People of Interest
New findings from TC Faculty and Students
The Other Dan Brown and His Year in the Blackboard Jungle
Published: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Most books about school in the inner city present teachers as “saviors with the golden touch,” says Dan Brown, a first year student at TC in the Teaching of English program. Not so Brown’s own best-selling memoir, The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle. The story of his first year as a teacher, at PS 85 in the Bronx, the book is a painfully honest account of an idealistic young man completely at sea in a room full of endearing, difficult fourth graders, unsupported by either administration or most of his teaching colleagues.
At talks in Milbank Chapel and the Gottesman Libraries in October, Brown said he began The Great Expectations School partly as “a cathartic spilling” after that experience, during which “my hair fell out, my girlfriend and I broke up, and I became a total mess,” and which ended in his leaving the school and (temporarily) the teaching profession. But he also sought to truly spotlight students, whom he feels have been largely absent as characters in books about inner-city schools.
“There’s this big discussion
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Alumnus John King Assumes Senior State Education Post
John B. King, Managing Director of Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization that operates schools in New York and New Jersey, will become the New York State Department of Education's senior deputy commissioner for P-12 education, heading up school reform efforts. Published: 9/15/2009
TC Alumnus Kevin Jennings named Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education
Kevin Jennings, a Klingenstein fellow at TC in 1994 who received a master's of arts degree in interdisciplinary studies in education, has been named Assistant Deputy Secretary in the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education. Jennings is the founder and former executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which works to make schools safe for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Published: 7/2/2009
Merryl Tisch, who earned a doctorate at TC, will be the first woman to hold the position on the panel that sets policy for the state's educational system. Published: 7/13/2009
New Book Examines the Ideas of TC Philosopher Maxine Greene
Professor John Baldacchino discusses the 'radical philosophies' of a legendary TC scholar. Published: 3/24/2009
Alumna to Serve as Chancellor of NYS Board of Regents
Merryl Tisch, who earned a doctorate at TC, will be the first woman to hold the position on the panel that sets policy for the state's educational system. Published: 3/16/2009
Shaping the Future of Nursing: Elaine Tagliareni, President of National League of Nursing
TC alumna Elaine Tagliareni, President of the 27,000-member National League of Nursing, is redefining opportunity in the helping profession. Published: 1/7/2009
Susan Fuhrman Is President-Elect of National Academy of Education
Susan Fuhrman has been elected the next president of the National Academy of Education (NAED), a post she will hold while continuing to serve as president of Teachers College. Published: 10/3/2008
Education Pioneers James Comer and Henry Levin
In Those Who Dared: Five Visionaries Who Changed American Education, published by Teachers College Press (2008), a group of path-breaking education reformers—including two with direct ties to TC—recount their efforts to change the way American schools work. Published: 1/1/2009
Portia Williams is shaping TC's international collaborations
Curriculum development projects in India; a growing partnership with the education ministry of Jordan; new collaborations in Africa and Iceland—these are heady times for faculty and students at TC with an international focus. Now there’s yet another exciting development: the appointment of the College’s first Director of International Affairs, Portia Williams. Published: 6/2/2008
Student Jonathan Gyurko has been Randi Weingarten’s right-hand man
Plenty of TC students have some field work under their belts—but not too many can claim to have formulated education policy and created schools. Jonathan Gyurko, a doctoral student in Politics and Education, is one, having served as the Director of Charter Schools for the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and currently, as a Special Assistant to Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), advising the union on charter school policies and affairs. Published: 2/13/2008
Time's Top NYC Principals Are TC Cahn Fellows
Four of five NYC principals honored by Time Warner are TC program alums Published: 12/12/2007
An Artist Who Keeps Being Discovered TC's Graeme Sullivan has Genuine Street Cred
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach, runs the old adage--but not in TC's Department of Arts and Humanities, where Georgia O'Keeffe once honed her craft and where current Department Chair Graeme Sullivan exhorts students and staff to combine theory with practice. Published: 11/1/2007
James A. Banks Discusses Multiculturalism and Citizenship
James A. Banks -- the Kerry and Linda Killinger Professor of Diversity Studies and Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington -- discusses a multicultural approach to citizenship. Published: 10/2/2007
A 27-Year-Old TC Grad is Founding Principal of an NYC Public School
For most of the students in the TC Summer Principals Academy, the assignment to design a propopsal for a new school is just an exercise. For Mariela Graham, it resulted in an actual new school -- and a new job. Published: 6/15/2007
David Kirp on Pre-K as Panacea
David L. Kirp, a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and former newspaper editor, will discussed his widely-touted book, The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics (Harvard University Press, 2007) at TC's Virginia and Leonard Marx Lecture. Published: 10/26/2007
TC Alums Sarah Ryan, Michael Lowry, Leah Schaefer, Anie Kalayjian and Susan Fuhrman have blazed trails in fields ranging from trauma psychology to sex education. Published: 6/25/2007 10:44:00 AM
Education Historian Thomas James Is TC's New Provost
After a months-long national search for a new academic dean, Teachers College has named Thomas James -- currently Dean of the School of Education at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill -- as its new Provost, with the accompanying titles of Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Published: 9/30/2007
More than 61 million Americans volunteer in some way - caring for family members, helping friends, assisting at schools, churches and hospitals, usually close to home. For a smaller number, service is a way of life - a full-time job, a calling. Published: 8/31/2007
The Unorthodox Behaviorist: TC Autism Researcher Doug Greer
Doug Greer has fashioned a teaching approach from the ideas of B.F. Skinner. Now he's testing it to see if it can help close the nation's achievement gap Published: 4/6/2007
Remembering Albert Ellis, a Giant in American Psychology
Albert Ellis, who passed away in July 2007, was one of the towering American figures in psychology. He was the founder of Rational-Emotive Therapy, which offers a more active, direct approach to treating psychological disorders than traditional psychoanalytic models. A biographical sketch by TC Professor Barry Farber. Published: 7/26/2007
Matthew Pittinsky Founded a Billion-dollar Company, but His Heart is in the Classroom
TC is a rare atmosphere where someone can be both remarkable and typical, and at first Matthew Pittinsky seems to fit into that mold -- he is passionately devoted to education, excited about the potential research has to improve childrens lives, and toiling at his dissertation for the Sociology in Education program, while experiencing the joys and sleep deprivation of being a new father. Published: 9/4/2007
Profile of Professor Emeritus and Former NY State Education Commisioner Tom Sobol
When Tom Sobol was superintendent of schools in Scarsdale, New York, there was a guy named Bob who came to all the budget meetings, the classic thorn-in-your-side self-appointed public citizen who haunts town halls across the nation. Published: 10/10/2007
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