Outreach and More

Current Projects

Here is a sampling of the outreach currently going on by faculty and staff in the department. Take a look, and feel free to get in touch with any of us for more information, with questions, and with ideas for collaboration.

	Students Write at Malden High School Sean Walsh, the Lead Teacher of the English Department, and several other faculty at Malden High School developed a space for students interested in writing called the Writers' Den. The Tufts Education Department supported setting up the space through sharing resources and creating an internship for a Tufts Senior to work closely with teachers and students to promote literacy activities and publish student work. Larry Evans, the first Writers' Den intern, describes the space as one in which "young writers are not judged at first by their grammar usage. All writers, including ELLs, need a place where they feel a sense of acceptance and the importance of self-expression."
	A Teach-In On December 10 and 11, from 10 am to 8 pm, in Paige Hall, there will be a Teach-In organized by Tufts staff, faculty, and students. This Teach-In is a site for drawing on rich intersectional histories of experience and knowledge to consider ongoing struggle, resistance and resilience and will cover a range of issues, direct action items, and questions related to the current political and social climates we are encountering, resisting, and making since the U.S. presidential election and into the future.
	Artful Thinking Susan Barahal MAT in Art Education Director Susan Barahal has been involved in the Artful Thinking program, a part of the Visible Thinking Project, at Project Zero for many years and has worked as a teacher liaison/research assistant. She is also a member of the Project Zero Summer Institute faculty where she co-leads a study group. See Susan's article in Phi Delta Kappan.
	Global Partnerships for Education Linda Beardsley and Pearl Emmons Since 2008, Senior Lecturer Linda V. Beardsley has been working with the Maranyundo Initiative, a group of Boston area women who has collaborated with the Benebikira Nuns of Rwanda to build and develop the Maranyundo School in Nyamata, Rwanda. Colleagues at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach and in the Education Department - including media specialist Pearl Emmons, who has visited and filmed the school and has worked with the teachers at the school on using video and technology to enhance their teaching - have also been involved in this ongoing work.
	Journal of Museum Education Cynthia Robinson Museum Studies Program director Cynthia Robinson is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Museum Education, keeping in touch with museum educators all over the country, informing her teaching, and allowing her in turn to help shape the field. The fall 2014 issue of the Journal of Museum Education devotes a section to teen engagement in museums, guest-edited by local museum educator Gabrielle Wyrick, who works at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.
	Poincaré Institute for Mathematics Education Montserrat Teixidor-i-Bigas, David W. Carraher and Analúcia Schliemann The Poincaré Institute brings together expertise from mathematics, mathematics education, and physics to help teachers deepen and broaden their understanding of middle school mathematics. Rather than re-teach the mathematics that the teachers already know or offer a set of pre-packaged lessons, the Institute offers them a broad, unified framework to re-envision the mathematics they already teach. The mathematical focus of the Institute is algebra and the mathematics of functions.
	SPARC Silas Pinto SPARC (School Psychology Awareness and Recruitment Committee) is a student committee in the school psychology program designed to raise awareness and educate our campus and community about school psychology as an viable career in education and schools.  The committee is composed of current students, usually in the first and second year, who meet on a regular basis to plan activities and events for the academic year, such as the school psychology Open House/student panels, the School Psychology Awareness day, and interview day. The committee also serves as the Liaison between the program and Tufts Graduate Students Council.  Student volunteers are also available to discuss career options in school psychology as well as talk about their experience in the Tufts School Psychology Program.
	Student Centered Teaching at Tufts David Hammer and Phil Gay (and participating faculty) With Professor David Hammer in the interviewer seat and videographer Phil Gay behind the camera, Tufts University faculty members from across disciplines and departments are captured on video while teaching in their classrooms and later interviewed as they observe themselves in real time and reflect on specific moments of interaction with their students.
	Teach-In on Standing Rock Protective Actions Tufts University, October 28-29, 2016 The Teach-In on the Standing Rock Protective Actions was a two-day gathering sponsored by the Department of Education and the Program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in which tribal leaders, community activists, scholars, organization founders, documentarians, and others came together to teach and learn about a cluster of issues related to the ongoing protective actions taking place at Standing Rock.
	Teaching American History Steve Cohen Starting with a 2009 U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History (TAH) grant, Making Freedom: Evolution and Revolution in the Realization of an American Ideal, Senior Lecturer Steve Cohen has been leading a book group, for teachers from Burlington, Bedford, Lexington, Woburn, and Somerville schools. About twenty teachers were involved in Cohen's book group in 2014-2015, now funded through the professional development budget of Burlington Public Schools. The group read Plunkitt of Tammany by William Riordan, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis, Bending Toward Justice by Gary May, and The Minority Rights Revolution by John Skrentny. Video intro to the project.
	Tufts Ed MAKER Internship Program Brian Gravel The Tufts Ed MAKER Internship Program is funded by the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program at the National Science Foundation. Interns are developing makerspace for a local K-8 school and run summer workshops for children. Children make animations, interactive digital sculptures, e-textiles, and objects out of wood and paper. They use 3D printing technologies, low-cost high-tech electronics (e.g., Arduino, Makey Makey), craft technologies (e.g., sewing, wood burning).
	Tufts Educational Studies - Medford High School Partnership Sabina Vaught This partnership has three major threads: Educational Studies Professional Development for Medford High School teachers and administrative staff Workshops for Educational Studies MA students and Medford High School teachers and administrative staff Education internships for Medford High School students
	Urban Mathematics and Science Teacher Collaborative - (Noyce) Todd Quinto, PI Phase I; Bárbara Brizuela, PI Phase II We have been awarded two Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program grants, through the National Science Foundation. In Phase I, the department and project partners prepared two cohorts of math and physics teachers, who are now working in middle and high schools around the country. Phase II Teaching Fellows will begin their programs in fall 2015, working in Malden Public Schools, in math, science, and elementary teaching. Both projects include community and professional partnerships as well as ongoing professional development for several years after graduation.