Everything Nac

Teaching professionals seeking to continue their education need look no further than Stephen F. Austin State University. In January 2019, SFA will offer a Master of Education in teaching and learning completely online to allow educators the opportunity to pursue a graduate degree without relocating.

This degree targets early childhood through 12th grade teachers who wish to develop their skills and knowledge in these three teaching specializations: online, English as a Second Language/bilingual, and gifted and talented.

“The need for specialists in these areas continues to increase, and this degree is specially niched to fulfill this growing need,” said Dr. Heather Olson Beal, associate professor in SFA’s Department of Secondary Education and Educational Leadership.

The 36-hour online program prepares teachers to work with a mobile and tech-savvy new generation of students while the ESL/bilingual track primes teachers to work with a diverse student population with different languages and cultural backgrounds. The gifted and talented program prepares teachers to recognize the unique abilities and capacity for discovery of students from every cultural background.

Virtual class meetings will be regularly scheduled during evenings, Saturdays and summers. Program instructors will use real-time video conferencing technology in order to enable off-site students to participate from remote locations.

For more information, contact Olson Beal at SecEdGrad@sfasu.edu.

By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Aug. 9 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St.

Dr. Jay Spiers, an associate professor of horticulture from Auburn University, will present, “Alternative Fruit Crops for a Changing Gulf South: What’s on the Horizon?”

Spiers’ professorial appointment consists of 70 percent research, 25 percent teaching and five percent service. His research focuses on sustainable fruit crop production systems and includes work with blueberry, kiwifruit, satsuma mandarin, blackberry, persimmon and pomegranate. He also teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level classes in the horticulture department pertaining to fruit production.

Spiers holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in horticulture from Mississippi State University and a doctoral degree in horticultural sciences from Texas A&M University.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a rare-plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated.

Parking is available at the PNPC and Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet St.

For more information, call (936) 468-4129, or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.