Monday Minutes

Here are your Monday Minutes for March 1-5, 2021. 

From the Department Head 

Dear Students and Colleagues,

March is National Women’s History Month and I thought I’d share the history of an amazing Montana woman. Sarah Gammon Brown Bickford (c. 1852 – July 19, 1931) was born into slavery in either Tennessee or North Carolina. In the 1870s she made her way to the Montana goldfields, trading work as a nanny for transportation. She ultimately became sole owner of the Virginia City Water Company, becoming the first and only woman in Montana—and probably the nation’s only female African American—to own a utility.  In 2012, the State of Montana honored her by inducting her into the Gallery of Outstanding Montanans. Recently, the Montana Extreme History Project delivered a lecture about her life and impact. Please join me in celebrating Sarah Bickford- a pioneer in many ways.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Take good care,

Dr. Ann Ewbank

News and Announcements

• Please welcome Lisa Yarnell to our department! Lisa is the Office of Field Placement and Licensure’s new Licensure Technician and comes to the department from the MSU Allen Yarnell Center for Student Success.

• Our next department meeting is March 2, 12:15-1:30 in Ann’s WebEx room.We will continue our departmental strategic planning efforts by examining the current EHHD strategic plan.

• Spring 2021 Curriculum & Instruction program meetings are March 9, March 30, and April 13 (12:15-1:30) in Nick’s WebEx room.
• Please save the date for our Teacher Education Program Induction and Student Teacher Sendoff on April 5, 5:30-6:30pm. Our keynote speaker is Marilyn King, Deputy Superintendent of Bozeman Public Schools.

• The Early Alert system should be used when students fall behind, do not regularly check D2L, or are incommunicado. Please utilize the Document a Conversation and Student Consultation forms when issues arise. This is our internal tracking mechanism and the forms go no further and are “shredded” upon graduation. The Student Support Team can assist with crucial conversations coaching and/or as a neutral third party for both undergraduate and graduate students.

• Undergraduate TEP Instructors: Please share the following mandatory virtual meetings with your students:
• To be added to the Spring 2022 student teaching roster– attend only one
• 4/19 3:30-4:30pm: Spring 2022 Student Teaching Information Session
• 4/23 3:30-4:30pm: Spring 2022 Student Teaching Information Session
• To be placed for Fall 2021 student teaching – attend only one
• 4/19 5-6pm: Fall 2021 Student Teaching Orientation
• 4/23 2-3pm: Fall 2021 Student Teaching Orientation

• Please see the attached handout to re-familiarize yourself with mandatory reporter requirements.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Opportunities

• Join the HEART Initiative at MSU for Human Trafficking: A Survivor’s Success Story with Theresa Flores March 2 at 5pm via WebEx (Register). You will leave equipped with helpful information on how to identify and possibly prevent human trafficking as well as ways to support past survivors. This event is sponsored by The HEART Initiative at MSU, The Office of the Dean of Students, MSU Women’s Center, President’s Commission on the Status of University Women, Honors Presents, and the VOICE Center. 

• Why It Matters: The Native Vote in Montana March 3 at 4pm via Zoom (Register): In every election, the Native American vote is important. Many experts credit the Native American vote with being the deciding factor in elections across the country, including the 2020 presidential election and Senate races in Montana, Alaska, and North Dakota (The Aspen Institute). Panelists will discuss grassroots get-out-the-vote and census work as well as trends in Indigenous communities around civic engagement. Panelists include U.S. Staff Sergeant and Crow Reservation Organizer Lauri Dawn Kindness, University of Montana Professor Jason Begay, and Montana Native Vote Executive Director Marci McLean in a conversation moderated by journalist and Threshold podcast host Amy Martin. Sponsored by Humanities Montana.

Professional Development & Engagement Opportunities

Please join theMontana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MTACTE). We are offering this year’s membership for free! Become a member by completing MTACTE’s brief registration and attending an information session 3/9 at 4pm via Zoom. We believe that ensuring Montana’s teacher educators have a seat at the table when policy decisions are made is essential to accomplishing our shared mission: ensuring all of Montana’s students have access to a professional, fully prepared, high quality teacher. After all, there is no greater source of expertise and experience related to teacher preparation in Montana than our professional community! Alongside our national partner—the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE)—we seek to support Montana’s teacher educators as they endeavor to achieve that shared mission, including

• • Supporting Montana’s teacher educators as they advocate for the profession with a unified voice, and
  • Creating an infrastructure through which the unified voice of Montana’s teacher educators can inform the development of education policy.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

• Congratulations to Dr. Kristofer Olsen, who along with Jeff Vick and the Bozeman Symphony performed "Karakurenai" by Andy Akiho for Ranch Around Concerts, socially distanced concerts at two ranches in the Bozeman area in September 2020!

• Call for MSU Graduate School Awards: Please nominate students who are graduating this spring for one of three awards: Land Grant Excellence, Scholarship Excellence, or Teaching Excellence. Please send nominations to Ann Ewbank by March 12.

• Our department’s success is determined by our collective accomplishments. Share your own accomplishments with pride! Or if you hear of a colleague or student’s accomplishment, please share. Please send accomplishments and kudos to ann.ewbank@montana.edu.