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LC’s School of Education continues to offer its majors international opportunities to complete their professional semester – consisting of two student teacher placements – and has added Shanghai, China, and Plzen, Czech Republic, as two new settings. “International teaching experiences give our education majors opportunities to live and serve abroad while satisfying Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction requirements,” said Prof. James Holman, director of the teacher education program.
During spring semester 2014, teacher candidates Min (Jolie) Xu and Hannah Stellick were assigned their first nine-week candidacy placement at SMIC, a large international school system in Shanghai. Both students returned to campus for their second nine-week placement in the Milwaukee area. This fall, Min Xu will begin teaching at SMIC, where she has been hired for the 2014-2015 term. Stellick will begin teaching fourth grade at Divine Savior Lutheran Academy in Doral, Florida, this fall.
Prof. Martin Miller ’94 (center) and Prof. Alan Bitter (right), assistant professors of education at WLC, visited with Základní škola Martina Luthera administrator Martin Vršecký in Plzen, Czech Republic in March 2014 to finalize details of a new partnership. WLC students will be able to complete the first portion of their teacher candidacy program at Základní škola Martina Luthera, the top school in Plzen. Several students from the Czech school visited WLC in May. After attending chapel, they met with senior Melanie Laete (back, right), an education major who will begin her teacher candidacy in the Czech Republic at Základní škola Martina Luthera this fall, teaching seventh and eighth grade English and science.
Education alumna honored
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abbie (Shiels) Zastrow ’12, an eighth-grade teacher at Pilgrim Park Middle School in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, was given an Early Career Educator Award by WLC’s School of Education in conjunction with the Wisconsin Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. WLC education professors James Holman (left) and Alan Bitter (right), presented the award this spring; Pilgrim Park’s principal, Mike Sereno, joined them.
The Early Educator Award is presented to an outstanding educator within the first three years of his or her career based on a combination of any of the following: positive impact on schools and communities, innovation in designing learning experiences, and student advocacy.
Garvey receives award
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n fall 2013, Lisa Paul, author of Swimming in the Daylight, WLC’s 2013 “campus read,” announced plans to present a “Daylight Award” to a WLC student who makes a difference for a cause he or she believes in.
The recipient was Anna Garvey, a biochemistry major. She wrote an essay about her work with the Pathways to College program, where she tutors underprivileged students who sometimes can’t see that they can have a bright future despite an often challenging start in life. Garvey received the Daylight Award from WLC associate professor of education Dr. Rebecca Parker Fedewa ’01 (above, left) during Honors Convocation in May. Wisconsin Lutheran College | 17
student news
New international settings for teacher candidates