University of New Haven | Department Spotlight

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Q: The state has lately been mining the expertise of which department?

A: The Department of Education.

Meet the Staff (above image)

The University’s Department of Education, right-hand row from top: Susanne Murphy, director of student teaching; Elaine Blosick, technology coordinator; Judy Randi, associate professor of Education; Patricia Maiorino, practitioner in residence; Ellen Flannery, Education secretary; Nick Maiorino, coordinator of internships. Left-hand row from top: John Ciochine, Capstone coordinator; Paulette Pepin, chair, Education, and associate professor, Education and History; Phyllis Gwatkin, certification officer; Robert Law, practitioner in residence; David Perry, practitioner in residence.

Missing: Dr. Louise Soares, professor Education.

An interview with Paulette Pepin, chair, the Department of Education

Briefly, what are the goals and priorities for you and your department, and how do you manage to accomplish them?

=	Increasing enrollment both in the graduate and undergraduate programs
=	Expanding elective course offerings
=	Collaborative outreach to the K-12 community, especially with the UNH and West Haven Public Schools involvement with the new magnet school to be located on the UNH campus that will have a Mathematics, Science and Engineering curriculum for Grades 6-12
=	Developing new programs for practitioners currently teaching and school leaders as well as business leaders

Tell us a little about you and your department.

Elaine Blosick, MS/Central Connecticut State University Technology Coordinator	Elaine Blosick is the Education Department’s technology coordinator. She instructs faculty, staff, and students in the use of computer programs: Blackboard, Tegrity, Inspiration, and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access). CEU coordinator for the University, she designs and maintains the department’s Access database; maintains and analyzes grant/department budgets, prepares contracts and financial forms; updates the department’s webpage, writes documentation, designs and edits all newsletters, brochures and flyers. She taught ED 683 - Computer Applications for Teachers for the Department. Before coming to UNH, she was director of Instructional Computing and the Computer Education training manager for Simmons College. She was also a textbook Media/Software Development editor for Houghton Mifflin and D. C. Heath publishing companies.
John Ciochine, 6th Year/Fairfield University Lecturer - Mathematics Capstone Coordinator	John Ciochine coordinates and supervises the Capstone program. His teaching responsibilities include the ED 601-Introduction to Education course as well as ED 621E-Teaching Strategies in Elementary Mathematics and 683-ED Computer Applications. He comes from a background of 40 years in public education as a teacher and curriculum coordinator at the elementary and middle school settings in the areas of mathematics and technology.
Ellen Flannery Education Department Secretary	Before arriving in the New Haven area, Ellen lived and worked for a number of years in New York. She has been secretary to the Education Department, and is delighted to be a member of this department.
Phyllis Gwatkin, MS/Fordham University CAJS St. Joseph College Certification Officer	Phyllis Gwatkin serves as the certification officer for the department. She evaluates the transcripts of potential candidates, answers questions regarding certification, and meets with student teachers to ensure that all certification requirements have been met. She started her career teaching biology in public schools and then moved into private school. She has taught 9th grade biology, AP biology, and Contemporary Issues in Biology. At UNH she has taught the non-major biology course. Professionally, she has been the past chair of the Professional Development Committee for the Connecticut State Science Teachers Association.
Robert Law, 6th Year/Southern Connecticut State University School Psychologist Practitioner In Residence	Robert Law has been an adjunct for the Education Department for many years and is currently a full-time PIR teaching our Special Needs and Contemporary Issues courses. Before joining the department, Bob was employed as a school psychologist with the West Haven Public Schools. He brings valuable expertise to our program as we revise the curriculum to include key special-needs components.
Patricia G. Maiorino, 6th Year/Southern Connecticut State University English/Language Arts Practitioner In Residence	Patricia Maiorino joined the Education Department as a practitioner in residence in the fall of 2004 after having served as an adjunct since 1999. Her instructional responsibilities include teaching courses to prepare secondary Language Arts candidates, teaching the introductory course for the Education program and teaching Organization and Structure of the Secondary School. She also supervises interns and student teachers. For 34 years, she served the education profession as a secondary English teacher and reading specialist.
Nick Maiorino, 6th Year/Southern Connecticut State University Coordinator of Internships and Recruitment	Nick Maiorino serves as the coordinator of Internships and Recruitment for the Education Department. Nick has been with the department since 1993, first as an adjunct teaching elementary and secondary science methods courses. In 1998, after retiring as Science Coordinator for the North Branford Public Schools, he joined the department full-time in his current position. He also conducts all the public information sessions for prospective students as well as recruiting school districts for the Internship program.
Susanne Murphy, 6th Year Southern Connecticut State University Lecturer English/Language Arts Director of Student Teaching	Susanne Murphy serves as director of Student Teaching and is a full-time non-tenure-track faculty member. She holds Connecticut state certification as a superintendent of schools, an intermediate administrator, and an elementary teacher. Her 31 years of professional experience includes classroom teaching, program leadership in instruction for the academically talented, grade level principalships, and service as the director of Curriculum and Instruction, and assistant superintendent of schools.
Paulette L. Pepin, Ph.D. Fordham University Associate Professor Education and Historical/Social Studies Interim Chair - Education Department	Joining the faulty in 1994, Paulette Pepin is interim chair of the Education Department as well as the Coordinator of Curriculum and Faculty Development. She holds a Connecticut state certification in secondary Social Studies education and has brought her expertise in history and Social Studies education to the Education Program, where she also supervises secondary Social Studies student teachers and has scored BEST portfolios. She has designed and implemented the secondary Social Studies strategies course. She is a member of the History Department where she teaches undergraduate and graduate History courses. In the field of Social Studies education she has presented papers on “Inquiry Lesson-Medieval Hispania: A Source of Representative Government,” and "Teaching United States History: A Creative Method" and has pursued scholarship in the field of Medieval Spain. She is currently working on revising the Western Civilization curriculum with a focus on incorporating Iberia’s unique and significant contributions to western intellectualism and knowledge.
David Perry, Ed.D. Columbia University History/Social Studies Practitioner In Residence	David Perry began his association with the University as an adjunct in January 2001. He joined the Education Department as a practitioner in residence in July 2006. His current responsibilities include teaching graduates and undergraduates in the Education and History departments, coordinating the Education program at the Southeast campus in New London, and placing intern candidates in school systems contiguous to our three campus sites. Prior to coming to the university, Dr. Perry was a public high school principal in two Connecticut school systems from 1985 to 2006.
Judy Randi, Ed.D. Teachers College Columbia University Curriculum Associate Professor Education	After serving as an adjunct at UNH since 1996, Judy Randi joined the faculty as a full-time teacher educator in the Fall of 2001. She teaches courses in Curriculum, Educational Psychology, General Education, and Language Arts. She advises the West Haven campus elementary interns and supervises independent studies and research projects. She also supervises student teachers and interns, conducts BEST training sessions for new cooperating teachers and has scored BEST portfolios.
Louise Soares, Ph.D.***** University of Illinois Professor of Education	Louise Soares has been involved with the Education Department since its inception in 1992. She established the internship program that was based upon three concepts: a cluster curriculum, the immersion principle and collateral training. She teaches courses in Educational Psychology, Human Growth and Development, and Measurement, Assessment and Evaluation. She has recently studied the latest findings in neuroscience as a member of the Learning and Brain Society of Harvard University, and has incorporated much of that knowledge into her teaching.

What are some of the biggest challenges for your faculty and staff?

Human Resources:

Having sufficient number of faculty:

We have three full-time tenured professors (two Ph.Ds – History and Psychology and an Ed.D) and five non-tenured faculty members (they hold sixth-year degrees with more than 32 years work experience in K-12 school settings), all of whom are exceptionally qualified. The faculty, plus Nick, who coordinates interns, and Phyllis, our certification officer, recruit students, advise, teach, design and implement curriculum, review students credentials before entering and at the conclusion of the certification/MS program and research and write our accreditation reports.

We hire 25 to 30 adjuncts per academic year. Please take note that we are a primarily a post-baccalaureate certification master’s degree program, offering certification in elementary (Grades K-6) and secondary (Grades 7-12) in Biology, Business Education, Chemistry, Earth Science, English/Language Arts, General Science, Mathematics, Physics, and Social Studies.

We have been working with several of the Arts and Science departments to encourage them to enroll in our undergraduate program (i.e., Bachelor’s Plus), but this program is really in its infancy.

Share an anecdote or two about your experiences with the department.

A little story about our latest accomplishment:

“Best time I have ever had at an interview session, “said one of our accreditation team members on his way out of March 2007 interview meeting with our current students.

The students had shared their passion and excitement about the program. They were thrilled to be learning about how to be teachers, and were looking forward to having their own classrooms.

After six months of sleepless nights and endless meetings revising our IR (i.e., the accreditation Report or “Institutional Report”), we were pleased that the accreditation team final report indicated that we had successfully passed all six standards (Connecticut State Department of Education or CSDE has adopted the very rigorous national standards for NCATE or National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.)

Later our delight was increased when this summer, the CSDE program review office asked us if they could use our IR, plus all our lesson and portfolios and their accompanyiny rubrics to train the new accreditation review team for this coming year.

Several members of the deptartment will be collaborating with CSDE in enhancing of accreditation process for future institutions.

“It is nice to have hard work rewarded and many hands do make a burden lighter,” remarked Paulette Pepin at a department celebration following the official accreditation.