Faculty Spotlight: Ryan Cain

Welcome back to the Department of Teacher Education at the newly renovated McKay Education Building. We are now housed within the Jerry and Vickie Moyes School of Education within the College of Social Sciences & Education. We look forward to welcoming students into our innovative teaching spaces for the fall semester. While our work preparing caring, competent educators has continued throughout the building reconstruction, our next chapter begins in our new collaboration-promoting and technology-rich spaces.

I write this message to you as the new Department Chair of Teacher Education. Thank you, Dr. DeeDee Mower, for guiding our department over the past three years. Over my past seven years in the department, I have taught media, technology, data science, educative making, elementary science, elementary math, and elementary practicum courses. Prior to teaching at the college level, I taught elementary science to grades Pre-K through second in Brooklyn, NY.

Throughout my career, I have experienced the power of caring, competent educators to foster individual growth. Sometimes this might involve a math teacher teaching multiple problem-solving strategies until multiplication clicks for a student. Other examples include a professor complimenting a student’s writing and encouraging them to consider graduate school, and a student teacher working with a kindergartener to write a sentence about their hero. While these may sound like small accomplishments, they enable the learners to become better versions of themselves. Said another way, caring, competent teachers help students thrive.

We are so excited to thrive with you all this upcoming academic year!

Sincerely,

Ryan Cain, PhD