Governor visits Miami to discuss education
Media coverage of Gov. Strickland's visit can be found here.
Professor Edwards explains how Miami is using technology to help prepare teachers.
5/29/09
In a visit to discuss the importance of strengthening the teaching profession, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland met with students and faculty from Miami’s School of Education, Health and Society (EHS) May 27.
Ensuring high-quality educators in every classroom is a critical part of the governor’s Education Reform Plan.
Chris Rose, a senior in integrated mathematics education, and Todd Edwards, assistant professor of teacher education, demonstrated an interaction with Madeira High School math teacher Steve Phelps. They used two free software programs, Skype and GeoGebra, to engage high schoolers in critiquing and improving a geometry problem that student teachers had been using – less successfully – in the classroom.
The opportunity via technology to receive immediate feedback is invaluable, Rose told the governor, and is a vital way to link teacher candidates to today’s classrooms.
EHS Dean Carine Feyten provided the governor with background on the school’s name change of two years ago to better reflect the influence of a student’s family life and community on how s/he learns.
Robert Hendricks, Tierionna Morris and Catherine Wolfe, education students in the school’s Urban Cohort Initiative, told Strickland how important they feel it is to teach in city schools and to apply the holistic teaching approach of Education, Health and Society to urban environments.
Faculty from Miami and Talawanda schools shared other examples of employing technology and reaching students from different cultural backgrounds and languages.
Miami is in the second year of a five-year U.S. Department of Education grant to create a state model for preparing teachers to educate students in all subjects via an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program.
The governor praised the Miami educators and students for having the courage to “think differently” and to work toward reform instead of conforming. “We’re in danger (in this country) of squeezing out what makes our education great: creativity and innovation.”
Strickland, who last visited Miami in fall 2007, thanked the students for pursuing education and especially for planning to teach in urban schools. “What strikes me about students I meet at Miami is their high degree of self-confidence and maturity,” he said.