The spring semester is off to a great start here at Mount Aloysius College. In the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education, my students and I have been discussing ways of sharing aesthetic experiences with children. One of the experiences that has been revisited a number of times deals with taking children on field trips to community events such as plays, musical performances, art galleries, museums, puppet shows, and dance performances. I have been sharing information with my students on the importance of attending these types of cultural events (local, regional, state and national) with their students and how they can prepare for successful field trips. In ED 119, my students and I will be attending the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra’s performance of America: The Old, Wild West on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center in Johnstown, PA. The students will be listening to music by Williams, Copeland, Bernstein, Barry and Thomson. On February 5th we will be visiting the Southern Alleghenies Museum of American Art in Loretto, PA, where we will see exhibits from local artists such as Chuck Olson and view works of art in the Balcony Gallery from the museum’s permanent collection.

At Mount Aloysius College, we are using a web-based course management system called Blackboard which is designed to allow students and faculty to participate in classes delivered online or use online materials and activities to complement face-to-face teaching. I have been using Blackboard more extensively this semester, and it is running very smoothly thanks to the great help from the IT department here at the college. My students really appreciate being able to access course materials, my lecture notes, academic resources, Power Point presentations and handouts online. This week, I posted an assignment on Blackboard with a rubric attached and successfully had my students submit their assignments online. I can grade their assignments online and then post the grades. The students can find out how they did on the assignment right away. It means less paper for the students to print out - one step in the right direction of “going green� for our environment. I can’t wait to use more aspects of Blackboard such as the discussion boards and virtual chat areas. In the fall semester, I will be teaching one of my courses as a “hybrid course�, which means half of the instructional time will be in the traditional classroom and the other half will be online using Blackboard. I am really excited about working on that course over the summer months.

Posted by Dr. Sara Rutledge at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Year’s Eve is always a great time to reflect on the past year and make plans for the upcoming year. As I reflected back on the fall semester, I was reminded of all of the hard work my students exhibited~ especially the seniors who, among other things, each wrote four integrated unit plans, created their own classroom web sites, and examined various aspects of elementary curriculum, instruction, and assessment. It was so rewarding to see their success in their pre-student teaching experiences, where they made connections between textbook learning/theory in the college classroom and practice in the early childhood and elementary classroom. I also enjoyed getting to know my students outside of the classroom by advising and attending events such as: Christmas at the Mount, the Halloween Dance, All-College Liturgy, All-College Convocation, and Community Night 2007. At Christmas at the Mount, the students in the Children’s Advocacy Association did an absolutely fabulous job preparing activities for the children in attendance. On a cold Saturday in November at 6:45am, I made a special “Praxis Breakfast� at my home for our students who were nervously on their way to take their final teacher’s exam. It was also great to get to know more sophomores and juniors who came to “Afternoon Tea with the Teacher� every Wednesday in my office. I am looking forward to meeting all of my new students in the spring semester.

As a new faculty member at Mount Aloysius College, I have just been amazed at the high level of collegiality among the faculty and staff at the college. It is such a pleasure and privilege to be working at an institution where everyone works hard together to accomplish common goals. It is nice to know that there are people working around you who genuinely care about you. Additionally, as a parent, I was concerned that my daughter would be nervous going to the Little People’s Place (the NAEYC accredited child development center on campus), and was pleasantly surprised when the director took the extra time to give us a tour and spent time answering all of our questions, which made the transition excellent for my daughter.

The spring semester will be filled with the excitement of the Undergraduate Research Symposium, service learning projects, and of course, graduation. It is sure to be a great 2008 at Mount Aloysius College!

Posted by Dr. Sara Rutledge at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)