Publications: TC Today
The Alumni Magazine of Teachers College, Columbia University
Volume 30, No. 1 ♦ 11/2005
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The Long Way Home - The Making of a Teacher
It's Tuesday night, April 26th. Carley Fisher-Maltese has been wearing the same clothes since Sunday. Somewhere along the way, she planned to go back to New Jersey to her house, her husband and five pets. Instead, with her second semester as a Curriculum and Teaching student at Teachers College drawing to a close, she's scrambling to finish her last project. She and four other students are completing a two-year social studies curriculum for their core class. Amid the detritus of a hard night's work - snacks, juice, a pillow and blanket - they talk animatedly about their project.
Published: 11/17/2005 3:48:17 PM -
Remembering TC Faculty
Robert J. Schaefer and Howard Ernest Gruber
Published: 11/23/2005 12:06:49 PM -
Remembering a TC Trustee
Arthur Zankel, Vice Chairman of Teachers College's Board of Trustees, passed away in July. Zankel, who was 73, joined the Board in 2001, and initially chaired the Committee on Trustees and served on the Executive and Investment Committees.
Published: 11/23/2005 12:01:01 PM -
All for One
Sarah Scrogin, Anya Hurwitz, and Christina Morado all have master's degrees from Teachers College. They met last spring when Scrogin, principal of the soon-to-be-opened East Bronx Academy for the Future, was searching for intrepid souls willing to "share leadership" and serve as the school's founding teachers.
Published: 11/23/2005 11:52:42 AM -
Equity Actor
Laurie Tisch notes that many of her fellow TC Trustees had no prior ties to the College. "They're not alums, their children didn't attend TC - they simply care passionately about what TC does," she says.
Published: 11/22/2005 3:39:21 PM -
Sharing Tools, Building Castles
For the past two years, New York City has carried out school reform on a gigantic scale. One result: thousands of the city's teachers are putting new emphasis on the teaching of writing.
Published: 11/22/2005 3:32:21 PM -
Honored by an Empress
Yasuko Higuchi (Ed.D., 1975) earned her doctoral degree from TC in the 1970s and planned on finding work in the United States. Instead, a faculty mentor persuaded her that her future lay back home in Japan.
Published: 11/22/2005 3:19:40 PM Class Notes
Published: 11/22/2005 12:15:41 PM-
The Making of a Teacher
America sends conflicting messages to its teachers. Though their profession is often described as the noblest, teachers earn less than most other professionals.
Published: 11/22/2005 11:57:02 AM -
No Holds Barred
"I had all the bad role models, people who been locked up, people who got shot, people who shot people, that's who I respect."
Published: 11/22/2005 11:46:29 AM On-Line Giving
The Office of Development has launched a new Web site, and beginning on the TC home page, visitors now have an opportunity to support the College - without leaving their computers.
Published: 11/22/2005 11:42:14 AM-
Teach Our Children Well
A report released in April by the New York City Council's Independent Commission on CFE Imple-mentation, co-chaired by TC President Arthur Levine, calls for improving teacher quality in the public schools with a combination of financial incentives for all teachers'éóóó-éíéóó-'."especially those in low-performing schools'éóóó-éíéóó-'." more rigorous teacher assessment, smaller classes and greater accountability.
Published: 11/22/2005 11:37:22 AM Welcome to the Fight
"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."
Published: 11/22/2005 11:34:24 AMMaking a Statement
TC's new mission statement builds on the College's longstanding goal of helping society's most disadvantaged students.
Published: 11/22/2005 11:32:34 AMFunhouse Research
The newest research lab at TC has two television monitors, several video-game consoles, shelves of games and a sleek purple PC. There's also a room-wide mural of an eggplant farm swarming with characters from popular video games.
Published: 11/21/2005 3:53:51 PM-
A Leadership Vacuum
Educational leadership is critically needed for the nation's schools, yet the quality of most preparation programs for principals, superintendents and other education leaders ranges from "inadequate to appalling," according to a major study by TC President Arthur Levine released in March.
Published: 11/21/2005 3:48:58 PM -
Bridging the Science Gap
The achievement gap in science between white students and African-American and Hispanic students in New York City is generally ack-nowledged to be as bad as or worse than the already substantial gap in math and literacy. TC's I USE Science project is working to bridge that gap by improving science education in public schools. The program is getting results, and a $200,000 grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.
Published: 11/21/2005 3:40:58 PM -
Pop Goes the Culture
A recent episode of the animated television show South Park mirrored the much-publicized Terry Schiavo quality-of-life debate. Featuring Kenny "the character known for dying during each episode" it aired on the day of Schiavo's death. In today's culture, is this brand of television entertainment a legitimate part of education?
Published: 11/21/2005 2:06:21 PM -
Rebell with a New Cause
"We're here today to launch a new organization that will tackle the most ur-gent issue in education. "Teachers College President Arthur Levine spoke these words at a news conference in June to announce the launch of The Campaign for Educational Equity, a new effort by TC to narrow the gap in educational access and achievement between America's most and least advantaged students.
Published: 11/21/2005 1:50:05 PM -
Teaching Toward Equity
Dear Friend, As we embark on another academic year, the importance of teachers and their contributions to society cannot be overestimated. During this past year, I co-chaired a special commission of the New York City Council charged with recommending the best uses for the billions of dollars in additional school funding that the city hopes to soon receive as the result of a decade-long lawsuit against New York State. In hundreds of hours of testimony, what we heard - again and again and again - was that school reform cannot succeed unless and until every child has the opportunity to work with an excellent teacher.
Published: 11/21/2005 12:29:40 PM -
Two Paths to Social Justice - The Making of a Teacher
Two years ago, when he was leading a wilderness trip for Outward Bound, Alex Elson met Willy, a bright seventeen-year-old who couldn't read. The system had failed him, and I wondered,"What good was I doing?, Alex recalls. Five months later, Alex joined the Social Studies Program at Teachers College. Janeen Richards, 41, had always dreamed of becoming a history teacher, but faced with a tough job market after college, she'd taken her advisor's suggestion and gone to pharmacy school instead. Finally, after 14 years of filling prescriptions in Seattle, Janeen sold her house and car and headed off to Teachers College to join the Social Studies Program.
Published: 11/21/2005 11:20:44 AM -
Teaching For Tomorrow - The Making of a Teacher
Each year, some students in TC's Program in Social Studies complain they're getting "too much theory." They want the kind of "classroom management" and "survival skills" training provided by fast-track teacher preparation programs like Teach for America (TFA). In essence, they're asking, "How do I keep the kids under control?"
Published: 11/17/2005 4:36:09 PM -
Teaching for Today - The Making of a Teacher
Watching the horrors of the South Asian tsunami, one wondered: if only certain social structures existed, would this natural disaster have been so devastating? So it goes with urban education, where we face what disaster experts might call a permanent emergency. Some education schools still argue that when learning activities are strong enough, classroom management is a non-issue. Some scholars envision political and economic solutions for our segregated, under-resourced schools. Yet the classroom teacher is left with one certainty: disasters will happen.
Published: 11/17/2005 4:02:48 PM -
An Activist in the Classroom - The Making of a Teacher
Four years ago, Chandra Williams, 28, was teaching at R.H. Terrell Junior High, an inner-city public school in Washington D.C., when she overheard some of her eighth-grade students discussing their future. Their perceptions of the world were frightening. Having a baby wasn't expensive; you could rent an apartment for two dollars a month; college was unnecessary.
Published: 11/17/2005 3:29:41 PM -
The Laws of Physics - Making of a Teacher
A close look at teacher preparation through the eyes of six students during a semester at Teachers College
Published: 11/17/2005 3:13:55 PM
