Education Commons^™

Georgia Southern University Commencement Programs, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection consists of programs related to Georgia Southern University’s commencement ceremonies, with coverage from 1910 to 2025. Materials include official commencement programs as well as ancillary materials concerning commencement exercises and related events including student graduate lists.

Tweeting Over Time: Twitter/X For Communication, Assessment, And Growth In Middle Level Teacher Education, Toni M. Williams

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

This article shares how preservice Middle Level teacher candidates used social media, specifically Twitter/X as both a resource and a tool and how that tool became important in assessing student growth and knowledge building which, in turn, informed instructional planning for the teacher education classroom. This is paramount for teacher educators and the future educators they teach, as they are preparing to create a variety of engagements for learning in teacher education programs and in middle level classrooms. Creating an online community is a means in which all preservice teachers can use their voices while at the same time having …

Staff Council Minutes, Georgia Southern University

Staff Council Meeting Minutes & Agendas

No abstract provided.

Staff Council Agenda, Georgia Southern University

Staff Council Meeting Minutes & Agendas

No abstract provided.

Translanguaging In Middle Level Education, Helen Brandon, Ellis Hurd

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

This case study explores the experiences of two teacher candidates (TCs) in professional development school (PDS) settings with multilingual learners. While valuing multilingual learner’s diverse linguistic backgrounds and language repertoires by drawing from a toolkit of responsive practices, the TCs embraced but struggled with layering translanguaging into their classroom practices. It also examines the middle grades program that these TCs attended while centering asset-based thinking and culturally responsive practices. Overall, this study shows that teacher education programs must include another critical layer to TCs’ experiences: building the toolkit of middle school cooperating teachers (CTs). This study also serves as a …

Embodied Cognition And Teaching Stem: Tenets To Explain And Enhance A Middle School Science Project, Jonathan E. Roberts, Joshua L. Williams, Robert A. Hodgdon, Caroline Payne, Gabriela Ruiz Emmanuelli

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

STEM pedagogy is a popular area for research and discussion. The empirical literature on this topic supports a variety of approaches (e.g., inquiry-based) to help instructors spark student interest create an effective learning environment, and foster long-term retention and transfer of information related to STEM topics. One potential approach is to use tenets of embodied cognition, in which behavior and cognition emerge out of real-time sensorimotor behavior of the individual situated within a particular context, to implement strategies to enhance STEM pedagogy. We applied the six lessons of embodied cognition to understand the beneficial aspects of a middle-school project on …

Faculty Senate Minutes, Georgia Southern University, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Staff Council Minutes, Georgia Southern University

Staff Council Meeting Minutes & Agendas

No abstract provided.

Staff Council Agenda, Georgia Southern University

Staff Council Meeting Minutes & Agendas

No abstract provided.

Faculty Senate Minutes, Georgia Southern University, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

How Can An Oyster Reveal The Stories Of A Place?, Ariel Cornett, Delandrea Hall, Kathryn L. Haughney, Cynthia C. Massey, Amanda Wall

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

This inquiry leads students through a place-based investigation of oysters. Students will learn how artifacts, such as oysters, have the potential to reveal the stories of a place. Oysters are connected to the 4,000 year human history of Ossabaw Island that spans many cultural groups including, but not limited to Indigenous People, Enslaved People, and Genesis Project Members. These human inhabitants used oysters in a number of ways to sustain their physical bodies, structures, and connection to the land and waterways. Visible influences of the oyster can be observed on Ossabaw Island today.

Teaching Literacy: The Intersection Of Social Studies And Language Arts Through Integration- Lesson Plan Exemplar, Pamela Mccabe, Jennifer Shiers, Christopher D. Moore, Jeremy Nix

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

This lesson plan exemplar, based on third grade GSE ELA and social studies standards, demonstrates how teachers can best integrate social studies and ELA content to maximize instructional time and increase litearcy and social studies background knowledge.

Teaching Literacy: The Intersection Of Social Studies And Language Arts Through Integration, Christopher D. Moore, Jennifer Shiers, Pamela Mccabe, Jeremy Nix

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

Social studies education has always been an important component of K-5 education; however, as dedicated, content-specific instructional time has steadily decreased over the past two decades to give more time to mathematics and specifically English Language Arts, literacy scores have also decreased. Partnering ELA and social studies in the K-5 space allows for students to build their background knowledge in social studies, while increasing their literacy by using instructional resources connected to social studies during the ELA block, and then teaching social studies thinking skills during devoted social studies class time.

Revealing The Stories Of A Place: Designing Curricula On An Island, Ariel Cornett, Delandrea Hall, Kathryn L. Haughney, Cynthia C. Massey, Amanda Wall, Kania Greer

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

Ossabaw Island is a Georgia barrier island, accessible solely by boat and protected from development through a public-private partnership between a foundation and the state. This site has the potential to serve as a primary resource for inspiration, education, and lifelong learning. Our study illuminates how one pre-service teacher (PST) and six teacher educators (TEs) experienced an immersive site visit to this local learning environment. We highlight the importance of experiencing places first-hand and using sources (e.g., oral histories) to make content connections. Additionally, the immersive site visit experience allowed us to collaboratively brainstorm place-based curricular units.

Divisive Concepts Legislation: Perceptions Of Georgia Social Studies Teachers, Karen Terry, Forrest R. Parker Iii

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

This study examines Georgia social studies teachers' perceptions of House Bill 1084, which seeks to limit the teaching of divisive topics in K–12 classrooms. With growing concerns nationwide about how educators address controversial subjects, this bill represents Georgia's stance in the debate, potentially affecting social studies teaching in the state.

The research employs a survey-methods approach, focusing on Georgia's social studies teachers. Using a Delphi method, a pilot survey was first distributed to gather feedback and refine the survey. The study aims to understand teachers' views on House Bill 1084, its impact on their teaching practices, and its broader implications …

The Legacy Of Oscarville: Using Critical Participatory Action Research And Learning Teaching As An Interpretive Process To Sustain A Placeless Place, Leah Panther, Kristie Smith, Mary Mitchelson, Robert Bonner Jr.

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

The history of Oscarville, Georgia, nestled within the Lake Lanier region of North Georgia, remains both known and unknown, existing as a significant yet elusive part of local lore and historical retellings. This article delves into the innovative approach of a place-based critical participatory action research program, "Historicizing Oscarville," which engaged teacher candidates and educators in exploring the obscured history of Oscarville. The narrative uncovers the complex layers of settler colonialism, slavery, racial cleansing, and subsequent erasure that characterize Oscarville's past. By employing the framework of Learning Teaching as an Interpretive Process (LTIP) within a place-based education model, the project …

Staff Council Minutes, Georgia Southern University

Staff Council Meeting Minutes & Agendas

No abstract provided.

Staff Council Agenda, Georgia Southern University

Staff Council Meeting Minutes & Agendas

No abstract provided.

The Benko Briefing, Georgia Southern University

Athletics: News & Publications

No abstract provided.

Community Of Practice Mentoring To Retain Middle School Teachers, Karen Weller Swanson, Micki M. Caskey

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

The purpose of this article is to describe and explain a mentoring initiative for supporting and retaining middle school teachers. First, we examine the persistent problem of teacher retention in U.S. schools, particularly in middle schools. Then, we describe a mentoring initiative—a community practice mentoring model that is well-suited for facilitating professional learning and addressing the retention issue. We define community of practice and note how communities of practices work in schools. We argue that a community of practice model is both a powerful conceptual framework for mentoring teachers and a practical approach to supporting middle school teachers’ practice. Next, …

Supporting Middle Grades Pre-Service Teachers In Building Professional Dispositions, Hilary Dack

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

Promoting pre-service teachers' development of professional dispositions through purposefully designed learning experiences may be middle level teacher education's most important contribution to a novice's development from student to teacher. The 2022 Revised Middle Level Teacher Preparation Standards explicitly address this expectation in Standard 5, with Component 5.d noting that middle grades pre-service teachers should become "continuous, collaborative learners who demonstrate knowledgeable, reflective, critical perspectives on their teaching." This article offers detailed illustrations of the approaches one middle grades teacher education program used to intentionally select professional dispositions to target in early coursework and teach those dispositions to candidates. Approaches included: …

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily Deep Dive, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily Deep Dive, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.