Short Takes

December 21, 2018 | Jim Townsend

UHCL taps new director for student housing 

Matthew Perry will join University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Division of Student Affairs as director of Student Housing and Residential Life, effective Jan. 14, 2019. 

Perry will oversee all operations associated with the department including UH-Clear Lake’s partnership with University Forest Apartments.  He will play a critical role in the final stages on the build-out of the university’s first traditional residence hall – scheduled to open in August 2019 – along with finalizing the departments programs, services, and protocols.

He brings more than 10 years of experience in university residential housing having served as hall director, area housing coordinator and associate director for Residential Education at the University of Toledo in Ohio.

For more information about UHCL housing options, visit www.uhcl.edu/student-affairs/campus-community/housing. 

Graduate knew her life’s calling is to special education

Sarah Robicheaux has known her professional calling for most of her life. As the older sister of a sibling with Down’s Syndrome, the University of Houston-Clear Lake graduate knows that teaching children with special needs is where she’s meant to be.

“I’ve been living special education with my little brother since I was five,” she said. “I could see how mistreated he was when he was little. There was no inclusion at that time, and he was stuck in a classroom with kids who were more disabled than he was, and he wasn’t learning.”

Her mother battled to get him into a mainstream classroom, Robicheaux said, and to get him a special education teacher who was willing to teach him at his level. “My little brother inspired my calling in life,” she said.

Robicheaux, of Alvin, Texas, received her bachelor’s degree this December in education with a dual certification in early childhood-6th and early childhood-12th special education. “I’ve done my internship at Dan Kubacak Elementary in Santa Fe Independent School District, and I have substitute taught in Santa Fe for four years,” she said.

She won Substitute Teacher of the Year in 2017-18 for Roy J. Wollam Elementary School in Santa Fe I.S.D.

UHCL extends support for new teachers in the classroom

Students who graduated this semester from University of Houston-Clear Lake with teaching certifications received more than diplomas. They will receive support in the classroom as they transition from student to teacher.

Greater Houston-area school districts suffer from high teacher turnovers, Texas Education Agency retention data show, indicating a lack of support for new teachers. “We’ve been leading a research group focused on new teachers’ challenges and how to support them as they transition into their first year of teaching,” said Professor of Curriculum and Instruction Denise McDonald.

“A third of our faculty is part of this group, and we are working on creating the initiatives new teachers need to be successful,” she said.

UH-Clear Lake’s College of Education is creating an online platform from which professors can directly support former students as they assimilate into their own classrooms. “We are working on a platform from which we can directly inform our former students about how we can support them in their new job.”

The new website will include a “Dear-Abby”-style column which will allow for questions and answers. In addition to the online platform, McDonald and her colleagues are creating workshops to be taken out into the field, where teachers were working. “We envision going out to schools for workshops and professional development opportunities,” she said. “It’s all about mentoring and supporting new teachers.”

McDonald said that 96 percent of UHCL’s graduates in the teaching profession stayed in after five years. “That reflects our ability to train and prepare teachers,” she said. “We have to continue. Teachers who aren’t being supported don’t do as well. We want them to know we are here for them in the early years, working in the trenches and through the hard knocks.”

For more information about UHCL’s College of Education, visit www.uhcl.edu/education.