Anke Finger met with a group of 6 UConn ECE certified German Instructors for a professional development workshop.

The theme was “Blue Humanities, the Baltic Sea and Log Island Sound” which included some hands-on practice with ChatGPT.

UConn German courses offered through ECE.

On Thursday, April 4^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from Italian, Prof. Tina Chiapetta Miller met with a group of 10 UConn ECE certified Italian Instructors for their annual professional development workshop.

After opening remarks and an announcement of the multimedia content winners, the group heard from, UConn current PhD candidate, Danielle Pieratti on “”Traduttore / Traditore? Translation Pedagogies for ECE Italian”.

Danielle Pieratti is an educator, poet, translator, and PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut. She has taught in secondary and post-secondary settings for more than twenty years. She is the author most recently of Approximate Body (Carnegie Mellon University Press 2023), and her first book, Fugitives (Lost Horse Press 2016), won the 2017 Connecticut Book Award for poetry. Transparencies, her translated volume of works by Italian poet Maria Borio, was released by World Poetry Books in 2022. She currently serves as poetry editor for the international literary journal Asymptote, and her latest manuscript is a collection of hybrid works inspired by translations of Dante’s Purgatorio.

*Image is San Girolamo nello studio, c. 1475, di Antonello da Messina (1430-1479)

 

UConn Italian courses offered through ECE

On Wednesday, February 28^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators from Political Science, Oksan Bayulgen and Evan Perkoski met with a group of 14 UConn ECE certified Political Science Instructors for a professional development workshop.

Instructors heard from a panel of two political science professor and two undergraduate students who  are active in student organizations on  how to address electoral issues and partisanship in political science courses and how to encourage in student civic engagement. After a short break, Sandra Sirota (Director of Human Rights and Close to Home program) shared her talk “The importance of civic action in order to strengthen democracy and respect for human rights in our Connecticut communities and beyond.”

 

UConn POLS courses offered through ECE.

On Friday, March 1st UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from French, Florence Marsal met with a group of 30 UConn ECE certified French Instructors for a professional development workshop.

Joëlle Vitiello, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Macalester College shared her presentation “Enseigner les trésors d’Haïti” (Teaching the Treasures of Haiti).

Later Mary Catherine Decoteau, Career Consultant from UConn’s Career Services spoke to teachers about enhancing and highlighting career competencies in ECE French classes. Completing the morning, ECE Instructor from Avon High School Geneviève Brand discussed “L’eau dans la littérature”(Water in Literature). All Instructors who registered also received a free e-copy of  “Laquelle de nous était Eurydice”.

UConn FREN courses offered through ECE.

On Wednesday, March 6^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from Educational Psychology, Prof. Joseph Madaus met with a group of 6 UConn ECE certified EPSY (Special Education) Instructors for a professional development workshop.

Instructors heard from author Terry Trueman, who spoke about his life and course text “Stuck in Neutral”. The book is about a teenage boy named Shawn who has cerebral palsy. Unable to communicate with the outside world and feeling trapped in his body, “Stuck in Neutral” explores Shawn’s complicated relationship with his father.

After hearing from Terry the Instructors had a spirited discussion sharing ideas and resources that people are using in their courses.

UConn Education courses offered through ECE.

On Thursday, November 16^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator Chemistry, Dr. Fatma Selampinar met with certified ECE Chemistry Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. After a brief welcome and introductions Assistant Professor and Lawrence E. Posner and Amy E. Newburger Fellow, Dr. Kerry Gilmore spoke to the group about his research on Green Chemistry.  For more information about Dr. Gilmore and his lab see: https://gilmore.lab.uconn.edu/.

UConn Chemistry courses offered through ECE.

On Friday, December 1^st, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from Chinese, Dr. George Yang met with certified ECE Chinese Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. Dr. Yang spoke to the group updates to the current CHIN 1114 course and plans for adding UConn’s CHIN 3210 and 3211 to UConn ECE’s course offerings in the near future. ECE Instructor Feng Xia from Amity High School discussed Chinese program development, and later the Instructors heard from Prof. Yu Wu, Associate Professor of Chinese from University of Rhode Island on Proficiency Oriented L2 Chinese:  Assessment: Objectives, Instruction, and Assessment.

     

UConn Chinese courses offered through ECE.