UIS professor receives educational honor at annual conference
Dr. William Phillips, UIS associate professor of Educational Leadership, received the Van Miller Distinguished Scholar Practitioner Award recently at the 2009 Illinois Association of School Administrators Annual Conference.
The Van Miller award is given to recognize "outstanding contributions through their actions and leadership to the field of education in the state of Illinois."
Van Miller served as a Superintendent in Ridgefield, CT., earned a doctoral degree at Harvard and then came to the University of Illinois as a faculty member in 1947. He is considered one of the first scholars in the area of education administration.
The list of past recipients of this award includes Illinois superintendents, professors of education, Illinois state superintendents and others recognized for their special contributions from a variety of perspectives.
The criteria for the award include: Change Agent, Scholarly Practitioner, Professional Commitment and Mentor.
Professor pursues love of singing outside the classroom
By Courtney Westlake
Dr. Michael Lane, Clinical Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at UIS, participated in school choirs when he was young, but then he found the trumpet in 6th grade and continued to play through junior high and high school. However, when he married his musically-inclined wife, Cathy, and moved to her hometown of Rushville, Illinois, he found a love for singing again.
“There is quite a fine arts orientation to that community,” he said. “They have a very active theater and put on many musicals both through the school and in the community.”
In around 1990, Lane and his wife had the opportunity to join the newly-formed Madrigal group in the area and became very involved with the group. The group performs two out of every three years, practicing every Sunday starting in September (and memorizing between 20 and 25 pieces) until they begin one week that includes three performances in December.
“It’s a full Madrigal performance, which means costumers, sometimes jugglers, dancers, strolling minstrels, and they serve a full Madrigal meal,” Lane said. “It’s been a wonderful experience and very well-received. It’s a bit grueling at times, but we get very good audiences; usually our shows are sold-out.”
Lane currently teaches in the College of Education and Human Services at UIS. He had stepped into just about every position possible in the public school system during his career - from coach and teacher all the way up to superintendent - but when he decided to retire, he couldn't step away from his life-long passion that easily.
So Lane finished up his doctoral degree and came to UIS to teach other teachers.
“I had taught as an adjunct professor in the Educational Leadership Department for a few years, and then I had the opportunity to come here full-time,” he said. “I really enjoy the university; I like the size of the university and the caliber of the students that are here. I feel the university does a good job in supporting us in the opportunity to be creative in our courses.”
When he first began college, Lane was a marketing major, but he found he “just missed school,” he laughed.
“I always liked school; I always very much enjoyed education,” he said. “I thought that I’d really like to teach and coach. So for many years, I taught English and physical education, and I coached football for 11 years, track for 8 years, and 2 years of basketball.”
Both teaching and singing are family-wide interests in the Lane clan. His wife Cathy minored in music in college and taught music full-time when they were first married. In addition to the Madrigals, the couple has also sung with a group called the Schuyler Singers for many years. His grown children - a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Elizabeth (also called Libby) - have both sung and performed throughout their lives as well.
“My wife is very musical; she plays many folk instruments that she learned to play on her own,” Lane said. “My son didn’t pursue music in college, but my daughter got her bachelors degree in fine arts and musical theater from Millikin and got a masters degree from Western in theater performance. She still does regional theater on weekends and evenings.”
Though getting a doctorate was always a goal of Lane’s, he didn't find the time to actually pursue one until his kids were grown and away at college because of all of his musical and family commitments.
His responsibilities at UIS now, among others, include supervising clinical experiences for students in his program, who must complete 240 hours of clinical activity experiences in about two semesters. He also teaches a blended learning course called Supervision of Instruction, so the class meets both online and in the classroom.
Lane said he has found new approaches to technology, such as blended learning, very appealing at UIS and commends the university for its willingness to explore new technology.
“I find this campus to be very dynamic and on the cutting-edge of technology,” Lane said. “The Center for Online Learning, Research and Service and Tech Support are so supportive. It’s wonderful to have that technical support here, and the university is not afraid to explore whatever is most up-to-date in technology, and that’s rather impressive.”
Loretta Meeks, professor of Teacher Education, is the recipient of the 2009 Alumni Achievers Award from the School of Education and Human Performance at Winston Salem State University, North Carolina. The award recognizes Meeks for professional achievements and contributions to the field of education and the community. It will be presented at the Winston Salem Founder's Day Convocation in late October.
What most people usually don't want to talk about for five minutes, Dr. Carolyn Peck has been studying and teaching most of her adult life.
The topics of death and dying don't overwhelm or dishearten her so much as interest her.
"The study of death and dying and working in that arena is something that has come naturally to me," Peck said. "One of my work experiences in Oklahoma was in a hospice as the bereavement coordinator and volunteer coordinator. I've also had the good fortune of caring for family members at the end of their lives. Because of those experiences, it's something that became part of my life, and it's an interest I continue to have professionally."
Peck, who came to UIS in 2002, is a faculty member in the human services department, teaching in the concentration of gerontology. Previously, she worked in the field of gerontology for more than 20 years in public and private sectors, she said.
"I've had a real rich diversity of experiences in a variety of arenas," Peck said. "My first job was as the manager of low-income housing for the elderly. I really stumbled into the field of gerontology; I had no idea it was the beginning of a lifetime career for me."
Within the gerontology concentration, one of four different concentrations in human services, Peck teaches four aging-related classes: Perspectives on Aging, Psychology of Aging, Aging and Human Services and Sociology of Death, Dying and Bereavement.
"In my death and dying class, I see one of most dramtic transformations following enrollment in the class," she said. "Initially there is some anxiety, and usually by the end of the semester, many of them are empowered, and, I hope, benefit both personally and professionally as a result. I hope in all my classes students are changed."
Enrollment in the gerontology concentration at UIS has remained constant, Peck said, although she belives there will be a significant increase in the near future.
"I anticipate a fairly dramatic increase because of the number of older adults who are going to be needing services over next 10 to 15 years," she said. "We have not seen that yet, but we anticipate enrollment to increase substantially over the next five to 10 years in order to meet the demands of the baby boomers that are just starting to turn 60."
The Baby Boomers are the group of people born between 1946 and 1964. They are different from today's elderly in variety of ways, including individuals who are living longer, have a higher-income due to higher levels of education and individuals who have chosen to remain single all their lives, Peck said.
"There will be some challenges when we look at the group of people who have never married and have remained single all of their lives. When we look at the individuals in today's elderly and who is caring for them, it's their adult children," Peck said. "The question being asked is who will care for the future elderly who are single in their later year; if they don't have children and never married, that's going to be a critical question."
To help faculty, staff and students begin preparing for their aging family members, Peck and the UIS Counseling Center have been offering workshops on the subject.
"One of the realities of today, and our campus is no different, is a truly epidemic number of middle-age people caring for their elderly parents," Peck said. "We felt the need to have some specialized types of education classes as well as support groups for people on our campus who are caring for aging family members. They have been well attended, and we have every reason to believe will continue."
There is no doubt, Peck said, that there will be a significant influx of older adults over the next 20 years.
"I see lot of jobs opening in the field of gerontology and associated fields," she said. "The number of older adults will create demands for service at a variety of different levels, which of course means a demand for positions and individuals who have a special training in the field of gerontology."
Dr. Kathleen Burns admits that her penmanship is so awful, her students used to complain good-naturedly they couldn't read her writing on the chalkboard.
That is why, she jokes, she was forced to become an expert on computer technology as a means of teaching and learning in the classroom.
Burns, a professor in the college of Education and Human Services, is new to UIS this fall. She obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in education, forever knowing that being a teacher was her calling. "I always wanted to be a teacher; that was my heart's desire ever since I can remember," she said. "I just didn’t realize I would end up being a professor of education."
But Burns had a great mentor while she was working on her master's degree, who encouraged her to pursue a Ph.D., from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and go on to teach at the college level.
The decision to join the UIS community, Burns said, was an easy one. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay and says that the underground tunnels at Wisconsin and at UIS are extremely similar, which she loves. While visiting from her previous position at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Burns was taken with UIS.
"The very first time I came on this campus, I said 'I am going to work here'," she said. "It was really easy for me to say that's where I want to be."
Burns is currently teaching her first class that is completely online, called Technology in Education, which she is thrilled about. She also teaches Social Studies Methods and Teaching, Learning and Assessment for elementary majors.
Online learning and computer technology have been special interests of Burns in her professional work since the beginning. She became intrigued at the concept while she was working as administrator in high school setting. When technology began to come around, the school needed someone to "take charge" as the coordinator between technology and education.
"I ended up being the mediator, the person on campus who could do little fixes to the computer and the network, and it just got more and more evolved, to the point where I was doing the technology end of things more than other things," she said.
Burns then landed a part-time stint assisting fellow teachers with using computers within their teaching curriculum and classroom education. She ended up writing her Ph.D. dissertation on the subject.
Burns said over the years, she has become so closely associated with technology in the classroom that she has seen firsthand the benefits that computer technology does play and could potentially affect in the classroom setting. She is excited about what is progressing.
"I can honestly say that I think there won't be classrooms at some point," she said. "Imagine how online learning and computer technology could benefit high school students who want to take a more advanced class, like a college course. Or challenge alternative students, most of whom are so smart, but just bored with the day-to-day in-class schedules."
"I’ve been there since it began to be implemented," she added, "and I think it just keeps getting better and better."
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