Wei Bian

What courses are you currently teaching?
I am teaching two online courses. One is PE 302/502, Foundations of online teaching and learning, the other is PE 342, Wellness through movement. I also supervise 6 student teachers who are majoring in Health and Physical Education. In addition, I teach Chinese 101: Beginning Chinese and Chinese Culture.

What are you most proud of concerning those courses?
I have taught many classes, and always enjoy what I am teaching. Being with students and seeing them grow is the most rewarding time for me. We teach by example so I try to be their role model to practice the best instruction.

What scholarly/projects are you working on in your classes?
This summer, I took an online course on educational leadership. I did a literature review on University supervisor’s role during student teaching. I just gave a presentation in Shape American PETE conference. The title of the presentation is: Capture, reflect and evaluate teaching moment: Intruding iPad applications in student teaching supervision.

What student stories can you share?
I am so happy to hear that 5 student teachers I supervised received the job offer after their graduation this Fall.
I enclose one message from one of my student teachers:

Dr. Bian,
I just wanted to say thank you one more time for everything you did for me in my undergraduate experience. I am here at UGA and I am working under Dr. McCullick (who says hello by the way) and I absolutely love it! I am the instructor of record for 3 Beginning Bowling Classes, 1 Beginning Tennis Class, and 1 Intermediate Tennis Class. Let us not forget I have my own classes to attend to, but teaching is just so much fun and I owe a lot of that to you, for teaching me in a way that makes it enjoyable. Many times, students do not tell you how much of an impact that you play in their lives, but I just wanted to make sure that you know how much you are appreciated. I cannot express my gratitude enough for you always pushing me to be the best student that I could be at that moment in time. You made me a better person beyond the classroom and that is a task I aim to achieve in each of my students. Enjoy your semester and I hope to see you sometime soon!
Casey Hollibaugh

What do you do for fun during your free time or school break?
I like cooking and gardening.

What most do you appreciate about SRU?
Student centered education. I like having the opportunity to work with my students as an advisor. It is the best time to see them from high school graduates then grow to be proud, knowledgeable and confident teacher candidates. SRU and College of Education is the best place to prepare teachers.

What made you want to be a faculty member at the college level?
Young people whom I always love to work with. They are my teachers. I learned so much from them.

If you could have one super power what would it be? Why?
Love. You got to love what you are doing, which to me is teaching. I love my students. They are making my life so enjoyable and purposeful.

Dr. Mary Vetere

Dr. Vetere is such an inspiring, upstanding and sincere professional. She is a warm-hearted, positive and a very well respected individual. She is the department chair and a professor who teaches six credits. She teaches both Field Based Child Development and Family Community Partnership class. These are blocked together along with an ELL course.

When she was asked what she is most proud about regarding those courses she stated “We were recognized by the state in the development of the Diversity block so I am proud of the work that we put it in.” She also shared that how she really liked that the students who are at the sophomore level are placed in three diverse settings which include New Castle Head Start, Pittsburgh Head Start (linguistically diverse as well) and lastly Mohawk which is a rural area that is socioeconomic diverse. She explained what she enjoyed by saying “the first day they dress so professional and so excited and they go in and experience the joy of 3 and 4 year olds and to me that is my piece of heaven. Then, all of a sudden they say, I wanted to be a teacher because I like children but it’s so much more. It is the experience of witnessing that “ah-ha” moment.” Vetere loved seeing the student’s growth from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester and how they begin to use teacher vocabulary or academic language. 

She continued by stating “they start thinking less about themselves and more about their students.” Vetere shared that in tandem with field is the family class where the students develop a family engagement plan. This is one of the projects that the students complete in the class which allows the student to understand how they would engage the family with the education of the child. For this project, the students are given a fictitious school district and then from that they create a plan with activities that go to the families so that they can work with them at home as well as what activities will bring the families into the school. This project also enlightens the families as to the value of how and why family engagement is necessary for the academic achievement of their child. At first the students struggle, but then they begin Head Start where they are able to connect with the teachers and families. The students are able to connect what they learn at school to what they see in practice. 

Dr. Vetere said that some of the best success stories is when she goes into a school district in which she is supervising and she hears a voice say “Dr. Vetere, is that you?” She explained that when she turns around to see who said that she sees that it is one of her former students. She said “that is when I can see success, especially when they sit down and talk to me about what it’s like to be a teacher and what they learned.” She used to do a lot with puppetry in the classroom and at times the former students reports that she uses puppetry in her teaching as well and being an advocate for family engagement in their classroom. She is able to see and hear about all the things that the student learned from the ELEC program and how it is implemented into their own classroom. 

Some of Dr. Vetere’s interests include NCIS, Steeler football, and ballroom dancing with her husband as well as beginning tango. Her and her husband travel and spend time with their five grandchildren. She said “that’s the best job ever.” When she was asked what she most appreciated about SRU she explained that SRU is like her family from the students to the faculty to her fellow chairpersons and how they are always there for support and friendship. She really shared how much she appreciated individuals at SRU truly care about her as a person and she loves the family atmosphere. Dr. Vetere’s background allowed her to grow her career and began teaching workshops which led her to find great satisfaction working with adult learners. She explained that at the college level she is able to connect her love for people along with education while being challenged in a positive way by the students who are always teaching her new things. Dr. Vetere expressed how much teachers have to handle now such as high stake testing, money etc. and can cause teachers to get weighed down. She stated that if she could have one superpower it would be to impress upon her students to always teach from the heart.