Fall 2008 TC TT The Magazineoo of Teachersdada College , Columbiayy University Shaping the Future of Nursing Elaine Tagliareni (Ed.D., ’01), President of the National League of Nursing, is redefining opportunity in the helping profession In This Issue • Tailoring Teaching to Students • The Klingenstein Center at Thirty TCToday Up for Debate Lisa Graham Keegan (left) and Linda Darling-Hammond (center), education advisors to John McCain and Barack Obama, debated at TC in October. TC President Susan Fuhrman moderated. See story on page 4. PHOTOGRAPH BY RYAN BRENIZER Fall 2008 ConteVnOLUMEts 33 • NO. 1 FeaTureS DeParTmenTS Letters 2 12 Shaping the Future President’s Letter 3 of Nursing TC Campus News 4 by Jonathan Sapers The education debate; TC in the Elaine Tagliareni is fighting for greater community and around the world opportunity for graduates of two-year First Editions 11 associate degree programs TC’s faculty in print Alumni News 30 18 Bottling the Magic Global awareness through by Joe Levine “edutainment,” alumni of note Great teachers are born, but through adaptive End Note 44 instruction, great teaching can be made Professor W. Warner Burke on learning from the military 24 The Power of Friends of the College 45 Independent Thinking Trustee Chris Williams believes in high-stakes education by Ryan Brenizer The Klingenstein Center is improving In Focus Back Cover education by developing leaders who For James Rolling (Ed.D., ’03), constantly question it—and themselves creative practice makes perfect TC Letters to the Editor TCToday FALL 2008 TC Today, the magazine of Teachers College, From our readers is produced by the Office of Development and External Affairs Opinions, advice and food for thought at Teachers College, Columbia University. VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS EARLY MATH: NET GAIN early childhood education. My classroom Suzanne M. Murphy To the editor, experience was at the middle school level. In his essay “Preschool Math: Why Therefore, my challenge is to find tools TC Today Staff it Adds Up” (TC Today, Spring 2008), TC that take advantage of the new possibili- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS faculty member Herbert Ginsburg talks ties today’s Web offers that are appropri- Joe Levine about the need to engage preschoolers in ate to this age level. DIRECTOR OF MEDIA RELATIONS learning activities conducive to the devel- I recently was trying to take on this Patty Lamiell opment of math skills. Dr. Ginsburg sug- challenge by finding videos on the Web DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF THE TC WEB gests that these activities can even include that would demonstrate how teachers Paul Acquaro “teacher-guided projects of complex topics.” were using Web technologies for teaching (M.A., Instructional Technology, 2004) His closing statement—“After all, before and learning. I found a video on YouTube ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS the Web was invented, no one knew that about Kathy Cassidy, a first grade teacher Lisa A. Farmer four-year-olds would be capable of using from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, SENIOR WRITER it”—was actually an opening prompt for whose students create blogs and wikis. Ms. Victor Inzunza me to reflect on the possibilities that even Cassidy was also profiled in schoollibraryjour- ASSOCIATE WEB EDITOR a medium like the Web, which can be nal.com and edtechtalk.com. Her work sup- Maurice Zide thought of as complex for kids at this age ports Dr. Ginsburg’s belief in the capability ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT level, could be taken advantage of as kids of young kids to use the Web, specifically in Kalena Rosario develop early math skills. the development of math skills. Hopefully, EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS As Assistant Professor of disseminating the efforts of researchers like Melissa Christy, Elise Martingale Educational Technology at St. John’s Dr. Ginsburg and practitioners like Ms. ART DIRECTION University, I have the responsibility Cassidy can help demonstrate that this is Deirdre Reznik to expose my students to a variety of possible and inspire our early childhood (M.A., Applied Linguistics, 2004) instructional technologies they can later teachers to engage in the development of CONTRIBUTING WRITER adopt in their practice as classroom even complex math skills. Jonathan Sapers teachers. One of the areas that I have Brenda Lopez Ortiz to put more effort into is identifying Ed.D., Instructional Technology potentially beneficial technologies for and Media, 2006 TC Today, Fall 2008 Vol. 33, No. 1 Copyright 2008 On The Cover by Teachers College, Columbia University Elaine Tagliareni (seated, center) TC Today is published twice per year by Teachers College, Columbia University. Articles may be reprinted with the with nursing students (from left) permission of the Office of External Affairs. Mary D’Ambra, Dana Wilks, Yavonda F. Please send alumni class notes, letters to the editor, Williams, Susana Rodriguez, Giovanni address changes and other correspondence to: Del Vecchio, Tracie Comuso and Tonya TC Today Office of External Affairs Cooper at the Community College of 525 West 120th Street, Box 306 Philadelphia in October 2008. Tagliareni New York, NY 10027 212-678-3412 is profiled on page 12. [email protected] www.tc.edu/tctoday Photograph by Samantha Isom 2 TC TODAYl FALL 2008 President’s Letter TC Connecting the Dots at TC Working together is our greatest challenge and opportunity ecently, after reviewing our academ- Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated. the needs of individual students. You’ll ic strengths here at Teachers College, a And questions relating to genetics, meet TC alumna Elaine Tagliareni, head visiting scholar said, “You have so many disease and health status, and the of the National League for Nursing, wonderful dots—now you’ve got to con- cognitive processes the preferred nect them.” of the brain are ever membership That assessment succinctly states more intertwined. organization for our most important challenge and great- Teachers College nurse faculty and Rest opportunity: enabling the many is uniquely positioned leaders in nursing brilliant minds at TC to work together to grapple with these education, who is across departments and disciplines, so issues, because we fighting to expand that the College can become something bring together leaders opportunities greater than the sum of its parts. in education tech- for graduates of From TC’s inception more than nology, curriculum two-year com- a century ago, breadth has been the development, policy, munity college College’s hallmark. Our name notwith- nursing programs. standing, we were never just a college to Teachers College is uniquely positioned... And you’ll get an prepare teachers, but also the birthplace up-close look at of nursing education and nutrition because we bring together leaders TC’s Klingenstein education; the place where, arguably in education technology, curriculum Center for more than any other, the application Independent of psychology to education became development, policy, literacy, urban School Education, a field unto itself; and where educa- where, in their tion is viewed as occurring not only in science and math education, movement quest to create classrooms, but also in homes, streets, science and so much more. educational excel- churches, communities and beyond. lence and equity, Today, the world’s problems literacy, urban science and math the nation’s top private school educators increasingly arise from multiple origins. education, movement science and come to gain knowledge of law, ethics, The education crisis that afflicts our so much more. finance, philosophy and, ultimately, nation and others results as much from This issue of TC Today brings you themselves. poverty and its attendant ills as from examples of that breadth, and also of Taken together, these three stories inadequate teaching or under-financed how we are linking it across fields. You are just a slice of life at TC. Still, they schools and districts. Yet poverty, in will learn about how Lucy Calkins, give you a sense of how rich that life turn, is perpetuated by inadequate edu- Herbert Ginsburg and others on our can be—and of the potential it holds for cation. Increasingly, the environment, faculty are collaborating with technol- building a better future. with its impact on the food supply and ogy companies and policy researchers health, is a barrier to stable communi- to create assessments of students’ abili- ties and effective schools—in poorer ties that are more truly diagnostic, and nations, but here in the U.S. as well, as that can enable teachers to adapt to Susan Fuhrman PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN EMERSON TC TODAYl FALL 2008 3 TKeepingC up with people, eventsC and othera news fromm Teachers Collegep us News Debating the Week and edweek.org. Teachers Future of U.S. College President Susan Fuhrman moderated and the Education evening closed with a post- ebates on education debate discussion panel that topics don’t usually included two TC faculty mem- D attract major attention. bers, Lucy Calkins and Jeffrey But in late October, when Linda Henig. They were joined by Darling-Hammond, education Joseph Viteritti, Blanche D. advisor to Barack Obama, and Blank Professor of Public Policy Lisa Graham Keegan, education and Chair of the Department advisor to John McCain, faced of Urban Affairs and Planning off in TC’s Cowin Conference at Hunter College; and Eugene Center on the eve of the presi- Hickok, Deputy Secretary of Stanford University, and “Right now, we don’t dential election, the 600-seat Education during the first term Keegan, former Superintendent have the capacity to ensure that auditorium was packed, and of President George W. Bush. of Public Instruction for everyone gets what is really more than 9,000 people had Darling-Hammond, a Arizona public schools, pre- the new civil right—access to tuned in to watch a Webcast former TC faculty member and sented starkly different assess- a high-quality education,” produced by the Charles E.