Social Studies Grads Return in Triumph to Talk to Current Students

On Wednesday April 28, Matt Fox, Joy Kessler, and Ashley Reiff who teach in the area, and Rick Ingold, who is currently student teaching and interviewing for jobs, returned to ONU to talk with current students about their first-year experiences and the job search process. They joined current Social Studies students Jennifer Sherman, Beth Miller, Katherine Gualtiere, Lawren Neeley, Caitlin Kegley, Andy Zaebst, and Dr. Crawford for pizza, supplied by the HPJ Deparment in the Conference Room of Hill Building.

Fox, who teaches at Lima Senior High, Joy, who is at Lima Central Catholic, and Ashley who is teaching at Elida High School regaled the students with the adventures they have been encountering during their first year, some good and some not so. Fox mentioned breaking up fights, Joy told about an academic competition that she successfully brought to her school, and Ashley told them about her interview process when she faced questions from administrators and teachers who had taught her in the same school only a few years earlier. Ingold joined in, talking about his student teaching experience and his recent interviews. Crawford mostly sat back and listened with awe to see what professionals these graduates have become.

This was a great experience for the current students and a nice chance for the graduates to give advice to those who will soon join them in the field. Among the pertinent tips for finding a job were:

• Network with former teachers and coaches to get job leads
• You may want to identify where you want to teach, then bookmark their Human Resources page and check it each week. Job postings are sometimes very brief and not publicized on national sites, so one must watch them closely
• Make use of web services such as REAP, which allows teacher candidates to register online and makes resumes and credentials available to schools with openings in your subject area. REAP also has state specific sites, so you may want to narrow your focus to those states in which you would like to teach

Crawford told the gathered professionals and students that he was setting up Finding Social Studies Jobs, a new page for ONU students that brings together web sites that offer potential jobs in a single spot. Hopefully this will be helpful in finding positions for our students.

It was great to see all our grads who could come back and to see the teachers they have become. They provided a super example for our current students to emulate. Well done Matt, Joy, and Ashley!

Drs. Schul and Crawford accompany Students to OCSS Annual Meeting

Ten students, along with Drs. Schul (Education Department) and Crawford, traveled to Worthington, OH on Friday April 16 for the Ohio Council for the Social Studies Annual Meeting. Schul and Crawford, along with students, presented sessions to the gathered teachers.

Schul's session dealt with using desktop documentaries to engage student interest in history. He was joined in his presentation by Beth Miller and Lawren Neely, both Social Studies students, who told the audience of the process they went through to make their documentaries and then screened them. Miller's documentary was created as an assignment to place oneself in the shoes of another and consisted of a rap song intermixed with the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words and images of children. Neely's video was a mix of Depression Era songs by Woody Guthrie and images of the Dust Bowl years.

Crawford presented on the National Football League and Integration, and was joined by Rick Ingold and Andy Zaebst, who presented their lesson plans for making this a part of discussion of the Civil Rights Movement. Zaebst presented a lesson plan for discussing the reasons why integration happened relatively quickly in the NFL, but took longer for high schools. This led to a lively discussion by the audience and presenters. Rick Ingold then presented his lesson plan for discussing the Rooney Rule, which mandates that African-American candidates must be interviewed as part of the process of hiring a new head coach in the league.

All of the student presenters did a bang-up job in their presentations, and they were joined by several other students who also attended. Those students included Katherine DeMars, Jennifer Sherman, Trey Jones, Ryan Fleming, Jennifer Bazell, and Emily Spangler (Middle Childhood).

In addition to presenting and attending sessions given by practicing educators, the students also brought home a lot of free materials that they might use one day in their classrooms. This was a valuable experience for students, both in the ideas that they gained, and also in the chance to interact with professionals in their field, some of who may one day be in a position to hire them.

Students Take Teacher Licensure Orientation

Eight students and Professor Crawford traveled to the Metzger Nature Center last weekend to discuss using sport to teach the Social Studies, and the National Council for the Social Studies Ten Themes. After a hard day's work on Saturday, the group went to the theater in New Philadelphia to watch The Blind Side, a heartwarming story of a family that took in a homeless teenager who became an outstanding football player for Old Miss, and who now plays for the Baltimore Ravens.

As part of the program, students created and presented lesson plans to use sport in teaching the Social Studies. Keep your eye on this blog for their plans in the coming months.

As usual, Wayne and Carol King fed us more great food than we could eat!

Students who participated in the weekend seminar were (front row L-R) Beth Miller, Caitlin Kegley, Tom Walton, and (back L-R) Trey Jones, Ben Nauman, Andy Zaebst, Ryan Fleming, Zach Esterline. Professor Crawford is at the far right.

Another Student finds Teaching Position

Ashley Reiff, who graduated in February 2009, is now teaching 10th grade U.S. History and 11th grade government, as well as coaching junior varsity volleyball at Elida High School. The district hired Ashley in mid June and she reports that everything is going well in her new job.

With Ashley's news, all six Social Studies/History majors who graduated in 2008-2009 are safely at work (4) or attending graduate school (2).

Students Find Positions

Four ONU Social Studies majors graduated this past spring, and all have found positions for the fall. Joy Kessler (pictured in an earlier post) will be teaching Social Studies at Lima Central Catholic High School. Matt Fox will be teaching History at Lima Senior High School, and is also the Head Football Coach at Arcadia Middle School. Brian Hoefel (pictured in an earlier post) will be attending Akron University, working on his Masters Degree in History. Aaron Stiger will be attending Ashland University, where he will work for Residence Life and pursue a Masters Degree in Administration. Not pictured is Ross Spencer, who will be teaching in Arizona next year.

Well done to all of them, and we wish them the best of luck as they start their new careers!

Crawford Publishes Online Article

On July 27, Crawford's article "Bowling, Basketball, BCS, Baseball, and Birdies: Obama’s Use of Sport to Connect" was published on the History News Network. Crawford argued that President Obama has expanded the presidential use of sport, interjecting games into nomination speeches, appearing on commercials for sporting events, and inserting the office of the presidency into debates over controversial issues in the sporting world. For instance:

• When the president nominated Sonya Sotomayor, he prominently mentioned her role in ending the 1994 Baseball Strike, establishing her bona fides as a true blue American.
  
• As a candidate, Obama recorded an opening commercial for Monday Night Football, and joined announcers in the booth for the MLB All Star Game, using a game analysis of the Bears' chances to further his chances for the presidency.
• He inserted the office of the president into the debate over the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), calling for its end and encouraging a playoff system for Division I Football.

Crawford argues that this represents an expansion of the presidents role in the use of sports. While presidents since Theodore Roosevelt have participated in sport as players or participants and have used their "bully pulpit" to encourage sporting behavior, the current president, so far in his administration has increased his visibility in the sporting world and in his use of sport to connect to the American people.

Crawford and Schuck grade AP U.S. History

Professors Russ Crawford and Ray Schuck travelled to Louisville, KY from June 4 to 11 to serve as readers for the Educational Testing Service’s Advanced Placement U.S. History exams. They were among 1100 readers who waded through over 300,000 exams taken by high school students from around the nation. The work was hard, but the pay was good, and it also offered a chance to network with educational professionals from around the nation and world. Crawford made contact with a fellow grad of the University of Nebraska who teaches English and History at the University of Perm in Russia, and they made plans to cooperate in online guest lectures during the next year. There was also time to enjoy the city and the two attended a Louisville Bats (AAA Cincinnati) baseball game as well as getting in some golf at one of Fuzzy Zoeller’s nearby courses.