Spring 2024 Newsletter
It has been a busy year in the Department of Education.
We are excited to confirm that our teacher education program meets rigorous state and national standards for educator preparation, including our initial teacher licensure program, which has been fully accredited for the next seven years by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP). We are grateful to many Wake Forest University and Department of Education faculty, staff, administrators, and students, as well as to our local school and community partners, who have played critical roles in supporting the work we do in teacher education. Many of these stakeholders were instrumental leading up to and during our accreditation site visit in October 2023.
Sincerely,
Alan Brown, Chair
Connect with us!
Faculty Spotlight
DR. LEAH MCCOY
Dr. Leah McCoy, Professor of Mathematics Education, was published in The Washington Post recently. Her article, titled “Even Adults Learn from the Popular Video Game, Which Builds on an Important Math Concept,” discusses how Tetris promotes useful concepts for building skills used by architects, engineers, graphic designers, and animators. The article was also published in The Conversation and describes how manipulating game pieces is an exercise in dynamic spatial reasoning.
DR. DEBBIE FRENCH
Dr. Debbie French, Assistant Professor of Science Education, was recently awarded the Dr. Don Bailey University/College Distinguished Service Award for exceptional service to science education in North Carolina. The award was presented at the North Carolina Science Teachers Association (NCSTA) Annual Conference. Dr. French teaches general education courses, science education courses, and a First Year Seminar, titled CO2 and the Future of Earth.
Pictured: Dr. Debbie French (right) with Brad Rhew, NSTA
Section 5 Leader and STEM Coach in Guilford County Schools.
DR. LENI CALDWELL
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Leni Caldwell has accepted a new position as Assistant Teaching Professor in the Wake Forest Department of Education, which will begin on July 1, 2024. She will continue teaching classes related to elementary literacy
interventions, exceptional children, arts integration, and instructional design, assessment, and technology. Congratulations, Dr. Caldwell!
Transportation Associates
Part-time transportation associates in the Department of Education are former school educators or administrators with a positive demeanor and an eagerness to support teacher education. They serve our pre-service educators and university students by transporting them in 12-passenger vans to local schools for clinical experiences, classroom observations, tutoring, and other educational programming. These departmental staff members support faculty as needed and serve as informal mentors to students. They have become an invaluable resource to the department and have allowed us to significantly increase the time our students spend in schools as part of their coursework and fieldwork. The program is supported by the family of a former student and through partnerships with the Dean’s Office, Parking & Transportation, and Campus Recreation.
Jon Williams
Jon Williams (‘95) is a retired principal with experience in WS/FCS and Rockingham County Schools. He was the last winner of WFU’s Marcellus Waddill Award in 2013.
Melita Wise
Melita Wise is a retired principal in WS/FCS, most recently at North Forsyth High School and Hanes Magnet Middle School.
Dack Stackhouse
Dack Stackhouse (‘95) taught in the United States and Thailand, most recently working as a language arts teacher at Summit School.
Kathy Wilheit
Kathy Wilheit retired as an elementary literacy coach for WS/FCS. She has also worked as an instructional facilitator and ESL teacher.
New Books from Our Faculty
Dr. Linda Nielsen
Myths and Lies About Dads: How They Hurt Us All is a groundbreaking book that destroys more than 100 of the most damaging beliefs about fathers. Using the most recent research, Nielsen’s new book exposes these baseless beliefs about dads and describes the toll they take on children’s relationships with their fathers, parents’ relationships with one another, and the physical and mental health of fathers and mothers. Having awarded her book one of their coveted “stars,” Kirkus Review of books praises her work: “Nielsen writes in a lucid, down-to-earth style that’s free of academic cant and replete with tart wisdom.”
Dr. Michele Myers
Dr. Michele Myers teamed up with Dr. Linda Mayes, Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology and Director of the Yale Child Study Center, to offer practical techniques that help students deal with the many challenges. they face in life. In their book, The Educator’s Guide to Building Child and Family Resilience (2023), they show how to build resilience-promoting skills through quality children’s literature, routines, and activities to create a classroom where all children thrive. As children develop those skills, they connect more deeply with peers, teachers, families, and community members and build key reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.
Dr. Alan Brown
Dr. Alan Brown and colleagues, Dr. Luke Rodesiler (Purdue University Fort Wayne) and Dr. Mark Lewis (James Madison University), have collaborated on a new book published by the National Council of Teachers of English called Reading the World through Sports and Young Adult Literature. Recommended and award-winning works of young adult literature featuring youth athletes—protagonists who are entangled not only in athletic competition but in the complications of life beyond the arena—offer secure footholds that students can use to explore contemporary sociopolitical issues. With chapters addressing timely topics, this book supports practicing and prospective teachers in using sports and literature to advance critical literacy and to help students reimagine the world as they know it.
