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The vivid poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) was first brought into the United States in 1825 by Joel Robert Poinsett, while he was serving as the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico. He found the plants growing on a hillside near Taxco, Mexico. When he returned to the U.S., he sent the plants to different botanical gardens around the world. It wasn’t until 1850 that the first poinsettias were sold in the U.S. Today, more than 50 million poinsettias are sold each year. If you are lucky enough to receive a poinsettia during this season, here are some green-thumb tips for keeping it lovely: • Poinsettias require medium to bright light, but never full sun. • They prefer to be kept on the cool side, 65-70 degrees during the day and 55-60 at night. • They will lose leaves if they are exposed to temperatures below 50 degrees or above 80. • Keep your poinsettia away from heat sources and cold drafts. • Poinsettias prefer moderately moist soil, so when the soil begins to feel dry to the touch, add enough water so the excess drips out the drain holes, but never allow the plant to sit in water.
Enjoy your poinsettias and your holidays! |
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Holiday Message from Dean Marx
 | Dean Marx |
Holiday Greetings! We've had a remarkable year at the UA College of Education. As Arizona's first College of Education — with more than 30,000 living alumni! — we have served for decades as one of the nation's leading contributors to P-12 and higher education. At this time of year, our thoughts turn gratefully to those who have made our successes possible. I'd like to extend my gratitude to: - The faculty and researchers who tirelessly work to alleviate some of the toughest problems facing education today.
- The members of our community who reach out beyond the boundaries of our college and extend our services, knowledge, and creative activities to the state, the nation, and the world.
- The exemplary teachers, administrators, and mentors who can show children how to define the world in their own terms.
- Our amazing staff members who “put it all together,” despite tough challenges each year.
- Our committed students who remind us what hard work, dedication, and hope for the future look like.
- And last, but certainly not least, the friends and alumni who make our work possible. Without your support, we could not exist.
Sending warm holiday wishes to you and your loved ones,
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Ronald W. Marx
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Our Winning Alumni
 | Our alum, Marco Ramirez,
receives the Milken
Family Foundation
National Educator Award
— the "Oscar of education." |
In our last E-News, we told you about Kristin Bourguet, one of the College of Education’s Teach for Tucson graduates and a doctoral student in our Educational Leadership program, who was selected as the Arizona Teacher of the Year.
We’re thrilled to announce that another alum, Marco Ramirez, principal of Pueblo Gardens Elementary School, received a $25,000 national educator award, the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award. Pueblo Gardens, in the Tucson Unified School District, is the highest test scoring, low-income school in Arizona.
The Arizona Department of Education recommended Ramirez, along with five other state educators, from a pool of 100 Arizona applicants. Roger F. Pfeuffer, the TUSD superintendent, called the Milken award the “Oscar of education.” The Milken educator award is the largest educator recognition program in the country.
Ramirez, who has been an educator for more than 20 years, joined Pueblo Gardens as the principal six years ago. He was a Title I math and science department developer for TUSD for eight years and a Richey Elementary School teacher for six years.
Under his leadership, Pueblo Gardens was recognized as a TUSD school that is beating the odds this year. It was also recognized as a Benchmark School in Arizona last year and was the only Title I school in the TUSD rated “Highly Performing” in the 2004-05 school year. Pueblo Gardens has a 95 percent Hispanic enrollment with a high poverty rate.
Ramirez grew up in Nogales, lost his mother when he was a young man, and went on to mentor family members. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the UA in 1983, then went on for an elementary school teacher certification and a master’s degree from the Department of Language, Reading, and Culture.
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Professional Development Day for Student Teachers
It’s almost time for the Spring 2007 Student Teachers Professional Development Conference. On January 4, more than 325 student teachers will kick off their capstone experience with a day of intensive professional development. Seminars by nearly 40 presenters include differentiated instruction, English language learners, and classroom management. TIAA-CREF is the annual sponsor for this event (thank you, TIAA-CREF!) and will provide lunch for all attendees as part of its sponsorship. This year’s featured speaker is none other than Arizona’s Teacher of the Year, Kristin Bourguet.
For more information, contact Director of Field Experiences Shirley Fisher at sjfisher@u.arizona.edu or 621-5905.
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Tour of the Huhugam Heritage Center
 The Erasmus Circle is hosting an extraordinary membership event at Huhugam Heritage Center in Chandler, Arizona, on January 13.
The Huhugam Heritage Center tells the stories of the history, culture, and language of the peoples of the Gila River Indian Community and honors the ancient Huhugam through exhibitions, classes, programs, and its collections. The mission of the Huhugam Heritage Center is to ensure that the cultures of the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and the Pee Posh (Maricopa) peoples — and that of their ancestors — will survive and flourish for present and future generations.
This tour promises to be a remarkable experience, including native foods, basket dancers, and a special conversation with Dean Marx and Hartman Lomawaima, president of the College of Education Advisory Board and director of the Arizona State Museum.
For details, contact Director of Development Nina Daldrup at ekd@u.arizona.edu or 621-7143.
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Good Works
If you’ve ever been to a College of Education Convocation, you’ve no doubt heard the beautiful baritone voice singing the National Anthem. That remarkable sound comes from our very own Educational Leadership Senior Faculty Fellow John J. Pedicone. Not only does he have a delightful singing voice, he also happens to be quite successful as the president of the board of the Southern Arizona affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In fact, this affiliate just received the single biggest corporate donation in its history — $100,000 from Safeway. The check will be presented during a ceremony that happens to coincide with the College of Education Convocation (Thursday, December 14). Pedicone can’t be at the check presentation from Safeway because he’ll be singing the Star Spangled Banner for us! We think you’ll agree that John Pedicone deserves some recognition for his community service. Sadly, his mother and his sister died of breast cancer within months of each other, so this cause is near to his heart. He is one of a handful of men in the country working with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for a cure.
For more information, contact John Pedicone at pedicone@u.arizona.edu or 626-8605.
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Our Busy Faculty!
Our faculty members and graduate students have been abundantly busy this fall with presentations, publications, and appointments. Here’s just a sampling:  | Jeffrey Milem |
• Interim Department Head and Professor of Higher Education Jeffrey Milem was elected to a two-year term as member at large on the Governing Board for the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Milem also will be collaborating on The College Board’s Achieving Diversity in Higher Education Initiative. The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 5,000 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. Among its best-known programs are the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT®, and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®).
The College Board launched a project in the summer of 2004 to bring together legal and enrollment management experts to continue discussions about access and diversity policies. Through a series of meetings and other discussions with practitioners, the collaborative has developed strategic planning, legal, and policy tools to help institutions meet their diversity-related goals in ways that are legally sound. To date, three major topics have been addressed: - Financial aid and scholarships
- Outreach, recruitment, and retention
- Admissions (specifically selection)
Currently, Milem is working on “Evaluating and Implementing Race-Neutral Alternatives and Comprehensive Diversity Policies,” which he will present to The College Board in New York on December 14 and 15. Here's more on the collaborative.  | Jenny J. Lee |
• Assistant Professor of Higher Education Jenny J. Lee has been elected as 2007 program chair for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) International Conference. Lee also made numerous presentations at the ASHE conference in Anaheim in November, including “Diversity and Service-Learning: Extending the Discourse Towards Action” with Michelle Espino, a graduate student in the higher education program.
• Higher education graduate student Michael W. Simpson presented “The Federal Emergency Junior Colleges in New Jersey” at the Midwest History of Education Society’s national conference in Chicago in October. He also presented “Please Don’t Scare the White People: The American Indian College Student in the Borderlands” at the ASHE conference. In addition, Simpson recently published “Historical Observation of Contradiction as Constitutional Law: Wisconsin’s First School Finance Equity Case and Reforms Efforts to 1975” in Essays in Education, vol. 17; “Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Title VII” in the Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working Class History; and “The Student Affairs Researcher” in Student Affairs Law and Policy Weekly.
 | Ana Christina
DaSilva Iddings |
• Assistant Professor of Teaching and Teacher Education Ana Christina DaSilva Iddings published a book, Cooperative Learning and Teaching in the Second Language Classrooms, with coauthors S.G. McCafferty and G. Jacobs. She and her book coauthors also published the article, “Carnival in a Mainstream Kindergarten Classroom: A Bakhtinian Analysis of Second Language Learners’ ‘Off-Task’ Behaviors” in Modern Language Journal. Iddings and S.G. McCafferty also published a book chapter, “Second Language Learners and Cooperative Interactions in a Bilingual Kindergarten Classroom” in Cooperative Learning and Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. In addition, Iddings made the following presentations: “The New Latino Immigration to Tennessee: Opportunities and Challenges: An Educational Focus” at the University of Tennessee and “From Experience to Language: Re-assessing the Silent Period” with E.Y. Jang at the American Association for Applied Linguistics in Montreal, Canada.  | John Cheslock |
• Assistant Professor of Higher Education John Cheslock recently published “Gender Equity in Intercollegiate Athletics: Determinants of Title IX Compliance” in the Journal of Higher Education, along with Deborah Anderson and Ronald Ehrenberg. Cheslock and December doctoral graduate of higher education Trina Marie Callie presented “Growing Inequality in Faculty Salaries” at the ASHE conference in Anaheim.
Cheslock and graduate student Matt Gianneschi presented “Replacing State Appropriations with Alternative Revenue Sources: The Case of Voluntary Support” at the same conference. • Assistant Professor Alberto Arenas, who moved from Educational Leadership to Teaching and Teacher Education, recently published “Civic Service through Schools: An International Perspective” in Compare, along with EDL Professor and Department Head Kris Bosworth and H.P. Kwandayi. Arenas also wrote “Environmental Sustainability,” which appeared in the Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership. • Assistant Professor of LRC Iliana Reyes published “Exploring Connections Between Emergent Biliteracy and Bilingualism” in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy and “Sentence Interpretation Strategies in Emergent Bilingual Children and Adults” in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, along with A.E. Hernández.  | Iliana Reyes |
Reyes also has made numerous presentations this fall including “The Development of Emergent Biliteracy in Preschool Children” at the Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference in Los Angeles; “Literacy Practices in Mexican Immigrant Families” at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Jose, California; and “The Tucson Children’s Hope and Dreams Project” at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for the Education of Young Children in Atlanta, Georgia. • Faculty, students, and alumni in our Department of Language, Reading, and Culture just returned from the National Reading Conference in Los Angeles. More than 1,100 people attended the conference, “Literacy: Our Rich Traditions, Embracing New Directions, and Our Call to Action.” LRC faculty and students made numerous presentations at the conference.
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Upcoming Events |
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Convocation is upon us! Convocation is Thursday, December 14, at 4 p.m. in Centennial Hall. Our honored guests include Jana B. Kooi, president of Pima Community College’s Community Campus, and Kristin Bourguet, the Arizona Teacher of the Year. Now it's time to congratulate our outstanding students! Lindsay Gayle Dauenhauer
Outstanding Senior
College of Education
Abby Levin
Outstanding Elementary Student Teacher
Jason Campos
Outstanding Secondary Student Teacher Gary H. Austin
Outstanding Senior
Special Education, Rehabilitation & School Psychology |
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Proclamations from the Governor and Mayor
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| You may recall that the College of Education held a dedication for Ernestine “Ernie” H. Smith, a College of Education graduate whose vision and energy brought the prestigious West Regional Equity Network to our college. The dedication was a wonderful tribute, and her family was thrilled when it was announced that the College of Education not only named a suite of offices for her, but also had arranged for not one, but two, Ernestine “Ernie” H. Smith Days. One proclamation was from Mayor Walkup and the other was from Governor Napaolitano. Let it be known that November 10 is officially named — throughout the city and the state — after our dear friend, who passed away last December. If you'd like to see copies of the proclamations, contact Kimberly Jacobs at kajacobs@email.arizona.edu or 621-5263. |
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