Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities

Teacher Clothing Closet helps student teaching interns look and feel their best

Sarah Holland — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 19:14:45 +0000

Teacher Clothing Closet helps student teaching interns look and feel their best Sarah Holland Mon, 02/10/2025 - 14:14

One late fall evening, two rooms in ��AV’s Merten Hall were transformed from basic conference rooms to a designer runway.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Student and alumni volunteers from the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), Mason LIFE, and a local Girl Scout troop modeled themed fashions and assistive devices on the catwalk. Backstage, EDSE Council treasurer Shauna Stacks, a senior, and current EDSE president Emily Hulett, a junior, curled hair, contoured cheekbones, and dabbed eyeshadow onto the models.

It was a fashion show unlike anything CEHD has seen, ending with the ribbon cutting and grand opening of the Teacher Clothing Closet, a free resource for teacher interns to get professional clothing. It’s the first major service project of the EDSE Council—a new student organization named after the course code for special education courses, created to foster a supportive, inclusive community within the special education program at George Mason.

The EDSE Council’s faculty facilitator Sharon Ray, associate professor of special education, first brought the idea of a clothing closet to the council. “I spoke with several faculty members about how students struggle with resources, specifically professional clothing resources,” she said. “The council was interested in doing a fashion show, and I thought a service-oriented project like a clothing closet would be a good companion to the event.”

Clothing expectations for teachers vary. A first-grade teacher, for example, needs clothing that is professional and modest without being restrictive so they can move quickly and freely. A high school teacher might need attire that is more business casual. And the culture of each school influences their dress code, whether as unspoken rules or written guidelines.

Many students, when starting their internships, lack adequate professional attire and the costs to buy a new wardrobe are often greater than they can afford.

“Because you’re essentially in the classroom for 40 hours a week, most interns end up needing to quit the jobs they’ve had to pay for college or take reduced hours at them. So your resources are already limited,” said Lydia Kraiger, previous EDSE Council president and current senior. “Then you’re in the classroom, and your clothes are getting tugged on, things are spilled on you...buying $70 pants that just get ruined isn’t reasonable for us."

Even just among the council members, the cost of clothing is a major hurdle. Council secretary and senior Emily Ritter said that she has two outfits she rotates throughout the week. Hulett said she only has one.

“I don’t have another option,” she said.

Thrifting has been helpful to some in the past, but even that comes with barriers. Students spend hours hunting for items that are in good condition, fit well, fulfill the expectations of the school, and meet the needs of their job. And for some, there’s an emotional hurdle as well.

“It can be embarrassing for some people,” said Hulett. “They don't want to have to go to Goodwill and have people see them have to buy those clothes because they can't afford anything else.”

“One of the things we learn in our classes is culturally responsive teaching: how to teach students from different backgrounds and experiences,” said Joshua Mills, EDSE Council vice president and current junior. “And that includes meeting student needs through knowing what resources can help and advocating when we see a gap.”

The council agrees that this foundational philosophy extends to their colleagues.

Led by EDSE Council secretary and “closet keeper” Claire Johnson, a junior, the council curates the closet selection by reviewing each piece donated before they go on the racks. They’ve made sure there are a variety of sizes and styles available, and everything in the closet is teacher approved. Any clothing that is considered too casual is re-donated to the Transgender Clothing Closet hosted by the LGBTQ+ Resources Center.

Lydia Kraiger, left, and Claire Johnson look through the clothes in the closet. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Students who wish to use the closet fill out an online form with their availability. One of the students from the club will confirm their appointment and meet them at the closet. Like a personal shopper, club members are happy to help their closet patrons find what they’re looking for among the racks and provide feedback on how things fit and if the piece will work for their classroom needs.

The space is small, but bright; well–organized without feeling overcrowded, with clothing racks, organizational bins, and hangers thrifted from local marketplaces and faculty donations. It smells clean and fresh. It’s easy to imagine a student walking into the closet and feeling a renewed sense of empowerment and confidence.

“I’m just really impressed with all they’ve been able to accomplish and the support they’ve received from the community,” said Ray.

“And it speaks to George Mason’s commitment to education for everyone.”

To donate clothing, please reach out to Sharon Ray at sray4@gmu.edu.

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Real-time feedback is part of a holistic approach to helping new teachers succeed

Sarah Holland — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 19:13:51 +0000

Real-time feedback is part of a holistic approach to helping new teachers succeed Sarah Holland Mon, 11/18/2024 - 14:13

When you think of uses for bug-in-ear technology, futuristic communications or covert operations are probably the first to come to mind. Teaching is almost certainly not the first, or second, or perhaps not even the hundredth thing.

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

But at ��AV, faculty members are always looking for unique approaches and innovative solutions to challenges. Challenges like sharing real-time feedback with education interns so they can best serve their students.

Supported by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), the Dynamic Coaching Outreach Program in Special Education: General Curriculum (DCOP) through the College of Education and Human Development and the Kellar Institute for Human DisAbilities helps facilitate a “more dynamic coaching and feedback cycle” throughout the teaching internship experience through the use of technologies like bug-in-ear, video conferencing, and more. Specifically, the program supports those interns pursuing their master of education (MEd) in special education.

The special education graduate students have different needs than other MEd students, in that they are often working full-time in the classroom with a provisional license while completing their studies. Because they are provisionally licensed, they do not have mentor teachers in the classroom with them as traditional, pre-service interns do; they rely more on university supervisors during their internship to give feedback. DCOP was designed to provide new pathways for that feedback in order to address these unique needs.

When the program was originally developed in 2012, it was almost exclusively about the use of bug-in-ear technology to provide immediate live feedback to special education teacher interns in the classroom. In the past five years, the program has expanded into a three-pronged approach: using technology to enhance supervision, developing a novel eCoaching process, and incorporating professional development for both interns and supervisors.

“The eCoaching model takes a nonevaluative approach,” explained Kelley Regan, professor of education and the principal investigator (PI) on the VDOE grant. “It’s encouraging, supportive, and flexible.”

The goal of an internship for any teacher is to have the opportunity to practice what they’ve learned in a live classroom environment. ECoaching has the additional benefit of more structured feedback loops from supervisors to interns to provide high-quality and more instantaneous feedback at a much greater frequency.

“You can observe a classroom over Zoom, then immediately send an email with feedback, for example,” Kristen O’Brien, associate professor of special education and co-PI, said.

But as Peggy Weiss, associate professor and co-PI, explains, it’s not just about the technology: “It’s about how they use the technology to support teacher interns in reaching the goals established with their supervisors.”

And sometimes, the most valuable techniques are the simplest. Cheryl Temple, one of the supervisors in the program, once had two interns in different schools facing the same challenges in their classroom. A facilitated video call with the three of them gave the interns an opportunity to learn from each other and brainstorm possible solutions.

Shilpi Patel, adjunct professor at George Mason and internship supervisor for DCOP, utilizes weekly virtual eCoaching sessions to provide continuous nonevaluative feedback, reflection, and goal setting for her interns. For two of her interns, she used data from classroom observations to track their progress in implementing a behavior management system; both showed marked improvement.

From left to right: Kristen O'Brien; Margaret Weiss; and Kelley S. Regan. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“Beginning teachers enter one of the few professions where they are expected to perform at the same level as experienced veterans from the very start,” Patel said. “ECoaching provides essential support for novice teachers, helping them refine their instructional practices and positively influence student achievement. And it has consistently proven to be a powerful method for enhancing teacher efficacy.”

And that efficacy could be a key to keeping teachers in the classrooms. As school districts continue to grapple with teacher retention, self-efficacy and perseverance are, according to associate professor Pam Baker and co-PI, key ways to improve retention rates.

For Susan Jennings, MEd ‘23, a learning disabilities teacher at Herndon High School, that sense of confidence and self-efficacy were two of the greatest outcomes of her internship experience. When asked what she recalls as being the most helpful part of the internship, it wasn’t the technology itself, but how Patel, her internship supervisor, utilized it to give Jennings the tools she needed to succeed.

“I continue to use many of the strategies Ms. Patel shared for scaffolding lessons for learners with disabilities in my classroom,” she said, “including the lesson planning template for more engaging learner-centered lessons.”

At the end of the day, DCOP demonstrates that it’s not just about the technology: it’s the human on the other side providing the support and investment in growth that helps these teachers succeed.

“Our coaches prepare our interns to be self-reflective in developing strategies for growth and overcoming challenges,” said Regan. “It equips them to be successful when that coach is no longer in their ear.”

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Students program computers to interpret sign language

Melanie Balog — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 20:11:08 +0000

Students program computers to interpret sign language Melanie Balog Mon, 08/12/2019 - 16:11

With a twist or shake of your wrist, your smartphone can interpret motion to take a picture, turn on a light, and more. Last year, ��AV computer science professors Parth Pathak and Huzefa Rangwala were brainstorming how similar technology could help society in even greater ways. Their idea? To automatically translate sign language into text or speech.

“There are some products that can do gesture recognition, but they’re very preliminary. And it’s very different from ASL [American Sign Language], which is not just a few gestures—it’s thousands of words,” said Pathak, principal investigator on the Summer Team Impact Project funded by Mason’s Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR).

This summer, nine Mason undergraduates joined in the research that could help make the technology a reality.

Frederick Olson (from left), Sai Gurrapu and Dom Huh are part of a summer research project on automatic multimodal sign language recognition. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Office of Communications and Marketing.

“The goal would be to deliver a readable message to a device so that it’s bridging the gap between ASL users and non-users,” said therapeutic recreation senior Riley Wilkerson, “an easier, more effective, and more personal way of communicating.”

Riley Wilkerson signs for a radar sensor as part of a summer research project on automatic multimodal sign language recognition. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Office of Communications and Marketing.

Three teams of students are experimenting with different sensors: a wireless radar, a camera, and an inertial measurement unit (a wearable motion sensor used in smartphones and Fitbits). Each sensor offers certain opportunities, but also challenges including privacy and ease of use, said Pathak, who is guiding the students on the project along with Mason computer science professor Jana Kosecka and Mason’s Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disabilities director Linda Mason, and graduate student Panneer Selvam Santhalingham.

On each team, a student familiar with ASL signs in front of a sensor that collects data about the motion or the environment. Computer science and engineering students refine the data to find patterns and write machine learning algorithms—code that allows them to interpret the computer’s recognition of the signs.

So far, the undergraduates have “taught” their machines to recognize about 20 signs with accuracy rates ranging from 70-97 percent. The fluctuations in accuracy are due to the machine learning process, said senior computer science major Yuanqi Du.

Diverse data helps the computer recognize the signs with increased accuracy, Du said. In initial trials with one student, accuracy rates were higher. When a new ASL user was introduced, the accuracy diminished, Du said. Once the new ASL user’s data was included in the algorithms, accuracy rates rose again.

Ariana Havens wears cell phones as she signs as part of a summer research project on automatic multimodal sign language recognition. Photo by Lathan Goumas.

As the multi-year project continues, Pathak said the team plans to increase the number of signs the computer can recognize using data from many diverse users. They will also scale it to interpret full sentences and pick up other gestures used in ASL such as body tilts and micro expressions like raising an eyebrow, he said.

“Being able to communicate instantly would hopefully remove issues [the ASL community experiences],” said Frederick Olson, a senior IT major who said both his parents are deaf. That includes being able to ask a question at a store, socializing, communicating with doctors easily during appointments, or being able to land better job opportunities. The technology could be life-changing, he said.

It could also be applied beyond the deaf community, the students said, helping people with autism or developmental and learning disabilities for whom communicating using spoken words is challenging, Wilkerson said.

“It could be applicable to other industries and disciplines in the future [that will work with similar technology], too,” said junior computer science major Sai Gurrapu.

And, the project pushes student learning to the next level, Pathak said.

“They’re not given a fixed task here—they’re given a problem and they have to find a solution,” Pathak said.

“This project is one of a variety of opportunities [Mason] has presented to me that goes beyond just taking 15 credits each semester,” Wilkerson said. “You can only learn so much in a classroom—you have to apply it.”

Seniors Yuanqi (from left), Nguyen Dang and Riley Wilkerson are part of a summer research project on automatic multimodal sign language recognition. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Office of Communications and Marketing.

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