Education Department Provides Faculty Grant Update
By Andy Smith
It has been a busy spring for our Education department and I wanted to share with you some of the events and activities in which I have participated.
In April I attended the annual APEL (Arizona Professor’s of Education Leadership) conference in Phoenix. This conference aligns with the Arizona School Administrators (ASA) Organization, and functions as the division for college faculty and leaders. The conference presenters shared information about AI and the coming impact on all facets of learning and school operation. Attendees and presenters were from ASU, UofA, GCU, NAU and the ADE. Also, Shaun Rose (Ed. Leadership M.Ed. student) was recognized as our outstanding student for 2025-2026.
In June I attended the annual ASA conference in Tucson which brings together a wide variety of administrators from all areas of education in Arizona. I attended meetings regarding rural school advocacy and opportunity, and I spoke with many vendors and colleagues about changes in assessment and literacy. A focus of the conference was teacher retention and recruitment as well.
I presented at the ADE (AZ Department of Education) conference in Phoenix on June. My presentation was on the student teacher practices that I have used and refined during my time at Prescott College and how those practices are changing rapidly as more teachers enter schools before training and degrees are completed. I have attached a picture of the event. During my presentation participants shared their experiences as student teachers and what they have observed as new teachers arrived in their schools. We discussed the evaluation process, preparation, and other items related to student teacher preparation improvement.
Finally, I am happy to share a wonderful experience for one of our students. Mia Montanez is a senior psychology major and she is enrolled in one of my summer special education courses. To complete her field experience hours, I contacted Mr. Mike Morris (an adjunct faculty in the school counseling program) for a possible placement at Carl Hayden High School. It just happens that Mr. Morris was Mia’s guidance counselor at Carl Hayden and he was happy to assist her. I interviewed both Mr. Morris and Mia about their experiences. Mia explained that it was interesting to see the physical changes in the school and that as an observer in her former school, and as a psychology student, she understands teacher reactions better (sometimes they have a bad day) and that returning she is now looking through the eyes of a young adult compared to looking through the eyes of a high school student. (picture attached)
