Tag Archives: education

A Mother’s Reminder: ‘To Whom Much is Given…’

­ Born and raised on a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, farm, Lois M. Martin ‘62 has always loved the agricultural life. “It was hard for me to leave,” Martin says about enrolling in Eastern Men­nonite College in 1959. However, her mother, Esther Metzler Martin, stressed that living into one’s potential was a facet of giving to the ...More

Support for Local Educators

Each spring, Linda Heatwole Bland ’64, a retired reading specialist and administrator, hosts a celebration dinner to honor the recipient of a scholarship she has endowed. This gracious gesture symbolizes her continued support of literacy education and the benefits of professional connection: both values she says she learned while earning a degree in elementary education ...More

Gathering Steam: Restorative justice in education

Three years ago, Danny Malec, MA ’05 (conflict transformation), was hired to help E.L. Haynes High School in Washington D.C. break free from the disciplinary rut of suspensions and expulsions that plague so many American schools. Now the school’s assistant principal for restorative practices, Malec and his colleagues have begun using techniques such as restorative ...More

A little bit of everything in schools’ I.T.

If a computer glitch threatens to derail something like a state-required proficiency test at Harrisonburg (Virginia) High School, Craig Shoemaker’s phone is bound to start ringing. “[Teachers] get anxious,” he said, chuckling. “I’m the one they try to get a hold of.” A computer resource technician with Harrisonburg City Public Schools, Shoemaker (’78) likens his ...More

Alumnus of the year: Oswald, pioneer in helping children with Autism

When accepted his first teaching job after graduating from college, he also discovered a field of study that defines his academic and professional career. “The opportunity to work with children with autism was not the result of a deliberate plan or any previous experience with autism,” says Donald Oswald. “Grafton School in Berryville, Virginia, was ...More

EMU-prepared teachers earn high marks in local school systems

  More than 500 alumni living in the City of Harrisonburg or Rockingham County work in education, though only two-thirds of these seem to be employed in their home districts, according to EMU’s alumni database. “The teachers we hire from the EMU teacher education program rank as being some of the best,” says Scott R. Kizner, ...More

Helping schools bridge cross-cultural divides

The baggage that comes with feeling new and out of place in a foreign milleu is heavy, especially for children who can’t communicate with their peers in the United States. Having experienced feeling like an outsider during their required cross-culturals, dozens of EMU grads employed by Harrisonburg City schools are using their cross-cultural sensitivity in ...More