Cato College of Education

Deborah Porter, a 2014 graduate of the master’s program in Teaching English as a Second Language and a former instructor in the English Language Training Institute in the Office of International Programs, has received a U.S. Department of State English Language Fellow award to Bethlehem University, West Bank, for 2014-15.

Porter will teach intensive English at Bethlehem University and join other English faculty to develop curriculum materials for the training of future English teachers.

Amy Palmer with the College of Education’s Department of Special Education and Child Development won a $250 U.S. Airways gift card as part of a Giving Green raffle. The drawing was held to encourage financial support for agencies within the State Employees Combined Campaign.

The College of Education’s Amy Palmer has spent virtually her entire working career as an advocate for children with special needs.
Currently, Palmer is the grants office manager in the Department of Special Education and Child Development, but she assumed the job after teaching special education for nearly 20 years.

Associate professor of education Tracy Rock is the 2014 recipient of the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence – one of the University’s most prestigious honors for faculty members.

Tracy Rock, an associate professor in the College of Education, is a finalist for the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence, one of the University’s most prestigious honors.

The First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal Committee is soliciting nominations for the 2015 award. This award recognizes outstanding scholarship, creativity and/or research among senior full-time faculty members. Each year the University with support from First Citizens Bank presents this award in order to recognize and foster the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and creative endeavors.

The Center for STEM Education has received third-year funding of $881,904 from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to continue to offer professional development for K-2 teachers in six school districts with the goal of improving students’ understanding of math concepts.

Amy Hawn Nelson, director of research at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and director of its Institute for Social Capital, recently was named to the 2014-16 class of William C. Friday Fellows for Human Relations.

The goal of the Friday Fellowship is to cultivate a network of “courageous leaders who connect across differences in identity and ideas to develop new solutions to the complex challenges facing the people and communities of North Carolina through a human relations lens.”

Spencer Salas, an associate professor of middle, secondary and K-12 education in the College of Education, recently returned from India and Nepal where he served as an English language specialist teacher trainer.
In India, Salas primarily worked with secondary school teachers of English who work in New Delhi’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Salas’ global efforts in India were funded by a grant from the U.S. State Department Regional English Language Office program and hosted by the State Council of Education Research and Training, an autonomous body of the Government of Delhi.

The UNC Charlotte Multicultural Play Therapy Center and Office of Educational Outreach in the College of Education will hold its eighth annual conference Monday, June 23, through Thursday, June 26.
According to Phyllis Post, director of the Multicultural Play Therapy Center, this event is an opportunity for professional and school counselors, social workers, psychologists and students to learn about play therapy and earn up to 24 continuing education credits.