Here are your Monday Minutes for February 15-19, 2021. 

Please make a point of reading this email every Monday (or Tuesday), as it highlights key department announcements, opportunities, and events, particularly events hosted by one of the Department of Education’s student clubs. It covers everything you need to know in a single email message.

From the Department Head 

Dear Colleagues and Students, 

February is Black History Month, and I’d like to share some resources on Buffalo Soldiers. According to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, “The heroism of the soldiers has been celebrated by filmmakers, musicians, military reenactors, and descendants who want to preserve their legacy. Yet that legacy is a complex one and raises challenging questions about the relationship of the soldiers to the government they served as well as to the Native peoples they fought.” Additionally, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian has an online exhibition about African-Indigenous lives in the Americas, which further illustrates the complex shared history of Indigenous and Black peoples. Finally, you may be interested in this PBS documentary about the 25th Infantry's bicycle trip from Missoula, Montana, to St. Louis, Missouri in 1897. This Black infantry took the trip to test a theory that the bicycle would replace the horse in transporting men for the army. 

I hope that these resources help you learn more about Black and Indigenous histories during February.

Take good care,

 Ann Dutton Ewbank's signature 

Dr. Ann Ewbank

From the Advising Office

  • EDSP 458 will not be offered in Fall 2021. Students in the Special Education option or endorsement or the Elementary Education major with the Early Childhood Education option who were planning to take EDSP 458 in Fall 2021 should discuss options with their advisor. The course will be offered again in Spring 2022.
  • Students planning to take their first methods or practicum (EDM or EDP) course in Fall 2021 should apply to the Teacher Education Program. Applications are due Tuesday, February 16.
  • Elementary Education, General Science Broadfield, and Social Studies Broadfield majors planning to student teach in Fall 2021 should set up a graduation advising appointment with David or Cyndi by February 24. Students in other teaching majors will need to meet with their departmental advisors. Graduation applications are due March 1.
  • The Education Advising Center is currently offering remote advising only.
    • Phone or Webex Appointments: M-F, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm, as available. You can schedule appointments at www.montana.edu/education/advising/calendars.html.
    • And, as always, you can contact us via email or phone. We’re available to respond during normal business hours (M-F, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm).
  • All Monday Minutes are archived and available for your reference.
  • Make sure to check the MSU COVID-19 webpage frequently as university and system-wide updates are available all in one place.

Events

  • The Center for Bilingual and Multicultural Education is pleased to provide a spring webinar series on Preserving Indigenous Languages.  All webinars will take place on Wednesdays, from 2:00-3:30 (Mountain time).  Please see the attached flyers and the additional information on the book presentations by Dr. Crawley and Dottie Susag. Zoom links are provided below. 

Opportunities

  • MSU Rec Sports and Fitness is hiring summer camp staff: Rec. Sports and Fitness is revving up for another fun season of summer camp and we are looking for motivated candidates to apply for our counselor positions which start at $11 an hour. Please visit http://www.montana.edu/getfit/facilities-and-staff.html to see details about each position and for application instructions. If you’re curious about our program feel free to reach out to samantha.garcia2@montana.edu or visit our website at www.montana.edu/getfit!
  • Elementary Education majors needed for research study: The project involves situating preservice teachers within assessment and instructional scenarios that elicit thinking and rationale for decisions they would make in teaching (as much as 2-hours on Qualtrics). Researcher will follow up with 45-minute Zoom interviews with a sample of teacher candidates to learn about their perspectives and beliefs about learning and assessment, and further learn about the assessment actions they would take with students. Participants would receive a $30 gift certificate for participating. See the attachment for more information and to sign up.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Resources

  • February is Black History Month. While it is important to center Black history every day, this month provides a special opportunity to honor the past and present contributions of Black Americans. Take some time to learn about Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins, who fled his home country of Liberia during a brutal civil war, survived starvation and separation from his family, arrived in Helena through the Refugee Resettlement Program, became an American citizen and the first Black mayor in Montana history.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

  • Congratulations to those involved in last week’s MSU Giving Day! Thanks to your generosity, our department-sponsored projects collectively raised over $12,000! These funds will support kids with and without additional needs in a summer camp setting, opportunities for middle and high school students to participate in Science Olympiad, and a resource library for folks to learn about the gifts and strengths that individuals with dyslexia have.
  • Are you on social media? So is the Department of Education and the College of EHHD. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/edubozmt/ and on Twitter @MSU_EHHD (https://twitter.com/MSU_EHHD).

 

Take care,

David Reese
Academic Advisor
MSU Department of Education
davidreese@montana.edu
406.994.5948
he/him/his

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