for Play Therapy provides the largest play therapy training program in the world, with graduates duplicating the program at other universities around the globe. And innovative bilingual programs are being created to meet changing demographics. Even with all of these achievements and special programs, educating the educators comes down to the basics, says Kathryn Everest (’80, ’90 M.Ed.), a former teacher and counselor who also earned her mid-management/administration certification from UNT in 2000. She serves as director of guidance and counseling for the Fort Worth ISD and sits on the State Board of Educator Certification, which monitors the teacher preparation program. “UNT teaches the importance of relationships and rigor,” she says. “You have to develop the relationships with your kids and your colleagues. The more there’s that trust and communication, the more there’s that connection to learning.” ONE CLASSROOM TO ANOTHER When Costa entered her classroom, she knew what to expect. As a student teacher, she learned about curriculum and planning lessons, with opportunities to teach those lessons at different schools. But the Teach North Texas faculty provided her with subtler teaching techniques that would serve her well, too. John Quintanilla, professor of mathematics and co-director of Teach North Texas, often asked offbeat, sometimes difficult questions that students pose and then would have the future teachers answer them as practice, Costa says. “One of my students asked me a question about statistics,” she says. “So, to get him to think it through, I asked him,
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‘What do you think?’ And he answered his own question.” UNT’s Teach North Texas program was initiated with $2.4 million in grants from the Greater Texas Foundation and the National Mathematics and Science Initiative and further supported by the Texas Instruments Foundation. The program began in fall 2008 as a partnership between the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences and prepares students to teach science, technology, engineering and mathematics. UNT has been a leader in developing innovative education programs, going back to 1914, when it became one of the first colleges in the nation to offer a professional development model by establishing the training, or demonstration school. As a student in the 1970s, Stella Cook Bell (’73) says her professors emphasized that kindergarten would be an important and growing field, as early childhood education was proving to help increase the learning of disadvantaged students prior to entering elementary school. UNT’s training also was holistic and interdisciplinary, with instruction in the social, emotional, intellectual and physical aspects of students’ lives. “I learned the importance of educating the whole child,” says Bell, who went on to earn a doctorate and worked 29 years as a teacher and principal in the Austin ISD. During that same decade, Elva Concha LeBlanc (’75, ’78 M.Ed., ’86 Ph.D.) earned her bachelor’s degree, then went to work as a kindergarten teacher in the Fort Worth ISD. In the evenings, she pursued her master’s in early childhood education and Spanish literature. LeBlanc — now president of Tarrant County College’s Northwest Campus
First doctoral degrees offered in education and music (first doctoral graduate in 1953)
— tested theories she was learning in class at her job, creating an environment for active learning by arranging the classroom into centers for art, math, books and pretend play. She also understood the importance of assessing student progress and preparing portfolios to identify areas in which students needed additional support. “It made quantum sense,” she says. PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE AND BEYOND Teachers who want to advance to higher levels — whether as counselors or administrators — often are taught at UNT by working professionals who give them a first-hand look at the world they’re pursuing. Adjunct professor Andra Penny (’73, ’76 M.Ed., ’96 Ph.D.) says one of the first questions she asks the graduate students who take her educational administration, communication and finance courses is, “Are you sure?” Penny definitely knows the field. She taught elementary school for 20 years and has been principal for Cottonwood Elementary School in Coppell for 16 years. She also teaches courses on teaching, learning and assessment at the Summer Principals Academy at Columbia Teachers College in New York City and Tulane University in New Orleans. She has served as president of the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association. “I’m going to tell you like it is,” she says. “It’s beyond the book.” Most of Penny’s students are professionals, so she says she can relate to them. “I can identify and understand what they’re going through.” And UNT’s graduate school provides financial resources for aspiring superintendents, such as the Southwest Securities Superintendent Certification
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Education Building (now named Matthews Hall) built