Roger Fedelleck is a retired Iowa middle school music teacher.  Roger received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa in music education.  He received a masters and later doctorate degree in music performance.   Dr. Fedelleck retired in 2001 after 30 years of teaching.  He has experience teaching at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels.  Dr. Fedelleck also has had experience teaching as a studio instructor at the college level.   This episode examines what is the importance of a fine arts education with the traditional core subject areas and the long term benefits students receive from fine arts education.  We also discuss challenges in fine arts education and advice Roger provides from his extensive teaching experience.

Autism is a disorder that affects 60 out of 10,000 children.  Despite the frequency of the disorder and continuous research, autism is a condition that holds many unanswered questions.  In the spirit of inclusion, many mildly autistic students are placed in mainstream classes.  Teachers must understand the challenges faced by these students if autistic students are to be successfully integrated.  Our guest today is Melissa Steckly.  Melissa is a doctorate of pharmacy from the University of Iowa.  Melissa has the unique experience of having two older brothers that have autism and Aspergers.  Melissa Steckly explains some common questions related to Autism from a medical and personal perspective.

The changing American society has altered the way that people live.  Many individuals now consume more processed and fast foods.  Children, traditionally the group least likely to be come overweight, is being dramatically impacted.  To compound problems, Americans are adopting a more sedentary lifestyle.  Children are playing less outside and spending more time in front of computers and TV.  These trends have lead to predictions that obesity to eventually become the leading cause of preventative death in America.   Today’s guest is Stefanie Irwin.  Stefanie is a graduate from the University College of Nursing.  Stefanie is currently a nurse at Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids.  She will discussing in this episode the effects and causes for childhood obesity.  Stefanie also touches upon the common psychological issues of anorexia and bulimia that affect teenagers’ body image.  I have also changed the title of the podcast.  Since I have graduated, the podcast is now “Voices in Education.”

Mindy Fiala is our guest today.  Mindy has an A.A. from Kirkwood Community College in theater and a B.S.S from Cornell College in Mount Vernon Iowa in theater with a minor in art.  Mindy is now in her third year as a high school paraprofessional in a credit recovery program.  She helps students gain credit in subjects that they have previously failed to remain in school and graduate.  Today she will discuss what services paraprofessionals provide for the school, advice on how to work with struggling students, and how teachers can better work with paraprofessionals.  This episode is my first interview via Skype and marks a technological upgrade for the program.  I am planning to use this service in my future programs to provide more diversity in my guests.

Darek Benesh is on the program today to discuss English as a second language students.  ESL students are an important topic in an increasingly diverse American population. All teachers will at some time in their teaching career have an ESL student in their classrooms. The program focuses on understanding what ESL instruction is and how teachers can help ESL students in general education classrooms.  Darek has a B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa in teaching English to speakers of other languages, T.E.S.O.L., with a minor in English education.  Darek was an elementary ESL and secondary English teacher for four years.  He later received a M.A. in English with an emphasis in creative writing from the University of Northern Iowa.  Darek is also the father of three children in a bilingual household.  Darek has taught ESL students at Kirkwood Community College for a total of four years, and today he is a doctoral student at the University of Iowa in the language, literacy, and culture program.

Monica Forte is this week’s guest.  She has a B.A. in biology and is a pharmacy doctoral student at the University of Iowa.  Monica works as a pharmacy intern with Target Pharmacy in Cedar Rapids.  The topic today is the H1N1 flu epidemic that is currently moving through the school population.  Disease cases have within the last month diminished, but experts are predicting a resurgence during the holiday season.  In addition, the regular seasonal flu will enter the US population in large numbers.  I decided to review the topic, because the flu is likely to spread through the nation’s schools in the next couple months.  As time progresses, vaccines will be available for the general public.  Monica describes what the flu symptoms are, steps to take if you get the flu, and types of vaccines available.

Kate Kauper is a former social studies teacher from Colorado.  She currently is a doctoral student at the University of Iowa College of Education.  Kate’s research looks at the integration of globalism in secondary education classrooms.  Kate has mentored pre-service teachers in their student teaching experiences and designed a course in the college of education to help teachers understand and apply globalism in instruction.  Kate’s current studies are looking into how practicing teachers incorporate globalism into their social studies classrooms.

The pilot podcast is with Bruce Fehn.  Dr. Fehn currently is a social studies education professor at the University of Iowa.  He discussed how desktop documentaries can be created by students using the Microsoft Photostory program.  The program was originally used to create photo slide shows.  Photostory is a free program available at the Microsoft website, photostory.  Teachers, however, have begun to adopt the program to make documentary style movies.  Dr. Fehn highlights some of the potential rewards in using the program and tips to integrating the program into schools.