Class Notes

David Schmal (MEdu), a graduate in educational equity and cultural diversity, joined Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, after graduating with a PhD from Boston University in 2013. He is now a full-time professor and director of film scoring studies. He writes that during the past 15 years, he has been involved as a composer, conductor and music supervisor for more than 20 films and television projects, including three feature films, a number of short films and a 13-part documentary series.

Liz Meyer (MEdu), a graduate in educational foundations, policy and practice (EFPP), is thrilled to return and work at the School of Education after earning her PhD at McGill University in Montreal and working for four years at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. She has been an associate professor in EFPP since 2015 and associate dean of students. This fall, she got to teach a course she took from Dan Liston (Radical Theories in Education) and invited him in as a guest speaker. “It was a cool, full-circle moment,” Meyer said.

Zachariah Miracle recently earned his Master of Arts in Special Education at Colorado Mesa University. He teaches special education at a middle school in Grand Junction, CO.

Ed Cannava is an instrumental music education instructor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, Executive Secretary for the Colorado Bandmasters Association, Director of the Denver Jazz Club Youth All-Stars, and Chief Judge for the Friendship Cup Marching Band Show Series. Dr. Cannava is an instrumental music consultant, adjudicator, clinician and guest conductor.

Char Schmoker is a Lead Guide in a lower elementary classroom at a Montessori charter school. Our classroom has a mix of 26 first-, second-, and third-year students. Char earned her Montessori Credential last year to prepare her for this new frontier. "I integrate all areas of study, including music, art, and even a peace curriculum. Lots of hard work, but I love it!"

Megan Mistler-Jackson is the 5th Gear Kids Coordinator in Cherry Creek School District. The program teaches 5th graders and their families knowledge and skills for lifelong health through science, PE and community partnerships. Funded by the Colorado Health Foundation and managed by Dr. Jim Hill at CU Anschutz Medical Campus, the program also serves Aurora Public Schools, with plans for expansion.

Reynaldo Reyes is Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Texas at El Paso. He recently published a highly praised book based on his dissertation, Learning the Possible: Mexican American Students Moving from the Margins of Life to New Ways of Being.

Genet Simone is the Program Director for Western Washington University's K-8 teacher education program on the Kitsap Peninsula, recruiting and mentoring students through their 2-3 year program and teaching methods and foundations classes in Bremerton, Seattle, and Everett. Currently, she is creating partnerships with STEM schools, and publishing in the field of contemplative teacher education.

Scott Marion has been named by the Board of Trustees of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment) as the next Executive Director, starting in September 2015. Scott has been working at the Center for 11 years as a senior associate and associate director.

Reynaldo Reyes is Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Texas at El Paso. He recently published a highly praised book based on his dissertation, Learning the Possible: Mexican American Students Moving from the Margins of Life to New Ways of Being. 

Leslie Maniotes (Edu MA) has been working for the past 10 years in collaboration with a museum educator at the National Air and Space Museum and an internationally renown professor of information science from Rutgers University to reimagine how learning can look in K-12 schools today. They developed an instructional design model for inquiry based learning grounded in the research on the Information Search Process (Kuhlthau, 2004) and her PhD research from CU on Third Space (Maniotes, 2005). After publishing four books about this approach, they have many schools and districts across the US, Canada, and Australia using our model. (See more on our website guidedinquirydesign.com) 

in April 2018, they held their first ever Guided Inquiry Design Institute in Denver in partner with the History Colorado Center. It was a great success and they are really excited to continue to spread this model in Colorado, to K-12 schools wishing to innovate learning in this information age. Past institutes have been at Rutgers Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries, in Wisconsin and in a variety of school districts across the country from Virginia, Oklahoma, and as far west as California and Washington State. Reach out to Leslie, if you're interested in learning more. She'd love to connect with other eduBUFFS! Find me on Twitter too! @lesliemaniotes @InquiryK12

After graduation, Courtney Anderson (Campbell) taught 5th grade at a charter school in Oakland, CA and then on the south side of Chicago, Il. Courtney went back to school to get my M.Ed to be a reading specialist and has been doing that for the past 7 years at a Catholic school in downtown Chicago.

Monica Moreno is teaching Spanish at Westview Middle School in Longmont, CO. Her school was recently awarded with the Colorado Government’s Distinguished Improvement Award. 

Sara Staley (PhDEdu), a graduate in curriculum and instruction, and Bethy Leonardi (PhDEdu), a graduate in educational foundations, policy and practice, won the Kalpana Chawla Award from the CU Boulder Alumni Association for their work on topics of gender and sexual diversity in schools. The two research associates and instructors at the CU Boulder School of Education founded A Queer Endeavor, an initiative providing educators with guidance, vocabulary and tools for developing school cultures that are safe, supportive and accepting of LGBTQ youth.

Amanda Menihan (MEdu), a graduate in curriculum and instruction, won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She also received a $10,000 NSF award. Menihan teaches seventh-grade math at Altona Middle School in Longmont, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Suzanne Arnold (Edu MA) is a clinical faculty member of the University of Colorado Denver, School of Education and Human Development. Currently, she is Director of T-PREP (The Partnerships for Rural Education Preparation) and Alternative Teacher Pathways. She is also the Principal Investigator for two NSF grants: Teachers on Public Lands and Teacher Ranger Teacher. The grants work with the Bureau of Land Management and National Parks System to provide teachers an opportunity to serve as a summer intern at a National Park or Hands On Lands site and take a Place Based Education course.

Michael Orosco, PhD received tenure at UC Riverside and at the University of Kansas, where he is now an Associate Professor in Special Education, specializing in bilingual special education. He received CEC’s 2014 Samuel A. Kirk Publication Award for “Effects of Cognitive Strategy Interventions and Cognitive Moderators on Word Problem Solving in Children at Risk for Problem Solving Difficulties.”

Colleen Pfeiffer is fortunate to be continuing her path in Linguistic and Diverse Education and thankful for her professors at CU that helped her get where she is today.
She is the lead faculty for the TESOL program at Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Lindsey Gross has been teaching in Eagle County since she graduated.

Shawna Morin is teaching a combined K/1st/2nd grade at an international school in Brasov, Romania.