An affiliate of the National Council for the Social Studies

Vice Chair (two-year position)

Lara Backus. I will be graduating in May 2010 so I am available for this position for two years. I am currently attending UNC Chapel Hill, in the culture, curriculum and change PhD program focusing on elementary social studies, teacher education and sociology. Prior to beginning my PhD in 2006, I taught elementary social school for twelve years. While a classroom teacher, in an inner city school, I successfully integrated the social studies curriculum. I earned my master’s degree at UNC-Charlotte under the advisement of Dr. Jeff Passe. Currently, I am researching pre-service teachers’ engagement of social studies and social justice. I am also examining how social studies methods courses are taught in non-testing states versus testing states. I am interested in the reform efforts targeting elementary social studies. I feel social studies has the potential to be a powerful curriculum force if provided the opportunity.

Secretary (one-year position)

Shreya Desai is a doctoral student in social science education at the University of South Florida. Ms. Desai has taught Honors and Advanced U.S. History and World Geography classes at the middle school level. She currently is a graduate research assistant at the David C. Anchin Center working on projects regarding Secondary School Redesign Initiative and the US Virgin Islands in partnership with Florida and the Islands Comprehensive Center. She has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Florida and an M.A.T. in Social Science Education from the University of South Florida. Ms. Desai was invited to participate in the 2nd James F. Ackerman Colloquium on Technology and Citizenship. Ms. Desai’s research interests include racial, cultural, and gender equity, multicultural/global perspectives, and reform issues in education.

Graduate Forum Program Chair (one-year position)

Caroline Sheffield is a doctoral candidate in Social Science Education at the University of South Florida. She has taught middle grades social studies for eight years in Jacksonville, Florida and in Tampa, Florida. Her research interests include gifted education and the social studies, technology integration, and the use of trade books in the socials studies. She has presented numerous times at international, national, state, and local conferences. She has been published in both regional and national publications. Additionally, she has served as a reviewer and editor for numerous publications, and has served as a proposal reviewer for the 2008 AERA conference. Currently on leave from the School District of Hillsborough County, Caroline is a visiting Instructor and a graduate advisor at the University of South Florida.

Elections for the 2007-2008 positions will take place at The Graduate Student Forum Business Meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 28th at 7:30 p.m. in room 25A. We are currently accepting nominations for the elected positions of Vice Chair and Secretary of the CUFA Graduate Student Forum and the appointed position of Program Chair. 



The Chair is a one-year position (after being Vice-Chair ’07-‘08). Jillian Ford (Emory University) is currently serving as Vice-Chair and will become Chair at the Conference. She will continue to serve in that role until November 2008. The Chair submits the spring and fall newsletters to the CUFA Newsletter, coordinates all communication between officers and the Board Liaison, maintains an annual calendar in order to meet deadlines, and serves as the primary contact and coordinator of the blind review process for grant applications.

The Vice Chair is a two-year position (becoming chair ’08-’09). It best suited for someone who will graduate in ’09 or later. The Vice Chair assists the program chair to meet deadlines and assists the chair when needed. The Vice Chair prepares the upcoming annual calendar of events and documents for the next year’s meeting and elections. The Vice Chair also serves as a blind reviewer on the Executive Committee for grant applications.

The Secretary position is responsible for submitting new information to the webmaster of the CUFA webpage, monitoring the Forum listserv and blog. The secretary is also the contact person for membership questions and assists with matching roommates for conferences. Additionally, the Secretary assists the other three leadership positions and maintains records for the Forum. Technology experience would be helpful. Ken Carano (University of South Florida) is the current Secretary.

The Program Chair is responsible for receiving paper proposals, sending them for blind review, creating Forum session themed titles, locating appropriate discussants for Forum sessions, and working with the CUFA or AERA social studies program chair. The Program Chair will be selected by the Graduate Student Forum officers at the business meeting. Experience presenting or attending past CUFA/NCSS conferences is desirable. The current Program Chair is Sandra Schmidt (Michigan State University). If you are interested in serving as the Program Chair for the 2008 Meeting (which will be held in Houston, TX), please contact Todd S. Hawley at toddshawley@gmail.com.

Please feel free to nominate yourself or someone else for these positions by contacting Todd S. Hawley at toddshawley@gmail.com. Please send a brief bio no later than November 3rd. Nominations will be posted online on the CUFA Graduate Forum Blog for review prior to the Grad Student SIG Business Meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 7:30 p.m. We will also accept nominations at the meeting.

We are writing to both introduce and invite you to be a part of a CUFA Graduate Student Mentoring Program for the 2007-2008 academic year.

This initiative stems from ongoing discussions within the CUFA Graduate Student Forum about the potential benefits of a mentoring program that would match graduate students with faculty mentors at institutions other than their own.  The Mentoring Program will establish a year-long mentoring pairing as well as a single session at CUFA in San Diego to help facilitate faculty/graduate student relationship building.  The following provides more description of the Program and a web-link form that both faculty and graduate students can use to indicate their interest in participating.

Rationale for Mentoring

Linking faculty and graduate students in a mentoring relationship serves many purposes.  First, it will connect students with faculty from their areas of interest, and with whom they may not otherwise have had contact.  At our last CUFA meeting in Washington D.C., graduate students expressed their interest in creating relationships with faculty at other institutions, and seeking ways to maintain these connections.  Second, mentoring relationships will allow both students and faculty to share latest research, current initiatives, and emerging ideas.  This exchange will provide benefits to all participants, as students and faculty discuss ideas from their respective academic and geographic locales.  Third, mentoring will help graduate students create a larger network of other graduate students with overlapping research interests, as they may be introduced to their mentors’ students.  This mentoring initiative is one of many ways that the Graduate Student Forum might foster such meaningful connections.  Fourth, connecting Faculty and Graduate Students should create a more supportive environment within CUFA generally by helping to demystify the academic processes of research, teaching, and service. 

HOW IT WORKS

In agreeing to be a part of this program, participants commit to an academic year-long mentoring relationship between faculty members and a graduate student or small group of students.  Because this is our pilot year, we do not yet know if we will have one faculty mentor for each student participant, or one faculty mentor for a set of two to four students.  The application form asks faculty members how many students they are willing to mentor (with a maximum of four students).  Although participants in each group will define the specific relationship, we envision a mentor as someone who shares academic and professional insights, and helps graduate students think through their own research and professional advancement.  Clearly, we expect that all participants respect the time and commitment of those with whom they are matched.

MENTORING Session at CUFA 2007 (San Diego)

At the 2007 annual meeting in San Diego, we will have a session that brings together all participants and creates time for mentors and graduate students to meet and share conversation.  The session also will serve as a place to discuss feedback on the Mentoring Program.

The success of the CUFA Mentoring Project depends largely on the willingness of faculty and students to participate.  We especially would like to encourage participation from members of underrepresented groups.  Please consider being a part of this Project!

APPLICATION

If interested, see   http://www.coe.uga.edu/esse/facilitate/ by Wednesday, August 8.  We hope to make matches and inform participants by August 15.

Sincerely,

Todd Hawley, Jillian Ford, and Todd Dinkelman

27th National Educational Computing Conference Atlanta, GA June 24-27, 2007 Web Site:

http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2007/

IADIS International Conference on Mobile Learning Lisbon, Portugal July 5-7, 2007 Web Site:
http://www.mlearning-conf.org/

5th Annual Successlink Technology Innovations/Handheld Computing Conference Lake of the Ozarks, MO July 10–11, 2007 Web Site: http://successlink.org/handheld/hh_detail.asp?ID=19

Mid-Atlantic Handheld and Emerging Technology Conference Salisbury, MD July 25–26, 2007 Web Site: http://www.seaford.k12.de.us/mahc/

1st Asia-Pacific Regional Mobile Learning and Edutainment Conference Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia August 7-9, 2007 Web Site: http://www.lttcom.com/mlearning/index.php

Society for Applied Learning Technology- Interactive Technologies Conference Arlington, Virginia August 22-24, 2007 Web Site: http://www.salt.org/dc/washingtonP.asp

Handheld Learning 2007 London, UK October 10–12, 2007 WebSite: http://www.handheldlearning2007.com/

mLearn 2007 Melbourne, Australia October 16–19, 2007 Web Site: http://www.mlearn2007.org/

8th Association of Internet ResearchersConference Vancouver October 17-20, 2007 Web Site: http://conferences.aoir.org/index.php?cf=6

87th National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference San Diego November 30- December 2, 2007 Web Site: http://www.socialstudies.org/conference/

28th Florida Educational Technology Corporation (FETC, Inc.) January 23-25 , 2008 Orlando, Florida Web Site: http://cfp.fetc.org/submitinstructions.cfm

Game Developers Conference February 18 – 22, 2008 Web Site: http://www.gdconf.com/

Society for Applied Learning Technology-New Learning Technologies February 20 – 22, 2008 Orlando, Florida Web Site: http://www.salt.org/salt.asp?ss=m&pn=calendar

19th Annual conference of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education March 3-7, 2008 Las Vegas Web Site: http://www.aace.org/conf/site/default.htm

89th Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association New York City, NY March 24-28, 2008 Web Site: http://www.aera.net/meetings/Default.aspx?menu_id=22&id=50