(Photo: Frances Meng-Frecker)
What brought you to Regis University?
I went to a small liberal arts school as an undergraduate and I remember the relationships that I had with other students and professors and I wanted to be a part of something like that. One thing that I value is that this is a small department and that we can be creative and nimble to make adjustments to the program that meet the needs of schools and our students, so that is cool.
Tell us about your current position.
So, right now I am filling in in the Dean’s Office as an Associate Dean, and that involves a lot of problem-solving with students and faculty development. I am also a professor in the Education Department, and that is the fun part, teaching and helping students become the best teachers.
What classes are you teaching now?
I am teaching a class called Assessment for the Diverse Learner, and it is a class that focuses on how to implement teaching strategies that use assessment data to support students; whether those struggles come from being an English learner or from a special education need or social-emotional need. This is a course that is designed to provide students with the foundation for understanding the assessment process, both from a special education process and including language acquisition. Students will learn adaptations to those methods for addressing the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students with exceptionalities. Students will focus on the educational assessment methods and procedures used in decision making and program planning for students with high incidence disabilities who are from culturally or linguistically diverse. And I also teach the student teaching seminar; we have twenty student teachers that are out in the field doing their capstone internship for a full semester Teaching in a local public/private school classroom and finishing up their teacher licensure. We meet over the semester to support each other but also to give support while they are looking for a job but also to finish their portfolio to show that they are performing within all the teaching standards and all that
What has your fondest memory been at Regis?
I don’t know that I have one great memory. I think the greatest thing about my job is that I work with students and I get to watch them grow into professionals, and that is a cool thing to get to see. The best is that I get to keep in touch with them after they have graduated and see how their career is going. We always say, “Would you want this person to teach your own kids?” And several years ago one of our graduates was one of my kids teachers, and it was very cool and I, actually got to say, “Yeah for real that I would want our graduates to teach my children.” She had two of my daughters in her third-grade class and you get to see it really at work. I just work with really great people here at Regis and I am fortunate.
What is your favorite Jesuit Value? Why?
I should say that I have two, the first one is Cura Personalis. Everything I have been talking about is about relationships. If you have a relationship with students and you understand where they are coming from you can teach the content. You have got to trust that they are going to trust the content and that they are going to take risks and they are going to learn the stuff that they need to know. My second one is Contemplatives in Action; I think teachers do that every single day. We don’t just think about social problems we take actions to address them.
Samantha Jewell
Social Media Editor