Jennifer McCreight, Ph.D.

Interim Assistant Dean of Professional and Faculty Development, Professor of Education and Head of Teacher Education, CAEP Accreditation CoordinatorSchool of Health, Education, Sustainability & Society

Jen Mcreight

Contact

Education

  • B.A. in Early Childhood Education, Hiram College, 2003
  • M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education, Georgia State University, 2006
  • Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Education, University of Georgia, 2012

After graduating from Hiram in 2003, I spent eight years teaching first grade and kindergarten in Georgia. I worked with lots of student teachers in my classroom and loved it, and I began to wonder what it would be like to teach at the college level. When I began my Ph.D work at UGA, my husband (Chris, another ’03 grad!) and I always thought it would be great to end up one day at a place like Hiram – little did we know we’d take our next career steps here in Hiram Village! We are now raising our daughter, three dogs, and two chickens just down the street from the college. You’ll likely see us out on walks or runs in Hiram (everyone but the chickens) – stop and say hi! We are so grateful to be part of this amazing community.

As Head of Teacher Education, Jen McCreight works with her colleagues to support all of the programs offered in her department. This includes programs in P-5 elementary, middle childhood (4-9), and a variety of adolescent young adult (7-12) licenses: Integrated Language Arts, Integrated Social Studies, Life Science, Life Science/Chemistry, and Chemistry/Physics. The department is very proud of their educational studies major and minor, which is geared toward students who see themselves as educators, but not in a classroom setting; instead, they want to work in areas like environmental education, museum education, school counseling, youth sports and recreation, and much more.

Dr. McCreight is interested in family/school partnerships, validating diverse linguistic backgrounds of students, and incorporating technology into classrooms to enhance and deepen learning. She enjoys learning from and with her students and gravitates toward discussion-based and interactive class sessions. Dr. McCreight has published and presented with students, as well, and continually looks for opportunities to engage them in collaborative research. Additionally, she prioritizes relationships with local schools, through service learning, field visits, and clinical experiences. These relationships challenge Dr. McCreight to be a more innovative and reflective educator in her work with college students.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
  • College Executive Steering Committee (CESC)

  • McCreight, J. (2022). It’s the end of the (teaching) world as we know it: Exploring the concrete benefits of reflection and deep listening. Cleveland Teaching Collaborative. Peer-Reviewed. Retrieved from https://cleteaching.org/j_mccreight/
  • McCreight, J. (2021). ELA-Vation. Ohio Voices. National Award Winner, Peer-Edited. Retrieved from https://octela.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2023/03/Ohio-Voices-The-Voice-of-Spring-2023-PDF.pdf
  • McCreight, J. (2021). Take 2: A second look at responses of one first grade class to the representation of AAVE in picture books. Journal of Language and Literacy Education (JoLLE). Peer-Reviewed. Retrieved from http://jolle.coe.uga.edu/take-2/
  • McCreight, J. (2020). What do I value? Connection and curriculum reimagined in educational spaces. Ohio Journal for English Language Arts, 60(1), 36-37. Peer- Reviewed.
  • McCreight, J. (2018). Supporting English Language Learners: Using Technology to Increase Classroom Participation and Creativity. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@heinemann/supporting-english-language-learners-using-technology-to-increase-classroom-participation-and-521f3c790f18

  • P-5 Literacy Methods
  • Ethics of Collaboration
  • Phonics for P-5 and Middle Childhood
  • Diagnosis and Intervention in P-9 Literacy
  • Children’s Literature
  • Human Growth and Development: Birth to 10

Favorite Course TO TEACH

“Honestly, I love all of my courses for different reasons! But one course that stands out is Children’s Literature. Students from all across campus take this class, and I start out every semester telling them that that no matter what their major, this class is relevant to them – because one day, without doubt, they WILL know a child! And placing diverse, engaging, funny, beautiful, thoughtful children’s books into the hands of that child will be so critically important as they form their views about the world around them – it is no small responsibility to choose a book for or with a child! This class unpacks that responsibility and introduces students to many amazing books they may not even know exist – and encourages them to revisit influential books from their own childhood.”

Outside of hiram

involvement

Jennifer McCreight, Ph.D.