School of Education faculty members Allison Bryan, Erin Hone, and Scott Morrison were recognized on May 14 for faculty excellence at the annual school awards banquet.
School of Education faculty members Allison Bryan, Erin Hone, and Scott Morrison were recognized on May 14 for faculty excellence at the annual school awards banquet.
FACULTY EXCELLENCE IN SERVICE AWARD
Allison Bryan
Director of the Curriculum Resources Center
The Excellence in Service Award is designed to recognize the faculty member who has served to advance the School of Education, Elon University, and the teaching profession. Recipients of the service award have provided leadership and promoted collegiality within the School of Education.
Heidi Hollingsworth, associate professor of education, and Mary Knight-McKenna, associated professor of education, nominated Allison Bryan for the Excellence in Service award because of her willingness to support faculty and students in any way asked of her.
In their remarks, they shared, “Allison has been an amazing and welcoming ambassador for the School of Education. The CRC has become the best of what it can be through her countless hours of service. She always listens and offers assistance, making us feel like we are at the top of her priority list. Allison has taken the time to develop positive relationships with and involve the students who work in the CRC in so many School of Education activities. Allison has stepped in to help students and faculty figure out edTPA video recording requirements, and hosted students’ edTPA writing days in the CRC, with her characteristic warmth and calmness.”
Just as the poster in the Curriculum Resources Center (CRC) reads to welcome visitors, Hollingsworth and Knight-McKenna included in their remarks about this year’s recipient of the Excellence in Service Award, Allison Bryan:
You are special
You are a leader
You are a dreamer
You are creative
You are a thinker
You are respected
You are a friend
You are loved.
FACULTY EXCELLENCE AWARD
Erin Hone
Lecturer in Education, Department of Education & Wellness
Consistent with Elon’s call for a rich intellectual community characterized by active student engagement, the Faculty Excellence award seeks to recognize contributions of a faculty member of distinction in one or more areas of teaching, scholarship, mentoring and service-leadership.
Erin Hone is a prime example of faculty excellence. Faculty excellence is more than a set of discrete units, it is the union of multiple vectors that intersect at the heart of a passionate teacher.
In his nomination, Mark Enfield, associate professor of education, states, “Having worked with Erin on a range of projects, programs, and teaching common courses, I value her unequaled commitment to students’ learning. Her attributes include an infinite energy for improving our programs, an exponential commitment to advocating for our school, significant work to elevate classroom teaching, and a focus on creating opportunities for all children to learn. Erin reflects with me on approaches to teaching elementary education courses and most recently has helped me understand the obtuse language of edTPA!”
One colleague shared, “You are a natural and amazing educator! Your classes are highly organized and extremely well thought out to prompt critical thinking and promote high levels of engagement. Our students are so fortunate to learn from you, as your knowledge and experience is so valuable to the work that they will be doing with their future students.”
One student shared, “Before I was even committed to Elon, Professor Hone took the time to create a four-year plan mapping out my time here after I expressed some concern for fitting everything in. Once I did decide on Elon, Professor Hone was there for me the first semester to help support and change that four-year plan as I made adjustments even when she did not have to!”
A faculty member’s commitment to students is continuous through and beyond graduation. Another student wrote, “Professor Hone’s efforts always go way above and beyond the call of duty and her compassion, knowledge, experience, love and support for her students is so incredibly deep!”
Hone’s willingness to collaborate with colleagues, her mentoring of students and her consistent positive and professional attitude has led her down the path of a successful career as an educator and this year’s Faculty Excellence Award recipient.
FACULTY EXCELLENCE AWARD
Scott Morrison
Assistant Professor Education, Department of Education & Wellness
Consistent with Elon’s call for a rich intellectual community characterized by active student engagement, the Faculty Excellence award seeks to recognize contributions of a faculty member of distinction in one or more areas of teaching, scholarship, mentoring and service-leadership.
Scott Morrison provides a remarkable quantity and quality of service to the School of Education and the university. He is the coordinator for two different licensure programs – Middle Grades Education and Secondary History – as well as the coordinator of the Environmental Education minor. As evidence of the impact of his service, Morrison has succeeded in significantly increasing the numbers of students in the Middle Grades Education program, and was responsible for the creation of the Environmental Education minor.
Although it is common for School of Education faculty to serve on many committees, Morrison has, for many years, served on beyond the normal number of committees for faculty, at both the school and university level. At the university level, one of the highlights of Morrison’s service has included two terms on the Lumen Prize committee, and he was on the recent search committee to select the new director of the Lumen Prize program. Scott is the faculty editor of the student publication, Visions Magazine, has served on the Learning Spaces Workgroup, and has previously served on ATACC, and the Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Learning Advisory Committee.
Morrison also has a strong and eclectic research agenda that informs his teaching and service. In addition to his service on the Lumen Committee, Morrison also deserves the unofficial title of “The Lumen Whisperer,” as students working with him have won Lumen Prizes each of the last three years. Morrison also mentored additional undergraduate research projects, and both the Lumen and non-Lumen researchers he has worked with have presented their work at prestigious national conferences such as the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting. Morrison writes for both research- and practitioner-oriented publications, and co-authors with students, teachers, fellow Elon faculty, and scholars at other institutions. Morrison’s research agenda and innovative teaching practices also provide various avenues for him to provide service to local schools.
In his nomination, Jeff Carpenter, associate professor of education and director of teaching fellows, states, “whether it’s lighting an intellectual fire in a Lumen student’s mind, starting a literal fire with his classes at Loy Farm, or trying to burn down the academy as we know it with his iconoclastic thinking, Scott Morrison has demonstrated true commitment and pursuit of excellence and innovation across teaching, service, and scholarship during his time at Elon thus far, and we look forward to seeing what else he can set on fire in the future.”