Contact Me

Email: pamela.norwood@hccs.edu

Phone: 713.718.6236 or 713.718.6303

Fax: 713.718.6235

Office: EDC Building, 3214 Austin Street (enter on the Caroline side) Room D103

Fall 2007 Courses

• CDEC 1358 Creative Arts for Early Childhood
• EDUC 1301 Introduction to the Teaching Profession
• TECA 1303 Families and Community

• CDEC 1356 Emergent Literacy

• CDEC 2307 Math and Science for Early Childhood

Sponsor for HCC-Central's Association of Future Teachers' Club (FTC)

• By-laws
• Current Officers

• Biography

  I have been teaching at HCCS - Central as a resident faculty member since the spring of 2003. I began my career teaching young children in the primary and intermediate grades of elementary school. I have also worked as a district level curriculum writer, an educational consultant for Region IV, and an independent on-site professional developer for underperforming schools. For the last fifteen years, I have primarily focused on preparing teachers to work with children and have taught or mentored many outstanding child development and education majors who are now either enrolled at several other higher education institutions around the city or employed as teachers of young children in a variety of school settings.
  

• As far as my educational background, you should know that I received my Associate's degree from San Joaquin Delta Community College and my Bachelor's degree from the University of the Pacific. Both institutions are located in Stockton, California as I am I native of that state. I have both a Master's and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction (with specializations in Bilingual Education and Curriculum Studies respectively) which I obtained from the University of Houston. I have authored or co-authored a number of articles related to the education of children in culturally diverse settings and the preparation of teachers for urban schools. I have also presented numerous papers at various types of educational conferences. To that end, I consider myself a master teacher educator, a scholar, and a part-time researcher.  My primary interests at this time center on: a) the relationship between early childhood teacher preparation and children's school readiness and b) the early literacy development of urban minority children.
• Besides teaching in the more formal setting of the college classroom, I also provide professional development sessions for teachers outside of the college, in more informal settings or at their primary places of employment.  I regularly visit early childhood and school settings in the field to observe or provide assistance to teachers who request or are deemed in need of my help. As my overarching goal is to improve the quality of education provided to ALL children, I strive to accomplish that by doing my part to make sure their future and/or current teachers acquire the essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for effective caretaking and instruction.
• On a more personal note, I have a young adult son (currently serving in the Navy!), a daughter-in-law, and a daughter who is completing her last year in college. I am the grandmother of a very precocious first grader and am eagerly anticipating the birth of a granddaughter later this fall.  I love various genres of music (including gospel, latin, jazz, r and b, and classical) and am a great patron of the arts, both visual and performing. I live to read and really love to travel! If I'm not in class or my office, you can probably find me at the theater, a dance concert, a bookstore, the beach, or on the deck of some cruise ship. Please feel free to say hello if you do!