About the SOE

2011 New MACTE President Elected

Jo Olsen, Dean of the School of Education at The College of Saint Scholastica and a member of the TEAC Board of Directors and the TEAC Accreditation Committee, was recently elected to a two-year term as president of the Minnesota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. MACTE is an organization of 31 education institutions and affiliate members dedicated to promoting standards and leadership in the preparation and development of highly qualified professional educators (www.mnteachered.org). Jo's term began in April of 2011 and will run until April of 2013. As president of MACTE, Jo participated in the AACTE National Teacher Education Day on the Hill and the State Leaders' Institute in Washington, D.C. this past June. This team, consisting of two Holmes Scholars and four Minnesota teacher education faculty, held visits at eight Minnesota Senate and Congressional offices. These visits with state representatives serve to increase communication and awareness of CSS and all of the education programs in Minnesota. Jo was also asked to present at the AACTE State Leaders Institute on the collaboration efforts MACTE has established with the Minnesota Board of Teaching and state legislators.

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Service Learning Opportunity for
Semester Break 2012!

The School of Education will be offering a service learning opportunity during semester break of 2012, to Brooklyn Center schools.

SOE is pleased to offer students an optional field experience at Brooklyn Center Schools, which are located in the north metro area. This experience will include a 5-day, week-long placement in a classroom aligned with students' licensure area (January 9-13, 2012).

Students and faculty interested in these opportunities should contact Cindy Mattson, SOE Admin. Asst (cmattson@css.edu or 218-723-6108).

Ojibwe Language and Culture Education (OLCE)

The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN, has received a new $1.28 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, to support its Ojibwe Language and Culture Education (OLCE) program. We are honored to be one of only eleven such grants awarded nationally in 2009.   Read the rest of the story.

Modern World Language
& Culture ~ Spanish Licensure!

SOE is pleased to announced that the Minnesota Board of Teaching has granted initial approval to the College of St. Scholastica to offer 8710.4950 Teachers of World Languages and Cultures K-12: Spanish.

A special thanks to Dave Schuettler and Martin Pflug in the Languages and International Studies Dept. ,School of Arts and Letters and to John Bauman, Chair of Undergraduate Programs in the School of Education.

They put in many long hours to develop this successful Request for Initial Program Approval.
Congratulations!

'I feel a responsibility to help these kids be the best generation ever'

While only in his second year of teaching at Oak-Land, Jim Amaral said he's quickly adjusted to the profession. - Photo by Paul Dols

by Hannah Gruber
Contributing Writer
Published: Thursday, May 28, 2009 5:12 PM CDT
St. Croix Valley Press

STILLWATER - When adults look back over some of their most unpleasant educational experiences, the seventh grade often leaps to mind. Bigger schools, awkward transitions, and a general sense of confusion often don't rank favorably in people's memories.

Jim Amaral's class seeks to change that.

Read the rest of the story.

The College of St. Scholastica has had more students receive the Philips Scholarship Award than any other private school in the state of Minnesota.

Rebecca Lund, sophomore elementary education major, will receive a $14,000 Philips Scholarship Award for a summer service learning project. This summer, Rebecca will be working with the Duluth School District and deaf and hard-of-hearing students. This project is mainly for students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing and mainstreamed in the schools. Many of these students have difficulties communicating with their hearing peers. Rebecca's objective is to build lasting relationships among deaf and hard-of-hearing students and their hearing peers, as well as to teach hearing students American Sign Language and about deaf culture.

Young Author's Conference

The 23rd annual Young Authors' Conference was held on Thursday, March 27 at the College of St. Scholastica. Two hundred thirteen students from Duluth, North Shore and Babbitt Schools attended. Students in grades K-5 met in a general session with author Joy Dey and illustrator Nikki Johnson who spoke about their book, Agate: What Good Is A Moose? Their presentation was followed by questions and answers. Those same students also had small group sessions with one of twelve presenters/facilitators. Students in grades 6 - 8 met with authors Linda Glaser and Anne Stewart and poet Jim Johnson (Duluth's Poet Laureate) for a panel discussion. Small group writing sessions followed the discussion. It was a great day for students and presenters alike!

The Peace Bell

by Margi Preus
illustrated by Hideko Takahashi
Henry Holt, 2008
ages 4 to 8, ISBN 978-0805078008

Yuko's grandmother remembers that when she was a little girl many years ago in Japan, her town's beautiful temple bell was taken away to be used as scrap metal for the war effort. She thought she'd never see it again. After the war the bell was brought to America by a U. S. Navy crew who found it abandoned in a Japanese shipyard. Most amazing of all, the bell was later returned to Japan as a gesture of friendship between the former warring countries. Told in evocative prose, this inspiring story based on the American-Japanese Friendship Peace Bell celebrates peace between nations.

Margi Preus writes children's books, plays, comic operas and a variety of nonsense in Duluth, Minnesota. Her short fiction for adults and children has appeared in magazines, journals and anthologies. She teaches children's literature at The College of St. Scholastica and an occasional course at University of Minnesota-Duluth. When not doing any of those things, she hikes, skis and paddles her way around the north country and anywhere else she might find herself in the world.