Fall EMSP Conference

At the conference we learned a lot about NEA and Education Minnesota. Below is a newsletter that we created to share with the Junior and Seniors. There is a lot of information!

Did you Know?

There are many opportunities as a NEA member

· NEA Website Benefits:

Go to: www.educationminnesota.org

Here, there are opportunities such as travel discounts, insurance coverage, lesson plans, counseling contacts, etc. Some things we found to be important are:

1. You can be reimbursed up to $20 dollars for each year you were an NEA benefits member (purchased insurance). When you become a full-time teacher, you can be reimbursed up to $40 (two years worth of insurance). This form can be sent to you via request to Tammy Barnes: Tammy.Barnes@ed.mn.org. REMEMBER this for next Fall!

2. When you sign up for your NEA liability insurance through www.educationminnesota.org, you can also sign up as a NEA website member to print off coupons, receive discounts, find scholarships, search for most public school districts contracts, learn about negotiations, gather information for “New Teachers” such as conferences, tips & suggestions, and find website connections for job postings. On top of all of these, you can look into the legal aspects. You can catch up on newly passed laws and what’s happening in our legislature.

o Go to www.educationminnesota.org

o Click on New User? Register Now

o Be sure to select: EMSP Winona State - ROCHESTER

o Follow the prompts *Note: Your MN ID # is the confirmation number you received when you signed up for your liability insurance. You can find this number in your confirmation e-mail. It’s a 9 digit number.

3. There are multiple Facebook pages to join and keep up on the news! Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Education-Minnesota-Student-Program/134289276596892

4. When you are a member, you are part of the NEA (National Education Association) as well as the AFT (American Federation of Teachers). Together, these are the Education Minnesota Union.

Fun Fact: Rochester was the home of the first MEA (Minnesota Education Association) in 1861!

Find out more at: http://mmu.locals.educationminnesota.org/~/media/mmu/edmnhistory.ashx

Your student representatives:

Tammy Barnes: tammy.barnes@ed.mn.org 800-642-3239

Michelle Goos: michelle.goos@ed.mn.org 800-622-4981

Greg Miller: greg.miller@ed.mn.org 800-422-0528

Summer Events

The Fall semester is in full gear and the EMSP team and senior cohort are in their final months before student teaching! A lot of new and exciting changes have taken place for the new semester.

First, we would like to welcome in the Junior cohort, class of 2013. We hope you all enjoy the newly remodeled program and we hope that you take in every avenue and opportunity that arises!

On that note, as many may know, our Education program has been remodeled for more concrete and thoughtful learning. The biggest change for the seniors was the shift from night courses to morning. Also, we have clinical practice tied in with our courses in Riverside Elementary. A big thank-you goes to Christine Smith (Principal) and Angela Labounty (Vice Principal) for allowing us inside their community. It's a priceless opportunity us.

Thinking back, the summer of 2011 was yet another fast one. Three of our EMSP members had the opportunity to travel to Chicago, IL for the SLC and NEA conferences held for this years leadership conference. Megan and Christina attended the first portion (SLC) while Tom attended the both of the conferences entireties.

The Student Leadership Conference portion, or SLC, consisted of many meetings focused on club promotion and leadership skills. All three of us sat in on multiple conferences and had hours of networking. We got to meet many passionate people filled with genuine drive for Education. It was great seeing the enthusiasm and effort put forth during an economically difficult time for our career.

One experience that stood out most for me was the Outreach To Teach project with Dawes Elementary School in Chicago. With this annual project, a school is put through an application and interview process. The school which is chosen is awarded with thousands of dollars worth of renovations and maintenance. We painted, sanded, weeded, planted, dusted and much more during this single day of work. It was a great time for people to lend a hand and offer their hard work to people in need. Below are a few pictures from that experience:

The 2nd annual STEM camp also happened this July! A lot of hard work and preparation went into this years' camp. Maggie Hoody was behind the scenes putting together things that I can't even begin to acknowledge. The team at Riverside Elementary were terrific, especially Mr. Johnson who helped organize within the building. I'm sure there were many sleepless nights but it was a huge success! We played great as a team and I feel like a lot of learning took place during our short four days there:

More pictures and information will soon be printed in the local newspaper. We will add the link when we see it printed! :)

Overall, the summer was busy and quick. A lot of new and exciting changes have happened but a few traditions seem to be underway (STEM camp being the biggest).

As the school year sets in, we will settle into our new Riverside classrooms and field placements. In the next few weeks we look forward to meeting the Junior cohort at our Meet and Greet as well as the Riverside Staff who we will be working side by side with before we know it!

EMSP Team 2011

Purple Plunger Success!

The Purple Plungers plunged successfully on February 12th, 2011! 7 of us got together and raised $1,480 that was contributed to the grand total of about $145,000 for our SE chapter Special Olympics.

Since we were representing WSU-Rochester, we thought it'd fit the occasion to dress in all purple. Tom, one of the members, had even gone and boughten plungers, painted them purple and put a WSU-R logo on them! They were a hit I must say. We enjoyed a quick lunch, finished up our final costume touches (face paint) and hopped on the shuttle. We were through the changing tents and into the prep tent quicker than imagined and frantically tried to collect our thoughts before it was time to plunge. We snapped a quick picture, entered a costume contest and ran out onto the plank in a blink of an eye! We didn't have time to choreograph a plan once we were out there so we all just started cheering and getting pumped up. Megan got a little antsy and took the leap first, quickly followed by her teammates! It was a beautiful day but the water was freezing! We trampled out as quick as we could and leaped into the hot-tub. It was all smiles! There, we had a quick interview with the Post-Bulletin (check out the link: http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1444804). Some of us dunked our heads, some of us didn't - but we all enjoyed the quick, refreshing plunge in the middle of Minnesota's winter!

The day was over before it we knew it. We had a great time and hopefully WSU-R will continue to participate in the years to come.

EMSP

President - Tom W.

Vice President - Megan L.

Treasurer - Christina B.

Secretary - Anna S.

Polar Plunge

Feb. 12 we will be jumping into the frozen pond so gather some money and get a costume and we will all jump in together. Questions email Megan

S.T.E.M. was stupendous

What a summer! The S.T.E.M. camp at Riverside Elementary was a wonderful experience for the students and the pre-service teachers. Reflecting back on the experience we can see how valuable it is to create lessons that are engaging and rich with learning. Looking forward we still plan on offering SmartBoard training and an opportunity to listen to some exciting speakers.Check back here for times and some exciting pictures from STEM camp.

EMSP in the Spring

Fresh off our trip to the leadership conference in St. Paul, we are very excited to share our experience. The conference featured two speakers. They discussed the importance of safety on the Internet and studying abroad. Internet crimes against children is on the rise and pre-service teachers need to be aware of this. This is an important topic and we are hoping to have the same speaker come down and give a presentation for our cohort.

Another topic we would like to discuss is the opportunity for our cohort to participate in professional development. The two that we will be hosting is a Smartboard Training and Responsive Classroom course. The dates are tentative as of right now, but we are estimating that Responsive Classroom will be in late May and Smartboard will be next fall.

Finally, we have discussed an interest in hosting a meet and eat next fall for the incoming Juniors. However, we would like to make this event more engaging and informative for the Juniors, so we will make things a tad more structured and assign more roles. The event will still be fun! We are expecting to have Papa John's pizza, and hoping that some people in our cohort would be willing to make some dessert and/or appetizer.

We are open for any suggestions! We hope you all will be interested and excited for our opportunities!

EMSP Members
President- Dan
Vice President- Tim
Secretary- Brandice
Treasurer- Jake

Wow! Talk about not being updated in a while! The EMSP board members in Rochester have taken some great steps into getting the Winona State Rochester Education name out in to the public. Our members have introduced a volunteering opportunity for the Winona State Rochester cohort. Our cohort will being volunteering at an elementary school in the Rochester Public School District. This opportunity will help further our cohort's educational experiences. This is in the early stages of development, but will focus on offering STEM activities to students in an after school environment.
The EMSP board has also taken advantage of Winona State Student Senate's funding and have set up two professional development classes for the Rochester cohort to attend. The first professional development course our cohort will be attending will be a Responsive Classroom Training put on by Origins based out of Minneapolis. This event will be held in Rochester on April 17th. The second professional development opportunity will involve SMART board training provided by SSC (Southeast Service Co-Op).
On March 26th and 27th the Rochester EMSP board members will be traveling to St. Paul for the Annual Spring Education Minnesota meeting. We will be looking forward to updating everyone on the activities we will participating in.