Fall, 2007 Volume 3, Number 1
New Academic BuildingThe new home for the Education Department is rapidly nearing completion on the eastern side of campus across from historic Carter Hall. The three story academic building, featuring six classrooms, numerous faculty offices, and a faculty lounge, will house the Education Department on the top floor. Although no exact move-in date has been set, we are anticipating hosting our M.Ed. courses this summer in the new facility. For updated pictures, click here.
Website Improvements
During the past year, much-needed improvements have been made to our BSECE (Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education) and M.Ed. (Master of Education) websites. Please check out these newly improved sites, and notice in particular the places for job postings, alumni contacts, and the bulletin boards.
Faculty Happenings
Phil Horton made the following two presentations in the past few months:
Enhancing Student Problem Solving through Databases. Presented at the 20th Annual Georgia Educational Technology Conference in November in Atlanta.
Preparing for your Fulbright Experience in Africa. Invited Presentation for the 2007 Fulbright Scholars Pre-Departure Orientation Conference. Council for International Exchange of Scholars. Washington, D.C., in June.
Donna Phillips continues her academic work towards a doctorate at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and also serves as the Co-editor for The Wire, the newsletter of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Special Interest Group on education and the worldwide web.
Becky Pennington also is working diligently towards her doctorate at UTC while leading several initiatives within the department related to her coursework.
Steve Kaufmann taught the course, "Introduction to Christian Pedagogy" March 1-8 to Hungarian teachers in Mickolc, Hungary. In May, Steve accompanied seven students to the International Christian School of Budapest for three weeks of teaching. Senior Charlotte Okie wrote about their experiences, and you can read her story here. As she notes, seven Covenant graduates are now working at that school, testimony to the strong relationship established by Dr. Kaufmann.
In January, 2008 Steve’s book "Foundations for Christian Education" will be published in Hungarian. This book is designed for Hungarians and Romanians who teach in Christian schools.
During his upcoming sabbatical in 2008-09 Steve will be teaching several courses in Hungary and writing a companion volume to the foundations text, an introduction to Christian worldview thinking. The book, published by ACSI-Europe, is designed for Hungarian and Romanian teachers, and will focus on examining worldview issues in the context of post-Soviet central European concerns.
Jim Drexler spoke at several places in the past few months:
“The PCA and Christian Schooling: Some biblical, historical, philosophical, and practical reasons why the PCA needs Christian schools” seminar presented at the 35th PCA General Assembly, Memphis, June, 2007.
“Spiritual Warfare and Christian Schooling” paper presented as a Featured Speaker at the ACSI regional conference in Anaheim, California, November, 2007, along with three other seminars.
Chapel lectures, Bryan College, Dayton, Tennessee, November, 2007.
“The Anatomy of a Book: how I stumbled into being the editor for Schools as Communities,” ICCTE Journal Live Webcast Series, sponsored by George Fox University, November,2007.
Bob Ashlock, Emeritus Professor of Education who continues to teach in our BSECE and M.Ed. programs, is currently working on revisions for the 10th edition of Error Patterns in Computation.
Daphne Haddad, was part of a group of PCA pastors and professors who took part in a conference in Tehran, Iran, three years ago at the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue, founded and directed by Muslim cleric and politician Muhammad Ali Abtahi and his wife. This fall, Mr. Abtahi was a guest of Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, where he addressed a half dozen gatherings on campus, downtown, in other colleges, and at a local church. Daphne was able to spend the week in St. Louis, attending the sessions with Mr. Abtahi.
Mr. Abtahi posts daily to his personal blog, parts of which appear in English translation.
Educator's Conference
Have you registered yet for the annual Educators Conference on Thursday, February 28? Why not!
This year’s conference, emphasizing instructional technology, features two national leaders in that field, Dr. Peggy Roblyer and Dr. Aaron Doering. For over two decades, Dr. Roblyer has been at the forefront of educational technology. She has published dozens of articles, monographs, book chapters, and books on various aspects of technology. Some of her more recent books include Essentials of technology in teaching and learning: a hands-on approach (2007), Integrating educational technology into teaching (4th Edition, 2006), Starting out on the Internet: a learning journey for teachers (3rd Edition, 2006), and Educational technology in action: problem-based learning exercises for technology integration (2004).
Dr. Aaron Doering’s research involves the design, development, and evaluation of online learning environments, technology integration in K-12 pre-service and in-service settings, and the innovative use of technology to support teaching and learning. Most recently, Dr. Doering’s research and projects have focused on hybrid online adventure learning environments (www.polarhusky.com), online scaffolding environments, and online community-building environments.
The Educators Conference is Thursday, February 28, 2008 from 9:00 AM -3:00 PM. The $75.00 conference fee includes lunch, refreshments, and discounted pricing on Dr. Roblyer’s and Dr. Doering’s books through Covenant’s bookstore. To register, please complete this form. For further information, call 706.419.1407 or e-mail jstewart@covenant.edu.
Career Summit
While you’re on campus for the Educators Conference, consider registering as well for our annual Career Summit February 28-29. The Summit offers opportunities for school administrators to meet and interview our junior and senior Education majors on Thursday evening and all day on Friday. Covenant graduates are highly sought by schools, so if you have teaching needs for next year, make plans now to attend Career Summit. For further information, call 706.419.1407 or e-mail jstewart@covenant.edu.
We love our adjuncts!
To borrow a phrase, “it takes a village” to teach all the courses in our nine different programs, so we are very thankful for all the adjuncts who teach in our undergraduate and graduate programs. In September, some of those adjuncts who teach in our B.A. and B.S. programs gathered with our fulltime department members for a dinner and meeting.
Pictured from left to right (adjuncts have an “A”) are Annie Stallings (A), Elaine Tinholt, Jane Stewart, Bruce Young, Susan Smisson (A), Amy Bagby, Greg Bagby (A), Cynthia Young (A), Tony Tucker (A), Steve Kaufmann, Bob Ashlock, Gary Lindley (A), Becky Pennington, CeCe Tillman (A), Phil Horton, and Jim Drexler.
Master of Education
January 15, 2008 is the deadline for new students to apply without having to pay the application fee. We will accept all applications through March 1, so if you have friends or colleagues that have been thinking about our M.Ed. program, please encourage them to complete the paperwork and send things to us.
The past summer was a wonderful time of learning on campus. Pictured below are those who helped during the third week, but professors not pictured who taught during the first two weeks include Jack Beckman, Bill Davis, Kevin Eames, and Barrett Mosbacker.
Faculty and staff pictured from left to right are: Jim Drexler, Daphne Haddad, Jack Fennema, Jay Green, Steve Kaufmann, Bob Ashlock, Kathy Ward, Phil Horton, Bruce Young, and Rebecca Dodson.
d Third year student Karla Foreman from Tyler, Texas grapples with some of the challenging material in one of her M.Ed. classes.
Students regularly tell us that the M.Ed. program offered them “the richest learning experience of my life.” Elizabeth Stubbs Brinson (2007) recently wrote, “The experience at Covenant changed my life . . . The caliber of people in the program at Covenant is phenomenal.