Kelly Sassi, associate professor of English, has been selected as a 2018 Transformative Teacher Education Fellow by the Transformative Teacher-Educator Fellowship. The program supports social justice-oriented teacher educators, with a goal to transform teacher education through innovations in pedagogy and technologies.
Sassi was one of 14 recipients of the honor among more than 115 applicants.
“I'm hoping to learn new things about social justice education, gain some inspiration, collaborate with others and get some support in redesigning my methods course for fall,” Sassi said. “After 10 years at NDSU, I feel this comes at a good time for helping me renew and refresh my work.”
The program consists of a seven-day summer institute for teacher educators, monthly check-ins for a year and an end-of-year conference presentation and co-edited book publication. At the summer institute, fellows hear from experts about social media, connected learning and participatory practices in education. The program is housed at Arcadia University School of Education, located in the Philadelphia area, and is directed by Kira Baker-Doyle, Rosemary and Walter Blankley Associate Professor of Education.
Sassi holds a joint teaching position in the English department and NDSU’s School of Education. She also directs the Red River Valley Writing Project.
Sassi, who joined the NDSU faculty in 2008, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and her doctorate in English and education from the University of Michigan.
She has co-written three books – “Writing on Demand for the Common Core State Standards Assessments, “Writing on Demand: Best Practice and Strategies for Success” and “A Student Guide to Writing on Demand” – with Anne Gere and Leila Christenbury. Her most recent work appears in the 2018 book “Writing Assessment as Social Justice and Advancement of Opportunity” edited by Mya Poe, Asao Inoue and Norbert Elliott.
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