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February 6, 2019

Faculty Spotlight: Kristen Driskill, Ed.D., Assistant Professor of Teacher Education; Director, Pathway to Teaching Program

Education:

  • University of Phoenix, Ed.D., Educational Leadership/Curriculum and Instruction
  • SUNY Geneseo, M.S., Reading Education
  • SUNY Geneseo, B.S., Elementary Education/Special Education

Tell me about yourself.

I was born and raised on Long Island. I’ve lived and worked around the world in various professional roles, which makes my story pretty unique. I had my older daughter, Elizabeth, in Germany when I was teaching for Department of Defense Dependent Schools, and my younger daughter, Abigail, in California, when stationed at Fort Irwin. All of my experiences have helped me to become a well-rounded educator and I love sharing those experiences with my students!

What brought you to Roberts?

I met Dr. Denise Johnson when I was a literacy coach at Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES. She attended a workshop I presented, and we hit it off! A year or so later, both Denise and a long-time Roberts adjunct, Sue Witter, got me involved in courses around adolescent literacy, which is when I began at Roberts as an adjunct.

How long have you been teaching at Roberts?

This is my third year as a full-time faculty member.

When did you start becoming interested in teaching

I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. From the time I was five years old, playing school was my favorite past time. In fact, if you ask either of my sisters, they’ll tell you that I “tortured” them by making them play school all the time. I guess I truly was born to teach! The funny thing is; I catch my daughters playing school all the time too. Maybe I have two future teachers on my hands!

Academic Work

Any recent accolades, publications, academic journals, papers, conferences attended, keynote speaker, books published, grants awarded, research, etc. to highlight?

Last academic year, I was able to revamp EDU 385, our adolescent methods course. I now teach it at Greece Athena High School alongside the building principal and his teachers. The powerful takeaway is the ability to integrate authentic fieldwork right into the coursework. Both students and the Athena teachers really like the partnership. This work really uncovered a huge gap in the literature around how clinical educators, or host teachers, are not prepared for that role. Data was collected from participating teachers and my research and findings were just published in Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning in November (“The role of the clinical educator in teacher preparation: An exploratory study of perceptions of preparedness”). Clinical practice has really become a focus for me, and I’m getting involved locally and at the state-level to address the needs of the field.

Share about an academic highlight from your time at Roberts.

I have loved being a part of the Pathway to Teaching (PTT) Program. From the time I stepped into the role as Program Director, it’s been non-stop improvement and growth. I have enjoyed working on updating curriculum across the program, ensuring current practitioners are teaching our courses as new adjuncts, and growing not only our cohort size on campus, but our Greece-based cohort as well. It’s exciting to see PTT students successfully complete the program and certification requirements, and then land their first teaching job. It’s been crazy and fast-paced, but amazing!

A little more about you…

What is an interest you have outside of teaching?

I absolutely love to dance and I wanted to be a Radio City Rockette when I was younger.

What is one highlight from your time at Roberts?

I truly loved giving a RedTALK at Homecoming this year. I was honored to even be considered, and I loved being able to share my work and my ideas with current and past students.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite thing, hands-down, are the students. I love how eager they are to learn, how they actively make connections between the college classroom and the P-12 classrooms and how hard they work. I also love how kind and thoughtful they are, which was much unexpected for me. Roberts students care about me as a person, just as I do for them and that really makes my job so rewarding!


Student Insight:

Annabelle Powell'19 (Childhood and Special Education, concentration in Mathematics)

"Dr. Driskill has not only been my advisor and teacher since freshman year, but also my mentor and confidant. I have seen her knowledge about Education flourish in her classes as she got students excited about the endless joys of being a teacher. Dr. Driskill’s passion for people and love her for profession are evident in everything that she does. She is truly an inspiration to those around her, and a wonderful example of a successful educator."


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