Stephen Phelps, professor, Elementary Education and Reading, chaired the session “Examining Culturally Responsive Teaching Possibilities Using International, Global, and/or Multicultural Children’s and Young Adult Literature” at the National Reading Conference held in Austin, Texas, November 27–December 1. As part of this session, he presented his own research paper on “Resources for Teaching about Islam in Middle and High School.”

Pixita del Prado Hill, assistant professor; Stephen Phelps, professor; and Ellen Friedland, associate professor, Elementary Education and Reading, published a research article titled “Pre-Service Educators’ Perceptions of Teaching in an Urban Middle School Setting: A Lesson from the Amistad” in the Fall 2007 edition of Multicultural Education 15 (1): 33–37.

Pixita del Prado Hill, assistant professor; Stephen Phelps, professor; and Ellen Friedland, associate professor, Elementary Education and Reading, published a research article titled “Pre-Service Educators’ Perceptions of Teaching in an Urban Middle School Setting: A Lesson from the Amistad” in the Fall 2007 edition of Multicultural Education 15 (1): 33–37.

Pixita del Prado Hill, assistant professor; Stephen Phelps, professor; and Ellen Friedland, associate professor, Elementary Education and Reading, published a research article titled “Pre-Service Educators’ Perceptions of Teaching in an Urban Middle School Setting: A Lesson from the Amistad” in the Fall 2007 edition of Multicultural Education 15 (1): 33–37.

A contributed paper by Jane Cushman, assistant professor, Mathematics, was discussed during the Assessment of Student Learning in Undergraduate Mathematics session at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego, California, January 6–9. The title of her talk was “Developing a Survey to Assess Pre-Service Teachers’ Views and Uses of Problem-Solving in Mathematics.” Cushman was also invited to take part in the panel discussion “Vibrant Math Clubs.”

Susan Baldwin, assistant professor, Health and Wellness, was one of 11 health educators selected from across the country to be a trainer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH). In October, Baldwin received extensive training over two days to train others in conducting needs assessments that involve schools and their surrounding communities. The needs assessment tool is called the School Health Index (SHI) and is used across the country as well as internationally. Baldwin has used this tool in local schools and community agencies such as Gateway Longview Inc., the Holland Central Schools, and the Buffalo Public Schools. She was invited by the Hawaii Department of Health and Department of Education to conduct an extensive eight-hour training on the SHI tool.

Zhang Jie, professor, Sociology, and director, Center for China Studies, published his article “Attitudes towards Suicide among Rural Chinese in Dalian Areas,” coauthored with Yuanyuan Kong and Li Zhou, in theChinese Journal of Behavioral Medical Science 16 (11): 1013–1015 (in Chinese).

Mark Warford, associate professor, Modern and Classical Languages, accepted an invitation from the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers to serve as coeditor for the organization’s 2008 annual meeting publication with Eileen Angelini of Canisius College. The theme for both the conference and the publication is “Teaching Languages in a Changing World: Rethinking Literacies and Learners.”

Work by Carol Townsend,chair and associate professor, Design, titled Southwest Stoolshas been accepted for publication in the new book 500 Chairs (Lark Books, May 2008).

John Thompson, associate professor, Computer Information Systems, gave a one-hour presentation, “Web 2.0 Applications for Educators,” at the annual FETC (Florida Educational Technology Conference) in Orlando, Florida, January 22–25. FETC is one of the largest conferences in the United States dedicated to educational technology. Thompson also presented a paper, “A Study into the Spelling of Technology Terms,” at the 2007 Annual NYSCATE (New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education) Conference in Rochester, New York, November 17–20. The paper was the cooperative work with students in one of his graduate courses. The students conducted original research and contributed to the writing of the paper. All 16 students were included as co-authors in the paper.