Everything Nac

The Wildlife Society, an international professional organization of leaders in wildlife science, named the Stephen F. Austin State University student chapter as its national 2020 Student Chapter of the Year.

The annual award recognizes exceptional achievements by student chapters in the promotion of professional standards, outreach and education, as well as advocacy for conservation policy decisions.

“To be recognized across the nation is a huge compliment to our officers and students,” said Jake Hill, forest wildlife management major and president of the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society. “It’s a testament to the quality of our college, our forest wildlife program and the university itself.”

Earlier this year the chapter received statewide recognition when it was named Student Chapter of the Year by the Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society.

Hill said during the past year the student chapter focused on developing its student membership as active wildlife professionals.

One of the chapter’s most public initiatives was the development of a policy program to advocate for the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would make supplemental funds available to states for the management of wildlife most in need of conservation. These efforts included writing letters and conducting education campaigns, communicating with state representatives and partnering with other conservation organizations to advance the bill.

In addition, the chapter amplified partnerships with other conservation organizations, such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the National Wild Turkey Federation and other smaller nongovernmental organizations.

This spring, the chapter completed a wetland restoration project with Conservation Equity Partners, a local SFA alumni-owned environmental consulting firm. Through this partnership, the chapter planted more than 5,000 trees and gave away approximately 10,000 trees to the public.

“The students involved with the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society are outstanding ambassadors for SFA and are well known for their willingness to serve the profession and the community,” said Dr. Hans Williams, dean of SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture.

The SFA chapter also donated a portion of its annual fundraising proceeds to assist a newly formed student chapter of The Wildlife Society at another Texas university.

“This award recognizes the hard work of the highly motivated and professional students we have in our program,” said Dr. Daniel Scognamillo, associate professor of forest wildlife management and faculty advisor for the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society.

Winning chapters receive a plaque, as well as a $1,000 travel grant to attend the annual Wildlife Society Conference. The name of the chapter also will be added to a permanent plaque on display at The Wildlife Society’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. The SFA student chapter will be recognized at the national conference held virtually in September.

To learn more about the SFA student chapter of The Wildlife Society, its mission and current initiatives, email sfasuthewildlifesociety@gmail.com.

Story by Sarah Fuller, outreach coordinator for Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Contact information: (936) 468-1185 or fullersa@sfasu.edu.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre will present William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” live online for three consecutive nights starting June 30 and in a recorded version the following three days, July 3 through 5.

Selected for the School of Theatre’s virtual SummerStage Festival, “The Tempest” is a story of isolation and loss, but it is also about the power of life to continue and of humanity to recover. The script blends tragedy, comedy, songs and magic.

Nightly live performances are at 7:30. To purchase online access, visit boxoffice.sfasu.edu or call (936) 468-6407 for online purchasing questions.

With so many youth camps being canceled this summer, the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music has a camp that offers online piano instruction that can be enjoyed from the safety of one’s own home.

Registration for the Piano in the Pines virtual camp has been extended to Friday, July 3, for the week-long camp, July 20 through 24, for junior high and high school pianists. Camp director Mario Ajero, professor of piano pedagogy at SFA, used the success of the SFA Music Preparatory Division’s virtual spring recitals for inspiration to take the traditional piano camp online.

“When COVID-19 prevented our Music Prep students from having their traditional end-of-the-semester recitals in our recital halls, I came up with the idea of putting together a virtual recital where we would collect pre-recorded performance videos from the students’ homes,” Ajero said. “We would then broadcast those videos on a Facebook Live event so that family members and friends even outside of East Texas could celebrate the students’ accomplishments. The success of these SFA Music Prep virtual recitals inspired me to shift the Piano in the Pines Camp to an online format that would include private lessons and classes with SFA piano faculty and culminate in a virtual recital.”

To present the camp online, ensuring faculty had the necessary computers, mobile devices, cameras and microphones to deliver positive music-learning experiences in an online format was paramount.

“Fortunately, internet speed is very reliable and fast on campus, and I feel confident that we won’t have to worry about losing connections on our end,” he said. “The biggest challenge is to make sure that the students who register have the technology and internet speeds to reliably connect with us.”

Access to a computer or mobile device with a decent microphone and camera is a requirement for students. Video conferencing programs like Zoom have given musicians the ability to adjust the audio settings to remove various filters and compression that optimize the online calls for speech. With these new settings, musical performances can be broadcast remotely over the Zoom calls in a way that is faithful to the original sound, Ajero said.

Students will receive daily private online lessons with faculty, participate in virtual duets and ensembles with other student pianists, attend online classes covering a variety of relevant topics for young pianists, and perform in the SFA Piano in the Pines Virtual Recital at the end of the week.

“The good news is that many students and their families had to adapt to online instruction during the spring,” he said. “So we feel families are more prepared for this than they ever were. We also intend on sharing some information and short tutorial videos on how to achieve the best home environment for the online music instruction that they will partake in.”

Long before COVID-19 halted in-person instruction for public schools and universities, Ajero had invested a number of years of research in remote piano teaching to the point “we’re confident that we can still offer positive music-making experiences online,” he said.

Ajero recently gave a presentation for The Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University entitled “Technology to Teach Keyboard Remotely.” He said he was surprised that close to 500 teachers and administrators from across the country registered for the webinar.

“I wish these circumstances did not force us to teach and learn in this fashion,” he said, “but it is comforting to know that we can with technology that is readily available to most people.”

Although most students prefer a traditional face-to-face camp experience that immerses them in the university environment, the response to the online camp has been good, Ajero said.

“As someone who values music education as such an integral part of a young person’s development, I feel that online piano instruction is absolutely better than no music-making experiences at all,” he said. “We aim the camp at junior high and high school piano students usually at the intermediate and advanced levels. If there are any beginner piano students interested in online lessons, they should contact the SFA Music Prep program for their summer offerings.”

Register for Piano in the Pines camp through July 3 at sfasu.edu/pianocamp. Ajero can be reached at ajeromp@sfasu.edu.

Stephen F. Austin State University teacher candidates and East Texas students are benefiting from a grant program launched by the Texas Education Agency in 2018.

One of the goals of the Grow Your Own grant program is to recruit and retain teacher candidates in hard-to-staff areas like small and rural school districts.

Pathway 3 of the grant focuses on creating well-qualified teacher candidates through a yearlong clinical teaching assignment that allows them to develop the skills, knowledge and mindsets critical to success in each unique school context.

To obtain financial support for teacher candidates who want to pursue teaching careers in East Texas, Dr. Christina Sinclair, associate dean in SFA’s James I. Perkins College of Education, established a clinical teaching partnership with Martinsville Independent School District, which serves more than 300 students in Nacogdoches County.

“SFA’s Educator Preparation Program seeks to be a good partner to K-12 school districts,” Sinclair said. “TEA’s Grow Your Own grant creates a unique and mutually beneficial partnership opportunity with rural school districts, in this case Martinsville ISD.”

In 2018, Sinclair worked with Zach Crawford, an SFA alumnus and then junior high and high school principal at MISD, to establish the partnership that forms the foundation for the Grown Your Own grant work.

“As a native of East Texas, I wanted to partner with SFA on the secondary level to provide on-campus training opportunities for future teachers and allow them the firsthand experiences of a great small, rural school and community,” Crawford said.

For the 2019-20 school year, four SFA teacher candidates received $96,000 from the Grow Your Own grant program to fund their clinical teaching efforts at MISD. By that time, another SFA alumnus, Will Cauthen, began serving as pre-K-12 principal for MISD when Crawford moved to a high school principal position at Broaddus ISD. Cauthen supported the SFA teacher candidates throughout their experience.

“Martinsville has always been flexible in our student teaching partnerships, and SFA has done an outstanding job preparing their student teachers for the teaching field,” Cauthen said.

The Grow Your Own grant program benefits rural school districts by allowing student teachers to train at the same school district all year, according to Cauthen.

“Home-grown teachers stay,” he said. “If we are able to hire teachers who enjoy the small rural school setting, then these teachers and coaches will one day be our seasoned teachers who build on years of success and stability.”

The four teacher candidates selected for the program were Turner Edwards and Valarie Larkin Fountain, who hold bachelor’s degrees in kinesiology with a focus on early childhood through 12th grade physical education, and Brandi Moody and Kaylie Clausen, who hold bachelor’s degrees in agriculture with a focus on agricultural development. All four graduated from SFA in May and earned their teacher certifications after working for a year in Martinsville schools.

Originally from Garrison, Edwards heard about the grant program from David Goodman, lecturer of kinesiology and coordinator for the kinesiology EC-12 physical education program at SFA.

“I received a lot of real-world training that many teacher candidates don’t get,” he said. “This will help me be much more prepared for my first year of teaching and coaching.”

Fountain, who grew up in Slocum, also heard about the program from Goodman and Sharon Rice, lecturer of kinesiology at SFA. MISD helped her gain teaching knowledge by letting her get her “hands dirty,” Fountain said.

“If I ever was interested in a drill or lesson or idea, they were more than willing to let me try it out, which is so important, especially in student teaching,” she said. “They set me up in every way to be successful.”

To help Fountain participate in after-school practices and games while student teaching during her senior year, MISD arranged for her son to join its pre-K program for the remainder of the year.

“That is something that MISD most certainly didn’t have to do, but they did without me even asking, and I am forever grateful for it,” Fountain said.

Moody, originally from Longstreet, Louisiana, and Clausen, who grew up in La Porte, applied for the program after hearing about it from Dr. Candis Carraway, assistant professor of agriculture at SFA.

“I had 11 clinical teachers this semester, but only two wanted to stay close to Nacogdoches for clinical teaching and their teaching career,” Carraway said. “So Brandi and Kaylie were natural fits for the grant.”

Though from an urban area, Clausen knew she wanted to teach in a rural district.

“East Texas is beautiful and so different from the Houston area. I love how much more calm and rural it is here,” she said. “I immediately felt at home here and knew this is where I belong.”

Carraway, who is a field supervisor for the grant program, added that the student teaching experience is different under Grow Your Own because the clinical teachers are placed in the school to observe the semester before they begin their internship hours.

“Normally teacher candidates are not placed in the same school where they’ve observed a semester, and the only supervision they get for the internship is from their College of Education professor who is teaching the course that requires the internship hours,” Carraway said.

Moody was drawn to the grant program because of this extra time in the same district.

“I got to see a full year’s worth of instruction and planning,” she said. “It also allowed me to become familiar with the students, faculty, staff and school culture.”

To help ensure a successful experience in Martinsville schools, the four teacher candidates received guidance from field supervisors at SFA and cooperating teachers at MISD.

Goodman, a field supervisor for the program, said building relationships and partnerships is a large part of the program’s success.

“It takes an openness to allowing the relationships and partnerships to be built in the first place,” he said. “It also requires mentor teachers in the school districts who are willing to work with these future teachers and still complete their normal teaching and coaching responsibilities.”

Goodman selected Edwards and Fountain for this program because they both grew up in small school districts and would understand the culture.

“And because Martinsville ISD is so small, the teachers and administrators could observe Turner and Valarie on a daily basis and could see how well they worked teaching the students,” Goodman added.

Edwards and Fountain worked with Goodman and Danny Enloe, head coach and social studies teacher at Martinsville High School, to fine-tune lesson plans and ensure a good learning experience.

Fountain also worked with Christi Cauthen, wife of Will, girls’ basketball coach and third grade teacher at Martinsville Elementary.

“It’s important to make sure new teachers receive the guidance they need because they are the future of education and ultimately help determine the success of our future generations,” Christi said. “At Martinsville, we are a family, and we take care of each other.”

Clausen and Moody worked with Carraway as well as James Byrd and Samantha Cobb, career and technical education teachers at Martinsville High School.

Cobb, who is moving to a business manager role in training beginning with the 2020-21 school year, helped Clausen and Moody find their “teacher voice” when disciplining students and achieve a work-life balance in a role filled with extracurricular activities, including Future Farmers of America events.

“You have to learn time management skills and ways to navigate having a family and finding time for yourself while juggling all your responsibilities,” Cobb said.

Upon graduation, all four teacher candidates secured jobs in East Texas school districts. MISD hired Edwards as the head boys’ basketball coach and a history teacher; Fountain as the head softball coach, girls’ assistant basketball coach and a PE and history teacher; and Moody as an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor. Westwood ISD in Palestine hired Clausen as an agriculture science teacher.

The Cauthens said that during their internships, the four teacher candidates exhibited the qualities teachers and coaches in rural districts need: flexibility, open mindedness and simply the joy of working with students.

“Small rural schools, especially MISD, have a limited amount of staff,” Will said. “But we are able to still compete at a high level both academically and athletically. Our family atmosphere has contributed to everyone working toward a common goal of excellence.”

He added that MISD’s partnership with SFA on the Grow Your Own grant program “has done what we all hoped it would. MISD has benefited from the program by being able to hire our student teachers, and we are excited to see what the future holds for our new hires and Martinsville ISD.”

Sinclair said she hopes to expand SFA’s Grow Your Own partnership to include additional rural districts in the next cycle of the grant.

For more information on this program, email Sinclair at sinclaircd1@sfasu.edu.

By Jo Gilmore, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.