Melanie Shoffner
Educational Pursuits
Much to the amusement
of friends and family, I willingly switched shades of blue when I –
a Duke Blue Devil through and through – entered UNC-Chapel Hill’s
Education PhD program in the fall of 2002. Now in my second year, I am
up to my eyebrows in teacher education, English education, educational
technology, curriculum history & theory and teacher identity formation.
I am currently researching the use of asynchronous communication in pre-service
teachers’ reflective practice, with grand plans of using this research
to inform a larger study of teacher identity formation in pre-service
teachers as revealed by asynchronous discussion.
In addition
Somehow, I ended up as secretary to the Graduate Student Association,
which allows me to send out vast amounts of email to my fellow graduate
students and take copious notes at GSA meetings. In my spare time, I co-instruct
the spring MAT methods course, supervise English MAT student teachers
and assist Dr. Tom Oppewal, assistant dean & director teacher education.
Busy? Slightly – but doing what I enjoy makes it all worthwhile.