Dr. Melanie S. Blanton

Bio

Dr. Melanie Blanton is the Assistant Director for the STEM Center at The Citadel. Dr. Blanton started her teaching career in Metro Nashville Public Schools and most recently served in Beaufort County Public Schools. She has classroom teacher experience with middle and secondary English and Social Studies Education, gifted and talented education, interdisciplinary curriculum design (STEAM), and teacher mentoring. She recently received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Language, Diversity, and Literacy Studies from Texas Tech University. 

Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction: Language Diversity, and Literacy Studies
    Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
  • M.A.T. in Secondary Education
    Trevecca Nazarene University, Nashville, TN
  • M.A. in English
    Belmont University, Nashville, TN
  • B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing
    College of Charleston, Charleston, SC

Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • Jocius, R., Joswick, C., Albert, J., Joshi, D., & Blanton, M. (in press). Towards pedagogical content knowledge learning trajectories: Tracing elementary teachers’ infusion of computational thinking. Professional Development in Education.
  • Jocius, R., Albert, J., O’Byrne, I., Joshi, D., Robinson, R., & Blanton, M. (2024). Computational thinking infusion as transformative teaching: Investigating content area teacher perspectives and practices. Computer Science Education 34(2), 222-251.
  • Jocius, R., Albert, J., Joshi, D., Blanton, M., & O’Byrne, I. (2023). Creating sustainable computational thinking infusion: An analysis of teacher-led practitioner inquiry projects. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 31(4), 493-522. Waynesville, NC, USA: Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/222794/
  • Jocius, R., Albert, J., Bhonsle, R., Joshi, D., O’Byrne, I., & Blanton, M. (2023). Connecting a community throughcomputational thinking and robotics. Connected Science Learning 5(1),  https://www.nsta.org/ connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-february-march-2023/connecting- community
  • Blanton, M., Jocius, R., Albert, J., Joshi, D. (2023).Dragons, squishy circuits, and computational thinking: Integrating scientific literacies into elementary classrooms. Language Arts, 100 (4) 269-28.
  • Jocius, R., O’Byrne, W. I., Albert, J., Joshi, D., Blanton, M., Robinson, R., … & Catete, V. (2022).  Building a virtual community of practice: Teacher learning for CT infusion. TechTrends, 1-13.
  • Jocius, R., O’Byrne, I., Blanton, M., Albert, J., Joshi, D. & Robinson, R. (2021). Leveraging virtual professional development to build computational thinking literacies in English Language Arts classrooms. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 21(4).
  • Jocius, R., Albert, J., Andrews, A., & Blanton, M. (2020). A study in contradictions: Exploring standards-basedmaking in elementary classrooms. Journal of Educational Research, 113(5), 396-403.

Published Book Chapters

  • Kane, B. D., Robinson, R. J., Blanton, M., & Albert, J. (2024). Letting the Mathematics Lead in Mathematical   Literacy: Toward an Understanding of Literacy in Mathematics. In Cultivating Literate Citizenry Through Interdisciplinary Instruction (pp. 94-115). IGI Global.
  • Jocius, R., Blanton, M., Albert, J., Joshi, D., & Andrews, A. R. (2021). Computational Thinking and Making in Virtual Elementary Classrooms. In Handbook of research on transforming teachers’ online pedagogical reasoning for engaging K-12 students in virtual learning (pp. 359-378). IGI Global.

Conference Proceedings

  • Albert, J., Joswick, C., Joshi, D., Jocius, R., Blanton, M., & Petrulis, R. (2024, March). Elementary Teachers  Engaging with Learning Trajectories to Create Professional Learning Goals around Computer Science Integration. In Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on CS Education V. 2 (p. 1554-1555).
  • Joshi, D., Jocius, R., Blanton, M., Albert, J., & O’Byrne, I. (2023). Project sustainability through teacher autonomy in CT infusion. In Proceedings of the 53rd ACM technical symposium on computer science education (SIGCSE ’23). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
  • Jocius, R., Albert, J., Andrews, A. & Blanton, M. (2020). Exploring teachers’ approaches to standards-based making in elementary classrooms. In G. Marks & D. Schmidt-Crawford (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1115-1119). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Peer Reviewed Conference Presentations

  • Blanton, M., Jocius R., Albert, J., Joshi, D. (accepted, 2024). Texts, Twists, and Computational Thinking: Pedagogical Moves Teachers Make During Interactive Read-Alouds. [paper presentation] Literacy Researchers Association Conference, Atlanta, GA.
  • Kane, B. D., Robinson, R., Blanton, M. & Albert, J. (2024). Letting the mathematics lead: A framework  for understanding how literacy is implicated in mathematics. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association: Philadelphia, PA.
  • Blanton, M., and Jocius, R. (2023). Teaching CT with and through the humanities. [paper presentation] Literacy Research Association Conference, Atlanta, GA.
  • Blanton, M. (2022). Who is doing the {computational} thinking?: A content analysis  of characters engaging in computational thinking in selected children’s literature  [paper presentation] Literacy Research Association Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
  • Blanton, M., Jocius, R., Albert, J., Joshi, D., Andrews, A.  (April, 2022). Leveraging virtual  PD: CT integration in elementary classrooms [poster presentation]. AERA, San Diego,  CA.

Research and Relevant Experience

The STEM Center, Assistant Director 2018-present

  • Educational outreach across the state to K-12 teachers and students through STEM competitions, teacher professional development, and outreach events
  • Collaborate across campus to support STEAM Summer Camps and GenCyber Summer Camps
  • Develop and sustain new and existing Center goals and partnerships with various stakeholders
  • State support personnel for statewide computer science teacher professional development project as a part of a DoE EIR grant entitled  E-CSPDWeek with National CSTA
  • Support Code.org Regional Partnership

NSF DRK12: Unboxing CT  2023-present

  • Research director for Unpacking Computational Thinking for Elementary Teachers and Learners. National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12. Award #2300322: $2,994,106. June 2023 – June 2027.
  • Co-wrote grant with PI and Co-PIs  [Albert, J. (PI) Jocius, R. (Co-PI), Joshi, D. (Co-PI) Joswick, C. (Co-PI)]
  • Responsible for planning and implementation of grant activities
  • Currently in Y2 of data collection

NSF Noyce Track 3: Learning to Lead 2023-present

  • Support personnel for Noyce Track 3 Master Teacher Fellows Learning 2 Lead: Building STEM Teacher Leaders to Broaden Participation in High Needs Schools. Award #2151088: $1,573,65. [Albert, J. (PI)] September 2022 – October 2027.
  • Supported grant writing with PI
  • Design experiences and course pathways to support the development of teacher leaders in high-needs schools with a focus on rural contexts
  • Programmatic design and coursework revision to provide support to Noyce fellows

Center for Mathematical Literacy Teacher PD Project 2022 – 2024

  • Research Assistant for center grant through South Carolina Commission of Higher Education. Award: $129,580. [Albert J (Co-PI) Kane, B.(Co-PI), Ortlieb, E. (Co-PI)]January 2022 – August 2024.
  • Supported grant writing with PIs and Co-PIs
  • Supported grant team with PD design, data collection, and research activities for middle school teacher professional development focusing on disciplinary literacy in the math classroom

Teaching Experience

Zucker Family School of Education, Adjunct Instructor 2019 – present

  • Courses taught: EDUC 101: Education in Modern Society,  EDUC 301: Foundations in Literacy, Co-Instructor for EDUC 544: PBL and Interdisciplinary Learning,  EDUC 545: STEM Disciplinary Literacy, and EDUC 546: Teacher Leadership and Critical Issues in STEM
  • Advanced Online Teaching Certificate through The Citadel’s CEITL&DE Center for Distance Education
  • Undergraduate field experience coordinator (Spring 2018-2020)
  • Supported The Citadel Summer Reading Program, Teacher Cadet Program, ZFSOE recruitment initiatives

Fellowships, Awards, and Certificates

  • Spring 2023, 2024 Helen Dewitt Jones Teacher Education Travel Award – AERA
  • Winter 2022, 2023 Texas Tech Graduate Student Travel Award – LRA
  • Spring 2022 SWARM Award: Zucker Family School of Education
  • Spring 2022 Krause Center for Leadership and Ethics Campus Award for Community Engagement and Service Learning (2022)