Meet some of the academic specialists who play essential roles in our college
by Chris Reimann and Lauren Knapp
They say that if you need help choosing a restaurant, scheduling a flight or hotel room, calculating your monthly expenses, etc., there’s probably an app for that. It can seem that life would stand still if not for these apps.
Similarly, if you need help designing a curriculum, teaching a course, conducting or analyzing research, or running a program or a project, there’s probably an academic specialist doing just that somewhere in the MSU College of Education. They play an essential role in the work and success of the college – or rather, they play essential roles, in that the tasks they perform and the responsibilities they hold are extensive and wide-ranging.
From advising students and supporting their journeys through their programs, to conducting research and analyzing results, to supervising the daily operations of core college programs, to extending the impact of college-generated knowledge through curriculum development and outreach programs, communications and advocacy, academic specialists contribute skills and experience to many of the efforts and successes that make the MSU College of Education one of the top education colleges in the world.
Andrea Kelly: Inside the Elementary Education Pre-Internship Process
The College of Education Teacher Preparation Program (TPP) includes a clinical experience for every student as part of their preparation. Each student majoring in elementary education needs a classroom placement, called a pre-internship, usually during their junior or senior year in order to complete their program. Across TPP, this involves placing several hundred students with hundreds of mentor teachers in scores of schools throughout Michigan each year.
Fortunately, the College of Education has Andrea Kelly, a senior academic specialist and the coordinator of the pre-internship program for the elementary education program. Andrea matches over 500 elementary education Spartans with about 140 teachers in Michigan.
Securing spots for all these aspiring teachers is the crucial first step in the process for Andrea. To ensure these clinical experiences are as meaningful as possible, Andrea also supports the mentoring teachers when they have questions or concerns, and monitors and writes development plans for students who are struggling in their placements. Andrea manages the online placement system and anticipates and helps resolve scheduling issues.
The role of senior academic specialist also includes “other duties as assigned;” for Andrea, this has included performing annual reviews, participating on search committees and presenting to international visitors about the elementary education program.
An MSU College of Education graduate and former elementary teacher herself, Kelly is well-suited for supervising this integral component of the Teacher Preparation Program.
Andrea’s connection with MSU is long and strong: Her father served as chair of the horticulture department at MSU when she was growing up and provided a strong role model in education. In fact, her extended family has earned 27 degrees from MSU. Having gone on to earn a master’s in curriculum and instruction from Leslie University in Boston and taught in an alternative school in northern Massachusetts, Kelly came back to MSU in 2007 looking to gain certification as a Michigan teacher, but was quickly enticed to join the TPP team, a role that grew into the coordinator position she holds today.
Andrea brings some unique personal strengths to her role as program coordinator. Being the second of nine siblings helped her develop “strong people skills,” says Andrea, who earned her B.A. in therapeutic recreation and has worked in adult mental health as well. This background was particularly helpful during COVID, says Kelly.
“I really missed working with the students during COVID,” she explains, “realizing that their troubles are real troubles, but something that they can overcome. These are the students who finished their high school careers during COVID; they are missing that piece; they are very different – every day is a different day.”
Andrea loves the people side of her job, working with individual students, helping them have positive experiences in their placements, as well as the analytic side of managing all the placements. “I get to use all parts of my brain,” she says.
And when she’s not at work? Gardening, wilderness camping with her extended family, raising chickens – and paddling on her co-ed dragon boat team.
Mary Patillo-Dunn: A Passion for Teaching
Mary Patillo-Dunn is an academic specialist in the College of Education’s Department of Teacher Education. Mary’s is also coordinator of the Urban Educators Cohort Program (UECP).
Mary teaches two of the foundational courses that all UECP students take, TE 101 and TE 102. She also creates out-of-class experiences to help UECP students better understand the urban context, arranging panels of teachers, students, principals and human resource administrators to talk to her group. Mary also develops and runs workshops to deepen their learning in the areas of justice, equity, mental health needs, job preparedness and advocacy in the classroom. During the summer, she teaches in the Early Success Scholars program and supports the Urban Immersion Fellowship in Detroit, providing UECP (and other TE) students first-hand experience in working with city youth and the several community agencies and organizations that support schools in urban settings.
Mary began her career in education as a second grade teacher in Saginaw, Michigan. In her fifth year, she became an instructional coach for elementary teachers. Three years later, the district asked her to take the helm as the school’s principal, which she did.
It was in the thick of COVID-19 that Mary realized her teachers were not ready — and had not been prepared — to negotiate the socio-political aspects of their jobs. “Some of them were good at adapting” to changing circumstances, Mary explains, but they had not been prepared as professionals for the implications of the impact of COVID and other socio-political issues on their practice.
“That’s when I got interested in teacher preparation, to support students becoming teachers in teaching in new ways and responding to student needs.”
For UECP, Mary works with K-12 teachers and administrators to arrange visits with many schools around the state, prompting students to discover how a school in Detroit is different from a school in Grand Rapids — and ways in which they are the same as schools in other urban districts. Or a suburban school, for that matter. Her goal is to broaden perspectives of what “urban education” means. This includes arranging community visits as well.
“Urban districts rely on community support in ways that impact student – and teacher – classroom experiences,” notes Mary.
Moreover, Mary strives to replace the common “deficit” perspective attached to urban areas and schools with an asset perspective, showing her charges the positive aspects of urban environments.
In her role, Mary works to engage undergraduates in research opportunities, broadening their conception of the role of teachers and helping students see themselves as advocates and change agents. Mary collaborates often with faculty member Alyssa Morley, the coordinator of the Global Educators Cohort Program, to develop joint lectures and combined field trips. This synergy allows for richer experiences and discussions for students in both programs around the connectedness of urban and global spaces.
“This helps the global education students get a sense of large school districts,” explains Mary, and also helps students see that many urban districts have global aspects as well, an important point that many of them will face as they enter an urban district. Mary and Alyssa are developing a study abroad option to provide a broader understanding of what it means to be an educator.
Mary has another interest: “I want to improve the retention of teachers in urban schools.”
She says that begins with fostering more realistic expectations of what new teachers will encounter in an urban environment. “I want teaches to realize their power: the power in numbers, in advocacy, in agency. Some don’t survive the shock” of their first years in an urban district. “If you don’t feel like the professional in this space, you won’t stay, she added.” Her goal is to “re-professionalize” the field, to help new teachers realize they can teach and still do research and go to conferences.
If Mary keeps the UECP humming, her family keeps the music going at home — literally. Among them, her husband and three children play a dozen instruments. Concerts, lessons and practices keep them on the move and in tune. “I’m the only one in my family who only plays one instrument, the piano,” Mary admits. “I’m thinking of taking up the cello.”
Candace Robertson: Helping Teachers Master Learning Experience Design
For Senior Academic Specialist Candace Robertson, being a thought partner is one of the most rewarding aspects of her job as assistant director of student experience and outreach for the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) and the Master of Arts in Learning Experience Design (MALXD) programs. “People expect our programs to lead with technology, but we lead with the learners. From there, we focus on what we know about learning and quality teaching, and we creatively leverage technology as a medium to transform pedagogical practices in much larger ways,” she says.
A graduate of the MAET program herself, Candace was a middle school science and English language arts teacher. After MAET, she was ready to challenge herself with a leadership role and became an instructional technology coach at the middle school level.
“I began to understand the significant impact you can have on students by working with their teachers [as I grew into that role],” says Robertson. In turn, this fostered an interest in adult learning and prompted her to apply for an adjunct position in the college and she began teaching with the program in a variety of contexts. When a full-time MAET-related position opened, Candace applied and was offered her dream role of supporting more educators to further the positive impact on K-12 students.
Her current role involves a rich blend of responsibilities, from advising to teaching to curriculum development, as well as a variety of outreach initiatives.
“I work with our dynamic team to manage all things learner related, from application to beyond graduation,” she says.
She also works with school and industry partners, providing professional development, connections and resources to support their missions and goals. These partnerships — and Candace’s focus on listening to educator and designer needs — allow her to generate applicable and meaningful ideas as she sees herself supporting the bridge between theory and practice. One example of this is MAET’s mini-MOOC (massive open online course) on remote teaching that was developed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to help transition educators to emergency remote teaching. During this time, Candace also participated in the development of MSU’s Summer Online Instructional Readiness for Educational Excellence (SOIREE) program.
“I love connecting with our learners,” explains Candace. “Most are full time professionals, balancing many responsibilities in addition to being full-time graduate learners. Together, we celebrate successes and overcome hurdles.”
Candace becomes a part of their network as they progress through the program and that extends to their role as alums.
“When I receive an email from an alum, it makes my day to know they can still count on me as a resource, thought partner, or someone who will celebrate a milestone with them.” Candace is humbled by learners sharing with her and believes it further propels the practices of the MAET and MALXD team forward. “And I love the team I work with – they are so creative and passionate. We are deeply learner-centered, and we know that our learners make us better educators and designers due to their excellence.”
When not at work, Candace loves to spend time with family. She has a young daughter who is “full of discovery; I love seeing what we can uncover in the whys of the world together.” Candace’s science education background and interests in creativity have a new lens through her daughter’s experiences, wonderings, and creations.
This is one thing work and family have in common: “Keep asking, keep connecting, keep ideating, keep doing!”