Instant Impact

News from Baylor School of Education

October 10, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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Insights into Hispanic Heritage Month from our Bilingual Education Faculty [10/10/2019]

Dr. Lupita Lang is pictured in her office with a wall hanging of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo! Lang appreciates Kahlo because of her intensity. “Frida poured passion into what she wrote, what she painted, how she lived, and her relationships with others. I think of her as someone who burned the candle at both ends,” Lang said.

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15), we sought some insights on the occasion from new faculty member Dr. Lupita Lang, who is assistant professor of bilingual education.

Lang does not typically describe herself as Hispanic or Latina, although she is both. She prefers the specificity of “Mexican,” because she was born and raised in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, México, just across the Texas border. She joined the Baylor School of Education in August, after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she earned her PhD.

Five commonly misunderstood facts about Hispanic Heritage:

Continue Reading →

October 3, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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Two Alumni Honored by Baylor School of Education with Centennial Awards [10/03/2019]

Dr. Robert Duron and Ashley Minton were honored with Centennial Awards.

The Baylor University School of Education honored two alumni with awards in conjunction with the School’s yearlong Centennial celebration during 2019.

Current or former students, faculty, staff and SOE partners submitted nominations for the Centennial Outstanding Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni Awards, choosing educators whose work makes significant, observable changes in the lives of others and exemplifies the Christian mission and practices of the SOE. The honorees were recognized Sept. 27 at a banquet for donors and scholarship recipients.

Baylor graduate and Waco native Robert Duron, EdD ’00, received the School of Education’s Centennial Outstanding Alumni Award, and Ashley Minton, BSEd ’07, MSEd ’08, received the Centennial Outstanding Young Alumni Award.

Duron has 32 years of public education experience and has held significant leadership roles. He is currently the Associate Executive Director of Governance Services for the Texas Association of School Boards, which provides training, consulting services, productivity tools, research, and direct support to school districts and school board members. Previously, Duron served as superintendent of the San Antonio and Socorro (El Paso) Independent School Districts and then as Deputy Commissioner for Finance and Administration for the Texas Education Agency.

Minton, a native of Jacksonville, Texas, is the new principal of Canyon Ranch Elementary School in Coppell ISD, which opened its doors August 14, 2019. She earned her BSEd in Elementary Education with a specialization in Gifted and Talented education. After graduation, she immediately began work on her master’s in Educational Psychology, also at Baylor, graduating in 2008. Continue Reading →

September 19, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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Dr. Janet Bagby Elected to American Montessori Society Board of Directors [09/19/2019]

Janet Bagby, Ph.D., senior lecturer of educational psychology in the Baylor University School of Education, has been elected to the board of directors of the American Montessori Society (AMS). Board members are elected by a vote of the group’s members, which number 14,700 individuals and 1,520 schools and span 70 countries. Bagby took office in July for a term that will extend until July of 2022.

“I strongly believe in the Montessori philosophy and in the important work of AMS to support and promote quality opportunities for all children to learn,” Bagby said.

READ MORE on the Baylor Media site.

September 17, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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School of Education History Exhibit Open at Mayborn [09/17/2019]

SOE Centennial Exhibit at the Mayborn Museum

A public exhibit outlining the history of the Baylor School Education has been extended through March 2020, continuing as part of the SOE’s year-long Centennial celebration in 2019.

The exhibit is located at Baylor’s Mayborn Museum, 1300 S. University Parks Drive, in Waco, immediately to the right inside the Mayborn’s front door. The display is available for visitors to browse during regular museum hours.

“I really enjoyed diving into the rich history of the School of Education,” said Museum Studies and Curriculum & Instruction graduate student Meg Tucker, who curated the exhibit. “I am impressed by the School’s resilience and continued dedication to excellence. It was an exciting challenge to use my background in education and museum studies to help curate this exhibit. It was powerful to read about and see pictures of education students and professors working at Baylor more than one hundred years ago.”

Among other things, the exhibit features artifacts specific to SOE history along with items from partner Professional Development Schools in Waco and Midway ISDs. A World War I uniform from Fred M. Hale is also on display. Hale and his wife, Edith, were the first donors to make a gift of $1 million to the SOE.

The exhibit also features vintage photographs, including some by famed Waco photographer Fred Gildersleeve, which outline the evolution of the SOE from its creation in 1919 to where it is today. More current exhibited items include research from SOE faculty members and displays that speak to the SOE’s commitment to research, community service, study abroad, and faith. Continue Reading →

August 29, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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Baylor Secondary Education Graduate Named National Student Teacher of the Year [08/29/2019]

Hornbeak in her Midway High School classroom as a Baylor senior

Baylor University School of Education graduate Lauren Hornbeak, BSEd. ’19, has been named the 2019 National Student Teacher of the Year by Kappa Delta Pi, the international honor society in education, and the Association of Teacher Educators. Hornbeak, who is certified in Secondary Education – Life Science, is the first honoree from Baylor.

The KDP/ATE National Student Teacher of the Year award recognizes one student teacher/intern annually who has demonstrated the ability to plan and develop classroom management skills and instructional strategies that support all students; establish interpersonal relationships with students, parents, faculty and staff; and reflect powerfully on their student teaching experience. Award winners are acknowledged with a scholarship award and a speaking engagement at the KDP convention.

This is the second recent teaching award for Hornbeak. She also was named Clinical Teacher of the Year for the State of Texas by the Texas Directors of Field Experience (TDFE), the organization of faculty members within university teacher-education programs who supervise field experiences of students. TDFE chose three student teachers as awardees for 2019, and each honoree receives a scholarship. For the state award, Hornbeak is the third Baylor honoree in the last four years.

READ MORE . . . .

August 21, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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Impact LLC Welcomes New Program Director [08/21/2019]

Ryan W. Erck, new Program Director for Impact Living-Learning Center (LLC), wants to make sure that students in the LLC have the kind of community experience that he missed out on when he was a college freshman. Impact LLC, which is a partner of the School of Education, is located in South Russell Hall and is home to 240 Baylor students, both male and female.

Erck said, “Impact LLC creates cohesive spaces for students to have very meaningful interactions with faculty, staff and peers. Residential learning communities embody an experience that provides many campus amenities in one place. Impact LLC reflects the larger campus culture, but on a micro-scale — encompassing things like study areas, fitness spaces, technology areas and classrooms.”

As a college freshman, Erck chose to hold down a job while attending school and didn’t take advantage of a residential community, he said. He earned his BS in Leadership and Development and his MS in Educational Human Resource Development, both from Texas A&M University. Erck is now a doctoral candidate pursuing a PhD in Higher Education Studies and Leadership in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership. Despite these obvious accomplishments, Erck said that his chances for success would have been better if he had lived in an intentional community during his early college experience, and he suggests that students look for this kind of experience when exploring housing options during the college application process. Continue Reading →

August 12, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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First Year Teacher Reflections — How Did Baylor SOE Grads Do? [08/12/2019]

Every future teacher dreams of the day they will have their own classroom, but what’s it really like during that first year of teaching? The Baylor School of Education program in teacher education is designed to prepare graduates thoroughly for the classroom through rigorous coursework as well as intense faculty-guided field experiences. But can anything really prepare them for their first year of teaching? How did our graduates really do? Read the reflections of five of our 2018 graduates after their first year in the classroom.

Gabby Salazar, BSEd ’18, Bethke Elementary, Katy ISD
First grade

“Year one is done — it flew by! It pushed me, challenged me, and grew me immeasurably more than I thought possible. It was also so sweet to me — the grace and love my students showed me every day is comparable to the love and grace that God gives us daily. Man, did they love me well. On my toughest days, seeing those 23 sweet faces smile at me made it all worth it. I am forever changed and better because of those tiny humans.”

READ GABBY’S REFLECTION

Rebekah Tate, BSEd ’18, Arlington High School, Arlington ISD
Ninth Grade Algebra 1
UIL Number Sense Sponsor / May 2019 Teacher of the Month

“All in all, no sugarcoating, my first-year experience was wonderful. That’s not to say there weren’t some incredibly rough days (with maybe a few tears), where I lost a lot of faith in my myself and my abilities. People tell you teaching isn’t easy. But you can’t really know until you have 28 freshmen in your class, only three are paying attention, no one will stop talking, technology ceases working, someone needs a Band-aid, 10 kids need a pencil and you have 5, someone just cussed someone else out, and right when you get everyone settled and somewhat paying attention, the phone rings and everyone gets off task again… and that’s only the first 30 minutes of first period.”

READ REBEKAH’S REFLECTION

Jared Kloeker, BSEd ’18, Elgin Middle School, Elgin ISD
Seventh Grade Texas History
Coach for Football, Basketball and Track

“Baylor prepared me well. Content wise, I was absolutely solid. Arsenal of learning techniques, double check. Classroom management was honestly not my strongest suit when I graduated, so I knew I was going to have to work hard on it. But when I looked around at the other teachers in the hallway (7 of 10 were new teachers), I could tell there was a large difference in how efficient my classroom was in management and better test scores, than teachers who went to other colleges.”

READ JARED’S REFLECTION

Kristen Boyd, Belmar Elementary, Amarillo ISD
First Grade

“There will always be the one student. I had already established a behavior system for the whole class that seemed to be working, but I had to try a variety of other systems for that one student. It took weeks and weeks before I found a system that worked! It was exhausting to do all of that extra work for one student, but it made me a better teacher. By the end of the year, that student was no longer my main focus. The extra behavior system was no longer needed. That student ended up making my year so fun, and I learned so much from him. Now I look forward to seeing how he does in second grade, and I hope to have him visit my new class as a ‘guest reader.'”

READ KRISTEN’S REFLECTION

Lauren Knapton, BSEd ’18, Lynn Hale Elementary, Arlington ISD
Fifth grade

“My experiences in the School of Education at Baylor prepared me well for certain major responsibilities of teaching such as lesson planning, data analysis, assessing students, and knowledge of state standards. I am so thankful for this, and it made these areas of teaching easier because I felt prepared. The part that I didn’t realize I had the most room to grow in was navigating the area of social-emotional learning with my students. To be honest, this is something that I think all first-year teachers struggle with and have to learn by experience over time!”

READ LAUREN’S REFLECTION
Continue Reading →

August 8, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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Fun Facts About the Number 100 [08/08/2019]

By Dr. Trena Wilkerson, Dr. Rachelle Rogers and Dr. Sandi Cooper (l-r)
Centennial Faculty Guest Blog

If you want to explore the many meanings of the number 100 as we celebrate our Centennial, whom better to ask than Baylor SOE’s mathematics educators? They explore some well-known and not-so-well-known facts about 100. Enjoy the number fun and see if you can think of even more facts about the number 100!

Mathematics educators see mathematics in everything they do and everywhere they go! This may seem strange, but if you look for it, you can have your own “mathematical encounters” in most everything you do! As we celebrate 100 years of the School of Education, we pause to think about the number 100 and would like to share some fun facts.

There are some well-known facts about 100:

  • There are 100 years in a century.
  • On the Celsius scale, 100 degrees is the boiling temperature of water.
  • The United States Senate has 100 Senators.
  • There are 100 yards in an American football field.
  • 100 is a perfect square number and its square root is 10.
  • 100 is the basis of percentages (“per cent” meaning “per hundred” in Latin), with 100 percent being a full amount.
  • There are 100 pennies in one dollar.

Did you know these facts about 100?

  • “C” is the Roman numeral for 100. “C” comes from the word Latin word centrum.
  • A person who lives to be 100 is called a centenarian.
  • The sum of the first nine (9) prime numbers is 100.
  • The sum of the first 10 odd numbers equals 100.
  • There are 100 letter tiles in a Scrabble game.
    . . .

KEEP READING at baylor.edu/SOE/100

August 2, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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iEngage Civics Camp Builds Students’ Civic Knowledge [08/02/2019]

Students work on their civics project, guided by an iEngage counselor.

With civics education largely disappearing from school curricula, in 2009, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor decided to address the issue by founding iCivics, a free online website that teaches civics concepts using educational games. The retired Justice’s vision for civics education has expanded over the years at Baylor University through the iEngage Summer Civics Institute.

From Aug. 5-9, 100 fifth- through ninth-grade students will learn about civics at the annual summer camp hosted by the Baylor School of Education through a grant from the Hatton W. Sumners Foundation.

iEngage is directed by education faculty members and camp co-founders Brooke Blevins, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the department of curriculum and instruction, and Karon LeCompte, Ph.D., associate professor of curriculum and instruction.

READ MORE . . .

July 29, 2019
by Baylor Instant Impact
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Educators from Costa Rica Visit Baylor [07/29/2019]

Teacher education students from Costa Rica visited the Baylor MELA (Mathematics for Early Learners Academy) program to observe teaching methods.

Education professors and students from the National University of Costa Rica (NUCR) spent three weeks at the Baylor School of Education (SOE) this summer, under the guidance of senior lecturer Rick Strot. For nearly fifteen years, Strot has led Baylor SOE students to Costa Rica to study methods of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and complete service projects.

“As a result of the Baylor in Costa Rica program, this group has taken an initiative to visit us for the first time, thanks to a year of hard work with visas, passports, and all the small details that brought them here,” Strot said. “I’m so happy they made the trip to visit our programs, tour our professional development schools, see this beautiful campus, and experience the arrangments we have for our students.” Continue Reading →