News

SED Science Educator Shares Lessons Learned from B.U. MobileLab Program in Hong Kong
April 27, 2009 - SED Professor Don DeRosa (Science Education) and Director of the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) Mobile Laboratory Program, recently traveled to Hong Kong to deliver a keynote address and present a workshop on biotechnology education for science teachers at the inauguration of the Sik Sik Yuen MobileLab. Boston University has been a leader in mobile laboratory programs for science education in the United States since the establishment of the BUSM MobileLab in 1998 by Dr. Carl Franzblau, Associate Dean of Graduate Medical Sciences at the School of Medicine. Boston University's MobileLab has served as a model for similar programs throughout the country and was a key player in the establishment of the Mobile Laboratory Coalition, which includes approximately 20 mobile laboratories dedicated to science education throughout the nation. The Hong Kong MobileLab, founded by Dr. William Mak, is the latest of several mobile laboratories inspired by the Boston University MobileLab program. Hong Kong Representatives from the Ministry of Education expressed interest in having Professor DeRosa return to conduct more teacher training workshops and share ideas about science education with educators in Hong Kong.

CAEC 2007 South Carolina Department of Education Teachers Academies
The Center for the Advancement of Ethics & Character (CAEC) will conduct three simultaneous, five-day Academies in South Carolina, through the sponsorship of the South Carolina Department of Education. An intellectual retreat for educators, the Teachers Academy invites participants to engage in dialogue, reflection, and writing about selected great texts and to apply them to curricular and school-wide character education. June 11-15, 2007 Hartsville, SC; Beaufort, SC; Orangeburg, SC

Remembering SED Emeritus Professor Thomas Culliton
[The Reading Clinic's first adult student] had left school in the tenth grade and somehow had never learned to read. We agreed to take him on. I administered an IQ test, and he scored well above average, so I said to to him, 'At least we know that you have the potential to learn.' And with that he broke down and cried and said 'I always thought I was stupid.' Over a six-week period, one of the things we'd been working on was the o-y/o-i letter combinations. And one day after he left class, he was in his car at a red light at the corner of Exeter and Boylston (he had his license because he had taken an oral exam). Looking up and noticing the street sign for Boylston, he saw the o-y combination, and right there to himself sounded out the word. And when he said it, he knew that he had actually read a word. All of a sudden cars began honking their horns. At first he thought, in his joy, that they were all honking because he had read, but then he realized their impatience at being held up at a light. Today, he is a retired Massachusetts prison official. During his employment there, he had been a real advocate for prisoner reading. He realized the disability had affected a number of men there and had determined in a great part their being there in the first place. — Thomas Culliton, SED Professor of Education, on a student whose life he touched In a 2001 interview, SED Professor Emeritus Thomas Culliton (DGE'53, SED '55, '58, '61) said he strived to help people to be better. "I like to help people to be... better able to help themselves. I take pride in that," he explained. And that's exactly the legacy Culliton leaves behind. Culliton devoted his entire professional life to the reading and language learning difficulties of individuals of all ages, having directed both SED's Educational Clinic and its Reading and Study Skills Clinic with dedication, support, and compassion. These clinics, the oldest of their kind, still exist today as the Donald Durrell Reading Clinic and serve as a model for similar clinics. "The Educational Clinic was the first to take up the medical model, as in taking training doctors into the wards and having them put into practice what they've learned in the classroom. We did that with our teachers," described Culliton, who not only directed the clinics after working with mentors and reading pioneers Donald Durrell and Helen Murphy but rolled up his sleeves teaching teachers how to teach. But his impact did not stop with teaching. As Culliton gave of himself to others so often, he reached well beyond the walls of his classrooms. Jeanie Ferguson, SED'01, remarked that Culliton's high standards, support, and guidance impacted her education. "[His students] feel they can improve themselves as educators and have fun doing it. He enjoys... hearing about the growth of his current and former students," said Ferguson.
Culliton passed away in his home on May 29, 2007. A well-known figure at many Boston-area schools, where he supervised student teachers, Culliton belonged to several reading organizations, received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Boston Higher Education Partnership, and was past president of the Greater Boston Council of the International Reading Association and the New England Reading Association. He was a native of Lynn, Massachusetts and taught there while studying for his doctorate at BU. Culliton taught for three years at the University of Illinois and then returned to BU to permanently teach for more than forty years. At BU, Culliton served on the Alumni Board, supported the Consortium, and served as faculty advisor for Pi Lambda Theta, an honors organization that recognizes excellence in teaching. The funeral will be held on Monday, June 4, 2007, 11a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, 174 Humphrey Street, Swampscott, Massachusetts. Visiting hours will be held on Sunday, June 3, 2007 from 4-8p.m. at the Solimine, Landregan and Rhodes Funeral Home, 67 Ocean Street, Lynn, Massachusetts.

Pedagogical Day Address
On May 29, Dr. M.D. Aeschliman, Professor at Boston University and the University of Italian Switzerland and Curriculum Advisor to the TASIS Foundation (Switzerland), delivered the Pedagogical Day Address to several hundred teachers on two campuses of the International School of Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1924, the International School of Geneva has 4,000 students and 150 nationalities.

Help shape NCLB at the NCLB Symposium on Saturday, June 2
Has NCLB become a four-letter something in your life? Join our discussion of NCLB experiences and recommendations to shape the future of this important legislation. Space is limited. Register to reserve your space.

Boston University School of Education Honors Graduates
On Sunday, May 20, following Boston University’s 134th commencement, the School of Education community came together for the presentation of diplomas and to celebrate the Class of 2007. The ceremony, held at Metcalf Hall in the George Sherman Union was led by Dean Ad Interim Charles Glenn, who welcomed the guests and delivered the keynote address. Dean Glenn began by praising the students for choosing to pursue careers in education, stating “we need every one of those who are so called and gifted to teach our children.” Continuing with his address, titled Keep Your Hand on the Plow, Dean Glenn urged the graduates to “remain open to education in the fullest sense,” and not to lament if their interests and career paths shift down the road. “If we at SED have done our work as we should, our graduates would rather do anything else than become that burned-out teacher who has blighted so many young lives. If we have done our work as we should, our graduates would have too high a sense of the dignity of teaching to accept being anything less than fully engaged in the work.” The event also served as a forum to recognize outstanding achievements by members of the SED Class of 2007, including the Baccalaureate Summa Cum Laude recipients who were individually acknowledged for their academic success. The degrees awarded include Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Education, Master of Mathematics for Teaching, Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study and Doctor of Education.

SED's Donna Lehr and Nancy Harayama to host Scoring Conference: Pennsylvania Alternate System of Assessment
Professor Donna Lehr and Doctoral Student Nancy Harayama will host, along with colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, an annual scoring conference for approximately 1,000 teachers of students with severe disabilities. The teachers will be trained to use a specialized scoring rubric to evaluate videotaped performances of students with severe disabilities in the areas of reading and mathematics to meet the requirement of No Child Left Behind to assess all students, including those with the most severe disabilities, on statewide standards in reading, mathematics and, next year, science. Professor Lehr and Ms. Harayama work with the University of Pittsburgh team on the design, implementation, and evaluation of this system of assessment for the state of Pennsylvania.

SED honors alumni at annual Alumni Awards Dinner and Ceremony
Members of SED's more than 35,000 member alumni association nominated four outstanding alumni. All four were honored on May 15 at the Alumni Awards Dinner and Ceremony. Three honorees accepted their awards as the newest inductees to the Dean Arthur Herbert Wilde Society, initiated by the Alumni Board in 1988. The fourth award, the Ida M. Johnston Alumni Awards, honors Professor Ida M. Johnston at the time of her retirement from the faculty. Both awards are given to honor graduates of the School of Education for outstanding achievement and distinction in service to profession, community, or alma mater. Honorees include: The School of Education Ida M. Johnston Award: William K. Theirfelder, SED'89 The School of Education Arthur H. Wilde Society Award Alice A. Christie, SED'70 Kathleen A. Hollowell, GRS'71, SED'77 Joanne Kimball Sherman, SED'82,'84

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