Program in Teaching at Williams College Announces 2009 Series of Luncheon Talks
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - The Program in Teaching at Williams College will hold three lunchtime talks during Spring 2009. The talks, which are free and open to the public, will be held in Bronfman Hall, room 317 from noon to 1 p.m. Reservations are necessary and may be made by emailing Susan.Engel@williams.edu or calling 597-4522.Professor of Mathematics and Gaudino Scholar Edward Burger will lead off on Thursday, Feb. 19. His talk is titled "Can Creativity Be Taught." Burger is the recipient of numerous teaching honors, including the 2007 Award of Excellence from Technology & Learning magazine, the 2007 Distinguished Achievement of The Association of Educational Publishers, the 2006 Lester R. Ford Award of the Mathematical Association of America, and the 2001 Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College Teaching of Mathematics from the Mathematical Association of America.
On Thursday, March 5 the Program in Teaching will present Will Okun, until this year a Chicago Public School teacher and winner of The New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize Winner Nick Kristof's 2007 Win-a-Trip contest. Okun and the renowned journalist traveled to central Africa in June 2007 to blog and vlog for The New York Times and YouTube. Okun's reports are available at www.nytimes.com/twofortheroad. The title of Okun's talk is "I Am Not Michelle Pfeiffer: Teaching America's Educational Divide."
Students from Monument Mountain High School will give the last presentation in the luncheon program. Their talk on Thursday, April 23, will be about "Making Schools Green." The students will discuss Project Sprout, an organic garden they founded and manage that supplies their lunchroom with fresh ingredients. The idea has sparked similar projects in places, from Senegal to California, and was presented in 2008 at the International Slow Food Festival in Turin, Italy.
Susan Engel is senior lecturer in psychology and director of the Program in Teaching. In addition, to Williams, she has taught at Bennington College, Smith College, Simon's Rock of Bard College, and Berkshire Community College, as well as teaching grade school and developing middle school curricula. Her research interests include narrative development, autobiographical memory, children's play, teaching and learning in schools, and the development of curiosity.
