Student teachers in SOU's School of Education are working remotely

SOU’s graduating student teachers provide value in varied settings

/in ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — Even the most seasoned educators are currently navigating uncharted territory. But for student teachers in Southern Oregon University’s School of Education, unusual classroom circumstances are coinciding with the culmination of college journeys.

Teaching placements have gone ahead as scheduled – though not exactly as planned – for 110 SOU students who are either seniors or on track to complete the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) or Special Education programs this spring. They’re spread across 60 K-12 schools in 12 different districts, from Coos Bay to Klamath Falls and all over the Rogue Valley – with all learning delivered through a variety of remote formats.

John King – SOU’s director for the Division of Education, Health and Leadership – was among those figuring out logistics as the extent of disruption caused by COVID-19 was becoming apparent prior to spring term.

“Fortunately, we have great relationships with the districts and principals, and these (student teachers) are the people they’ll be hiring in the fall, so we’re working towards the same goals,” King said.

“What we’re trying to do is ensure our student teachers are providing added value for schools and students,” he said. “They need to satisfy degree requirements, yes, but we want to make sure they’re not just an extra burden because these schools are already under such enormous pressure in having to redesign a lot of their own work.”

Under normal circumstances, student teachers spend full days during the spring in their respective classrooms, delivering instruction and developing original curriculum. They’re now limited to remote instruction and finding classroom-to-classroom variations in approach, from face-to-face video instruction to packet pick-ups and online work.

MAT candidate Lauren Perkinson falls closer to the latter category in teaching anatomy and physical sciences at North Medford High School. Though she records herself giving lectures, the majority of her work goes into a weekly “learning grid” of activities that includes six options, from which students are asked to complete two.

“Everyone is affected differently and struggling to some extent, especially when it comes to students you have no contact with, but it’s a good lesson in the importance of adaptability as an educator,” Perkinson said. “One of the biggest takeaways is seeing teachers work together and support each other and students however they can, because they care so deeply about them.”

That support extends back to SOU, where ideas and experiences are shared in weekly Zoom classes.

“We’re trying to give them a menu of possibilities based on what each school is doing,” King said. “We have 110 different examples, so it gets incredibly complex very quickly, but that means they’re being equipped not only for their own classrooms, but also hearing experiences of others and seeing how these systems can work together.”

With subject knowledge testing centers closed, King is working with the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission to offer alternatives for soon-to-be-graduates to complete their state licensure requirements.

“We certainly haven’t figured everything out,” he said. “But we’re trying to approach the situation with generosity and grace and patience, and we’re all learning together.”

Story by Josh McDermott, SOU staff writer

-SOU-

Hackathon participants coded games in eight hours

SOU coders create Mt. Shasta-themed games in Hackathon event

/in

Shasta Networks, an Ashland-based leader in healthcare technology, teamed up this month with the SOU Computer Science Club and the Alan and Priscilla Oppenheimer Foundation to host SOU’s 2nd annual Hackathon.

Students came together via Zoom for the April 4 event in which they created small coding projects in only eight hours using either Java or Python.

The Hackathon was judged by Shasta Networks software engineers on originality and creativity, technical difficulty, completeness and clean structure of the code, elegance of the code, and functionality of the developed software.

“We used GitHub, which allows people to publish their code in a shared repository,” said Priscilla Oppenheimer, an assistant professor in SOU’s Computer Science Program. “That way, the judges could see the contestants’ code, once they pushed the final version to GitHub.”

After a difficult deliberation, the judges announced this year’s winners.

In first place, and the recipient of $300, was Richard Coleman and his game, “Shasta Battle.” Players of the game must throw snowballs at the top of Mt. Shasta to keep it snowy and intact, and prevent the volcanic mountain from erupting.

“Complex game that used PyGame library. Good graphics,” said judges, “Professionally done, especially considering the eight-hour time limit for working on it.”

Denis Roman finished in second place for his interactive skiing game. Going above and beyond in a short time, the game includes sprites, collisions, a collision sound, and increasing difficulty as time passes.

“Nice graphics and good sound effects,” judges wrote. “(We) were especially impressed by the well-structured and clean code.”

Taking third place was Samuel James, for his text-based adventure game with great ASCII art. The game – which dives into Mt. Shasta and myths about creatures said to live in the mountain – left the judges impressed.

“Good story, good coding, good art,” they said.

Hackathon participants were able to overcome the obstacle of social distancing and form a collaborative environment during a time when community is difficult to achieve.

“I think we were able to emulate a ‘real’ hackathon,” Priscilla Oppenheimer said. “We weren’t really hampered by the need for physical distancing.

“Technology is really saving the day with the coronavirus,” she said. “Meetings, exercise classes, hackathons, book clubs and even scientific collaboration can all be done with Internet-based tools. Whether it’s Zoom, Google docs, GitHub or other tools that allow for collaboration, technology is helping us maintain our ties with colleagues, friends and family.”

Story by Kennedy Cartwright, SOU Marketing and Communications assistant and student writer

SOULA staff work on Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project

SOULA wins Oregon Heritage Excellence Award for Chinese immigrant research

/in ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — The Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) has won a 2020 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award for its work on the Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project. Students worked with faculty on the project as part of a Sociology and Anthropology (SOAN) summer archaeological field school in 2019.

“The (Oregon Heritage Excellence Award) recipients represent the extraordinary efforts to preserve Oregon’s heritage,” said Beth Dehn, coordinator for the Oregon Heritage Commission. “They also serve as models for others on how to develop new ideas, approaches and innovations.”

The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project is one of only 10 projects to receive the award. The grassroots archaeology partnership of federal, state and local agencies examined the Chinese diaspora – or dispersed population – in Oregon, and challenged stereotypes that have been historically assigned to the immigrants.

The project is led by Chelsea Rose of SOU Laboratory of Anthropology, who partners with archaeologists from state and federal agencies on archaeological sites across Oregon.

The ongoing project has involved digging, interpreting and touring nine archaeological sites where Chinese immigrants worked and lived; and searching historical records such as censuses, community records and data from the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day. Research findings have been publicized through lectures, tours, theses, digital “story maps” and will be presented in an upcoming volume of the Oregon Historical Society’s quarterly journal. Local involvement with volunteer projects has been encouraged through the cultural heritage program Passport in Time and other public archaeological events.

“It is exciting to see how far this project has come, and how much can be accomplished when agencies work together toward a common goal,” Rose said.

SOULA started the partnership with the Malheur National Forest, and it has since expanded to include Oregon State Parks, the Medford District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Oregon Historical Society, and other local and regional organizations.

The lead editors of the Chinese in Northwest American Research Committee – Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson – wrote one of three letters recommending the OCDP for the Oregon Heritage Excellence Award.

“Very few heritage efforts in other places have been as effective and innovative,” the letter from Ho and Bronson said. “Nothing like it currently exists in California or elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The OCDP’s research subject is vast, still largely untouched, and of great importance to all Chinese Americans.”

The historic population of Chinese immigrants in rural Oregon was high, but there are few descendant communities because of anti-Chinese violence and the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The OCDP offers Oregonians a deeper sense of their shared heritage by discovering and publicizing Chinese achievements.

Don Hann, project co-director with the Malheur National Forest, has used innovative Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology to document historical Chinese mining sites. LIDAR, which sends a laser pulse through the surface of the ground, has allowed OCDP archaeologists to map over 1,000 acres of mining complexes hidden in the forest within an accuracy of 10 inches. The new maps highlight a system of dams, reservoirs and ditches that provided water for mining.

These complicated water systems reveal a picture of 19th century Chinese immigrants as entrepreneurs who had experience organizing gold mining operations in foreign countries.

SOU students participated in the OCDP last year by taking the class SOAN 375. The four-credit, four-week course – the archaeological field school – introduced methods of excavating, mapping, recovering and recording artifacts from prehistoric or historic sites.

“It was an incredible project for SOU staff and students to be a part of, and we are continuing to work and expand our research across the state,” Rose said.

She and other members of the SOULA staff have also worked on the Cangdong Village Project, a Stanford-led transnational research project looking into the five-county area that was home to most Chinese Immigrants during the 19th century. SOULA partnered with the Hannon Library and PAR Environmental in 2018 to create the Chinese Material Culture Collection – a digital archive of artifacts commonly found on 19th and 20th century Chinese archaeological sites in the American West.

Story by Blair Selph, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer

-SOU-

Virtual meeting of SOU Percussion Ensemble

SOU music ensembles get creative in their new, virtual reality

/in ,

With some schools cancelling ensembles altogether, Paul T. French – Southern Oregon University’s Director of Choral Studies and Vocal Studies – had doubts about the spring ahead for his corner of the Music Program in the Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU. The idea of taking the choir virtual was especially daunting, with the experience rooted in collaborative rehearsals and harmonious performance.

“I didn’t even have a Google calendar,” French joked, “so we’re all kind of crawling forward and learning this together.”

SOU’s Chamber and Concert Choirs are joined for now and still rehearse twice weekly online. With upwards of 50 people on the screen, French and concert choir director Kendra Taylor watch as the singers mute themselves in their homes and perform individual parts to a piano accompaniment written by French’s wife, SOU instructor and staff pianist Jodi French.

Once they’ve learned and perfected the parts, they’ll record and send them to Taylor, who will plug them into and arrange them on an online music platform called Soundtrap.

“It calls for a lot of accountability from individual students because they can’t lean on other people, so the bar is higher and their own contributions are that much more meaningful,” Paul French said. “I’m proud of the students because they’re compassionate when we screw up and want to do whatever it takes to move forward, and after our second rehearsal the chat bar was full of all these tremendously positive and excited comments.”

The recording will be released later this spring. They hope to add a video component and perform the piece live in the fall, if all goes well.

Terry Longshore, SOU’s director of percussion studies, is taking a similar, virtual tack. Originally, he and SOU Raider Band director Bryan Jeffs had been invited to take 17 students to New York City in May for the inaugural “Long Play” music festival by the renowned contemporary music organization Bang on a Can.

In lieu of that trip, and considering the limitations some students have without access to their instruments, they’re working on an 18-minute piece in which 16 performers will pour dry rice over various materials – metal, wood, and leaves, to name a few. It will explore textural changes created by the rate at which the rice is falling. They will eventually turn their individual recordings into a video collage, and will later have the chance to interview the piece’s composer, Michael Pisaro of the CalArts School of Music.

Their other ideas include breaking into small groups that will create original soundtracks to short, silent films.

“They’re excited about the projects because they get to take advantage of what we have and try to make lemonade out of it while still learning something, having a unique creative experience and putting something out in the world that we’re proud of,” Longshore said.

French concurred with the sentiment.

“Given how isolated we feel, we’re not together, but we can see each other and create something together,” he said. “We still need art and this is what we can do.”

Story by Josh McDermott, SOU staff writer

SRC promotes virtual well-being

SOU Student Rec Center makes well-being a virtual exercise

/in

With SOU’s Student Recreation Center closed and many students at home settling into a term of online classes, Campus Recreation has provided a list of 41 virtual resources to maintain physical and mental well-being.

The list – split into 6 sections – makes it easy for students to maintain routines and build new ones during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The variety of links come from Campus Recreation’s 8-dimensional view of wellness, funneled into three categories: occupational, intellectual and financial wellness.

“We wanted to make sure to include resources for those areas alongside physical wellness,” said Heather Brock, the business and marketing coordinator for Campus Recreation. “Another guideline we set was to keep the majority of the resources and apps free and/or choose ones that had an extended free trial period.”

Keeping non-traditional students, faculty and staff in mind, the Campus Recreation team also included sites with activities for children and parents.

The guiding philosophy was that now more than ever, it is important for students and others to maintain their health. Mental and physical well-being are a major part of stress management and many students are looking for ways to prioritize their health while having to stay home. Students whose daily routines have been disrupted are relying on technology for classes, fitness, social activities and more.

“Luckily, with technology and this new explosion of online resources, there are ways that students can maintain those routines while also following stay-at-home guidelines,” Brock said.

Along with the list of resources, Campus Recreation is hosting a 4-week Virtual Rec Challenge on Instagram that began April 13 and will continue through May 8. Each week of the challenge – which is open to SOU students and employees – focuses on a new theme of wellness.

A winner is randomly selected each week to receive a Campus Recreation swag bag (with prizes held for pickup at the SRC). NOTE: Make sure you’re following all current personal and public safety guidelines outlined by the CDC, state and local authorities. Posts that are obviously breaking those guidelines will be disqualified.

“What’s pretty neat about this list is that these resources won’t just become irrelevant when the pandemic is over.” Brock said. “Online students and long-distance commuters who might not be able to visit the SRC as much as on-campus students will likely find these resources helpful, regardless.”

Story by Kennedy Cartwright, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer

Alum and coach work together on face mask project

SOU alum and football coach team up on face masks for virus protection

/in

SOU alum Crystal Clarity and her mother Betty Camner have pulled together to produce homemade face masks to help battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Homemade masks are great for people in the system, not around patients, so that we can control the spread of the virus,” said SOU football coach Charlie Hall.

Hall has organized a drive for personal protective equipment, or PPE, for local health care provider Asante, which offers services to 600,000 people in southern Oregon and northern California. The Asante Foundation, which is Hall’s point of contact, is the philanthropic arm of Asante and teams up with partners in the community to enhance health care in the region.

“My daughter is an ICU nurse at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford,” Hall said. “(She) told my wife and I that Asante had to conserve PPE and that they may need to source their own PPE because of a shortage.

“After making a few calls, I learned Asante was launching PPE donation sites, (and) I asked if I can help with a site in Ashland. I am trying to use my platform as a longtime coach … to rally the community and support our health care workers in need.”

Clarity, who graduated from SOU in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast telecommunications, heard and responded to Hall’s call to action. She works for a small, Seattle-based public relations agency that helps tech startups in the Pacific Northwest. While Clarity is still able to work via virtual meetings, her mother has been put out of a job due to the quarantine.

“I came up with the idea to make the masks a few weeks ago, and purchased all the supplies and had them shipped to my mom,” Clarity said. “My mom loves to sew and I knew this project would give her a sense of purpose, especially since she has so much time on her hands right now.”

The raw materials needed to make the 100 percent cotton and elastic masks were purchased from Joann’s Crafts for under $50 dollars.

“In these unprecedented times, we need to all step up and work together as a community to get through this,” Clarity said. “Even though we can’t physically be together, if we all look for how we can be generous, compassionate and helpful, we’ll be coming together as a community – just in a different way.

“We know hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, food banks, etc, will all need more supplies. This was our way of doing our small part to help.”

Story by Blair Selph, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer

SOU's virtual connections will help prospective students

SOU offers virtual opportunities for prospective students

/in ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — Buildings at Southern Oregon University are currently closed to the public, all courses are being held remotely and most students are visible only during Zoom meetings and other online forums.

But next year’s class of incoming freshmen and transfer students have decisions to make, and SOU has created a comprehensive lineup of virtual opportunities to help them through the process.

“Prospective students need to find the right collegiate fit to prepare themselves for a productive, meaningful future,” said Kelly Moutsatson, SOU’s director of admissions “We need to make sure they have all the tools they may need to make good decisions about where to go for college.

“We’ve done a pretty amazing job of duplicating our on-campus admissions features and events, in a virtual environment.”

Spring is typically the busiest time of year for college admissions offices, with a variety of campus visits, registration get-togethers and orientation sessions for prospective students on the schedule. Those in-person events have been suspended at SOU in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but have been replaced by “virtual connections” to help would-be students get a feel for campus, talk one-on-one with admissions counselors and negotiate the registration process.

The university’s new virtual connections website puts the remote resources for students who are considering applying to SOU in a single online location. Features include a half-dozen virtual information sessions that will be held each Friday through May 22 for prospective students and their families. Those who sign up for the group sessions can ask an admission counselor about programs, scholarships, financial aid, housing or other aspects of life on campus – and the university’s $60 application fee will be waived for the day of the session.

The website also includes a portal to SOU’s 360-degree Virtual Campus Tour – the next-best thing to actually being on campus. There are opportunities to schedule video chats with admissions counselors and to learn more about events such as Preview Days for prospective students and Raider Receptions, Raider Registration and New Student Orientation for admitted students.

-SOU-

Restoration work at The Farm will happen Friday

Habitat restoration at The Farm at SOU to be completed – at safe distances

/in ,

(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University students and staff will make use of a charitable donation at one of the best places on campus for social distancing when they complete the restoration of a “wet meadow” area on Friday at The Farm at SOU.

The wetland was previously overgrown with blackberries and other invasive species, but has recently been cleared and a new boardwalk that originates at the Thalden Pavilion has been built into the area. About five student employees and interns will work with associate professor Vincent Smith, director of The Farm, to plant a variety of native plants beginning at about 3 p.m. on Friday.

“The plants are all native wetland plants and will be used exclusively to create habitat and as a tool for teaching about the value of wet meadows,” Smith said.

Funding for the restoration project was provided by local philanthropists Barry and Kathryn Thalden of Ashland. An earlier donation from the Thaldens paid for construction in 2018 of the adjacent pavilion that bears their name.

SOU is offering 98 percent of the courses that were originally scheduled for spring term – all by remote instruction or online platforms in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. All campus buildings are closed to the public, and students and employees have been urged to wear face masks and strictly observe safe social distancing.

But the 5 ½-acre property at The Farm offers a unique opportunity to get at least a handful of students outside and working on a project that supports the university’s commitment to sustainability. The Farm could have been shut down while the university is in remote operation, but doing so would have cost eight students the jobs they rely upon to help pay for school.

“The reason The Farm at SOU is still operating is because we can guarantee outdoor distanced work,” said Smith, chair of the university’s Environmental Science and Policy program. “The students have all received distancing training.”

The Farm, on Walker Street in Ashland, serves as a venue for organic agriculture and a source of healthy, sustainable food for the SOU community. It is also a center for sustainability and a hub for education, student and faculty research, and community outreach to the Rogue Valley.

-SOU-

Master distiller Molly Troupe

SOU alumna and distiller helps to make hand sanitizer

/in

SOU chemistry graduate Molly Troupe (2012), the master distiller at Portland’s Freeland Spirits, is setting aside drinks and helping to make hand sanitizer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The SOU alumna is using her academic training and a World Health Organization-recommended formula to help her community in a time of crisis.

“Spirits are about community,” said Troupe, a member of the American Craft Spirits Association Board of Directors. “As shortages arose with hand sanitizer, we saw that we could help by providing the community with our own.”

Freeland has allowed community members to pre-order and pick up a maximum of two bottles per day of the sanitizer since the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau announced in late March that it would waive certain provisions regarding distilled spirits regulations. That move allows distilleries that produce alcoholic beverages to pivot their production to ethanol-based hand sanitizers.

As social distancing and quarantine measures continue, distilleries around the U.S. have taken the lead in addressing a shortage of germ-killing hand sanitizer. Troupe and the Freeland Spirits distillery have joined big industry names such as Absolut Vodka and Jameson Irish Whiskey in altering their business operations to support healthy communities and slow the spread of COVID-19.

“I am extremely proud to be a part of this industry,” Troupe said. “Our own businesses are at economic risk and rapidly pivoting due to physical distancing, and instead of falling victim to the whiplash, the distilling community has stepped up in a large way, postponing their own projects to help while the need is there.”

To shift production to hand sanitizer, distillers have to denature the ethanol they would otherwise have used to make spirits, then blend it with hydrogen peroxide and glycerin. In spirits, the ethanol is not nearly as potent. The ethanol used for hand sanitizer is sometimes too strong for normal distillery machinery to handle, which slows the process, but distilleries such as Freeland Spirits continue to fill the need for their communities.

Sanitizer and spirits can be ordered from the Portland distillery at freelandspirits.com. All Portland orders are delivered to customers’ car windows with minimal contact.

Story by Kennedy Cartwright, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer

SOU's Navigate app will help students track obligations

SOU adopts new Navigate app to enhance student connections

/in

Southern Oregon University has subscribed to and tested a new, online system that will help students to “navigate” their college careers – from registration through meeting with advisors, scheduling classes, applying for financial aid, accessing campus resources and graduation.

Navigate – a new system from the higher education strategy firm EAB – will link faculty, advisors, staff and students in a coordinated network that will help students organize their time and keep track of their obligations.

The Navigate Student app was introduced at SOU on a limited basis last fall, and will be rolled out for use by all students – with participation by faculty and staff – during spring term. It is considered an effective platform for initiating and maintaining important connections even as all classes at the university are delivered remotely.

Students are encouraged to download Navigate Student in the App Store or Google Play and begin exploring its features – from forming study groups to interacting with professors or advisors.

Faculty and staff are asked to participate in the campus-wide introduction of the app by taking part in an abbreviated, online EAB Navigate training session of 30 minutes or less. They are also asked to incorporate downloading the Navigate Student app into course assignments, as appropriate, and to take other opportunities to encourage students to get and use the app.

Students will be able to use the app to explore careers that fit their goals, find events, make appointments with advisors and get alerts about registration issues and other important information. Students who begin using the app will be asked to take part in an intake survey that will enable them to receive customized notifications related to their interests.

Those who have any suggestions regarding the Navigate Student app, or who have issues downloading or using the app, are asked to email navigateadmin@sou.edu. An SOU team that is implementing the use of Navigate Student on campus will send text messages to students about the app.