It’s hard to believe our 13th Annual Kump Education Seminar will be held Wednesday, April 26, at 4 p.m.

We started it in the spring of 2011 when Dr. Creasey was still Chair of the Davis & Elkins College Teacher Education Program, and his wonderful secretary Ann Harris gently kept us all on schedule — college students, professors, instructors and their families. Dr. Jennifer Tesar was serving in her first year at D&E, and her baby girl, Emily was on the way. I was teaching for my last year there, and Seneca, our fourth grandchild had just been born. Now those babies are in middle school, and they make me realize how much things change, and how they stay the same.

Research and innovation in education are still very important to us all. We worked on the idea that KEC could become a college consortium for Randolph and neighboring counties in 2011. Alderson-Broaddus, Davis & Elkins, and West Virginia Wesleyan colleges would share resources, and students might take classes from different colleges at KEC. The consortium idea works well in Georgia, and I hoped it would increase opportunities for West Virginia students. Although that consortium did not develop, I still believe KEC could serve as a local adult education consortium after the pandemic.

However, in 2011 A-B, D&E, and WVWC still had old collegiate allegiances, and I recognize now that I organized the seminar event in a format that made it too competitive. Over the last 12 years our seminars have become more supportive of all participants, but during the pandemic we limited exposure to COVID-19 and offered the event to D&E students. Skylee Watson sent in the only research abstract in 2020 and earned a small cash award for the 10th Annual Seminar.

This year for the first time, D&E Teacher Education students will make their Capstone presentations at the Kump Education Research Seminar. We are particularly looking forward to seeing the research by D&E students who helped with our mentoring program this past winter. Mentor Kylianne Philip will discuss a week-long unit for first-grade students on spelling words with long vowel sounds using hands-on learning activities. A second language arts abstract describes a unit in which Peyton Adams taught first graders to write sentences in order to help them comprehend sentence structure when they read. Writing children learn to use their hands to shape ideas, and writing is one of the most neglected literacy skills.

So far we have three Capstone abstracts on teaching math. First, Madison Hart’s third-grade unit on fractions using a number line helps students understand that a fraction is a quantity formed by a part of a whole divided into equal parts. Second, Anna Ruf explains how her students used units with an emphasis on real-world math connections. Third, Zachary McGillan will show how his seventh-grade students made progress towards learning algebra by learning to understand equations, math expressions and inequalities.

All of these presentations will help teachers and parents to learn more about learning.