Bonnie Yoder Archives - EMU News

2020 Excellence in Teaching awards honor professors Daniel Showalter, Johonna Turner and Bonnie Yoder

Lauren Jefferson — Thu, 21 May 2020 16:18:47 +0000

��ݮ�� announces three honors of the annual Excellence in Teaching Awards:

in the Tenured Faculty category, Daniel Showalter PhD, associate professor of mathematics;
in the Pre-tenure Faculty category, Johonna Turner PhD, assistant professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding; and
in the Non-tenure Faculty category, Bonnie Yoder, adjunct instructor in EMU’s Teacher Preparation Program.

The award honors the gifts of faculty across all the positional categories of employment. Criteria include impact on students, effective teaching practices, subject knowledge and continual growth, including a commitment to professional and pedagogical development.

The selection process began with nominations from the campus community. A committee appointed by Faculty Senate reviewed the nominations and selected the honorees.

Tenured Faculty: Daniel Showalter, PhD

Dr. Daniel Showalter.

Since summer 2015, Showalter has taught a range of classes in computer science, mathematics, statistics, and education. He has also advised thesis projects for the MS in Biomedicine program and teaches an online Biostatistics course for the Doctor of Nursing Practice program.

“The variety is one of the reasons I absolutely love teaching at EMU,” he said. “Of course, the main reasons I love it here are the students–who constantly challenge each other and myself with their insights during our discussions–and our supportive community of colleagues.”

Showalter “clearly loves his content, respects and aims to help empower his students, and delights in coming up with new ways to engage them. He also takes faith integration seriously,” wrote one nominator. “Students have spoken to me about the ways in which he communicates his appreciation for Scripture and the Christian tradition in natural, gentle, and inviting ways. He serves also as a public intellectual, engaging in policy conversations that extend his teaching role far beyond our campus.”

A second nominator praised Showalter’s capabilities and interest in developing practical application of math and statistics principles to real-world problems,

Read more about Showalter’s contributions on his personnel page and in recent news coverage about his leadership of a national study on rural students and schools.

Showalter earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Urbana University, an MS in mathematics from Ohio University, and a PhD in mathematics education from Ohio University.

Pre-tenure Faculty: Johonna Turner, PhD

Dr. Johonna Turner.

Turner is assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and in the applied social science department. She joined EMU as an instructor at CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute in 2014 and joined the full-time faculty in fall 2015. She is also co-director of the .

She regularly teaches graduate courses in restorative justice, as well as joins in co-teaching the core 6-unit “Foundations of Justice and Peacebuilding Level II” for all CJP MA students. Additionally, she has taught graduate courses in social movements and formation for peacebuilding practice, as well as undergraduate courses in restorative justice and trauma awareness and facilitation and group dynamics.

Next semester, Turner will teach a new course titled “Ending Violence, Shifting Power,” which will introduce students to “the rich body of thinking and practice emerging from feminist, antiracist and LGBTQ anti-violence movements,” she says.

Turner’s innovation is also highlighted in other courses she has designed and taught at EMU, Eastern Mennonite Seminary and CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute, including “Peacebuilding through Biblical Narrative,” Christian spirituality for social action; and “Justice, Peace and the Biblical Story,” cross-listed with the seminary.

Turner often invites graduate students who show an interest in facilitation and teaching in and out of academia to join her as a course co-designer and co-instructor: “My practice of teaching is enmeshed with my mentoring practice,” she explains.

Nominators cited Turner’s contributions to integrating faith into coursework and university faculty/staff events; she is a member of CJP’s Faith Integration Taskforce but has actively influenced the broader university on this topic as well. She received several nominations from students, who shared that her compassion, sensitivity and method of inquiry sparked not only excellent discussion but helped to engender self-confidence on their own journeys of discovery.

Turner “graces the world with an incorrigible spirit of joy, a curious intellect, and a deep compassion for all whose liberation has been shackled by the injustices of violence and oppression … She is keenly aware that her emancipation is all wrapped up in the freedom of those around her,” wrote one colleague.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Turner is also a sought-after speaker and a widely published scholar. Learn more about her journey at her personnel page and in this Peacebuilder podcast episode.

Turner earned her PhD in American studies at the University of Maryland. She holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and interdisciplinary studies from the University of Missouri, and two graduate certificates: in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland, and in Urban Youth Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Non-tenure Faculty: Bonnie Yoder, Adjunct Faculty

Bonnie Yoder, MEd.

Yoder has taught at EMU since 2010, working with teacher education students in the beginning of their professional preparation and then supervising many during their culminating student teaching experience. She has also taught courses in management and organization in early education, content area reading and writing, and foundations of curriculum development, at the graduate level.

Nominators cited Yoder for her commitment to the program, her openness and flexibility in working with various groups of students, her care and compassion for students, and her teaching and facilitation strategies, which emphasize critical reflection.

She brings vast experiential knowledge and relationships from her 17-year career as a teacher and administrator in the local school system. This enables EMU students to begin this important pre-service experience with beneficial, positive relationships with other mentoring supervising teachers.

“I feel blessed to serve EMU and the wider community through the meaningful work of guiding students as they discover the call to teach,” she said. “EMU’s education department has a strong reputation and high goals in preparing pre-service teachers to impact the world. The collaboration and camaraderie within the department makes this possible. What a joy to watch our students develop into confident teachers.”

Yoder earned her BA degree from EMU and an MEd at James Madison University. Among other accomplishments, she is a former National Economics Teacher of the Year.

Early Learning Center teaches children – and future educators

Christopher Clymer Kurtz — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:30:11 +0000

Free to pursue their interests, the seven two-year-olds spread about the room, some pushing toy cars and trucks across the floor, others shaping green playdough at a low table.

And at another table, practicum student Kelsey Troyer led a lesson: Her own.

��ݮ�� touts its (ELC) as a “child-centered, developmentally appropriate preschool program” whose “emergent” curriculum enables teachers “to be sensitive to the cues of the children and their interests.”

EMU practicum student Amber Olson works with a student outside.

But that’s only part of the picture, because the ELC is also a place where EMU students gain real-world education experience.

Elementary education students studying classroom management and organization meet in the college classroom twice a week, but for their third session spend time at the ELC, located in Park View Mennonite Church just blocks from campus.

“You can imagine how this sparks classroom discussion and brings deeper understanding of the educational theories we study together,” said instructor . “I would not want to teach educational theory any other way.”

While many education courses at EMU have a practicum component, the ELC is unique, as it is EMU’s “very own lab school,” Yoder said. This means that Yoder and ELC director are “equally invested in student progress and learning. We are colleagues and co-teachers, and share philosophy and goals,” Yoder said.

The lessons

The ELC experience challenges EMU students to think on their feet both responsively and proactively.

As students meandered to and from her table, Troyer invited one or two at a time to join in mixing blue and pink shaving cream on pieces of black paper.

Troyer had designed the lesson to help students explore what happens when colors are mixed, and to play with patterns. But with the ELC classroom’s lead teacher taking notes and giving feedback, Troyer was the one learning.

“What could you do to help support her?” Williams asked Troyer when one student hesitated at delving into the shaving cream mess.

Miranda Stroop, a work-study student from EMU, reads to Micah.

“Do you want a brush?” Troyer asked the child. “What happens when you put the paintbrush in there?” and, later, “What happens if you swirl it around on your paper?”

The little girl laughed as she mixed the colors.

“Do you still see pink and blue?” Troyer asked her. “Do you see purple?”

With shaving cream now up the girl’s arms to her elbows and over the edges of the paper, Williams reflected for Troyer: “Maybe next time, use bigger paper,” she said.

Later, Troyer said that’s one of the things she’s learning: to notice even during an activity about what works – or doesn’t – so she can “modify the lesson to make it run smoothly for the next student.”

She’s also learning how to be careful with words.

“Instead of giving empty praise and saying ‘good job,’” she said, “I’ve learned to give more specific feedback, like, ‘Wow, I see you’ve covered your whole paper in paint.’”

Across the hall in the four-year-olds classroom, her classmate Cody Trumbo, too, was also teaching and learning.

He had prepared magazines, scissors and glue sticks on a nearby table for a collage-making project, and went to gather recruits from among a group of students huddled around the water play table.

“We’re going to make a project today,” he said. “Are you okay with that?”

“Umm, no,” one honest student replied.

Working with young students in a classroom setting like these two boys, EMU practicum students get a feel for what teaching might be like before they embark fully on the education major curriculum.

Diener stepped in with some advice for Trumbo, suggesting that he not ask permission but instead tell the students it is their turn.

“It’s all about phrasing,” he reflected later. It’s called “polite command,” and it has to be clear and not indicative of choice when there isn’t any.

“This is tougher than one might imagine, simply because we are forced to stop and think through every phrase we say and translate it into ways that the children totally understand,” he said. “I’m trying to get used to it.”

What future teachers say

Trumbo said the types of things he and other practicum students are learning at the ELC are practical – like how to engage students with differing levels of motivation, or getting a sense of one’s own teaching self in a real-life setting.

“This sort of opportunity is invaluable,” he said. “It makes us feel more confident about the teachers we are becoming, and gives us an honest glimpse into what education can be like.”

Diener said that “without exception,” practicum students in their weekly reflections report growing comfort with interacting with the ELC students. By the end of each semester, she said, “I observe many positive gains in their self confidence and teaching skills.”

In retrospect, too, past ELC practicum students – and there are over 500 of them, Diener said – value their time at ELC.

Alyssa Green, an EMU graduate who is now a kindergarten teacher in a nearby public school, said that her ELC experience taught her to be conscious of students’ perceptions of her words and actions, and that simple language changes can promote student sharing and creativity. The ELC’s emphasis on exploratory play, too, has shaped her instruction methods.

“It truly stuck with me that play is still so important for young kiddos!” she said recently.

Senior April Shinsky said that the flexible structure in the ELC’s two-year-olds’ classroom is freeing for the children – and was for her, too. “I loved being able to engage with the learners on their own terms,” she said, “and having a real hands-on experience in what it means to truly design curriculum that meets the learners’ developmental needs.”

A variety of activities engage students throughout the day at the ELC.

Victoria Messick, also a senior, said that the child-centered learning environment embodied what she had learned in coursework: letting learners guide themselves. “I recognized how important it is as a teacher to make meaningful connections between the child’s lived experiences and learning,” she said.

Appropriate foundation

The other students in the ELC – the children – benefit, too. Yoder said that her own daughter attended there when she was four, and is now a college freshman studying to be a teacher.

“As a parent, I was grateful for the strong developmentally appropriate foundation the ELC gave my daughter,” Yoder said. “Her confidence soared that year.”

Many students remain with the ELC for all of their three preschool years, and Diener, who has worked at the ELC since 1993 as an assistant teacher, teacher and then director, said that their daily engagement in the stimulating environment designed to meet their needs cultivates “thriving as they happily and busily learn about their world.”

It’s “a different kind of preschool,” said Meg Hertzler, another EMU education student in the four-year-old classroom, where she had just read a book to students nestled in and around a clawfoot tub outfitted with pillows. “It’s play and learn, not teach and learn.”

The history

The ELC was founded in 1977, when EMU’s education department saw the need in its program for the early childhood education students to work more closely in an early learning setting. The department wanted the students to have opportunities to observe and work with young children in a learning environment appropriate to their developmental needs.

The ELC curriculum is based on the Developmental Interaction Theory of child psychology, which “attempts to nurture the physical, emotional, mental, social, creative, and spiritual self of each child.” Children are “developing human beings” and learn most easily by actual, unhurried involvement with people, activities and the environment. The curriculum changes and evolves in response to cues and suggestions from students.

That translates into a wide variety of experiences for the students, from cooking and woodworking, field trips, painting, cutting and pasting, music, puzzles, outdoor play even in the snow and writing. Even dress guidelines in the parent handbook promote students’ engagement: “Their actions should not be inhibited by clothing.”

“Despite current trends to move academics down into preschool,” said Diener, “our mission of being a child centered, developmentally oriented program has remained the same since our founding.”