4x4x16 nmc writing challenge

Teaching @ NMC - 12-04-2014An online resource for all NMC instructors - http://teaching.nmc.edu

Teaching @ NMCAn online resource for all NMC instructors

In the Fall of 2013 and 2014, NMC instructors accepted the 4x4x16 writing challenge sponsored by CIE(Center for Instructional Excellence). Instructors were challenged to create 4 pieces of writing over 4 weeks that each were a minumum of 16 sentences long. The writing that follows was printed from the teaching.nmc.edu site. The formatting issues and in some cases odd spacing issues are due to the fact that the writing was imported from the teaching.nmc.edu site. The oddformatting should in no way be attributed to the authors. 2014 Posts: Pgs. 5 - 99 2013 Posts: Pgs. 100 - 145

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Table Of Contents

The Joy of Teaching at NMC .............................................. 5

Bird by Bird .......................................................... 6Accessing Your NMC E-mail Account ........................................ 7Robert Goulet and Aurora Borealis; Only Connect .............................. 9

My students can't write! Part 4: Grading and Rubrics ............................ 12Enough, But Not Too Much: Discussing Significant Learning Outcomes ............... 14What Should Learning Be? .............................................. 15

Learning to Teach Online by Taking Massive Open Online Courses .................. 16Learning is Loud! ..................................................... 18Tell Me a Story - Guest Post .............................................. 19On Being Shy: Teaching Introverts and the Online Environment - Guest Post ........... 21A picture is worth a thousand words ........................................ 23Understood Betsy ..................................................... 24

Trying to be a Creator--Even in November ................................... 26

Has School Become An Extracurricular Activity? ............................... 27What Do Employers Want? (Part 2) ........................................ 28

My students can’t write! Part 3: Outlines and Models ............................ 29Learning via Discussion ................................................. 31Learning for Life ...................................................... 32From Captain Kirk to Gandalf the White; What's An Educator To Do? ............... 34Promoting Student Engagement With Online Classes ............................ 37Tech Tips: Searching for Specific Emails on Gmail .............................. 38ITV: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Guest Post .............................. 40Go Find Me a Poem - Guest Post ........................................... 43Don’t Do Cookie Cutter - Guest Post ........................................ 46Student Friendships: Worth the risk? ....................................... 49I don't understand what you don't understand ................................. 50The National Debt ..................................................... 52Introducing Metacognition into Student Reading ............................... 54Applying Ordinary Teaching for an Extra-ordinary Learning Time .................. 56Darn Serious Learning .................................................. 58Google Hangouts is here! ................................................ 60My students can't write! Part 2: Scaffolding ................................... 61Humor and Teaching ................................................... 63Do you think he will get mad? ............................................. 64Lady in the Classroom? ................................................. 65Pharmacology Scavenger Hunt Assignment ................................... 67Café scientifique ...................................................... 68To Allow Resubmissions or Not to Allow Resubmissions—THAT is the Question! (WilliamShakespeare, sorta) - Guest Post ........................................... 69Keeping It Relevant - Guest Post ........................................... 73Honoring Our Discipline’s Values in Non-Traditional Ways ....................... 76

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What Do Students Really Want? ........................................... 78My students can’t write! Part 1: Crafting Effective Writing Assignments .............. 79

Podcast Junkie - Is This Working? ......................................... 81

Encouraging Every Student to Talk ......................................... 83Quick Guide for Gmail Invitations ......................................... 84

Teaching as Learning .................................................. 86

Technology in the Classroom ............................................. 87

How Much is That Worth? ............................................... 89Extra Credit in the Lab ................................................. 90Evaluating Nursing Student Clinical Skills .................................... 91Bibliophobia? Library Phobia? .......................................... 92

Intellectual Freedom Supported by Foundational Curriculum Outcomes ............... 93Lions, Tigers, and Bears, OH MY! ......................................... 95

Writing Challenge Kick Off .............................................. 97Writing Challenge = Free Ice Cream ........................................ 98NMC's teaching@NMC in Faculty Focus Article .............................. 100

Wrap It Up: 4x4x16 .................................................. 101Every Step of the Way ................................................. 102Retrospective ....................................................... 104

4x4x16 Writing, Ice Cream, Education, and Maybe a Book ....................... 105

Afterthoughts ....................................................... 106Is there an app for that? ................................................ 107Twenty-Minute Mentor Series ........................................... 109

Defunct Adjunct ..................................................... 110Go Lions .......................................................... 111

So many suggestions! Where do I start? ..................................... 112Test Anxiety ........................................................ 113Jigsaws in the Classroom? .............................................. 114Guiding student preparation - a journey .................................... 115

Searching for the Somatic (Week 3) ....................................... 117Writing Back In Time ................................................. 118Time To Reflect on Competency-based Learning .............................. 119

The Joy of Public Speaking .............................................. 122Give Me the Beat...To Organize My Learning? ................................ 124How Much is Too Much? ............................................... 129Learning debt ....................................................... 130"Messy" Questions Often Elicit Critical Thinking .............................. 131Searching for the Somatic (week 2) ........................................ 132Thinking Inside The Box ............................................... 133Lifetime Writing Prompt & Order of Magnitude ........................... 134An Argument Against Averaging Student Grades & Using the Killer Zero ......... 136Own It: Learn How to Learn ............................................ 138

In Search of the Somatic ............................................... 139

Active Learning: More Than Just Busy ..................................... 140Video Games and the Learning Process ..................................... 141

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Audio Recording Feedback to Students ..................................... 1424 x 4 x 16 = Ice Cream! ................................................ 143

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The Joy of Teaching at NMC

by Tammy Coleman - Tuesday, November 25, 2014

http://teaching.nmc.edu/?p=6032

The Joy of Teaching at NMC

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." --Albert Einstein

Let me just say, as a newbie, I have no candle to holdéand no lesson to teach my wonderful colleagues. Ican, however rejoice, right? I must say I am thankful for the great individuals I have worked with thus far.In my first week, I had several strangers seek me out and take the time to make sure I was settled innicely. Did I have any questions? How was my first week? How are my students? Did the computer setup make sense to me? Are there any concerns I might have?

The positive energy of NMC has me smiling. It spreads out to the students and it is contagious. Some ofthe hardest working individuals who juggle all of our most detailed emergencies do it with a smile, andeven take time to ask if they can help even moreé.I have met some very talented individuals who care-about high standards for students, for real learning, and for the welfare of our students.

We all run into stress, and in my case, I am pretty good at finding itéand creating it for myselfébut NMChas an amazing positive tone that really cannot be found in all areas of the country or state. Believe meéIhave looked. Enjoy the great and positive environment we share and join me in being grateful!

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Bird by Bird

by Kristen Salathiel - Monday, November 17, 2014


My students are starting to feel overwhelmed right now. They have math testsand English papers and lots of hours at work--two even told me today that they just picked up secondjobs. Itôs easy for them to give up in the face of so much to do. So it is always at this time of year when Itell them about Anne Lamottôs idea of ñbird by bird.ò In her book of the same name, she tells the story ofher ten-year-old brother who was faced with doing an entire three-month project on birds the night beforeit was due. As he sat there totally overwhelmed and immobilized by the consequences of hisprocrastination, his dad came up to him, put an arm around him, and said, ñBird by bird, buddy. Just takeit bird by bird.ò

That is the best advice Iôve ever heard for how to deal with a to-do list that seems impossible. We say itaround my house all the time. When my husband or one of the kids or I is staring bleakly at the pile ofwork to be done, another of us comes by and quietly says, ñBird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.òIt is incredibly good advice and sometimes the only thing that gets us through.

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Accessing Your NMC E-mail Account

by Technology Help Desk - Monday, November 17, 2014


When you click this button, does it take you to your personal Gmail account?

In theory, this button should redirect you to your NMCconfigured email account.

If you have logged into your personal Gmail account on the same machine that you are trying to accessyour school email on, Google will default to the first Gmail account that was logged into on that machine.

Getting to your school email is as easy as four steps.

1. When you are logged into Gmail, you can look up in the upper, right-hand corner to see whichaccount is being used.

2. Make sure that the account is your school email, not a different account

(If it is a different account other than your @nmc.edu account, continue to step 3.)

3. For instance, I have a personal Gmail logged in right now.

4.Click your name, look downward on the menu and choose your NMC account to access.

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Now you can use your school email again.

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Robert Goulet and Aurora Borealis; Only Connect

by Steve Rice - Monday, November 17, 2014


Do you believe there is something germinal to our lives?

Is there something planted in us, perhaps even before there was an us (imagine that one!), something ofeternal weightiness, our uniqueness, the reason for OUR being here, OUR being human, which welcomesour tendering and requires our cultivation if it is ever to spring forth and become?

My childhood memories of Christmas are quite warm, and a little bizarre. On the bizarre side of things, Iwould spend countless hours alone in front of the Christmas tree. What captivated my attention was notthe presents, rather it was "show time!" It was the dancing of lights across the ceiling, the glow andchanging of patterns given off from the lights strung on the tree. An otherwise bland, white ceiling wastransformed into my own ñAurora Borealis.ò

My favorite rocking chair. My favorite ñcubbyò (a corner of the living room, fireplace to the left andChristmas tree to the right), my favorite time to be alone, and my favorite songs. There was somethinginviting, almost sacred about this time. I was alone with the exception of a satisfying warmness whichclosely accompanied my heart.

Song after song played on our old record player. But, the highlight was when Robert Goulet began tosing. A deep ñYeah,ò an internal smiley face :), was the feeling, that I knew. And to this day, I am stillwondering and discovering why.

The song was ñDo You Hear What I Hear?ò Itôs a classic! Thereôs just something about the lyrics andthe way he sings it with that baritone voice of his.

Three questions are asked. Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? Do you know what Iknow?

The first question is asked by the night wind to a little lamb. ñDo you see what I see?ò

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A staré

A second question is then asked by the little lamb to a shepherd boy; a kind and series of pay it forwardsif you will. ñDo you hear what I hear?ò

A songé

The third question is asked by the shepherd boy to a mighty king. ñDo you know what I know?ò

A childé

Collectively, thereôs a star to be seen, a song to be heard, and a child to be known.

Problem solving and group work are a large part of what happens in my classroom, as this is how I havechosen to use this space. While students are working together in their groups, I find myself engagingwith them while also caught up in a dance to the music of these three questions. What do I see? What doI hear? Who do I know? Said another way, do I see well? Do I hear well? Do I know well? The lastquestion, knowing well, is particularly interesting for any educational environment which prizes itself onknowledge.

A star to be seen. A song to be heard. And a child to be known. I am sensing that this is the stuff ofeducation for eternity.

In each of us there is something to be seen; not from the outside in but from the inside out. It comes outand makes its self and way known when the conditions are right. Parker Palmer refers to this as our soul. I find that there are a handful of students who actually discover a sense of self while being in classéif wehave eyes to see.

Often times it is the quiet ones. The unsuspectings. At the beginning of a new semester there iswonderment. Who is going to have an opportunity and actually discover something about themselves? Who is going to come away with a greater sense of clarity, a clearer sense of sight about their ownpossible place in the world?

It is during these times that I remember that my job is not to be in control, but rather to guide, show,explain. Perhaps even ñmine?ò I remember that I am as much a learner as my students and that this isthe way it is meant to be.

Then, there is also a song, a verse, a poem which our life is meant to provide; be heard by and for others. Education has the potential to be a symphony, with each student an instrument needing to be discovered,identified, and heard. Like any good symphony, both the individual instrument and the collection of thewhole are needed. In this sense, I find myself to be somewhat of a conductor, trying to bring out the bestin each student as well as wondering about the sound of the whole, when each part is performing topotential. So I wonder, do I have ears to hear?

Do I hear what is meant to be heard? Do I have ears to hear that which is important? Sometimes thishappens while just walking around and hearing a student share with another, ñI really like this stuff.ò

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There is it! Not spoken to me directly, but as I go, coming forth from the heart and experience of aperson who is truly learning, truly discovering. In this case, learning something perhaps true to their ownself? Magical.

And then there is ñthe child.ò In many spiritual traditions it is the child who is considered to be thegreatest among us. Rather than educate the child out, I want to keep, honor, and value, the child within,while at the same time embracing the need to mature.

This art is definitely tricky business for childlikeness and childishness are certainly not the same thing. How do we cultivate the former and eliminate the later?

As we get ready to celebrate a new holiday season, I find myself reflecting on that which was germinal tomy own sense of being, revealed while parked next to my families Christmas tree.

I want to have good eyes and see as well as help students to see that which is jointly revealed to us. Iwant to have ears, good ears, hearing ears if you will. For I know there are times when I hear but do nothear. Do you know what I mean? And then I want to be more childlike and remember that each of usreally wants two things; to be fully known and fully loved. This is a powerful and rare combination.

To know someone. To know a person for who they are. And then to love them ñas areò rather thanñshould be.ò This is a real gift. It takes eyes to see, ears to hear, and courage to teach.

What would happen if we thought of and linkedin education with, ñAurora Borealis?ò

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My students can't write! Part 4: Grading and Rubrics

by Megan Ward - Monday, November 17, 2014


The dreaded pile of papers. We assign writing with highhopes, walk our students through the process, give feedback and direction at every step, and then it allcomes down to that: one giant stack for us to wrangle. Instructors sometimes avoid assigning papers justbecause of this moment. Grading can be overwhelming and, especially for students, it often appearsmysterious. Making grading more transparent can help us to manage the paper load and helps students beless apprehensive about the outcome. Two major moves can help alleviate the pressure of grading 30 finalpapers: feedback throughout the process and rubrics.

Formative Feedback

Remember that not everything has to be graded, or has to be graded as formal writing. Students needpractice in a low-stakes environment. Give them ample opportunity to try some of the moves that will berequired of them in the final paper. Often these assignments are formative in nature, which gives studentsexposure to the task and gives you less grading.

However, remember the end goal. While strict grading isnôt necessary at every step of the writingprocess, your final grading load will be less if you give feedback along the way. More constructivefeedback throughout the process helps students understand instructor expectations, increasingtransparency. But there is a bonus for you in giving feedback, too. The more feedback that you givethrough the process, the better students will understand what you mean when you tell them to ñanalyzeòor ñcritiqueò or ñsummarize.ò Helping them grasp these concepts is important for their overall learning,but also helps them understand your grading better. If you do more work along the way, you do not needto explain final grades as thoroughly. This leads to making rubrics work even more efficiently.

Rubrics

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The idea behind a rubric is that the item being evaluated can be quickly and clearly assessed in a mannerthat works for both the grader and the graded. Rubrics should, to varying degrees, outline the criteria thatwill be used for evaluation and then explain said criteria. For grading, rubrics will show students whattheir paper should do (in conjunction with a strong assignment) and on what points their writing will beevaluated, so it works in tandem with the assignment, project pieces, models, and outlines. As instructorsevaluate student work, rubrics allow instructors to assign a point value or level to each criterion anddocument where the work was strong or weak. Using a rubric can make grading writing a much fasterprocess.

But is that how it usually plays out? Iôve often told myself that I will stick to just marking the rubric forthe final grade, only to find myself, an hour later, writing a small novel at the bottom of the rubric. Theseare usually moments when I feel like my rubric criteria or explanation may not be clear enough and Iwant to make sure the students understand their final grades. Giving feedback along the process, though,has alleviated much of this. When students already have a solid understanding of the expectations - fromthe assignment, process practice, models, and outlines - there is less of a need to explain final marks. Therubric then becomes, once again, what it was intended to be: a tool to support transparent and efficientevaluation. If rubrics havenôt helped in the past, you may want to look at your entire process for teachingthe writing and consider supporting other aspects more fully. Those supports will help rubrics once againbecome the useful tool they are intended to be.

There you have it: everything you need to know about helping your students produce more effectivewritingé

Iôm kidding. Of course that isnôt everything. But the last four articles have given you a nice foundation tobuild on. Teaching writing is a tricky business and it can be hard for students to learn, like all complicatedtasks, but it is so critical. Following some of the advice presented here can help it to be easier to managein the classroom, both for us and for our students.

(See also My students can't write! Part 1: Crafting Effective Writing Assignments; My students can'twrite! Part 2: Scaffolding; and My students canôt write! Part 3: Outlines and Models.)

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Enough, But Not Too Much: Discussing Significant LearningOutcomes

by Tracy Russo - Monday, November 17, 2014


Writing an effective and appropriate Significant Learning Outcome is in some ways similar to creating awork of art. You have to know what to put, where to put it, and when to stop before you put too much onyour page. See the video below for one version of what a conversation about this helped clarify whenenough was just right.

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What Should Learning Be?

by Nick Roster - Monday, November 17, 2014


Well, learning, from a behaviorists standpoint, is a persistent and measurable alteration in an organism'sbehavior. We know we can measure the alteration in behavior fairly easily in our own test subjects (i.e.students). Give them some form of assessment and "see" if they picked anything up in the last 3-4 weeks.It's that persistent piece that becomes the problem.

How long should it persist? We typically only measure learning once anyway. Then maybe once more atthe end of the semester. But are we really measuring learning or just an ability for students to memorizeand retain some information for a short while to spit it back on an exam? If that is true, we are not truly inthe business of learning. What we then need to focus on is not so much the chaff of each of our respectivedisciplines. We need the best of the best. What is it students really need to know about our fields? This isa tough question and hard for me to think about paring down one of the most intriguing subjects on theplanet.

Imagine that this is the only time most students are ever going to even peer into your subject. (Actually,that is probably the case.) What is it that you would want them to know? In doing this exercise, I realizedthat it was large swaths of high level info that were important. Not the really cool, trivia bits that I getexcited about. But it certainly is easier to test those trivia bits.

Weirdly, when I started this blog post, my aim was to talk about how fun learning should be. We shouldtreat school more like a game and an assemblage of really cool stories. But then I went back to my animalbehaviorist roots and thought of a definition of what learning is supposed to be. That really took me offtrack. I think both stories are important. Learning should be fun, and significant.

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Learning to Teach Online by Taking Massive Open OnlineCourses

by Linda Walter - Saturday, November 15, 2014


One of the assignments for the Teaching Solutions Class was to participate in a ñM.O.O.Cò, which standsfor massive open online course. These college level courses are offered free or for a small fee. Thestudent receives a completion certificate when all of the homework assignments, quizzes, and exams meetthe passing score. Students have to abide to an honor code. I decided to take a class called Chemistry181x: Food for Thought offered via McGill University. There were reading assignments, pre-tests, shortvideos, post quizzes, and unit exams. The videos lasted about 7-15 minutes and there were about 2-4hours of videos per week. Answers and rationale were provided to the pre- and post- tests. Generally,there was a cooking experiment. One week I heated eggs to various temperatures and posted pictures ofthe eggs and discussed how the protein chemical bonds in the egg changed at various temperatures.Another week I had to make several small cakes and compare the chemical bond changes as I steamedcakes in boiling water compared to baking cake in an oven using various temperatures and time. Classmembers graded their own homework assignments by using the rubric provided. A toolbar showed theprogress in the class and how many additional points were needed to earn the certificate.

There is a 7-9% completion rate for M.O.O.C. classes, with people dropping out within the first week.Human interaction is important in keeping students engaged. My daughters also signed up for theM.O.O.C, and they kept me motivated. We would have friendly competitions on who could get the bestgrades. The cooking class had a map and everyone in the class showed where they lived and classmembers showed pictures of their favorite foods. There were over 2,000 people in the class.

Another method to keep students engaged was using encouragement. Every week an email was sentintroducing the new content, and a summary of the previous weekôs information. There were pictures andcomments about the best assignments.

According to the Illinois Online Network (http://www.ion.uillinois.edu) online courses need to addressthe learnersô different learning styles. Traditional lectures could be posted as web pages, videos, audiolecture. This format allows the student to do further reading, research and other activities. Discussionallows the student to analyze the content. Discussion can be asynchronous and in real time. Onlineteaching allows for self-directed learning and self-paced activities. Online projects allow students to gainpractical experience in topics that relevant to the learner. Case studies allow the learner to use theinformation and apply the information to new situations. By taking various M.O.O.C.s I can see howthese teaching strategies are utilized.

Since the original M.O.O.C I have taken several others. I get access to the current information aboutclasses that I teach, and I can see how other instructors present the information, and I analyze how theinstructors in the M.O.O.C. apply teaching strategies to keep the student engaged. I also read thediscussions and learn information that wasnôt presented in the course. The best part is that it is free!

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http://www.ion.uillinois.edu


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Learning is Loud!

by Michele Howard - Friday, November 14, 2014


The Mark & Helen Osterlin Library is the loudest library I have ever worked. This past week it has beeneven louder than usual. Maybe itôs the early snow or lack of sunlight, but there is definitely a loud vibegoing on in the NMC library.

We are a pretty lenient on rules in the library. We allow drinks (non-alcoholic) and food (Jimmy Johnôs,Chinese, a crock pot once). Quiet and quick cell phone calls are acceptable. The students constantlyrearrange our furniture. With little space on Campus to hang out, they come in groups or alone but all arewelcome, even the noisy ones.

So back to the noise. The noise is always a bit of a struggle. We get complaints. We shush. We havefree earplugs. We have a quiet room. We do our best to satisfy all the students and their differentlearning needs. It seems over the last 9 years of working here, the library keeps getting louder andlouder, but maybe thatôs the way our current students feel comfortable learning.

Our latest thought is that maybe we shouldn't fight against it. Learning is a loud and sometimes messyaffair. When I think about the academic and non-academic lessons Iôve learned, they often werenôt easyand werenôt alone and they definitely werenôt quiet. Learning can be a community event. For now, weôllkeep wrestling the various student needs but feel free to stop by during lunch and hang out and listen tothe sounds of learning!

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Tell Me a Story - Guest Post

by Salvatore Buffo - Thursday, November 13, 2014


I love stories; stories about life, our personal experiences, the happy and the sad. Stories teach us abouthow the world sometimes works and how we relate to it. When I was young, I use to love to hear myparents talk about their experiences when they were young. Their stories gave me the opportunity to learnnot only about their lives, but also gave me a better understanding of my culture, the traditions of myfamily and its history. In a sense, these stories gave me a better understanding of myself. Stories put intocontext information that would otherwise remain fragmented, pieces of this and that, thrown into acatchall closet in which items are tossed and usually hopelessly lost. Our students also love stories. Theycatch their attention and can set the mood for your class. We like stories because our brains operate in thesame fashion. Stories allow our brain to use information in the most effective way. Our brains need theopportunity to classify and file information that is in relationship to each other. It doesnôt like thatcatchall closet of miscellaneous bits of information, it likes order and continuity. Stories not only allowthe beginning and the end, but give us how we came to the end, what brought us there.

I try to start each class with a story. It could be a personal experience, a myth, a historical event, anythingthat relates to that dayôs lesson. Stories grab studentsô attention. They become interested in not only whatthe story is about, but how the story relates to them. Stories in many ways touch the core of who we are,and that thing that makes us human. If you think back when you were a child and having a story read toyou, didnôt you find yourself becoming that person or at least thinking how you would react if you werethe character in the story? Philosopher James Stevens once wrote, ñThe head does not hear anything untilthe heart has listened. The heart knows today what the head will understand tomorrow.ò The things thatwe learn and remember, usually stick with us because on some level we can relate to them personally. Ifwe use stories in our teaching, it may give our students a better opportunity to connect to a more personalkind of learning. Stories affect he heart, we relate to them because we find bits of ourselves in every storythatôs ever been told.

Stories in the classroom can be the most fundamental way of making meaning and sense of yourdiscussions. Interjecting that human component, that part of us that we can relate to and assimilating ideasbased upon our own personal experiences, not only allow students to begin to connect all the dots, but

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may aid in making students feel more confident in their understanding of the subject matter.

Author and scholar Kieren Egan wrote this about teaching and storytelling:

ñThinking of teaching as storytellingéencourages us to think of curriculum as a collection of great storiesof our culture. If we begin to think in these terms, instead of seeing the curriculum as a huge mass ofmaterial to be conveyed to students, we can begin to think of teachers in our society as an ancient andhonored role. Teachers are the tellers of our cultures role.ò

Itôs always interesting to me when at the beginning of class, I start with the words, ñIôd like to share astory with you,ñ how the attention in the class changes. Students seem to put their focus not only on you,but themselves as well. Itôs almost magical in some way. It may be one of those few times wheretechnology cannot replace the power of one person telling a story to another person. There is actualevidence that speaks to how we become almost in a trance when we become involved in listening to aninteresting or powerful story.

So in using this notion, stories in our classroom can have many advantages:

1. Getting the students attention, as well as, focusing on the lesson at hand.2. Setting a platform for students to interact and comment on their thoughts about the story.3. Providing a stronger connection in the classroom with you and your students.4. Stories can bring out those students who normally do not participate in class, giving them theopportunity to share their own personal experiences in relation to the stories shared.

Storytelling may be the oldest form of education. Stories throw that human component into the aspect oflearning. If I can in some way relate to what is being taught to me, then my learning becomes morepersonal and becoming more personal, it has the opportunity to become a part of who I am. Our brainsmake sense of the world with its ability to arrange and re-arrange itself in story format. Our ability toretain information is affected by how our brains can make sense of the information in relationship to otherinformation. So create a lesson in which a story is part of the lesson, give students the opportunity tobecome personally involved in the story and you may find your students discovering a different opinionof not only the subject matter, but the joy of learning itself.

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On Being Shy: Teaching Introverts and the Online Environment -Guest Post

by Laura Cline - Thursday, November 13, 2014


My name is Laura Cline, and Iôm an introvert. In fact, Iôm not just introverted; I might be one of theshyest people youôve ever met. If we are friends, or colleagues, you probably already know that. If youare my student, you might know that (at least the first part), and it might be because I talk aboutintroversion a lot in the classroom. When I started graduate school, I wasnôt sure how I was going to beable to stand up in front of a class and talk for an hour, not just once, but three days a week, for an entiresemester, and then for the rest of my career. I had never given a class presentation without breaking outin a nervous sweat, talking way too fast, and feeling like I was going to pass out. And the great surpriseof teaching for the first time, was that I was nervous, but it was my choice whether or not to do my job,which was acting like a professional while I presented my information to the class. I could choose to goup and talk about a subject that I knew without letting my introversion dominate. I could also use humorto make my shyness relatable to my students. I had heard and internalized that introverts wouldnôt makegood teachers, but I chose not to believe it.

Being introverted has also made me sympathetic to the difficulties that many introverts face in the F2Fclassroom. As a student, I needed longer to process my ideas before I was willing to share them with theclass. I wanted to be able to use writing to collect my thoughts, so that when I shared them, they wereexactly as I wanted to say them. Because of this, by the time I was ready to talk during class discussion,we had often already moved past the topic. Also, I was unwilling to interject, and relied strongly on myteachers to call on students raising their hands. It is easy as a teacher (and I am also guilty of this) tothink that a class discussion is running well, while failing to recognize that there are potentially valuablecontributors who are uncomfortable putting their ideas out there in a conversation that is moving at toofast a pace and without the kind of structure that makes them comfortable. I rarely spoke in class untillater in my college career, although I was always an active participant mentally during class discussion,processing ideas and furiously scribbling notes. I was always waiting to write the paper or take the test sothat the teacher would know that I had been paying attention. Now, I try to address these challenges forintroverts by having students freewrite to gather ideas before a discussion, or allowing some small groupdiscussions in place of the whole class. Iôve learned to accommodate students like me in these settings,because of my own experience, and also because of the mentoring of many amazing teachers of my own.

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Now, that I teach almost entirely online though, I wonder how Iôm continuing to address the challengesof my own preferences and the preferences of my students. In many ways, the online classroom is aparadise for introverts. The pace of discussion is not quick, and there is always plenty of time to present awell-thought response. However, like I talked about in an earlier post, something is lost without thespontaneity of a classroom discussion. Ideas arenôt shared in the same way and students donôt get toknow one another unless they allow themselves to come out from behind the keyboard at some pointduring the class.

I often ask my students to make introductory videos or video/audio responses for online classes, and thisis a major challenge for introverted students. I have been using YouTube videos since I started teachingonline, and it has been a major challenge for me as well. In fact, I donôt really watch my own videos(except for the first few minutes to make sure that they work). And yet, I know that by making them, Iam making important personal contact with my students, and so it is important for me to make them,despite doing so defying my preference for written communication. However, I forget sometimes in theonline classroom that I am asking students to defy those preferences as well. I think what is important,and what finally allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and a learner and a teacher, is continuing toemphasize that these characteristics (introversion, extroversion), no matter how set in stone they may feel,are in fact, preferences. We make choices about doing things that make us uncomfortable, and that iswhy I have found using personality testing and learning style assessments to be useful in the classroom. When students realize that they have a preference for one type of thinking or behavior, then they can givethemselves the challenge to step out of that box. And I, as an instructor, will continue to commit toacknowledging that each of my assignments presents a challenge to one of those preferences.

Here is a fun personality indicator online if youôd like to take one.

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAvlkRiCPNjF65BDmJRg3Ug

http://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test


A picture is worth a thousand words

by Brian Sweeney - Wednesday, November 12, 2014


A picture is worth a thousand words.

I received a submission for a writing assignment today via email. It was a picture, included as anattachment, showing a handwritten homework assignment, taken with the smartphone, at armôs-length. Ihave received three submissions this week for homework that was of this quality. The other three wereaccompanied with the same question in different words: ñIs this good enough?ò

I had a sergeant in the Army tell me one time, and it stuck in my vocabulary, that if the minimum was notgood enough, then there would not be one.

I am having difficulty relating to the previous four students that sometimes good enough is not goodenough. I can relate it to video games, as we both generally have experience with them. If the onlyobjective is to get to the next level, then the minimum may be good enough. However, if the game isinteresting, and there is a sense of competition, then getting all the gold coins in that level takesprecedence over merely completing the mission and moving on. There is a challenge in getting thestudent to see the assignment as more than meeting the minimum standard. In the broader sense, this isan opportunity to see that life is not going to be succession of tasks in which the minimum is all that isexpected. Even if the task at hand is distasteful, it is a reflection of personal pride to do more than theminimum. Given the interest in the conversation, I take these opportunities to briefly explain the reasonfor minimum wage. There will eventually be the need to do more than the minimum in order to improvetheir standing in the class, society, and life. I have not found a person yet, student or soldier, that whenpressed to explain minimum performance, admitted that what they did was the best that they could do.

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Understood Betsy

by Deb Pharo - Wednesday, November 12, 2014


Have you ever read the book Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield? It is a childrenôs book, but is has alot to say about education and learning. It is about a very timid, unobserving child, Betsy (Elizabeth Ann),who changes into a brave, problem-solving girl due to a change in caregivers/educators.

For her first nine years, Betsy is coddled, overprotected, and over-educated. The author describes Betsyôseducation as follows:

It is possible that what stirred inside her head at that moment was her brain, waking up. She was nineyears old, and she was in the third-A grade at school, but that was the first time she had ever had a wholethought of her very own. At home, Aunt Frances has always known exactly what she was doing, and hadhelped her over the hard places before she even knew they were there; and at school her teachers hadbeen carefully trained to think faster than the scholars. Somebody had always been explaining things toElizabeth Ann so carefully that she had never found out a single thing for herself before. This was a verysmall discovery, but it was her own. (p28)

When Betsy first moves in with her new family, they are surprised to learn that she does not know how tomake butter, or even where it comes from. Her uncle tries to give her an opportunity to show off what shedoes know by asking her about paving roads in the city she is from. She excitedly exclaims that she hasseen that done hundreds of times. But when they start asking her specific questions about the process, shedoes not know any of the answers, ñI never noticed,ò she says. The relatives, seeing her embarrassment,stop asking questions, but as the butter starts to come Aunt Abigail says to Betsy, ñNow the butterôsbeginning to come. Donôt you want to watch and see everything I do, soôs you can answer if anybody

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http://teaching.nmc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Understood-Betsy-Picture.jpg


asks you how butter is made?ò

Betsyôs new family, and school, has this philosophy about everything and Betsy finds she has to figurethings out for herself in this new home. Betsy thrives in this new environment and becomes quiteconfident.

When I read this book I wonder how I can give my students these kinds of opportunities to becomethinkers and problem solvers.

Here are some other novels, all childrenôs books, that have great educational messages: The PhantomTollbooth, by Norton Jester, Hannah, Divided, by Adele Griffin, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean LeeLatham, and The Number Devil, by Hans Magnus Enzensberger.

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Trying to be a Creator--Even in November

by Kristen Salathiel - Tuesday, November 11, 2014


For a number of years now, I have taught my ENG 107 students about the idea ofpersonal responsibility. We use On Course, a college success book written by Skip Downing, as theprimary text in that class. The whole book is based on the choice between being a Victim and a Creator.Creators, Downing tells us, take responsibility for their own lives. They accept that only they can improvetheir own lives--no one can do it for them. They understand that if they find themselves off-course, theyneed to honestly assess the situation and then make choices that redirect them towards their goals.

Victims, on the other hand, do not take responsibility for their own success. Instead, they complain,blame others, and keep repeating the same ineffective behaviors that they have tried in the past. If thingsare going badly for them, they either beat themselves up unfairly or they lash out at others, blaming themfor their misfortune.

Out of all the things I have taught here at NMC, I think this concept may be the most important. I try toremind my students that if they want to succeed in college, they have to make the choice to do so. Theyhave to take responsibility for doing their homework, for balancing school and job, for coming to class. Iuse these ideas with my own teenage children as well. When they start complaining or blaming, I askthem who is charge of their lives? Teachers? Friends? Coaches? Nope--you are, I remind them. You arethe one who has to take responsibility for what you want.

Of course, no one can be a Creator all the time. We all fall into Victim mode, and for me (and often ourstudents too) it happens most often in the cold, wet, dark, exhausting weeks of November. But the key, Ithink, is recognizing when we start to slide into Victim thinking, and then re-correct, putting ourselvesback on the path to our goals.

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Has School Become An Extracurricular Activity?

by Deb Pharo - Tuesday, November 11, 2014


It seems to me that school has become the extracurricular activity as of late. I know that doesnôt makesense, but let me explain myself. In the past, school came first and then other activities were scheduled ifthey could be fit in around the demands of school. These other activities were called extracurricularactivities.

Anymore, students seem to be trying to fit school in around too many other demands. It seems thatstudents do not realize that being a full-time student is a full-time job. Instead, they appear to think thatfull-time school and its related course work can be fit in around a full-time job, two preschoolers, a trip toDisney World, and their favorite television programs.

Many of my students this semester are very put out that they must work outside of class time to besuccessful in the course. After talking to colleagues, I get the feeling the same thing is happening withtheir students. Class attendance and course work take a back burner to the other activities in our studentsôlives and they expect our courses to accommodate them.

I think we instructors bear some of the blame by allowing students to turn in late work for no reason,make up missed tests, again, missed for no good reason. We record our lectures so students do not have tocome to class, as if the lecture is the important part of class. Students are put out when we ask a questionon a test about a class discussion because it wasnôt in the book, so we stop asking those questions.

I think we instructors feel pressure from administration to do whatever it takes to get students through ourcourses and as a result have enabled our studentsô behavior. I am wondering if it is possible to correct thiscourse and if it is, how I will go about making the correction in my own classes.

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http://teaching.nmc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Tired-Student.jpg


What Do Employers Want? (Part 2)

by Nick Roster - Tuesday, November 11, 2014


Last week I addressed want students want out of their coursework. Thisweek I will touch on what employers want. This is important to know if we are going to change the waywe teach. Perhaps by incorporating more active learning and group work, and really embrace theSignificant Learning Outcomes. The question, "Are we doing right by our students? Are we preparingthem for the 'real' workforce?"

The data that I pull from is from Hart Research Associates in their 2013 online survey of employers thatthey conducted for the American Association of American Colleges & Universities, and the whole reportcan be found here ==> 2013_Employer Survey

93% of respondents agree that students need a "demonstrated capacity to think critically,communicate clearly, and solve complex problems," and this is "more important than theirundergraduate major."90% say ethical judgement, integrity and intercultural skills, as well as the capacity to continue tolearn are important.A flipped classroom approach to learning also has broad appeal among employers. Three in five(59%) say an approach that deemphasizes lectures and devotes classroom time to dialogue, debate,and problem solving in groups or alone with the guidance of the instructor will help preparestudents a lot or a fair amount for success beyond graduation.

I can see our General Education Outcomes and our Significant Learning Outcomes embedded inemployer's responses. It would seem, to me, that we are moving in the direction that employers want, andwe will be preparing them not only for entry-level positions, but for advancement (another concern ofemployers).

If you get a change, give the whole survey a read. It is pretty interesting and, according to employers, westill have a ways to go to prepare students for an increasingly complex workplace.

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http://teaching.nmc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/employee.jpg

http://teaching.nmc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2013_EmployerSurvey.pdf


My students can’t write! Part 3: Outlines and Models



My husband, Jon, likes Legos. A lot. I admit: building my very own Batmobile was pretty sweet. (Youare welcome to come see it in my office any time.) But we diverge in our process for building. While Ilike to follow the directions, look at the diagrams, and compare to the pictures on the box, he just dumpseverything out in a pile and gets to it, with some helps from our cats.

Even with these different approaches, Jonôs creations arrive at the same place as mine. But that is becausehe has spent a (embarrassingly) large amount of his time putting together Legos. He understand thepurposes of the different pieces and has an idea of how to put something together before he even started.My first Lego creation was maybe two years ago and Iôve made few since then. Everything about them isforeign to me and I need to depend on the guidance from the instructions, the pictures, and my experthusband. Writing, for our students, is no different.

We are experts in our respective fields. Along with that expertise comes knowledge of disciplinaryspecific writing standards, styles, and expectations. Depending on the task, we may need no instruction tobe successful - Iôm sure we can all write emails to a variety of audiences without needing muchassistance. Our students, however, are apprentices to the field. They do not yet understand what isrequired of them in different writing situations. Thatôs where models and outlines come in.

Outlines work for students like the directions in a box of Legos. They provide steps in the process oforganizing a paper. Some of these steps might be optional and some of them might hinge on a correctorder. When you provide an outline to students, you are giving them some direction and guidance in theprocess of writing the paper.

Models are similar to outlines, but less explicit. However, they assist in providing a nice big-picture ofwhat the final product might look like. The pictures on a Lego box donôt tell me what exactly to do, butthey do assure me that my final creation looks the way it should. Models help students to see their endgoal and shape their papers to fit within the projectôs and disciplineôs standards.

Additionally, models (and general outlines) help students ñoff roadò successfully. Jon is able to make hisown Lego house based on all the different types of houses he has made. He knows what is needed andwhat can be skipped. A large variety of models will allow students to see the different ways a task isachieved and gives them a space in which to make choices about what they want to include and whatisnôt needed. Most outlines we give in composition classes acknowledge ñbestò approaches, but weôrequick to tell students that if their topics donôt fit the outlines, then they can use a different method. Thiskeeps outlines from becoming a crutch; instead, they remain an important guide, with room forexploration.

Both of these supports can be as detailed or sparse as needed. New tasks may require more detailedoutlines and more model examples, whereas later projects may require less, if any at all. Jon doesnôt need

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to read the directions on simple projects, but when he skips the directions on a complicated project theend result isnôt pretty. Trust me.

So far weôve looked at some ways to help students produce more effective writing, such as creatingstronger assignments and scaffolding within those assignments. In the final article of this series, we'llwrap up by looking at how transparency in assessment is good for both us and our students.

(See also My students can't write! Part 1: Crafting Effective Writing Assignments; My students can'twrite! Part 2: Scaffolding; and My students can't write! Part 4: Grading and Rubrics.)

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Learning via Discussion

by Tammy Coleman - Monday, November 10, 2014


ñI cannot teach anyone anything. I can only make them thinkò ïSocrates

My students impress me in so many ways, and one is in their verbal abilities. While working withstudents in a testing situation, I offer the opportunity to verbally explain answers to test questions. I amamazed at what how well my struggling students, in particular, explain the information. I am able toimmediately grade the question, writing the score on the exam and gain a more accurate sense of thestudentsô confidence and understanding. Additionally, I donôt have to struggle through often unclear penand paper writing. The student gets instant feedback, is empowered to make a choice about thecommunication of the information, and I quickly grade the section.

I see that this method is particularly helpful for students who have test-takinganxiety. In explaining how I run the exam period, with verbal responses as an option, I see the studentswith test-taking anxiety quite literally breathe a sigh of relief.

In addition to this test offering, my tests include a ñphone a friendò section in which they are required towork with one other individual-perhaps I group them, or they may get to choose a partner. Building onthe value of the ñthink, pair, shareò model, it allows students to think and talk through what they know,encourages them to justify their answer and they can either choose to write down what the pair decides, orperhaps their own version. It really helps their confidence in that they feel ñWell, at least one other personin the room does not think my answer is wrong.ò

I find that students balk at this opportunity at first. As the semester progresses, they appreciate and expectit, and feel it more accurately prepares them for the real-world in which they need to discuss, justify andverbally communicate their thoughts.

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Learning for Life

by Lisa Blackford - Monday, November 10, 2014


In my high school, there was a statement over the entrance way that read, ñLearn not for school, but forlife.ò I think the best gift of being an educator is that we have the ability to learn from every student,every peer, every day. I know that is a journey that we can all choose, whether or not we are in theteaching business or not, but it sure makes it nice when we have the opportunity to practice it everyday.

In the past year, I decided to begin taking drawing lessons. Itôs something I havealways wanted to do but have told myself that I have no talent whatsoever. I undertook this bold act ofcourage (in my mind) with encouragement from some of my students. In my psychology classes, I havestudents hand in a paragraph or two of feedback after each class. Itôs a way for me to have a privatedialogue with each one. I try to keep it focused on topics we are covering that day, but often studentsshare some amazing things with me. Topics have spanned from asking amazing questions to some deepheartfelt topics.

One student in particular would create the most amazing art on her paper. Call it doodling, but I treasuredeach one. Instead of writing a response she would draw a scene, for instance B.F. Skinner hugging hisrats and his daughter. Another favorite was of the two hemispheres of the brain having coffee together. Iwould write on her paper how much I admired and envied her talent and creativity. I even confessed thatit was a secret dream I had that I would some day be able to draw. I would often respond back with myvery artistic óstick people.ô This student constantly encouraged me to take an art class because as she putit, “it just takes practice, just like you tell us.”

The next semester I found myself in a drawing class and feeling so out of my comfort zone that it was allI could do to not leave. Here I was, a student again. Not just a regular student, but what a social workstudent might feel like in a calculus class. Class after class, I found it more and more difficult to producethe homework assignments. I would look at everyone elseôs work and feel horribly inadequate.

Finally, I pulled my instructor aside and explained to her the fight I was having. I explained that I feel soout of my element and that I donôt belong in this class. I compare my work to others and feel that I amwasting her time. Her words were like gold to me. She stated emphatically, ñThere are no art police!ò She went on to say that itôs all a process and learning takes place in lots of ways. She told me to givemyself permission to draw badly, but just keep working at it. It took the weight of the world off of myshoulders. I have applied this to many areas of my life, including running which I always wanted to think

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of myself as a runner. I finished a half marathon last year, which wasnôt pretty. But I finished. Icontinue to draw. Some of the drawings are descent, a lot of them not so great. But most importantly, Inow use this as a teaching technique that I hope helps my students. Keep trying. We get better ateverything with practice, even learning.

I still see my original student on campus and have the opportunity to show each other our work. Italways ends with laughter and hugs. She has helped me to keep learning for life, not just for school.

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From Captain Kirk to Gandalf the White; What's An EducatorTo Do?

by Steve Rice - Saturday, November 08, 2014


I grew up with a brother who was and is a Trekkie. On a normal day, after school and football practice,he was found glued to the TV set watching the most recent episode of Star Trek. Not only was he glued,but he ran with a crowd in our high school who were also glued. They were Trekkies. It was as simple asthat. It was an identity thing.

Not only that, but they had a teacher who was also a Trekkie and encouraged Trekkiness in the Trenches. Language. Culture. Connection. Perhaps even belonging. These were some of the upshots of "thosehappy days." It was a clique of Trekksters who were also very bright and into both science andmathematics. Geeks. Total Geeks. Of course, my opinion.

The only saving grace for my brother was his being an All-State Football Player in the State ofPennsylvania. Really? Brains and brawn in the same body? Wisdom suggested I donôt make too muchfun of him, if you know what I mean.

I, on the other hand, did not appreciate Star Trek at all. I never watched it. Too ñout there.ò Speculative. Imaginary. Scientific. Weird. Boring.

Now, some thirty plus years later, I find myself remembering the theme song. It's like an internal voiceinviting me to go back there. Itôs like all this time it has been lying dormant, in the subconscious of mymind, just waiting for a story in my life to ñneed it,ò call it forth, resurrect it.

Trekkies are called to three things:

To explore strange, new worlds.

To seek out new life and new civilizations.

To boldly go where no man has gone before.

Do you remember this stuff? Itôs crazy! How can I remember these streams of thought from a show Idid not like at all and was certainly not drawn to?

The answer, I believe, has to do with circumstances.

Now I find myself as a teacher; a teacher in the 21st century when change, whether we like it or not, itupon us. Circumstances dictate the need for the new. Present day realities voice the invitation tobeéwelléI donôt want to say it, butéTrekkie?

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Please donôt tell my brother I said that!

As an educator, I have to admit that it may be time to ñGo Trekkie.ò If you are an educator, like me, andyou have a heart for your students and the unique, sacred trust of this calling to teach, this thing callededucation, you know what I speak of.

Isnôt it true that itôs now our turn to explore new worlds?

Last semester, I began to explore the brave new world of MOOCôs. I brought MOOC content into ourCommunity College classroom. Hmmmé.thatôs not something that has happened much in the past. Butimagine the possibilities. Are there any limitations/borders/boundaries to what might be possible? Askedanother way, ñWhat might we do that we are not currently doing?ò Wow!

Certainly my own unwillingness to participate and let such a paradigm stretch me might be an issue. Butthat is true regardless of our present realities. And then there is my ego. Do I really believe that I am theone true sheriff in town when it comes to the subject matter of my classes? Really? Am I that good? Oris this simply a sign of my own insecurities?

These are only the beginning rumblings of a brave new world of education which is rapidly approachingus. I wonder if Captain Kirk is smiling?

Second, isnôt it also true that it's now our turn to seek out new life and new civilizations?

Globalization and a global economy are not going away. Salman Khanôs recent work, ñThe One WorldSchoolhouse: Education Reimagined,ò will convince even the harshest of critics, those who just donôtlike change, that ñour worldò no longer has geographical boundaries, whether of the physical orpedagogical kind.

Others are having the courage to want more from life; seeking out "new life." They are redefining anddetermining to not settle for simply a job, but to address the deeper, more difficult, but deeply rewardingquestion, ñWhat does it mean to be human?ò For these courageous souls, life is not a matter of breathingin and out, simply drawing air. While these are signs of existence, they are cheap substitutes for life. They want more, something tethered to eternity, their eternity, and the paradoxical freedom which suchtethering brings.

They are seeking out new life and hoping, believing that education just may have a role to play on theirpilgrimage. I honor such courage and believe in my own heart, they are onto something...

Lastly, consider the possibility of boldly going where no man has gone before? This is tricky languagefor a profession which is not known for its entrepreneurial spirit. This is education we are talking about,not the Silicon Valley!

But, this is the future and it is our turn now. Because of the weightiness of our calling, we have no choicebut to turn our back on turning back. We must go with boldness into the unknown of the future. Wemust make tracks where there are no tracks. And it is the significance of our cause which beckons ourconfidence.

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Education ñunpluggedò is before us. That which is dormant in so many needs to be awakened. Andeducation, well done, is there to draw out; to set free; to guide; to coach. Inherent to this art is potentialeither realized or unrealized. It's that weighty!

For some, itôs a question of Captain Kirk. Or Spock? I still do love his pointy ears - they were cool. Forothers though, of the non-scientific type, perhaps itôs Gandalf? Gandalf The Grey? Gandalf the White?

My brother blessed me by watching Star Trek. I didn't realize it at the time, but it is true. Thank you,Eric, for that gift.

Is it possible that before us lies a community of emerging "Gandalfians?" I want my life to be a blessing,a gift, by ñeducating well," by being more "Gandalfian" in nature.

And you?

http://youtu.be/PY9eRkdIeuk

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Promoting Student Engagement With Online Classes

by Linda Walter - Friday, November 07, 2014


I have found it difficult to have students interact with each other when I teach online. When I did theTeaching Solution Boot Camp, one of the assignments was to have a ñteaching presenceò. I learned that Ishould have a picture of me outside of the teaching role, so that students would view me as a person, andnot ñjustò the instructor. During the first week of class, I ask the online students to introduce themselvesand post a picture. Since students ñdo not do optional assignmentsò, I make the assignment worth onepoint. This increases the likelihood that students will complete the assignment, and, I am able todemonstrate the students are actually participating in the course and not merely opening the course. Ifstudents do not post in the first week of class I send the students an email message. If the students donôtrespond to the email, I call the students to encourage them to complete the assignment and to besuccessful in the course.

Students post pictures of their children, their dogs and cats, their travels, and their hobbies. They also posthow many hours per week they worked, their concerns about child care, and their worries about thecourse. One unexpected outcome of this assignment was that the students formed study groups becausethey felt comfortable with each other. They would use the ñwater cooleròð an area I designed for studentsto help each other with assignments and questions. When I bring the group on to campus for a proctor testafter the first four weeks of the semester the students talk to each other and are as engaged as if they weredoing a face-to-face class. The students felt like they knew each other because of the initial post duringthe first week of class.

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Tech Tips: Searching for Specific Emails on Gmail

by Technology Help Desk - Friday, November 07, 2014


A Quick Guide on Searching for Specific emails on Gmail

Tired of looking through endless lists for that one email?

ñWhat did we decide in that email conversation?ò

Then look no more. Here is a quick guide on how to search for those particular emails.

To find that one specific email, first you have to be in your Gmail Inbox.

Once there, locate the search bar at the top and click on the grey arrow (hard to see). On the picture, thered arrow is indicating where it can be found.

Once you have clicked on the arrow, a drop down box will appear.

In the drop down box you can add details such as Who it is from, What subject, Key words in the email,then click and then you can even select how far back you want to search.

After you have filled out what you are looking for, click the search button and Voila!

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Gmail has narrowed down the search, so you can focus on more pressing matters like what you fancyeating for lunch.

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ITV: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Guest Post

by Yavapai College - Thursday, November 06, 2014


If you never taught an ITV (Instructional Television) class, imagine teaching a face to face class, longdistance, teaching from one location, to students who are in the same room as you and to students who arein an ITV classroom at another location. Barring any technical hiccups, it actually goes pretty well andhas its advantages such as; students are able to take classes without having to commute long distances, theclassroom media control uses high quality audio and video make adding to presentations much easier, andclasses can be easily recorded, archived and accessed online later for students to review or for studentswho missed the class. But it also has it challenges, even for the experienced instructor teaching in the ITVformat.

Yet, here are some common challenges I found using this classroom approach:

1. Students at the remote sites may feel disconnected form the instructor and the students at the hostclassroom.

2. It becomes much harder for students to remain focused when watching a class over a TV monitor.

3. It difficult for instructors and students to see the faces of other students and become more aware of the

non-verbal expressions at other sites.

4. Technical difficulties at one site usually leaves the other site somewhat ñstrandedò until the problem issolved.

5. Instructors canôt circulate around the class and intermingle in class discussions (movement is

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extremely limited due to camera location in class).

6. Usually the larger screens are located in the front of the classroom and the smaller screens are in theback of the classroom. This usually poises a problem for the instructor since it becomes more difficult tosee the students in the distant classroom depending on the depth of the classroom and the eyesight of theinstructor.

Since I have taught classes in the ITV format and I found some things helpful in preparing my approachto this format.

It is very important to spend time at the start of any ITV class to teach students how to participate in theclass in hopes of creating a consensus in how the class operates. For example, having students identifythemselves if contributing to a discussion or just asking a question.

While most ITV classes run well technically, there are on occasions problems throughout the year, stuffdoes happen, so always have a backup plan. If there is a technical glitch, students should know how longto wait in the classroom and any information pertinent to that days lecture should be available for studentson the Blackboard class site. All assignments would be submitted in the site as well.

Donôt forget to switch presentation modes during class. Changing up the studentsô field of vision helpsthem stay focused. For example, if your using a PowerPoint presentation, you may become somedisembodied voice if you donôt switch back to the instructor mode occasionally, to reassure your studentsyour there in real time and not just a recorded lecturer, a voice without a face. I usually try to cut back tomy face every three to five slides and ask questions for feedback before continuing back to thePowerPoint presentation.

And if possible, switch campuses when teaching from different locations. I teach an ITV class whichmeets twice a week, so on Monday I teach in my host campus and my Wednesday class I teach my ITVclass on my sister campus. Students seem to really appreciate meeting you face to face and making theeffort in alternating classrooms.

All of the above suggestions I found extremely important in my approach to ITV teaching, but dependingon individualistic styles, approaches will vary. Challenges in the ITV classroom not only are faced by theinstructor, but with the students as well, but keeping a honest discussion with your students regardingtheir needs as well as their frustrations in this format can be most useful in developing an effective ITVclassroom experience.

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Go Find Me a Poem - Guest Post

by Mark Frederick - Thursday, November 06, 2014


So the theme for last Tuesdayôs First Year Experience course was resilience and decision making. I had alesson on hand, including a Power Point presentation. But, by the time I got to the classroom, I hadchanged my mind.Have you ever done that before?

Did it go well? Sometimes it does, sometimes . . . well . . . not so much.

Last Tuesday went fairly well.

After handing out graded papers and dealing with other logistical issues, I turned to the class and said,ñGo find me a poem, and print it out, and bring it back by 1:30.ò Except for letting them know that I hadWEPA card available for their use, so they wouldnôt have to pay for the printing (and only two studentsused it), I gave them no further instructions.

Much to my pride, most of them got up and disappeared, heading off for the Learning Center or theLibrary. I remember only one student asking a question, which I didnôt answer because it would havedamaged the lesson. They came back one by one, dropped their poems on the table next to me, and waitedfor everyone to return. I must confess that some of my students have excellent taste in poetry. Others . . .well . . . not so much. Seriously, though, every one of them found and printed out a poem.

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In the discussion that followed, I explained the activity.

I wanted them to practice using the WEPA printers in a crunch, in case they someday needed to print outa paper for another class at the last minute (weôve all been in similar situations). I wanted them to keeptrying, or ask for help, if the printing (or anything else) was confusing. I wanted them to know theresilience and decision-making skills (and skills using campus resources) that they already possessed.

None of them confessed to having had any problems with the assignment. This may have been the case,but I doubt it. Still, on reflection, Iôm pleased by their work. Yet, if I were to do this again, I would do itearlier in the semester.

A few years ago, in one of my G.E.D. classes, I tossed aside my planned lesson and had my studentswatch Sir Ken Robinsonôs (now classic) T.E.D. video, ñHow Schools KillCreativityò (http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en). My goalhere was to show my high-school drop-outs that just because they failed to finish school doesnôt meanthat they are failures. Sometimes (arguably, often) the problem is with the schools. It ainôt that easy to fitsquare pegs into round holes.

After discussing the video and having some of the students share their experiences, I broke them intosmall groups. Each group had to design their own school (elementary, high school, college, whatever),including its curriculum. They then had to present their educational inventions to the rest of the class,which then commented on the ideas presented.

This went extremely well. Nearly every student dived into the activity (not all that common in any class,especially G.E.D. classes). Since many of them are also parents, this gave them a chance to ponder anddiscuss the education of their children. And, we spent the time talking about learning. Meta-learning is apowerful skill for all students.

The ñpoem lessonò and the ñschool-design lessonò are only two examples of when I periodically dumpmy plans for something different. Itôs as if some sort of intuitive light flashes in my mind encouragingme to try an off-the-cuff activity.

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http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en


When has this worked for you? When has it not worked? Iôm very interested in learning about yourexperiences in similar situations.

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Don’t Do Cookie Cutter - Guest Post

by Ellen Savoini - Thursday, November 06, 2014


I have spent all my years working on my onlinecourses working hard NOT to fall into the ócookie cutterô mode. What I mean is I work to avoid, at allcosts, posting publisher-provided power point lectures, followed by publisher-provided handouts,culminating in publisher-provided assessments. Blah! Yuck! Spew! If an instructor was going to do that,then why donôt we just hire more ITS guys to post this stuff for us and then the instructor would reallynot have to do anything, heck maybe we donôt even need that instructor. (Note, this is not a bash on ITSguys since they are the BEST and we would be pretty much a body full of ideas and no one to help us getthe ideas into realityé it is about instructors just being óup loadersô and not óinstructorsô). So, what I amsaying is I try to óteachô and ócreateô from scratch, every idea I want to get across. I have a textbook Irecommend student use to follow along (of course they donôt need the high dollar newest version since Iteach anatomy and no one has spouted new arms lately so it does not change much). But I make myvideos, supplemental material and exams based on the learning outcomes and the content I put together.But has it worked out? I spent years avoiding the óplug-and-playô from the publisher-provided contentand web sites. Buuuuuté. this semester, I decided to play with fire. Can I play with the ópublishergadgetsô and still be original. Can I be authentic?

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So here is what I did. I had my students pay for access to a publisher provided online virtual cadaverprogram ($35.00). I was thinking, that just giving them the ógoodie bagô of sheep brains and eyeballsmay not be enough. The online images I have are not that great and the publisher lured me in with greatimagery and contenté. but donôt they all? I was looking for a program or book or CD or app that mystudents could use that would show them cadaver images (quality images not gross ones, if there is such athing for cadavers). This was important to me because a few years ago (when I last dabbled in this andused a program from another publisher) one of the comments on my student evaluation was about theimages they had to view ñlooked like a coyote got to it before the photographer didò. After that I hadsworn off this type of content and doubled my efforts to make ALL of my own content without ANY helpfrom the publisher.

However, the program I found, I have to say has the best images I have seen. I am pretty excited that iteven lets you use a slider bar to look deeper into the body so you can see the relationship of one feature tothe next. In addition, with just the click of a button, you can have all the instructor-designated featuresshown so students know what they are supposed to be looking for (the program has a list that aninstructor chooses their features from so there are no items labeled that they donôt need to know). Thatwas exactly what I was looking for. Then the bonus, it included microscope slides and radiologic images(x-ray, MRI, PET scans).

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But how do I use it and still make my class, my class? Well the answer is I donôt know, but I like theprogram and I am working to integrate it into the class like a lab that they can do from home. In fact thecadaver images and slides are better than what they would see if they were in the classroom. The bottomline is that I have my standards and I can evolve and incorporate or throw out things as I go along. Andjust because I used the ócoyote-ateô images years ago, I was not so scarred to not give it another try. Thatis a day in the life of an online instructor that just canôt leave well enough alone and just do the samething over again. Never stagnate, keep changing and mostly keep evolving.

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Student Friendships: Worth the risk?

by Michele Howard - Thursday, November 06, 2014


Ryein was a student worker in the library. He was a non-traditional student, army reservist from atroubled family but had a heart of gold. We came from two different worlds but somehow we becamefriends during our evening shift together.

He helped me to remember what itôs like to be a student: that regardless of where or how we grew up,itôs universally hard to sit in a classroom all day and study during the night. I, in turned, encouraged himto study, and helped him with research. But mostly what Ryein reminded me of is that friendship is a twoway street. That even though we are busy and feel like we donôt have time for one more thing or person,we gained as much from our friends as we give to them.

And for students, we hear it time and time again, a personal connection is the key to college persistenceand success. Without a person to listen to them, or cheer them on, or even just to smile at them in thehallways, student persistence rates drop. So itôs okay to let go of our fear: fear of getting too close, a fearof seeming unprofessional and fear of friendship commitment.

Less than a year after leaving NMC, Ryein took his life. I think of him often. I feel good knowing Ihelped him while he was here. And I realized that our friendship even teaches me after his passing. Ilearned that we canôt live wondering about ñwhat ifôsò, that we donôt know the battles others have insideof them, and that sometimes, taking the risk of getting to know someone, is worth it.

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I don't understand what you don't understand

by Brian Sweeney - Wednesday, November 05, 2014


ñI donôt understand what you donôt understand.ò

A conversation was occurring in the classroom as I walked in. A student was attempting to help anotherwith a drawing in the text. It was not clear to one, and the other thought it was obvious. It reminded meof a Simpsonôs episode where one of the sister-in-laws was about to be killed, and Bart had to explain themurder plot to Homer. He used a stove, matches, flip-charts, and even puppets, but with no results. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3yED7w1uu8

I feel like Bart sometimes when I have a student that ñjust doesnôt get it.ò Textbooks are not infallible,and the experiment in the lab will never yield perfect results. The concepts are difficult when the firstwords of explanation are the same words that are confusing. To say that a butterfly has butterfly-likequalities is not going to work to describe a butterfly. If the instructor, or in the case of the studentshelping students, do not have a variety of ways to express the same topic, then the student and instructorare both lost in the search for mutual understanding of what is being asked, and what is the answer.

I have given an assignment to one of the classes related to explaining a topic in different ways. First, theyidentify a topic in the current chapter that they do not understand. Next, identify how the author(s)explain it. Finally, search online for another way to explain it better. In this fashion, I hope to gatherdifferent ways to explain the chapterôs content in language that the students may understand, and is stilltechnically correct. Understanding what they do understand is one way to understand what they do notunderstand.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3yED7w1uu8


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The National Debt

by Deb Pharo - Monday, November 03, 2014


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I have been having my MTH 120 students ponder the $17 trillion national debt. They have been usingformulas for simple interest, compound interest, and debt repayment along with dimensional analysis toanswer a variety of questions about the debt.

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They have considered the following questions: Suppose you began counting the approximately $17 trillion 2013 federal debt, $1 at a time. If you could count $1 each second, how long would it take to complete the count? Specify the answer in years. The United States debt as of 3:55:25 p.m. 10/15/2014 was $17,870,380,212,502.18 a) At that same time, there were 319,216,075 U.S. citizens. How much would each U.S. citizen have to pitch in to pay off this debt right now? b) Suppose an U.S. Representative makes the following statement in Congress about the debt. As of 3:55:25 p.m. 10/15/2014 the U.S. will no longer spend more than it brings in in revenue, and on top of that, will begin to pay off this huge debt. I propose we pay off this debt in ten years. Now suppose the U.S. pays 1.7% annual interest on this debt. How much money will have to be paid to our creditors each minute to pay off the debt in 10 years? Imagine that, through some political or economic miracle, the gross debt stopped rising. To retire the gross debt, the government decided to have a national lottery. Suppose that every U.S. citizen bought a $1 lottery ticket every week, thereby generating about $315 million in weekly lottery revenue. Because lotteries typically use half their revenue for prizes and lottery operations, assume that $160 million would go toward debt reduction each week. How long would it take to retire the debt through this lottery? Use the 2013 gross debt of about $17 trillion. Here’s what they have learned. If we counted the national debt $1 at a time, taking 1 second per dollar (an unreasonably short amount of time), it would take 538,697.5 years to count it. If each U.S. citizen pitched in to pay off the national debt, each would have to pay $55982.08. Of course, that was on Oct. 15, so it would be more today. To pay off the Oct. 15 debt in ten years at 1.7% APR it would take $3,694,654.97 per minute. And finally, if we tried to pay off the national debt using a lottery that contributes $160 million per week, it couldn’t be paid off at 1.7% APR, or even 0.1% APR. If there is no interest growing the debt, it would take 2043.27 years to pay off the debt. Some of the students have researched the question, “Is the national debt a problem?” by reading the yes opinions and the no opinions. They have not all come to the same conclusion, but at least they have begun to think about it. If I owe you $10,000, it’s my problem, if I owe you $1,000,000, it’s your problem!

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Introducing Metacognition into Student Reading

by Kristen Salathiel - Monday, November 03, 2014


What did you find challenging about last night’s reading? What did you do when you struggled with thereading? What helped make this reading easier? What new strategies did you try with this reading thatyou haven’t used before?

These types of questions ask students to engage inmetacognition--thinking about thinking. And itôs something Iôve been asking them to do a lot more ofthis semester. Another of the many valuable ideas I learned in our Reading Apprenticeship workshop thispast May was the idea of having students think very explicitly about their own thinking as they read. Sooften, students just plow through their reading for a course, rarely stopping to consider what they aredoing or how they are doing it. When they get stuck, they assume theyôre stupid or the reading is stupidand either they soldier on confused or they throw the book down in frustration and quit. Rarely do theyslow down and say, ñHmmm. This is confusing. Iôd better apply some strategies so that I can figure thisout.ò

This semester, several of us in Communications have tried to focus much more on getting our students tobe more aware of what they are doing when they are reading. The biggest way to get them thinking aboutthis is to just ask them to do it--either by writing or talking about the questions above. Itôs bumpy at first;they donôt know what to say, but as the semester has gone on, I have seen more awareness of their owncontrol over their reading. They have learned to predict, to re-read, to slow down, to ask questions, to talkto the text and annotate, and to deal with confusion by marking a passage to ask about later. They see thatwhen they read, they are not at the mercy of the fickle reading gods, but, in fact, with a little self-awareness and knowledge of strategies, they can take control of their reading and read with much greatersuccess.

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Applying Ordinary Teaching for an Extra-ordinary LearningTime

by Tracy Russo - Monday, November 03, 2014


In this second post of a series using the different categories of significant learning outcomes (SLO) as abasis for sharing how some teaching strategies and best practices came to be, the ordinary actions ofteaching and learning are worth exploring for their extraordinary impact. Although we typically talkabout ñbest practicesò and ñeffective teaching,ò there is also an enormous impact of the sheer amount oftime spent ñin school.:ò

2400 hours

(for a 60 credit associate’s degree)

Thatôs a long time our busy students trust us with, in order to reach their goal or dream of doingsomething beyond the ordinary. Do we use that time teaching how to apply the tools of our discipline toa wide range of experiences commonly encountered in our field? The foundational tools and ideas of anydiscipline are often available in many forms such as books and online resources. However,ñ...understanding the impact of school life on the student some features of the classroom that are notimmediately visible are fully as important as those that areò (Jackson, P., 1968). In curriculum theoryterms, this is called a ñhiddenò curriculum.

As higher ed instructors, our students trust us to teach them not only the academic skills needed forsuccess in their future endeavors, but also the ñhidden curriculumò of soft skills that go along withapplying the knowledge in the field. For example, simply consider your closet. When you dress for atypical day in the field of your choice, what do you wear? What would happen if you showed up in adifferent type of attire? Depending on your field, you might even be dismissed for violating a spoken orunspoken rule.

Project-based learning (PBL) and case studies are two strategies instructors can use to bridge thefoundational knowledge of their discipline with the potential application in practice. Students then canlearn the hidden curriculum in an instructor-facilitated learning environment, in addition to the moreobvious ñofficialò curriculum of the class. NMC has active learning classrooms (ALCs) as well as manyother unique learning environments such as our simulation labs to facilitate the types of learning that willhelp students succeed outside of the classroom. A few instructors even request the NMC conferencerooms at times to help students learn appropriate presentations skills for their business!

One example Iôll never forget stressing the limitations of teaching only by lecture was shared in myMasterôs program. Dr. Stodt stated in her 30+ years of teaching, she found students looking attentively ather were in fact often daydreaming about something totally different. At the same time, the students whoappeared on the surface to have wandering attention were visualizing themselves actively using her

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information. When you are planning your next lesson or project, have you built in ñguided-practice timeòfor your students to apply their knowledge in the manner actually used by practitioners in your field?

Curious about what school feels like from a student perspective? This post highlighted on Grant Wiggins(Backwards Design) chronicles two days in the life of a student.

Gratuitous video showing how something ordinary changed the world in an extra-ordinarymanner:

Jackson, P. W. (1968). Life in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/24/teacher-spends-two-days-as-a-student-and-is-shocked-at-what-she-learned/


Darn Serious Learning

by Lisa Blackford - Monday, November 03, 2014


Lately, there seems to be a force that is developing on campus.

Because of the on going projects that have been popping up on campus looking at poverty, homelessness,food drives, and clothing drives, I think the biggest subject that is being raised is óawarenessô. Theawareness of how many people are experiencing poverty, homelessness and lack of food,transportationéthe list can go on and on.

I canôt count how many times I have heard, ñI had no idea,ò or ñIôm glad people are beginning tounderstand how hard it is.ò

We talk a lot about students becoming civically engaged, thinking critically, and developing those ósoftskillsô that employers are seeking. Through the service learning projects where students are activelyengaged in making a difference, some darn serious learning is taking place and the range of skills isamazing: Learning how to conduct themselves on the phone, examining their own biases, meeting withprofessional individuals, discussing a topic professionally with someone that may not agree with you.

The service learning project that Melissa Sprenkle and I did with our English and Social Work class stillcontinues on today. We developed a survey of people experiencing homelessness. Students that I havehad contact with are still attending the city commissionerôs meeting and being actively involved in SafeHarbor v. Sportsplex meetings.

Even remembering back to the Habitat for Humanity trips we used to do for an alternative spring break,students are literally transformed by truly feeling that they are making a difference. Many of them wouldcome back wanting to do more in our community, and have.

Many of you are familiar with the YouTube sensation Kid President. Last year he began a program called óSocktoberfestô. The mission is to have people sendin pairs of socks to help those people that are living on the street. Last year people from every state andcontinent were involved with over 10,000 schools, communities and businesses participating.

Just imagine if we were able to unleash the power, energy, and passion that our students have? If we let

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http://youtu.be/m5yCOSHeYn4

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http://soulpancake.com/socktober/


them know that they absolutely have the power to make a difference? And imagine if were allowedourselves to unleash our creativity and let go of reservations and just jumped in along with our students? Wow!

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Google Hangouts is here!

by Technology Help Desk - Monday, November 03, 2014


Google Hangouts is now available on all NMC accounts! Google Hangouts lets you send messages (textand chat), make voice and video calls, and share photos with friends and colleagues. Google Hangoutsallows you to get messages and calls directly through your NMC Google account on your computer,phone, or tablet so you can get connected when you want. Use Hangouts in your NMC Email to chatwhen at your desk and use the App on your mobile devices when you're on-the-go.

To try out Google Hangouts go to your NMC Gmail, select the ñTry the new Hangoutsò from the dropdown menu in the upper right. On Android and iOS devices download the Google Hangout App andWidget. Google Hangouts also integrates easily with a Google+ profile (also available now to all NMCGoogle account holders), the Google Chrome browser, and the Chrome Desktop App. If you decide youdonôt like the new look and feel, switch back to the old style with just one click. Hangouts works best forthose that want to message and video chat on-the-go, so you can leave your desk and not worry aboutmissing a message or call. Need to share a picture with a colleague or co-worker, take a picture and sentit instantly.

For more information on Google Hangouts features and user guide visit the Getting Started with GoogleHangouts page.

Need further assistance with Google Hangouts, contact the Help Desk at 231-995-3020 or nmc.edu/help

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My students can't write! Part 2: Scaffolding



The process of writing is often just as important as theproduct. A strong process supports a strong product and helps students practice critical thinking, timemanagement, self-reflection, and communication and interpersonal skills. Scaffolding is the term forbuilding process parts into an assignment and holding students accountable for the individual parts inaddition to the product.

Types of Scaffolding

How many and what types of process parts to require from students is variable based on the project goaland scope. A typical composition project requires three to four pieces of formal process work: an initialactivity prompting students to think about topic and assignment options, aspects, and perspectives; somesource/research work when applicable; a mid/late stage draft; and then the final project itself. Byrequiring these parts, we prompt students to think early and critically about topic options, which alsopushes them to start considering the assignment's goals and structure, in addition to rewarding smart timemanagement. More complicated projects may lend themselves to additional process parts to help studentsnavigate tricky academic moves. Regardless, the goal is to show students the value of following a processfor their writing and support more effective final projects. It also helps assure us, as instructors, that ourstudents are understanding the assignment and parameters correctly, especially when students are learningnew disciplinary genres, giving us time to adjust our teaching in response to their understanding.

Formal vs. Informal Scaffolding

While many composition classes require only a few formal process parts for each project, we often collectmany more informal process parts. These activities, which usually include group work and peer feedback,ask students to practice a variety of aspects of the upcoming assignment. Because these parts areinformal, they are usually formative in nature. The purpose of the activity is for students to complete it,not necessarily for them to receive feedback, and for us to be able to gauge the understanding of the classas the work on the project. The act of completing the activity gives students the practice they need. As

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such, these informal pieces do not require intensive grading. They may be credit/no-credit or similar andmay not receive any instructor feedback at all. And if peer feedback is utilized, students get all thebenefits of practicing the moves and receiving feedback without increased instructor work loads.

Accountability for the Process

While noting that not all process parts need be intensively graded, also remember that accountability isimportant. Students need to recognize that we value this process and will hold them responsible forcompleting it. Many parts of scaffolding work well as informal pieces, but some of the parts need to beformalized and assessed for students to both recognize the importance and receive valuable guidance.

Another option for scaffolding is actively working with models and outlines and in the next article we'lladdress the use of models and outlines to support student writing. In the final article, we'll wrap up thisseries by looking at how transparency in assessment is good for both us and our students.

(See also My students can't write! Part 1: Crafting Effective Writing Assignments; My students can'twrite! Part 3: Outlines and Models; and My students can't write! Part 4: Grading and Rubrics.)

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Humor and Teaching

by Michele Howard - Monday, November 03, 2014


“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” Charlie Chaplin

Humor has been proven to improve health, reduce stress and build relationships but can laughter helpyour students learn? A recent study published in the journal Humor: International Journal of HumanResearch, states that yes, humor can have a positive cognitive effect on learning and remembering lecturedetails. So can you just crack jokes during a whole lecture? Unfortunately, what this study has proven, isthat in order for humorous lecture materials to be effective, they must be relevant to the topic beingpresented.

How do you make algebra, business law or even the library funny? Being funny is hard enough,especially when given some of the materials you have to cover in class. Well, thereôs are few rules abouthumor that I try to follow but donôt always hit the mark.1. You have to be sincere, honest and personal.2. Misery is a funny and shared human experience especially when learning a difficult subject.3. Humor is smart and clever.4. You canôt force funny. Bad day? Donôt even try it!

Now go find some funny! Of course the Internet abounds with humor. Collegehumor.com. Funnyordie.com Reddit.com. Life is funny too. Give it a try. Your students, their grades and your healthwill thank you.

Suzuki, Hideo, and Linda Heath. "Impacts of Humor and Relevance on the Remembering of Lecture Details." Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 27.1 (2014): 87-101.Academic Search Elite.Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

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Do you think he will get mad?

by Brian Sweeney - Saturday, November 01, 2014


ñDo you think heôll get mad if I do them all this way?ò Astudent was holding up a folded sheet of notebook paper for her friend to see. I was walking by the tableoutside my office area that they were using for homework. My first thought was to snatch the paper fromher hand, study it at armôs length for a second as you would a snake that you had just caught, then look ather and say ñYea, probably, if you did them ALL like this.ò I did not know her, and she did not knowme, so she probably would have missed the humor I intended. I kept walking without indicating that Inoticed the perplexed looks that these two students were giving each other as they took turns looking atthe paper.

I am not sure if the homework I assign is met with the same confusion. The homework is challenging forsome, most I hope, and some submissions are a tangled abstract of thoughts and equations that sometimeslead nowhere. Some are even artistic in the spirals of notes and arrows that point to words like ñhere iswhere I got lost.ò It is not my intent to confuse them with the correct or incorrect presentation of thehomework. I am hoping that it is the content that is the challenge, and not the format that I expect to seewhen they solve physics, electronics, or photonics problems.

I made it a point of the next lesson in all my classes to take a few minutes to repeat what I expected to seewhen they turned in their homework. I got the feedback from the looks that I was being ridiculous intelling them that I was not expecting research paper formats and theme binder submissions for the chapterproblems. It was a quick five-minutes spent that may have been a waste, since I have yet to see ahomework submission that a student was proud of that I thought was failing. There are always thecomments in the student evaluations that say I gave too much homework, or that the homework did notrelate to the tests, or that it was just too hard. In retrospect, I have been either lucky or oblivious in notseeing a comment that a student thought I would get mad at them for turning in what they thought wasgood work.

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Lady in the Classroom?

by Steve Rice - Friday, October 31, 2014


I have grown to become a great fan of a wonderful movie by M. Night Shyamalan entitled ñLady in theWater.ò

Bizarre. Different. Odd. Unique. These were my first impressions; kind of other worldly if you will.

But upon reflection, and given time, I found myself wanting to return to this little gem. There wassomething drawing me to take a second look. A third watch. A fourth study. This is a film and messagewhich needs more. Deliberateness. Wonder. Revelation. Effort.

Among other things, it is a beautiful picture of ñcommunityò done both wrongly and rightly. Whenñwrongò community is life taking. Death hovers over the human condition, the human potential like athick London fog. In contrast, when ñrightò community is life giving and life sustaining. Like a flowergrowing in a richly fertilized, natural soil compost, it is able to become all the flower it was meant to be.

ñLady in the Waterò is a mythical tale about an eclectic group of apartment dwellers in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. They are divinely drawn together in this place of proximity to both fulfill a purpose muchgreater than any of them could imagine, and to discover the unique role which each of them plays. Each isnecessary. Confusion is a central part of the process. The cause is eternal in nature.

As already noted, it depicts community run amuck as well as community well oiled.

What does any of this have to do with teaching and learning? A great question. But first you might wantto grab a bowl of popcorn and watch this movie with that question in mind.

I am amazed at the number of students who want to know what their role is in the story of life. Theyknow there is something more, something bigger going on and believe in their heart that they aresupposed to have and are designed for a certain role, a place and purpose in this larger story.

This is a human quest at its very core. It did not come with the internet. And there is no www whichprovides a satisfactory answer. The mysteries of the soul simply do not respond well when the offering isonly ñmore information.ò

But community? And community with a life giving perspective? Students are not alone in this quest.Hopefully we all are. I know I am. And that is the first thing I share with students who have the courageto take the first step, who ask the question, who think the thought, who decide to inquire and pursue.

I see my classroom as an eclectic group of city dwellers, not Philadelphia, but perhaps Traverse? We areall needed. We are all odd, especially me. But there is a higher purpose. There is something to which allof us are called to be a part. Something which ñneedsò the us rather than the I. Destinies are at stake.

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Words which are both spoken and left unspoken matter.

Itôs a place of discovery. Itôs a place which when ñdone wellò has the potential to launch people into acalling, a vocation. It really can be life changing. Thatôs the weightiness of this sacred trust.

Education, understood classically, is a calling out. A calling out of something which is already presentwithin a person. A discovering. A naming. A claiming. An owning, at least for those who are up to thetask.

Education can be an unveiling. It takes a ñwe.ò I am one who both loves and marvels at the potential ofthis ñwe.ò

If you have two minutes and 1 second, a click on the accompanying YouTube video might whet yourappetite to take your own plunge.

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Pharmacology Scavenger Hunt Assignment

by Linda Walter - Friday, October 31, 2014


Teaching fundamentals of nursing, I seldom get the "aha" moment. When I taught the second semesterstudents, I would see the "aha" moment when students were in clinical and what they learned in lecturefinally made sense. Instead of just memorizing information, the students were able to apply theinformation. One of the questions Laura Schmidt, the director of nursing program, keeps asking is, ñWeneed to test using analysis type questions, but how are the nursing faculty teaching the students to think inthose terms?ò Since I started incorporating simulation into the fundamentals of nursing class, the nursingstudents are able to get the "aha" moment during the first semester of the nursing program. During thefirst semester, I have three simulation cases. The first is to perform a head to toe assessment on thepatient, the second is the room of errors, and the third is to care for a diabetic patient. The studentsproblem solve as they work through the case study, and demonstrate higher levels of reasoning, such asapplication and analysis, instead of just "remembering". My next step, was to figure out how to get the"aha" moment for the online students.

This semester I tried a new assignment for the online pharmacology students to get the "aha" moment andfor them to think at a higher level. It wasn't practical to have the student come to main campus and dosimulation because it would not be an "online" class. After taking the Teaching Solutions Class thissummer I decided to have the students do a scavenger hunt with medications. The students needed tolearn the difference between a brand name drug and a generic drug, how the different routes ofmedication affected the drugsô availability, and how many over-the-counter medications containedacetaminophen (Tylenol) or diphenhydramine (Benadryl). The studentsô assignment was to go to a storethat sold drugs (grocery store, pharmacy...) and compared the cost of generic and brand names of drugs.They then looked at the active ingredients, and the dosing. They compared adult drug doses to a pediatricdose. When the student actually discovered the information, they learned it better, and their test scoreswere higher than in previous semester. One of the students commented that she had been paying $10more for prettier packaging because the brand name and generic ingredients were identical. The face-to-face were more engaged in class because they were able to discuss what they learned during theirscavenger hunt.

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Café scientifique

by Tammy Coleman - Friday, October 31, 2014


Week 2:

Research shows that science scores in the US are low and a personal relationship to nature is lacking.When improperly used, technology can replace experiences in nature, and a litigious society keeps ouryoung people from having frequent experiences in the out-of doors. This impacts health and wellness andoneôs ability to engage in nature. Yet, it is our duty to vote on such matters; funding for water treatment,protection of green spaces, etc.

Caf® Scientifique was formulated in the UK in 1998 to remedy a lack of experience with and informationabout science for the non-science general public. It involves scientists who present current information inlaymenôs terms and encourage discussion about issues that impact policy-making. Cafe Scientifique isnow taking place monthly in bars and coffee shops around the world, and is attended by the generalpublic to empower non-scientists to access and discuss scientific and often controversial issues. Studentsin my biology class are expected to research current issues and lead Caf® Scientifique discussions. In thisway, they gain valuable skills in discussion, research and justification. They are empowered to choosetheir own topic and as their instructor, I stay abreast of current issues by participating in their discussions.Please feel free to join us! We meet on Thursday, 11/ 13 in West Hall from 11:20-12:50 and also at JollyPumpkin on Tuesday 11/18 from 7- 8:30 pm.

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To Allow Resubmissions or Not to Allow Resubmissions—THAT isthe Question! (William Shakespeare, sorta) - Guest Post

by Yavapai College - Friday, October 31, 2014


Going to class, studying, reading--TO LEARN. Not just for a grade, but to actually acquire knowledgeand/or skills. How do I, as an instructor, make that happen? Iôve been asking that question for almost 30years of full-time college teaching. Iôve yet to come up with a fail-safe, satisfactory answer.

Obviously, ñgiving Asò to motivate intrinsic learning is not likely to work. (See last weekôs blog for myexperiment with that strategy.)

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http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qdt-mkYW0As/VEWOGo5u27I/AAAAAAAAAEg/GjCcngN56qc/s1600/lab%2Bexperiment%2Bbad.jpg


Still, I never cease struggling with that question. If I really donôt want my students to learn, why am Idoing this anyway? (Please donôt evoke the ñbig paycheckò or ñeasy jobò argumentðthat will onlyinstigate more inflammatory blogs.) Obviously we do (I hope) want students to learn, or we wouldnôtstill be here.

I have come up with a few conclusions to the dilemma of student learning (some of which are stilltentative). Iôll offer up this one, for what it's worth.

Q: How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Only one. But the bulb has really got to WANT to change!

Students are like these metaphorical light bulbs. They have to WANT to learn.

But I can’t “make” learning happen. No teacher can. Learning is truly an ñinsideò job. Iôm not sure Ican even ñfacilitate learningò (although I REALLY like that idea!). Perhaps itôs safe to say I may be ableto ñfacilitate learningò for those who really want to learn.

I canôt change anyone, nor can I make anyone learn. So my cynical self says, ñWhy bother?ò

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My idealist self responds, ñBecause it makes a difference to some!ò

One of the challenges of teaching at a Community College (or, in my experience, at any undergraduateinstitution) is that there is a wide array of motivations as to why students attend. There are a number ofteaching [entertainment] strategies to engage studentsðfor those who really donôt want to be here. Manyof these are excellent. If students donôt have the internal, intrinsic motivation to learn, by all means letôsdo what we can to ñengageò them! But what I want to address here is the ñlearningò part.

Many students ñdonôt get itò the first time around. We provide reading assignments, lectures, videosand feedback on assignments, but itôs still clear that the lesson weôre attempting to teach, the learning wewish would occur, is not happening. We assign a grade to that studentôs attempt, and thatôs the end ofthe issue. (ñSee ya next semester!ò)

I've come to conclude thatðoftenðI've been guilty of quitting too early. Our ñtraditionalò grading systemassumes that if they canôt do the paper right, canôt complete the quiz or exam, canôt conduct theexperiment correctly the first time, they aren't learning (or donôt want to, or canôt). [An exception to thisis often writing instructors who not only permit, but require, revisions and rewrites. Why do we promotethis for English and not for all the other subjects?

We've bought into a mindset that learning is a PRODUCT, not a PROCESS. And we evaluate studentsbased on that belief. Often this frustrates the students (especially those with ñmixed motivesò aboutattending college, but also those who really want to learn).

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An alternative is for me to be a PART OF THAT PROCESS. What this means is not just giving studentsfeedback, but giving those who really want to learn and improve (for whatever reason) the opportunity todo so.

So for the past few years I've given my students the option of redoing almost ANY assignment (within areasonable time frameðusually a week from when I return it) with no penalty. I ask them to submit theoriginal, graded assignment with their re-submission (so I can see if the changes were merely cosmetic orsubstantive). I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE them to ñthink deeperò in their re-do.

This is a totally optional activity. And Iôm very clear to my students this is NOT primarily about thegrade FOR ME, but about their learning. I tell them Iôm much more interested in the expansion of theirknowledge and skills than I am giving them a bad grade. Amazingly, not a lot of students take me up onthis. Thatôs their choice. But the option is there, on almost every assignment. In most cases, if studentsare motivated, I will allow unlimited rewrites until THEY are satisfied with their work.

There is a definite downside to this. More grading. UGH. I LOVE most aspects of teaching, butgrading is without a doubt the worst part of my job. However, more times than not I find that grading re-submissions is quite rewarding.

Like the metaphorical bulb, itôs definitely FUN to see the light go on.

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Keeping It Relevant - Guest Post

by Yavapai College - Friday, October 31, 2014


How do we know that the online student is really grasping the subject matter, I mean really grasping it? We can assess and grade the assignments submitted in Blackboard, or monitor the quiz results. Thisgives us a sense of their understanding of the material, but how about that investment in the learning orthat enthusiasm in participating in the class. At the end of each semester, I send out class evaluations tomy online students. Iôm curious about their online class experience and ask questions that focus more ontheir sense of connection to the class. I ask students to rate their answers from 1 (very poor) to 5(Excellent).

A few examples are;

How would you rate your feeling of being connected to the class?

Did you feel safe in expressing your views in the discussion board?

Did you feel the subject material presented was relevant and interesting?

Rate your overall online class experience.

At the end of the survey, I ask students to make any comments they would like to make regarding theirpersonal online experience. Comments have varied; a few comments seem common with students suchas;

Discussions that are relevant to the student in their everyday lives are really appreciated by the students.

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http://www.telswebletter.com/


Keeping the discussions open ended so students can keep discussions ongoing an allow students to notonly explore the topic, but learn other opinions and attitudes of others students.

Making students feel safe in the online environment. Maintaining an open honest environment.

So I have maintained a format for all my online classes. All discussion board post as well as any writtenassignments should relate more to the personal experiences and attitudes of the student. Discussions arenot based on the textbook, but rather personal life experiences related to the questions that are up fordiscussion. This does require monitoring and setting the tone from the beginning of the class. This can bedone by setting the example of how we respond and perhaps challenge our students in the way we askadditional questions. The quickest way to shut down a discussion is to make a student fell put down ourfeel attacked. Students need to feel safe in any online discussion.

All questions should be presented in such a way that each student should be able to relate to each questionand how it may relate to their current lives or how they would see it relating to their future lives. Whatmakes a question interesting is relevancy. If I can relate to it, then I have something to say about it.Personalizing the online experience in the discussion board seems to allow the students investment in theclass and brings the students closer to each other. I tell students from the beginning of class that there isno right or wrong answer in these online discussions, but students always need to explain their thinking injustifying their opinions and comments.

So what have I learned about online discussions, especially in keeping the online class energized andengaged?

1. Create a safe environment2. Make your topic relevant to the student3. Keep the questions open-ended to encourage a more open dialogue4. Make expectations clear to students from the beginning5. Make you presence known to students by posting announcements, reminders, and providingfeedback to comments and assignments.

The best way in learning what is working in your class and whatôs not working is to ask your students forfeedback. I sometimes ask students questions about the questions I present in the discussion board. Didthey feel it helped in their understanding of the chapter that is being reviewed that week? Asking studentsfor feedback could be the best possible way of better understanding the question we always ask ourselves;are my students understanding the information as well as having a positive online experience?

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Honoring Our Discipline’s Values in Non-Traditional Ways

by Mella McCormick - Thursday, October 30, 2014


Description: I practically tore my hair out in trying to find a way to genuinely honor the practice of theSocratic Method in my on-line philosophy class. I soon discovered that the solution lies in viewing thevalues that are fundamental to your academic discipline in non-traditional ways.

My story/challenge:

A core value in the study of philosophy is the practice of the Socratic Method, that is, the process ofdeveloping oneôs thinking through the exchange of questions and ideas that are designed to intellectuallychallenge and push the thinker beyond her/his thinking-status quo. The traditional approach that has beenused for this practice is that of a verbal dialogue. Needless to say, this is an effective approach when oneis teaching a face-to-face class; however, how does one continue to honor the Socratic Method when oneis no longer teaching in the traditional setting?

To address this question, I had to óre-thinkô the meaning of ódialogueô for the on-line environment. Essentially, my task was to replace the traditional verbal dialogue with an on-line intellectual dialoguewherein the instructor primes the óconversationô by presenting the student with course content that ispaired with probing questions that the student needs to think-through on her/his own first. The coursecontent and probing questions are enriched and enhanced by custom-made video lessons that are designedto keep the intellectual conversation going by ópushingô the student to think beyond her/his initialthoughts. Once again, the goal here is to re-create the ósettingô in which the studentôs thinkingis accessed, challenged and moved beyond its current state. The video lessons that accompany the coursematerials achieve this by presenting alternative viewpoints, diving deeper into the content and challengingthe student to óstretchô her/his current thinking.

Your Story/Challenge:

What are the core value(s) in your academic discipline?What are the “standard” or “traditional” ways that these values are practiced in yourdiscipline?

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Socrates_Louvre.jpg/220px-Socrates_Louvre.jpg


How can you “re-think” or “re-invent” your discipline values, especially in light of changingtechnology, changing student needs, and a changing environment?

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What Do Students Really Want?

by Nick Roster - Wednesday, October 29, 2014


A question of the ages. We can typically answer this question(facetiously) with: ñto cancel classò, or ñthey just want to know what is on the exam.ò But in allseriousness, this question has been asked of many students of late. It actually surprises me that studentsdo take this seriously, and if given the opportunity, they express some very real and insightful responses.

What I am about to share with you are responses students gave to survey questions about this very topic.Note: these are not students at NMC, but I believe there is very little difference between students acrossthe country. So here goes, this is what students really want:

They think introductory courses are too broad. They would rather have depth within a subject. Itmakes it more meaningful. Perhaps more topic-based courses.More emphasis on problem-solving. In a world of constant change, why are we still trying tomemorize everything?More essay questions on exams. Stop testing on minute details. (I know this one is hard for evenme to believe that students would say more essays, please)More connections across disciplines.More interdisciplinary courses.A greater discussion of the curriculum as a whole. For instance: why do you need this course, andhow it all fits together.Be more explicit about what you (instructors) want students to get out of the course and why it'snecessary to know those things.

That last bullet really hits home, and what writing good learning outcomes is all about. But not just that...letting students know why it's so important that you created an outcome for the course. I think it's greatfor students to ask you to justify your learning outcomes. Even if they don't, I have already justified themin my own head.

I think it is very meaningful to know what students want and expect. I also think it is useful to keepasking these types of questions. Even of our own students. I am pretty sure we will be pleasantlysurprised at how much our students really want to be challenged (as long as there is a reason).

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My students can’t write! Part 1: Crafting Effective WritingAssignments

by Megan Ward - Monday, October 27, 2014


Collecting writing assignments can be as scary for instructors as itis for the students handing them in. Often we feel like it is random chance as to whether studentscomplete their writing successfully, but there are many things we can do to support better writing. Stepone is writing effective assignment sheets.

All writers need parameters to write effectively. Without knowing the end goal, students cannoteffectively reach it. Just like we need to know a destination in order to get there, students need a clearpicture of what they are supposed to create.

Strong assignments always include some variation of the following information:

Purpose ï Be clear and simple in stating the objective for students. If more information,instruction, or guidance will follow in class, note that also.LengthStyle and genre expectations ï Is this a report or an argument? Is it supposed to include anypersonal experience or first-hand knowledge? Should it be formal or informal? What are thediscipline or assignment-specific standards? Who is the intended audience ï experts, peers,professionals, students?Project parts ï Some writing assignments may require students to submit pieces along the process.Writing support ï Tell students how to access writing supports. If there is information available ina text or online (either for how to write or what content to include), reference it in the assignment.Also remind them of available school services, such as the Writing and Reading Center.Citation style ï Something standard is best (MLA, APA, Chicago, ASA, etc.) as that allowsstudents to use multiple resources for guides.Due date

Beginning with the above information is a solid start. Curious as to how clear your writing assignment is?Consider having your students look at a draft to alert you to any potential confusion. In addition, you canconsult with me or the Writing and Reading Center about your assignment and how to make it more

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http://www.nmc.edu/writingcenter


useful.

Students will continue to need support to learn discipline-specific standards and to produce qualitywriting. All of the information on an assignment sheet can be emphasized in several ways. In the nextthree installments, weôll look at some of these methods: scaffolding, outlines and models, and rubrics.

(See also My students can't write! Part 2: Scaffolding; My students can't write! Part 3: Outlines andModels; and My students can't write! Part 4: Grading and Rubrics.)

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Podcast Junkie - Is This Working?

by Lisa Blackford - Monday, October 27, 2014


I admit it, I am a podcast junkie. In particular I amobsessed with ñThis American Lifeò which comes out every Monday morning. For me, it makes Mondaymy favorite day of the week! Last Mondayôs episode was particularly gripping for me as it was about allthe different types of discipline used in the K-12 schools.

It brought me back to the very issue I struggle with most as an instructor. Where do you draw the linewith students? As a social worker, I suppose itôs more of a grey area than it is for most. We all strugglewith students that come in late for class, excuses as to why work is late, needing to make up exams, etc. Iam not talking about the students that this is a common practice, but the outliers that have thingshappening in their lives that they share with you either because they trust you or they are forced to share.

Recently I have had students bring in documents to prove why they were not in class or needed extra timefor test taking. These ranged from needing to appear in court to another that was hospitalized for anxietyto another student gave me a letter from her doctor that she had had a miscarriage. These horrified me butbecause these students said they, "had to have proof as to why they were not in class."

I wondered how it would feel to have to share something in our own lives with others that may besomething so personal, so embarrassing and maybe shameful. Are we adding a level of hurt or shamethat isnôt necessary? Am I too ósoftô and not holding students accountable enough? Itôs an issue that Istruggle with every semester and probably will throughout my life. I was hoping to find a concreteanswer in This American Life episode, ñIs This Working?ò but no such luck. In the end, none of theteachers or the students that were interviewed provided any definite answers as to the best approach ofdiscipline in the classroom. I suppose itôs as unique as our students and the all the baggage that we bringto the table as well.

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http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/538/is-this-working


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Encouraging Every Student to Talk

by Kristen Salathiel - Monday, October 27, 2014


I have a very quiet ENG 99 class this semester. Even still at week three or four,they were very reluctant to speak up in front of the whole class or even in small groups. So I decided totry something that I had learned at a Reading Apprenticeship workshop several of us attended in May. Icouldnôt remember what they called the activity, but I called it ñHold the Floor.ò I put students intogroups of four. Each student had a minute or two to review the writing they had done for homework andthen starting with the person with the longest commute in the group, each student had to speak about whatthey had written for homework for two minutes. Before they began, I explained that, for those twominutes, only the speaker can speak--the listeners cannot ask questions, add ideas or give examples.Additionally, the speaker must speak for the entire two minutes. I also suggested the types of things theymight want to talk about and explained what good listening looked like. I used my phone to time the twominutes exactly. It was fascinating to watch. Many got off to a slow start but once they realized that noone was going to jump in and save them or interrupt them, they actually picked up some momentum. Itturned out to be the best activity we had done thus far, and we have done it several times since. I think italso was a sort of break-out moment for some of the students. Looking back now from here in week nine,I can see there are a number of quieter, more introverted students in the class who at the time weredefinitely not used to speaking so long--or ever--in class about their own ideas. Rather than beingmortified by it, however, I think they felt honored to be listened to.

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Quick Guide for Gmail Invitations

by Technology Help Desk - Monday, October 27, 2014


There are several ways of accepting and changing the status and details of a Google Appointment. Thesimplest way is to select the RSVP drop down menu displayed to the right of any event notification inyour inbox. Three standard response options are available. Selecting any option will update your statuswithout requiring any additional interaction.

Another way to reply to an invitation without altering it is by using the top three response buttons.Pressing any of the three response buttons in the top section will update only your invitation status andnot comment on anything else.

Sometimes it may be necessary to customize your response, just go to the second section of buttons to theleft of the arrow and select your response. This group brings up the Event which may allow a user tocustomize by adding a message, inviting others, or even changing the date. To do this just select one ofthese options at the bottom of the invite. Selecting from this set of responses will bring you to the event

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When viewing the full Event Invitation in Google calendar, to change to a response type or add a notesuch as ñIôll be 20 minutes late.ò or ñWhere should the meeting take place?ò simply look to the beigehighlighted zone at the top of the screen. This is a simple option that provides space for a brief note aswell as an update of status. To customize colors, additional meeting descriptions, and scheduleappearances for the meeting may be added towards the bottom of the screen. When all changes have beenmade be sure to select Save as shown in the orange box at the top of the screen to finalize any

customizing that has been made.

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Teaching as Learning

by Tammy Coleman - Monday, October 27, 2014


Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.~Author: B F Skinner ñEducation in 1984ò New Scientist 21 May 64

I think of this quote when I am frantic. I get busy, I fall into survival mode, and I find myself in a frenzy.However, when what I learned about teaching has been forgotten, I find myself as a little kid in a bigbody. I then start to appreciate the human side of teaching....and I am rather learning. I am learning muchabout my students; that they are people, with amazing stories, with life threatening illnesses, with sickkids, living in a tent, with second chances and hopes a mile long. They don't all come with study skills orconfidence or even an idea what they want to do with their life, but they come to class and they sit quietlyor make a ruckus and when I ask them about their goals, some are lofty, such as becoming a PhysicianAssistant and some are .....merely to make some friends.

That's when I really learn-that the best I can do is to be human; kind, understanding, patient, helpful.When my scurry to get my students to learn gets in the way, please stop me. I have met so many amazing,helpful, positive and talented instructors here at NMC, please help to remind me of the human side ofteaching-that education is more about building connections than it is merely the learning the terms for theexam.

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Technology in the Classroom

by Deb Pharo - Friday, October 24, 2014


This semester the mathematics department has a new math course, MTH 120. It is not an algebra course,however, it does require some algebraic thinking (kind of like real life). As I was planning for this courseI decided to make it a technology rich course with lots of class group activities.

I asked to teach it in an active learning classroom and reserved the classroom set of ipads for thesemester. Then I set forth to determine what apps would best fit the course content. I settled onNotability, CloudOn, ShowMe, Nearpod, and Dropbox. To use this technology in the classroom I have toteach the technology. I have students with absolutely no experience to those who own their own ipads andcan teach me a thing to two. I am pretty sure that I had one drop because of the technology. The studentsare coming along pretty well, although I think there are still a couple who have no idea how to put theirwork into their dropbox.

Hereôs how a lesson/activity plays out. I develop an activity outside of class, the web is a great resource. Iwrite the activity and save it as a pdf file, which is uploaded to the Moodle course site. When class starts,the students download the file from Moodle and open it in Notability. During class they write their classnotes on this document. Notability has many colors of pens and highlighters, as well as the ability to type.Students can also take a picture and place it directly into their notes. This is handy when we are using amanipulative or if they want a copy of something someone else has done. At the end of class, the studentupload the document to their dropbox where they have access to it from their personal devices. It saves asa pdf, so there is no trouble reading it from another device.

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For the most part, the students are doing very well using the technology. They have become good atchanging from one app to another to investigate something and then going back to Notability to writenotes and answer questions. Most students stay totally involved for the entire class period. The best thing,though, is that these students have their notes with them, and organized, all the time. I had a student comeinto my office to ask a question. I asked her what she had done on a similar problem we had done in class.Out came her phone, she had immediate access to those class notes. We looked at what she had done inclass and she had her answer. It was exciting to see the use of technology work so well.

My class is basically paperless. I like that. I would like for the students to do paperless homework as well,but that would require they all have a personal ipad ï maybe sometime in the future. I have become morepaperless also. If I am writing a key, I open the document in notability, write the key, and post it toMoodle. I am getting to where I prefer to write my keys on the ipad rather than on paper. If I use my ipad,I don't have to worry about scanning a document to post it on Moodle, or about losing a paper. I willprobably make a few changes to the course next semester, but I wonôt stop using the technology.

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How Much is That Worth?

by Nick Roster - Thursday, October 23, 2014


This is a phrase that makes chills go down my spine. Typically it means to an instructor that if you don'tassign points to an assignment, then the student will not see value in it. Many pieces of research haveshown that if you are motivated externally (i.e. money or grades), you just won't do as well at a given task(or persist). If you are motivated internally (I want to learn), then you will persist even in the face ofresistance, for instance a poor score.

What does this mean? To me, it means we have to shift the focus on grades to a focus on learning. Maybestudents will persist in our classes longer if we don't over-emphasize grades. If we place emphasis ongood grades, rather than good learning, then a poor score can become devastating.

How can we shift the focus? I'm not saying grades are bad, but maybe we can help de-empasize them inour students' minds to help them focus on what is important - learning. We could try to collect someassignments as Formative Assessment. We can give students feedback as to how they did, but don'tassign a grade. "What's the purpose of that?" a student may ask. What formative assessment allows you todo as an instructor is to gauge how the student is doing and correct them, without penalty. And, you arepreparing them for the high-stakes Summative Assessment to come.

Allow the students to practice in a safe environment without penalty. Give them feedback as to how tocreate better answers. Then, test them after they have had that time to practice. You may have to explainto students what you are trying to accomplish, but I would bet that as long as you have a good reason,students will appreciate the opportunity to practice.

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Extra Credit in the Lab

by Brian Sweeney - Thursday, October 23, 2014


Extra credit may be trivial to the overall grade.

In my electronics lab, it sparked an interest in a simple circuit. The task was to build a simple circuit asintroduction to how switches worked. The switch would turn on a motor, making it spin forward or

backward depending on which direction was desired. Aftergiving the assignment, I mentioned that there would be extra credit worth 5 points if they could put a lightemitting diode (LED) into the circuit to show which direction the motor was spinning. The desire for the5 points of extra credit resulted in a lot of work done in the lab. Typically, many of the students willdepart or go on break when they finish the lab assignment. Today, 14 of 16 students stayed until the endof the class to investigate how to add the optional light-emitting diode to the circuit. It caused them toquestion each branch of the circuit, and which branch would have electricity when the motor ran forwardbut not backward. They found that the LEDs themselves would stop current if inserted backward. Thissmall optional assignment inadvertently flipped a classroom when the intention was for the student toresearch online, turn the page in the textbook, or look over and see what the person next to them wasdoing. Trial and error would have worked too, as there were only a dozen or so ways to put the LED intothe small circuit. The trial and error option is slightly more entertaining, as the inexpensive LEDs willburn out if connected incorrectly, but give a pretty flash of light when they die. The extra credit, given thevast amount of points available in the course, will likely not change the final grade, but it made the labspecial for today. It was the extra sprinkles on the chocolate frosted glazed donut, the third peanut in theshell, or the one extra chocolate chip in the cookie carefully selected from the fresh batch. Unneeded, butwhen it is discovered, results in the experience being even better.

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Evaluating Nursing Student Clinical Skills

by Linda Walter - Thursday, October 23, 2014


Each semester the fundamental nursing instructors have to evaluate 45 nursing students on 24 differentskills. Each skill takes about 10 minutes to evaluate. This equates to 10,800 minutes or 180 hours of classtime to complete. The students become frustrated because they arenôt getting signed off and theinstructors become overwhelmed because there just isnôt enough time to observe the students. If thestudent makes a mistake on the skill, the skill needs to be repeated, which takes more time from class.With the help of Michelle Autry, the fundamentals of nursing instructors are now allowing students to usethe flip camera to take a video of the skills that they need to demonstrate competency. Students have achoice to either submit a video of their skills or to have the traditional evaluation by the instructor.Students embraced the idea of taping their skills. One of the students stated, ñIt is a great use oftechnology in the classroom.ò The instructors can view the video tapes through Moodle and give thestudents feedback. Instead of using lots of hours of class time, open lab time, office hour time, instructorscan view the video tapes from anywhere and at any time. Hopefully, student and faculty frustration willdecrease and class time can be used for learning and not having students stand in line waiting for theirturn to have their skills evaluated.

There are several advantages of using the video recordings. Instructors can show the excellent videos infuture classes to help teach skills. Also, the instructor can share the observations with the student. Theinstructor can use the video as ñan instant replayò and show where errors occurred. There are fivesections of the nursing lab with four different instructors. Before skills are graded, instructors can begiven the rubric of the skill being tested. Instructors can view one of the videos and then each instructorcan grade the scenario to ensure that all of the instructors are using the same criteria and obtain the samescore when grading a student. This semester the fundamental nursing instructors are trialing the use of therecordings, and next semester adjustments can be made to improve the system.

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Bibliophobia? Library Phobia?

by Michele Howard - Tuesday, October 21, 2014


ñShe smells vaguely of Band-Aids and Vick's Vapor Rub. I have several overdue DVDs, one of which isscratched.òYahoo Answers individual explaining a fear of Librarians.

We see it all the time in the Osterlin Library. The student that reluctantly walks past the reference desk afew times, then finally walks up as if it is a confessional and sheepishly admits they ever never used alibrary, and/or is afraid of the library.

For those of us in academics, we usually love libraries. We love the smell of books (yes, I havewitnessed people sniffing books in our library). But for a large portion of undergraduate students, somestudies suggest 75%-95%, suffer from some sort of anxiety regarding the library and researchassignments. Of course this must effect their assignments, and their ability to learn and succeed at acollege level.

How can we all help? Come visit us in the library. Canôt come to us? Weôll come to you. Is class timealready too precious? Just remind your students that itôs normal to fear libraries, books and research, butthere is a whole team of educated individuals waiting to help them in the Osterlin library. We wonôtmake fun of them. In fact, we are all amazed at how smart and creative our students and their researchtopics can be. And for the record, none of us smell like Band-Aids or Vicks Vapor Rub or act like this:

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Intellectual Freedom Supported by Foundational CurriculumOutcomes

by Tracy Russo - Monday, October 20, 2014


As a curriculum and assessment geek, I interpretwriting high quality learning outcomes as the ultimate privilege in intellectual freedom. Discussionssurrounding the updating of course outlines with significant learning outcomes (SLOôs) initially surprisedme when they were often NOT about this big idea of a democratic education. Considering causes fordiffering perspectives, I realized in higher ed we rarely discuss some of the foundational knowledge andquestions guiding curriculum and pedagogy:

What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?

What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?

How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?

How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?ò

~Ralph W. Tyler (1949) Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

At NMC, you may recognize these as the first four of the Five Essential Questions of Teaching andLearning Regis McCord and the Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE) have used as a framework formany professional developments here at NMC.

History buffs may recognize these questions originating in the progressive movement surrounding theindustrial revolution. ñThe curriculum, however, is a primordial factor. If it is wrongly drawn up on thebasis merely of guess and personal opinion, all of the science in the world applied to the factors aboveenumerated will not make the work efficientò (Bobbitt, F. (1918) Scientific Method in Curriculum-Making). Bobbitt promoted using scientific observations of successful adults to create an ends-means

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http://benscarts.com/learn/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Question-authority-34510685076.jpeg

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo17239506.html

http://blogs.ubc.ca/ewayne/files/2009/02/bobbitt_001.pdf

http://blogs.ubc.ca/ewayne/files/2009/02/bobbitt_001.pdf


designed curriculum. In other words, define what a successful outcome looks like, and go from there.

DACUM is another term used for occupational analysis for this ends-means approach that many arefamiliar with from industry. Training and curriculum is designed by first asking the experts currentlyworking in the designed fields to analyze the specific tasks required to perform the job. Again, figure outthe desired outcome, and design education around it.

Skipping the educational jargon, Backwards Design (Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, 1998) is anothervariation of this sequence to curriculum design. ñWe use curriculum as a means to an end. We focus ona particular topic (e.g., racial prejudice), use a particular resource (e.g., To Kill a Mockingbird), choose aspecific instructional strategy (e.g., a Socratic seminaré), to cause learning to meet a given standardéò

What is not explicit in the above examples is what makes writingsignificant learning outcomes the ultimate in intellectual freedom:

The privilege and ability to define what knowledge is of most worth.

As for myself, I want to be one of those deciding whatôs important. I believe in our General EducationOutcomes as well as other outcomes often recognized in the arts and entrepreneurship such as creativity,problem-solving, personal development, and civic responsibility. Yes, underneath it all, there is aMachiavellian quality to any curriculum development:)

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http://www.facilitation.eku.edu/dacum-occupational-analysis

https://www.fitnyc.edu/files/pdfs/Backward_design.pdf

http://www.northernsun.com/images/imagelarge/Question-Authority-Not-Mother-2x3-Magnet-(3639).jpg


Lions, Tigers, and Bears, OH MY!

by Steve Rice - Monday, October 20, 2014


I am not a wizzard. And I do not live in the land of Oz. Traverse City certainly is a wonderful place tolive, but it ainôt no Oz. Apologies to those whose ñEnglish geneò is now screeming. This is a blog, not adiscertation.

I am a teacher. And I find myself constantly reflecting on the connections between Dorothy, herawareness of lions, tigers, and bears, and her reaction of fear to this reality.

Einstein was right (see embedded cartoon on ñOur Education Systemò). As a teacher, I have before meeach semester, lions, tigers, and bears. This is my reality. Who they are is who they are. I can not changethat, nor do I want to. Never!

Whether students realize it or not, they are all differernt. We are all different. What we share in common,this semester, is a baptism into the subject matter, the ñwatersò of Accounting. That is my primaryresponsibility to them as their teacher.

Unlike Dorothy, my reaction to this reality is not fear. At least I am not afraid that they will ñgetò me.Being harmed by them is not my concern. I am not saying I donôt know fear or that fear is a distantcousin.

My fear is of a different kind. I fear that somehow I will let them down. I fear that I will not present themwith an excellent version of and experience with ñwater.ò I fear that I will somehow present them with acheap substitute, that slowly but surely my motivation for teaching will shift from them, the student, tome, the teacher. And that is a space and place I do not want to live from.

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And I fear that they will not discover their own sense of self. I want my class and our bathing together inthe public waters of Accounting (clothing required), to help them to consider and discover their owndesign of ñself.ò Are they a fish? Is there an element of ñfishinessò in them for which exposure to waterwill help to clarify who they really already are? Do they think this way? Is this a part of what education,at its very best, could be?

Yes, everday, before me I gather with lions, tigers and bearsé.and fish. They are the lucky ones for whoma sense of discovery, a sense of ñcallingò has come. For many, they have discovered, a light has dawned,to their own sense of true self.

They can move forward with integrity. A fish is to water what water is to a fish. They getalongéswimmingly.

I am not a wizzard. I am a teacher who believes there must be more. More to teaching. More to learning.More to what it really means to be part of a ñCommunityò ñCollege.ò

After all, just over the rainbow, there is something beautiful on the other side, right?

Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my? Oh yes! What an opportunity. How wonderful. How beautiful. Howlucky am I to live under this canopy of grace called ñeducation.ò

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Writing Challenge Kick Off

by Mark DeLonge - Monday, October 20, 2014


The 4x4x16 Writing Challenge begins today. We have 11 people signed up toparticipate, and there is still plenty of room for more. If you are interested in participating, please contact Mark DeLonge.

Over the next 4 weeks, our participants will create 4 pieces of writing that are 16 sentences long. Thewriting will focus on teaching and learning, and this project will create 44+ resources for the NMCcommunity. Each of the pieces of writing will be included on the teaching.nmc.edu site, and they willalso be shared with you through the SCOOP newsletter each week. The first posts will appear next week.

Channel your inner Charlie Brown and give it a try.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan%E2%80%93Michigan_State_football_rivalry

mailto:[email protected]

http://teaching.nmc.edu/?cat=174


Writing Challenge = Free Ice Cream

by Mark DeLonge - Monday, October 13, 2014


Beginning the week of October 20th, we will begin our SECOND Annual 4x4x16 Writing Challenge! Hooray! How does it work?

We are inviting instructors at NMC to create 4 new pieces of writing for 4 straight weeks. Each piece ofwriting should be approximately 16 sentences in length and should be focused on teaching and learning. That is it. We borrowed the idea from Yavapai College in Arizona. They are currently running a similarchallenge, and we plan to share some of our posts during a few weeks of the Challenge.

Last year we had 8 people participate in the challenge, and we would like to have at least 12 peoplewriting this year. If we have 12 people participate this year, we will generate 48 new pieces of writing onteaching and learning to share with the NMC community and beyond.

Each piece of writing will be placed on the teaching.nmc.edu site for others to read and comment on. Please donôt let the technology discourage you. If you can open up a Word document and type, we havepeople that can put your writing on the website for you.

So where does the free ice cream come in???

Each week, those that participate will receive a small token of thanks for participating. The first week, allthose that participate and create a piece of writing will receive a pint of Ben & Jerryôs ice creamdelivered to their office (or location of their choice). A spoon will be included too.

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http://www.telswebletter.com/


http://www.benjerry.com/


Sign up by contacting Mark DeLonge ([email protected]).

And don’t worry too much about the 16 sentences. You just read about 20!

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NMC's teaching@NMC in Faculty Focus Article

by Mark DeLonge - Monday, December 16, 2013


There was another nice mention of NMC and our teaching@NMC website on December 13, 2013. The4x4x16 Challenge that we created at NMC was mentioned by Todd Conaway, the originator of the ideafrom Yavapai College in Arizona.

Faculty Respond to the Challenge: Write about Teaching and Learningfor Nine Weeks Straight

After the first few weeks Mark DeLonge, an instructional designer atNorthwestern Michigan College started a similar challenge with the faculty there. During a coupleof the weeks there was interaction between the faculties of the two colleges. For the faculty,having their work read and commented on by colleagues from across the country was reallyrewarding. During the nine weeks there were numerous faculty from many colleges who sharedideas and comments with the Yavapai faculty. More ...

Read the entire article and make a comment at the Faculty Focus website.

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http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/faculty-respond-to-the-challenge-write-about-teaching-and-learning-for-nine-weeks-straight/

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/faculty-respond-to-the-challenge-write-about-teaching-and-learning-for-nine-weeks-straight/


Wrap It Up: 4x4x16

by Mark DeLonge - Friday, December 06, 2013


How my wife can wrap Christmas presents that look so nice with the fancybows and everything is beyond me. But that is a different wrapping subject.

The 4x4x16 Instructor Writing project is a wrap!

We had a group of eight instructors participate and create 30 different pieces of writing on teachingand learning during the four weeks of the project. Please take a moment to read a few and be sure tocomment at the bottom of the posts. As part of the wrap up of the project, several instructors created onefinal reflection post after the project was complete.

The project also allowed us to hear from colleagues from a wide range of disciplines. It served asa reassuring reminder that faculty members, full-time and adjunct, share some of the sameproblems and concerns. The project is an equal opportunity event; all faculty members cansubmit a blog. More ...

- Dorothy Eisenstein, NMC Instructor, Adjunct

In addition to covering topics from test anxiety to the Jigsaw approach, instructors have had theopportunity to share their posts with their NMC colleagues as well as others from Yavapai College inArizona. Our 4x4x16 project has also received mention in both a presentation at the Global EducationConference and an article in the League for Innovation newsletter. Todd Conaway at Yavapai Collegewas the originator of the idea for the writing project, and we have plans to have another writing projectagain next year. Hopefully a little bit bigger and a little bit better than the first go around.

Enjoy Christmas Vacation. It's almost here.

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http://youtu.be/-X0Trv7vOn0?t=18s




https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/playback/artifact?psid=2013-11-18.1226.D.592AF3BD64392CA50A39853009251F.vcr&aid=62400

http://www.league.org/blog/post.cfm/member-spotlight-yavapai-college?utm_source=2013_12+League+Connections&utm_campaign=December+2013+League+Connections&utm_medium=email

http://youtu.be/-X0Trv7vOn0?t=18s


Every Step of the Way

by Jeff Straw - Wednesday, December 04, 2013


Written by Patty Olson, NMC Education Instructor, Adjunct & submitted by Jeff Straw.

One technique that I found VERY useful particularly in teaching hormonal, uninterested 8th graders UShistory was combining your two ideas. As a PREview, I broke the class into small groups to read andpresent one area of the chapter (Bold Print Headers). These groups were sized depending on the length ofthe chapter. They were given only 10-15 mins. to prepare and then they presented their area, in order ofchapter, to the whole group. They got very clever and creative with their presentations; it was fun. Asthe "sage on the side", I could then interject anything missed and/or smooth out the transition to the nextgroup. With this preview of the chapter, they "got" a glimpse of what they would need to read that night. They also went home with my study guides with "fill in the blank" high points, designed by moi so that Iknew they would get the points I felt were important. As they entered the next am, they did a do-it-alone10 minute "think" warm-up (an essay designed by me that connected the history we were currentlystudying to a current event). We followed this with a quick pair-share... (first they shared with their table,seating always assigned by me.... then each table quickly shared out to the whole group.) Then, they tooktheir warm-up home to discuss with a family member (adult); this was their chance to "teach" what theywere learning, as research shows that you learn most when you "teach it". The adult needed to sign it,and then the students handed it in in the am. (Parents loved this! Sometimes I received 2-3 page essaysfrom the PARENTS expanding on the topic. I had to ask them to please not expect a response as Ialready had 150 students daily to correct! The parents continually told me that these discussions hadbecome some of their most valuable family-time discussions, often during dinner!)

Because the students were ACCOUNTABLE to each other, to parents or to me EVERY STEP OF THEWAY, this proved really successful, and fun. I actually applied for a Christa McAuliffe grant to developthis program, but only made it to "runner up". Then I went back to elementary.

Anyway, I thought this might spark some more ideas on how to use these techniques. With my NMCclass, I use the warm-up, think-pair-share and jigsaw techniques often. We have guest speakers and cdpresentations, too. I require students to sign-up as they arrive, with many points given for attendance. 5minutes after class begins, I have a new sign-in, so they are again held accountable. My students reportloving the class, the warm-ups, etc. My problem is that I always have 1 or 2 who actively attend and areactively involved in discussion (they have no choice in this because of how I structure the class.), but theydon't turn in the work! The rest, pretty much, do a phenomenal job with the written assignments and theirreflective journals, most earning 3.5 or 4.0! But the 1 or 2 always shock me! I express that to them:

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"Why are you letting yourself down when you have so much to offer?) They often, still, don't bother andfail, but don't even bother to drop! (Often they are young, and sadly, often male. In England, this iscalled "laddism"!) I don't get it! Any ideas?

Thanks again, for the "food for thought" from your articles Jigsaw and Coming Unprepared.

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Retrospective

by Jeff Straw - Sunday, December 01, 2013


Our NMC community hosts a great many stories: history's lessons, tomorrow's dreams, and tales oftriumph (and of other well-intentioned ideas yielding more modest results). We grow as colleagues sharethese stories. We're uplifted and energized; we help carry each otherôs burdens.

The 4x4x16 teaching@NMC blogging project brought a new challenge our way. Would we step beyondour comfortable and safe hallway chats to launch broader discussions? Write to share across NMC, butface public visibility beyond?

I took a risk and said "yes" to invest a bit of myself into our community. Since I'm not a frequent authorof anything beyond email and Moodle posts (and since I'm as busy as any of us), blogging took quite a bitof my precious energy and time. I've long known that I wanted to do such a thing - I occasionally postthoughts on a rudimentary teaching blog - but urgency never rose high enough to overcomeprocrastination. Now I had deadlines to meet. Perceived peer pressure added more incentive than tasty icecream (though I did thoroughly enjoy the Coffee Heath Bar Crunch).

Encouraging words and insightful question appeared in the posts shared by other bloggers. I'm glad tohave been a part of it, and I hope NMC will repeat the project next year. I also hope that ourteaching@nmc site will become a frequently-visited and treasured resource for NMC faculty.

Someday I will record memoirs for my children and grandchildren, sharing personal stories of tractors,dairy farms, trombones, engineering school, country-country moves, 10K races, home-building, teaching,and so on. This blogging project experience might just get me started.

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4x4x16 Writing, Ice Cream, Education, and Maybe a Book

by Brian Sweeney - Saturday, November 30, 2013


I was offered free ice cream for writing 16 sentences. I would have written more for less reward, so Iguess NMC and I both thought we got a good deal. It was not that hard, considering that it was onlyabout two sentences a day.

Actually, it was less than that. There was usually something that struck me oddly during the day, so Iwould jot down a sentence. By the end of the week, I had 6 sentences that did not relate to each other,except for the common element that they had something to do with teaching at NMC. It would takeprobably two sentences to introduce the loose collection of thoughts, a sentence between each one to linkit to the next, and two sentences at the end to provide a conclusion. By the time I was done, I had 6original sentences, 5 transitions, and 4 sentences to introduce and conclude the whole collection. At thatpoint, it was not that hard to put in one more sentence to plug the Lions, time travel, video games, orwhatever was going on outside the window that day. Sometimes if I clicked on the ñABC Spelling &Grammarò the computer would recommend another sentence, so I was done, and all I would have to do issit back and wait for the ice cream.

Over the four weeks, I also got free coffee, a free lunch, and a final reward that I have not picked up yetbut will soon. Free stuff may not be the best stuff ever, but as far as I am concerned, the price is right. Food and ice-cream are near the top of my list as essentials.

A recommendation for future writing projects at NMC: Expand on my 6-sentence approach to writing a16-sentence musing. Take the 27 or so submissions collected during this exercise, put them inalphabetical order based on the first word in each essay, and write a 5-sentence paragraph linking one tothe other. We now have a short book, probably 50 pages or so (use big font for even more pages), as arecord of NMCôs first faculty generated published thoughts on education.

Iôd give a bowl of ice-cream for that.

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Afterthoughts

by Dorothy Eisenstein - Wednesday, November 27, 2013


The blogging project, 4x4x16, allowed me to organize my thinking into structuredframes. Each frame or blog served as a movement activity . This format seemed to bridge the gapbetween structured writing and creative journal writing. Furthermore, I was able to share some of theinformation in my blog with my students.

The project also allowed us to hear from colleagues from a wide range of disciplines. It served as areassuring reminder that faculty members, full-time and adjunct, share some of the same problems andconcerns. The project is an equal opportunity event; all faculty members can submit a blog.

Most importantly, blogging allows faculty members to write about the content of their classes. It is justtoo easy to get overwhelmed with extraneous topics and ignore the subject matter that brought us toteaching at NMC in the first place. Are we not constantly inundated with too much information? Whynot write about our specific areas of expertise?

Finally, the prizes provided incentive to stay with the challenge. I highly recommend Ben & Jerry's ice-cream entitled Chocolate Therapy.

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http://teaching.nmc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ice-cream-cone.jpg


Is there an app for that?

by Deb Pharo - Thursday, November 21, 2013


The data seems to be coming in that supports the idea that playing games can increase knowledge. In onestudy, it was found that playing an app called Motion Math: Fractions for 20 minutes a day for five daysincreased fraction knowledge by 15% among 120 elementary school children. Many proponents of hand-held devices have had a gut feeling that this is true, but no data to back it up (other than anecdotal data).There is not a lot of data, yet, but what data there is seems to support the use of ipads for learning. I havea couple of my own experiences to share.

Every year on the first day of MTH 106 (Math for Elementary Teachers I) I have my student solve theMissionary and Cannibal problem. Previous to this year, I would have the problem displayed on theoverhead as the students walked into class on the first day. When they sat down, I would give each threered chips and three blue chips and tell them to work on solving the problem on the overhead using thesechips to model the missionaries and cannibals. Many students would just sit and do nothing. Others wouldtry the same thing over and over. After a while I would have the students work in small groups. Fewstudents could get the problem solved in 30 minutes. Even after I went over the solution with the class,many students could not replicate it in a similar problem a few weeks later.

This semester I tried something new. I found a logic problems app for my ipad last summer and decidedto have my students use it on the first day. I rounded up as many ipads as I could and gave those to thestudents with directions to play this certain game. I found that my students were all engaged and that noneof the students gave up. I let them play the game for about 30 minutes, until all had had success. Afterplaying the game, I put up the missionary and cannibal problem and passed out the colored chips. Thedifference was amazing. All of the students actively work on solving the problem, there were no sittersand no quitters, and about 75% of them solved it correctly. Not only that, 80% of the studentssuccessfully solved the similar problem a few weeks later. I will definitely do this again next year on thefirst day of class.

My second experience is with my 4-year-old granddaughter, Ada. Ada is a twin and is developmentallydelayed. She has been diagnosed with Apraxia, which makes language and communication difficult forher. She has other delays as well. Ada got an ipad for her fourth birthday and her mother found an apraxiaapp. I played this app with Ada one day and was amazed how well she watched the face and lips of theperson directing her on the ipad. She would watch his lips and then mimic to make the sound. Whatimpressed me is how much more carefully she watched the face on the ipad than she would watch myface and lips.

These personal experiences have convinced me that apps could help me as a teacher. In mydevelopmental classes I would love to have a set of ipads with some good apps that I could give tostudents when they are struggling with a concept. A student is having trouble subtracting negativenumbers, so I hand him a ipad and say, ñPlay this game for 20 minutes and then try those problemsagain.ò I think it could work, the problem is finding the apps.

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Twenty-Minute Mentor Series

by Gary Klotzbach - Thursday, November 21, 2013


In addition to the CIE-sponsored Friday Forums, please consider placing the following Fridays from10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on your calendar: December 13th, January 17th, February 14th, and March 14th.Those are the upcoming dates of the CIE-sponsored 20-Minute Mentor Series at NMC. Each sessionbegins with a 20-minute video from Magna Publications followed by a discussion among NMC educatorsfor approximately 40 minutes. Last Fridayôs discussion was based on a video entitled ñHow Do I GetMore Students to Participate in Class?ò. The video provided many good ideas, but the ideas flowing fromthe discussion afterward were even richer and more helpful. Please consider joining the next 20-MinuteMentor discussion, which will be based on a video entitled ñCell Phones, Laptops and Facebook: WhatCan I Do About Them?” on Friday, December 13th at 10:00 a.m.

If you do not have a User name and password to log in to Magna Publications , please click here.

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http://www.magnapubs.com/mentor-commons/?video=ee9f67be#.UmqN4RDK7oE

http://www.magnapubs.com/mentor-commons/?video=ee9f67be#.UmqN4RDK7oE

http://teach.nmc.edu/?page_id=567


Defunct Adjunct

by Ryan Bernstein - Tuesday, November 19, 2013


Hello, my name is Ryan and I'm a defunct adjunct. I've brought it all upon myself.

In addition to being an adjunct at NMC, I have a full-time gig at a local Internet hosting company inTraverse City where I host daily webinars teaching people how to create their own websites. I also have aloving wife and two small children. And I volunteer. And I rake leaves - a lot of leaves - because it's fallin Northern Michigan and that's what people do here. I have a tendency to over-commit myself and takingon a 4x4x16 blog challenge towards the end of the semester was the tipping point. Something had to givelast week and it was my week 3 blog. I hope to make it up this week by posting twice.

To be fair to myself, I return emails promptly, grade and return assignments quickly and I'm preparedeveryday. Neither my students nor my department chair seem concerned, so I think I'm keeping pace.Perhaps I just feel like a defunct adjunct because I'm juggling so many things it makes me feel crazy.Either way, I'd love to get perspective on this from anyone out there who might be reading this. Are youan adjunct or even a full-timer taking part in a similar balancing act? How do cope? How do you maintainsanity?

I've got some choices to make. Simply put, I work too much. I'm absent from home too much, but I loveteaching too much to walk away from it (I tried once). I'm not married to the Internet gig, but being anadjunct doesn't pay the bills. I need to compromise. Any suggestions?

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Go Lions

by Brian Sweeney - Monday, November 18, 2013


In these last few weeks of the semester, I find that more of the learners in the classroom are attempting tocatch-up on the material in order to pass the final. As I watched my Lions drop another game to theSteelers, I remember the advice I was given when I prepared for finals. Many of the folks in class haveplayed a sport at one time, so they can probably relate to the analogy:

Suppose the Lions wanted to prepare for a football game. There are three ways to prepare. First, you canwatch football, go on the web and watch videos of football, and then show up at the stadium and playfootball. A second option is to stay up all night before the game and play football for 8 hours, and thenshow up for the game. The third option is to practice a few hours of football throughout the week, andshow up for the game. What option is going to probably be the best way to prepare for the game?

There are many who would argue, probably successfully, that final exams are not a game. But thepreparation is the same. Watching the instructor do problems, watching You-Tube, and cramming thenight before may result in success for some, but more likely than not a methodical approach to studyingover a period of time will be more productive. The problem for the instructor is now to convince thelearner to work consistently at mastering the topic at hand. Many quizzes, assignments, and checkinghomework can indicate a pattern of insufficient academic progress, or can verify that the learner iskeeping pace with the material.

We do not want the learners to get into the habit of procrastination regarding their academic pursuits. They should be like the Lions, preparing consistently for the next event. Sure, they are going to fall attimes, but the results should be more successful than sitting back taking the easier path of lesserresistance.

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So many suggestions! Where do I start?

by Jeff Straw - Saturday, November 16, 2013


Teaching / learning ideas tap our shoulders all the time. Which are worthy? Would Think-Pair-Sharework for me, or should I try One-Minute Paper instead? Can I do both - and maybe Muddiest Point too?

When I attend a cross-discipline conference, I typically find a dozen intriguing ideas among hundreds ofvery good ones. Back in the office, precious gems that had been carefully captured in conference notesget buried under homework to grade, new mail, textbooks, and so on. Even eNotes are lost on my iPad,waiting to be re-discovered when I next launch that particular app. My enthusiasm morphs into "nice"ideas for next semester's prep time - and when I do prepare for upcoming classes, I often forget that I hadsuch plans; when I do think of them, I struggle to find details.

I now accept that I must focus and sacrifice. From the dozen possibilities, I whittle my list to no morethan one or maybe two "best" ideas, trying hard to get this filtering done before I return to campus. Toguide my selection, I carefully ponder those learning activities that really haven't been very effective inthe past - those seeds of opportunity.

I commit to test a new idea in a specific lesson, in a specific class, carefully integrating it by eithersupplementing or supplanting the older approach. How would it best fit in my class context? Do I need todemonstrate a technique? Can I invent and construct an applicable learning activity? How can I tune thelesson so that students really do learn better?

When the day for teaching with the new idea arrives, I dig deep to re-energize my enthusiasm. I can't bepassive - I can't meekly admit that I'm conducting an experiment! After trying the idea, it's critical that Ireflect right away. How well did it work? Should I keep it? Grow it? Discard it? How should I adapt it fornext time?

But what happened to those other very good ideas, the ones that failed to clear my harsh one- or two-ideacutoff? They remain filed in my subconscious, ready to bolster credibility if/when they surface again.Others - those I do not hear of again - drift into oblivion. Perhaps that's best; they might have been simplyfads. I need not worry, for the well of great ideas will never go dry.

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Test Anxiety

by Deb Pharo - Thursday, November 14, 2013


I have to admit, I donôt understand test anxiety. I have students that tell me they have test anxiety, andthat when they sit down to take a test they go blank. I do believe these students, but I donôt understand it.I donôt understand it because I seldom get stressed about anything and when I do get stressed, it doesnôtshut me down.

In the early fall of 2012, I was challenged to run a triathlon in 2013. I accepted the challenge and begantraining. I was already running some and had biked some in the summer, but I hadnôt been swimming. SoI started a weekly regimen of running, biking and swimming. My first day in the pool was an eye-opener,I could barely do one lap of freestyle. As the weeks went by I got stronger and stronger and soon I couldswim 40 laps of freestyle. I was feeling pretty confident about my swimming. I scheduled my firsttriathlon for the third week of June.

In early June, I was asked to do the swim leg of a triathlon on a relay team. I accepted thinking it wouldbe good to see what a triathlon was like. I borrowed a wetsuit and practiced with it the night before theevent. I felt like I could not breathe in the wet suit, but I went ahead and wore it for the competition. I feltlike I couldnôt breathe and couldnôt extend my arms. It was hard, but I swam the mile. I was one of thelast ones out of the water. I did not consider stress to be an issue (until much later), but realized that openwater swimming was nothing like pool swimming and that I had better practice open water swimmingbefore my competition in two weeks.

Now, the lakes in Northern Michigan are cold in early June, and my triathlon swim was to be in LakeMichigan on June 23 ï I needed my own wet suit. I found a wetsuit that was sleeveless and short legged.It was easier to swim in, but my first swim in Lake Skegemog was difficult for me. The wet suit was nolonger a problem, but I still breathed hard and stopped to tread water often. I swam every day and it goteasier. Then, I tried a different lake, Elk Lake. It was a windy day and the lake was rough. It was a toughswim. It was this day that I realized the open water swim was stressing me. So I decided I should swim innew places to help me overcome the stress. It worked.

I still get stressed some when I swim in a new location. I have come to call the feeling by its real name.Hereôs what I wonder though, why is it I did not become debilitated by my stress and my students do? Isthere something in my past that affects my ability to not shut down when I am stressed, or is it my actionswhile stressed? If it is my actions while stressed, can these skills be taught to students?

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Jigsaws in the Classroom?

by Gary Klotzbach - Tuesday, November 12, 2013


The jigsaw technique is a collaborative learning strategy that was developed in the early 1970s by ElliotAronson, a well-known psychologist and co-author with Carol Tavris of Mistakes Were Made (But NotBy Me). The jigsaw technique divides the class into groupsðoften of five or six studentsðand allows andexpects each group to become the ñexpertsò on a specific principle or dimension (i.e. puzzle section) ofthe larger topic (i.e. puzzle) that the class will be discussing. Each group member then becomes an evenmore specialized ñexpertò on one nuance (i.e. puzzle piece) of that specific principle or dimension. Eachmember of each group then reports out to the entire class (i.e. describes and places the puzzle piece). Thisjigsaw technique encourages individual initiative and ownership in the learning process and reduces theamount of competition among some students to be the first one to ñanswerò an instructorôs question,which often occurs when a question is posed to the entire class. A variation of this jigsaw technique is theñthink-pair-shareò technique, which was developed by Frank Lyman in the early 1980s, where two-person teams become the ñexpertsò and then report out to the class. With the jigsaw technique, studentsthemselves are actively providing and placing manyðif not allðof the ñpuzzle piecesò rather thanpassively waiting for them to be provided and put together by the instructor.

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Guiding student preparation - a journey

by Jeff Straw - Monday, November 11, 2013


When I began teaching in 2002, I was surprised to find so many students coming to class withoutcompleting (often, without even starting) their reading assignments. Why didn't they read? How couldthey expect to succeed? Further, what should I do? Were my expectations naive, or was a bigger issue atplay? I listened and looked - and I found that I was not alone.

Rather than repeating content during class (one fallback lecturing approach), I decided to create and postMicrosoft Word outlines for students to complete while reading. I thought that my questions about majorpoints would lighten their burden by helping them understand my take on important issues, gently helpingthem comprehend major aspects while they skimmed minor aspects.

That turned out to be too gentle: I heard "if you don't grade it, I won't do it," so I began assigning pointsto the outlines. I strove to find enough incentive to encourage participation without overwhelming theimpact of deeper assessment later each in lesson. I also provided limited feedback during grading, hopingagain to aid learning.

My grading load grew too much to bear, and many students ignored my feedback anyway. Wouldstudents accept a random set of questions sampled from the outlines? This approach worked fairly wellfor a while, but I started hearing "Not fair! You picked the one question I didn't understand!"

I decided on an experiment - I converted outlines in one class to online Moodle quizzes including avariety of multiple-choice, matching, true-false, and short-answer questions. Feedback was carefullyintegrated, and I sprinkled in some higher-level thinking questions among the simpler recall andunderstand questions. The experiment was costly - about seven hours of my work to create each studyguide - but it was very well received and immensely easy to grade. Over the next three semesters, Iconverted all of the rest of my courses.

The next improvement: an added open-ended ungraded essay question at the end of each study guidequiz. This gave students a chance to tell me about unclear concepts and to ask for help. This slowed mygrading a bit, but I believe it has been well worth the extra work: student responses now guide ourclassroom discussions.

This semester I'm again trying an adjustment - a limit of three attempts at each study guide (to discourageblind guessing) and a link that blocks later assignments until students achieve a minimum qualitythreshold. Still I find that not all students complete the study guides, so I have extra work to do to providelate completers access to their homework.

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I believe students are now reading (or at least skimming) more, are better prepared, and are learning moreeffectively. The journey continues...

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Searching for the Somatic (Week 3)

by Dorothy Eisenstein - Monday, November 11, 2013


My writings involve movement descriptions taken from my classroom. I am trying to bring the readerinto a dance classroom to catch a glimpse of movement education. (Please note: I will be sharing thisinformation at the Wellness Expo, hosted by NMC's Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, on November 22,2013.)

"Today we are going to work on an improvisation entitled Accent on the Exhale. This improvisationwill center around the concept of staccato movement and how it relates to breathing. We will rememberthat staccato is a musical term meaning detached. This idea can be translated into dance with separatepercussive actions. We will begin by making our breathing audible. On every exhale, we will do apercussive action such as a jab, poke, punch, or kick. Try to stay with your breath as you perform yourstaccato actions. After a few minutes of this intense action, we will rest. Remember that movementexploration stimulates thinking. What did it feel like to release that type of energy on the exhale? Didyour movement have emotional overtones? How could you use these actions to express a choreographictheme? Let's repeat the improvisation with music. Be aware of the kinesthetic changes that youexperience as you move spontaneously. What did you discover?"

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Writing Back In Time

by Brian Sweeney - Sunday, November 10, 2013


Writing Back In Time

By Brian Sweeney

I spent 3 years teaching physics and math to first and second year college students. I then spent 5 yearsteaching math to high-school students in dual enrollment classes. I found that, in general, the focus ofpersonal attention toward their education was slightly more than high-school level, but below what wouldlikely be required for future learning at the collegiate level. They often would expect to attend class andgain the information purely from the instructor in order to pass the class with honor-roll performance. Anexercise I started after the first semester was conducted as the final question of their final exam, andwould take the form of this:

Assume you have a time traveling text message phone. If you could send yourself a message, of less than100 words, that you would have received the first day of this class, what would it be?

The answers would sometimes be to bet on the team that won the Super Bowl, or which stocks to buy, butthese responses were not as common as I would have expected. Remember that this is the final answer onan exam that covered the entire semester, and they are writing to themselves. More often, and in twocases without exception, the answers would include doing the homework, reading the book, taking notesin class, and not waiting until the last minute to study for the test. The level of maturity reflected in theseresponses indicated that they were on the right track to better their performance in future classes. It wasnot a revelation to some, as they had already demonstrated academic excellence. But for the students Iwas concerned about whether they were taking away anything from the class, it was a confirmation thatthey were leaving the class with a better plan for their future learning. I would use these responses thefollowing semester as an introduction to the class.

For the students that were not meeting class standards, it was their last chance for a few extra points totheir grade. More importantly, and my goal for this exercise, was that the next instructor was going to geta more mature learner in their class.

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Time To Reflect on Competency-based Learning

by Tracy Russo - Thursday, November 07, 2013


At the November Faculty Friday Forum sponsored by NMCôs Center for Instructional Excellence, fourquestions about competency-based learning were posted. As I struggled to organize responses to this hottopic into a meaningful context, Mark DeLonge suggested Jimmy Buffett. Given the flakes of snowflying outside today, I jumped at the chance to check out Songs You Know by Heart as a framework forfaculty thoughts.

“These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes”

The phrase competency-based learning has seen increasing use in popular educational writings recently.For many of us, especially anyone in a community college or vocational education program, assessingcompetency is standard procedure.

Q: When you hear the term, “Competency-based learning,” what comes to mind?

Prove ñI can do it!ò instead of ñI sat there!ò Donôt promote failure.

Performance measures; application; evidence of ñmasteryò or ability to perform or applyskills/knowledge, application projects/portfolios.

Credit for learning/skills and knowledge before they walk in our door.

Competency based learning = self-paced or self-directed learning.

I transferred from several schools. I had to repeat chemistry several times because it didnôttransfer. If I could prove I was competent I could have saved money.

Competency = mastery ?(depending and relative to the content and division)

Click here for complete list of responses

At an earlier Friday Forum focusing on meeting students where they are in order to help

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hWEgZw25NQCYFwb-g1UWPJ8efFthgFzaaQsjBA9RqaY/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ALBTKoXRg38BCKq4ZBAiSxIqSM6g-uAgX9

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/16/new-form-competency-based-learnings-first-batch-graduates

https://docs.google.com/a/nmc.edu/document/d/1R2xmwToBb3TsuK_Ls0oi6Zz_1XPdeM_SOSEzL5AooHQ/edit#


them succeed, concern was raised about blending competency-based learning principles with current initiatives bringingfour new Active Learning Classrooms to NMC.

How does competency-based learning and college initiatives such as our Active LearningClassrooms (ALCs) fit together?

Often times they are in conflict. Challenge is to find a way to blend initiatives.

This can be an exciting opportunity to engage students with different ways to learn.

Active learning leads to competency--canôt gain competency without active involvement!

Inasmuch as it may splinter and atomize students into individual status/es, groups may bechallengedé

Active learning can benefit traditional methods as well as competency based. It can supportcompetency through greater engagement.

Immediate feedback at the studentôs pace.

Click here for complete responses to this prompt.

“Nothing remains quite the same.”

Digging into the readings about the publicized institutional efforts to change education to a competency-based model such as Western Governors, Southern New Hampshire, Kentucky Community & TechnicalCollege System, and subscription-based Straighterline, one finds that the underlying change is not aboutcompetency but about divesting competency from seat time.

If we speed up time-to-degree for students, what do students gain or lose?

(+) more engagement, less boredom

Gain: more time employed, more time to pay back loans.

Students with aptitude, previous experience, or interest can excel. Unmotivatied, uninterestedstudents fall behind or fail.

They lose the ability to take time for serious study--theyôll focus on the goal and miss the process.

Lose: The human part of a classroom experience.

Students see degree as something they consume/purchase.


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https://docs.google.com/a/nmc.edu/document/d/12H_PMNRxSlUvMAgugr_mIfC2s58P6o6wrj0CTVIq_18/edit#

http://www.wgu.edu/

http://www.snhu.edu/online-degrees.aspx

http://learnondemand.kctcs.edu/

http://learnondemand.kctcs.edu/

http://chronicle.com/article/Carnegie-the-Founder-of-the/136137/

https://docs.google.com/a/nmc.edu/document/d/18GFMo8nqsjueV1P233ountK2O9FBLBCQ71FNaEpLt50/edit#heading=h.hu5by1v210vx


“Through all of the islands and all of the highlands...”

Our mission, ñNorthwestern Michigan College provides lifelong learning opportunities to ourcommunitiesò means that we are also open to all, serving a diverse population of learners. As anaccredited college by the Higher Learning Commission, we must also ensure excellence in the educationwe provide. Quality assessment of our learning outcomes is imperative.

How do we assess student learning with our different student populations and learning styles incompetency-based learning?

Good question since many students may not be able to demonstrate competency especially if theydonôt care about the subject.

Prior learning assessment done before student completes program--with faculty experts and/orstandardized tools.

Use different methods as we do currently--by demonstration, skills-based testing, computer-basedtesting, etcé

Grading is already a pain. In a lesson, the first few artifacts take more (much more!) energy tograde than other artifacts. If Iôm always grading a few at a timeé


“If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.”

As bardonôs wonder freeze is closed for the season, we thought we might try a different tack.

What is your favorite kind of popsicle?

What is the definition of a popsicle?? Is a creamsicle a popsicle?

Homemade strawberry.

RED.

Bomb pops.

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http://www.ncahlc.org/

https://www.nmc.edu/about/policies/board-staff/D-102.01.html

https://docs.google.com/a/nmc.edu/document/d/12s3WNze4ga_CaFpfG7gQZ1YRKbTpekPwJjRgDyF90OU/edit#

https://www.facebook.com/BardonsWonderFreeze


The Joy of Public Speaking

by Ryan Bernstein - Thursday, November 07, 2013


There's been a commercial on TV recently about glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking. It's anadvertisement for a new Google tablet, which does seem pretty cool, but the message about overcomingspeech anxiety is even cooler. Watch it now: Google Nexus 7 Fearless.

I was hired as an adjunct to teach entry-level English composition courses, but I got lucky and was alsoasked to teach a few sections of Public Speaking. I absolutely love teaching this course, which is ironicbecause so many students dread it.

The fear of public speaking is very real. You don't have to look very hard to find a thousand studies thatput public speaking at the top of a list of common phobias. In fact, many times you'll see public speakingrank higher than the fear of death. The first day of COM 111 is a true testament to this.

For a lot of them, their anxiety begins the moment they register for the course. Others experience anxietywhen a new assignment is introduced or in the moments directly before they are to deliver their speech.There are superstars who are just naturally good at speaking and don't seem to struggle much at all. Butfor the rest of us, anxiety manifests itself in many different ways. Some get shaky hands or shaky voices,some do the "pee pee dance," some get itchy, some get blotchy. My favorite is the "clothes-adjuster" - theperson who is so uncomfortable that they straighten out their shirt over and over again as if the shirt werethe source of their discomfort. I say this in jest, of course, because watching students squirm isn'tenjoyable for me. What is enjoyable is helping them observe themselves and watching them improvethroughout the course.

I make it clear from the beginning, however, that I cannot help them by myself. Almost immediately weall agree that people fear public speaking because, by nature, we're afraid of failure and looking foolish infront of our peers. Many students come to COM 111 with what I call "public speaking baggage" - theyhad some awful experience in middle or high school when students laughed at them or a bad teacherridiculed them in front of the class. On day 1, I invite students to create a culture where it is safe to failand fall flat on their faces. It's inevitable, I tell them. I let them know, though, that even if they do fail wecan help each other replace our negative baggage by creating positive experiences. Students are invited toshare their observations of each other openly and constructively. If the student is willing, they'll absorbthe feedback, focus in on certain things to work on and then come back with a stronger speech the nexttime around.

In the Google commercial, the boy transforms because he watches others on his new device, practices andhits a home run only to be presented with another challenge: asking the girl out on the date. In COM 111,students get better because they fail at first and other people help them through it. I enjoy teaching thisclass so much because I get to watch student after student improve, and their ability to transform is trulyremarkable. What's even more remarkable, however, is what we are able to accomplish together as a

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC8wxk3bv3c


group. Perfect strangers become friends and encourage one another to the point where they don't want toshow up unprepared because they don't want to let each other down. On the last day of class, students saygoodbye, exchange phone numbers and even hug each other. It doesn't always happen, but when it works,it reveals something very true: what we can accomplish as a group is so much more powerful than whatwe can accomplish by ourselves.

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Give Me the Beat...To Organize My Learning?

by Tracy Russo - Wednesday, November 06, 2013


Ever look at your workload and think, where to start? Then, as you pull out materials related to the taskat hand, you discover stuff that you forgot you had, or you forgot to do, or... and the list goes on, and theproject still isn't done to your satisfaction. Two current tasks span some of my work from the last five

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years, and I've been struggling with ways to approach them. As I've written about in the past, I oftendesign to music of eclectic origins. When the music stops, I know I am really struggling to solve aproblem.

Last week, somewhere between working on a presentation on the future of learning and one oncompetency-based learning, the music stopped. Silence. I tried old favorites and reggae classics. I triedhip hop, French African rhythms, bluegrass, electric violin, the sound track from Pitch Perfect. Nothingresonated, and the piles on my desk kept looking like exactly that: piles. Not at all what you want to see

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https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pitch+perfect&oq=pitch+perfect&gs_l=youtube.3..0l10.64670830.64672821.0.64672953.13.4.0.9.9.0.201.568.1j2j1.4.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.fLguEvIDRB8


if you are focused on getting some big projects done (and done well!) on a tight time frame. Eeks.

Today, with multiple frameworks about learning, course design, course revision, and ed tech use, I racked

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my brain for something to save me and my creativity, and pulled out an old favorite--Give me the beatboys and free my soul (Dobie Gray, Doobie Brothers, Uncle Kracker just to name a few artists singing lyrics written by Mentor Williams).

I was searching for a song to free my soul...but once I heard it I realized that what I was really looking for was the beat. What 'beat' can make sense of the varied frameworks and resources available on course design to higher ed instructors asvaried as musicians? Listening to the lyrics, it seems part of my search for the beat is also what our students need from usrelated to the five essential questions of teaching and learning.

Drift Away

Day after day I'm more confused

(What are all students expected to know and be able to do? Curriculum)

but I look for the light through the pouring rain

(Which instructional strategies are effective? Instruction)

you know that's a game that I hate to losei'm feeling the strain

(What are we prepared to do for students who need more? Intervention)

ain't it a shame

Give me the beat boys

(How will students and teachers know they've learned those things? Assessment)

and free my soulI wanna get lost in the rock and rolland drift away (repeat chorus)

Beginning to think I'm wasting timedon't understand the things I dothe world outside looks so unkind so I'm counting on youto carry me through

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https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=give+me+the+beat+boy+and+free+my+soul&oq=give+me+the+beat+b&gs_l=youtube.1.0.0l10.21205.23143.0.26371.18.12.0.5.5.0.152.1137.7j5.12.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.dU4WmOc6cdU



https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BuT2IH1D1WRZQhJIi5ohOjewP4K3w-byIre7mfdKk9Y/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000



(What are the characteristics of a positive learning culture? Culture)

(chorus)

*I found the song title especially interesting as "Course Drift" is a major driver for change in one of myprojects addressed in these piles. Blog entry on that coming soon. Last night at the dinner table I was alsofascinated by my two teens, lovers of much Macklemore-style music, breaking into a jam with DriftAway when I shared my day. "Of course we know all the words, Uncle Kracker wrote it!"

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http://www.idolator.com/7467880/teen-choice-awards-2013-check-out-the-music-nominations


How Much is Too Much?

by Deb Pharo - Wednesday, November 06, 2013


I find myself struggling with the technology question, how much is too much. Or, more realistically, howmuch is the right amount.

I am a stickler for working out a problem yourself, but there are some problems I like to assign that aretoo time consuming, or the student does not have adequate knowledge, to be done without technology. Itseems that once I show how to use the technology, the student uses it for everything.

My dilemma; is this a problem? When I was learning mathematics 30 years ago there was no technologyand so we could not do really difficult problems. We were not able to “see” what was going on and had totrust more in formulas. Some classes I teach today are nothing like the classes I took because technologyhas changed them. Students today get to experience the mathematics in ways I never dreamed of and thatgives them a better experience and a better understanding.

I have to be honest, though, I am distressed when a calculus student has to use a calculator to draw asimple y = x2 graph or a simple sine or cosine curve. I want this student to have a full calculus experienceand when he struggles with basic skills he cannot get to the meat of the course and have the fullexperience.

The same exact thing is happening in our developmental courses. Their basic skills are multiplicationfacts, division, and fractions. These students struggle so much with these basic skills that it is difficult forthem to learn algebra. They have to put so much energy into figuring out something that should be secondnature, that there is no energy left to understand the next level. I sometimes find myself telling thatstudent, “Just use your calculator.” But this is only a temporary fix.

So then I begin to wonder, what is the important thing? I know the most important thing is to understandthe problem at hand and to be able to figure out a strategy to solve it. Is the actual solving of the problemimportant? Technology can do those tedious calculations if I only know what calculations to ask it to do. So thus is my dilemma.

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Learning debt

by Jeff Straw - Monday, November 04, 2013


Lately I've been studying Agile Programming. One idea new to me is the concept of"technology debt." The gist is this: if developers choose to release a version of software with fewerfeatures or more bugs than planned and desired, they accumulate a debt that must be repaid in the future(adding the features "someday," diagnosing and removing the bugs "someday"). In the meantime, thedevelopers pay interest on that debt via higher software maintenance costs, extra effort to work aroundbugs, and lower customer satisfaction. This choice is sometimes the right choice, but it has a long-termcost.Does this model help me understand a college student's motivation? When a student skips class,homework, or a test, there appears to be a debt to be repaid - missed concepts must be learned later, oftensimultaneously with future concepts. Interest on the debt may appear as lower capacity to learn, as fewercommon ideas to build upon, and as more difficulty in comprehension. Future learning is harder, busier,and more costly!Perhaps a student charges a fun evening with friends to a learning “credit card.” A student who missesone homework assignment is quite likely to miss more of them, building higher and higher learning debtas weeks go by. Bankruptcy could be part of this model, too, both class-wise (course failure) and system-wide (flunking out / expulsion).As an instructor, like a bank, I'm bothered by too much debt or too rapid debt accumulation. It's risky; Ihate to see students falter, and failure on a student's part feels a bit like failure on my part too. SometimesI am willing, like some financial institutions, to refinance this debt. As an example, I occasionally workwith a student who misses a major project or exam, seeking a creative way to pay off the debt, providingan alternate means for him to deliver sufficient evidence of learning (i.e., a different competency-basedpath). Like a banker, I'm not open to this level of disruption and chaos in all situations; I must verifycreditworthiness in a student.Would this model work well while advising a student who is slipping behind? Would she relate to thisconcept – and would it help her turn around? Would sharing with all students early in a semester help afew of them build the resilience needed to succeed?

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"Messy" Questions Often Elicit Critical Thinking

by Gary Klotzbach - Monday, November 04, 2013


One strategy to elicit critical thinking is to omit important facts when presenting scenarios to students forclassroom discussion. Often instructors take considerable care in class to articulate each important factwithin a particular scenario that students will need to evaluate that scenario in their group discussions.Those instructors will often also take considerable care to frame specific ethical or legal questions thatarise from that factual scenario. Although these instructors are modeling thoroughness and attention todetail, they are at the same time often limiting the scope of critical thinking that they are asking of theirstudents.

What if an instructor were to deliberately omit some important facts when presenting a scenario? What ifthat instructor were to not point out this omission at the time that he or she presents that factual scenario?Lastly, what if that instructor were to present this factual scenario with only a short open-endedinstruction, such as asking students in their groups to discuss the scenario and to themselves formulatesome important questions that should emerge from the scenario? These deliberate omissions call upon thestudents to realize and identify that which they do not know, and that which they need to know in order topose—and to make progress toward resolving—important questions that are quietly hiding within thescenarios. Under this approach, students would not only decide what is problematic within a factualscenario, but also what is problematic about what they do not know about that scenario.

Although this teaching strategy of positing an incomplete scenario is arguably “messier” than a completeframing of the scenario and of the resulting questions by the instructor, the former is likely to oftenprovide more realistic practice for the scenarios that students might encounter outside of the classroomand provide better opportunities for them to engage in deeper levels of critical thinking. After using thisomitted fact strategy, it would be good for the instructor to clarify for students that his or her motivationwas not to “trick” them, but to instead provide them with an opportunity to practice critical thinking inthe everyday context of incomplete information.

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Searching for the Somatic (week 2)

by Dorothy Eisenstein - Monday, November 04, 2013


My writings involve movement descriptions taken from my classroom. I am trying to bring the readerinto a dance classroom to catch a glimpse of movement education.

"Today we will start facing away from the mirror. Although the mirror serves as an important tool inteaching and learning dance, we want to also develop our "kinesthetic sense" or the knowledge that wereceive through our senses. Let's begin with a standing circular stretch. Standing in a neutral position,inhale and stretch your arms overhead. On the exhale, reach both arms to the left and allow your torso todrop as you bend your knees. Relax the head and neck. On the next inhale, reach your arms to the right,bring the arms overhead, and lift the torso upright to the starting position. Now, on the next inhale we aregoing to add a moment of suspension before repeating the circular movement. Your suspension is aninternal feeling of being lifted. Allow this momentary stillness to add suspense to the overall action ofthe phrase. This somatic experience is barely perceptible to an observer; however, it is critical to theperformer to feel this sensation so that the circular stretch does not become a rote mechanical action. Let's repeat this movement. Once again, try to feel the suspension through your senses. Close your eyesand perform this movement without your sense of vision. What does the suspension feel like? Catchyour breath and try again!"

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Thinking Inside The Box

by Brian Sweeney - Monday, November 04, 2013


Thinking Inside The Box

By Brian Sweeney

I spent two years in Germany with the U.S. Army, providing bomb disposal support to highly classifiedmissions. I would get a call telling me to get to an airfield within usually 6 hours, without being toldwhere I was going or how long I would be gone. I kept a box next to the front door. It had $100 in DutchGuilder, $100 in German Marks, $100 in French Francs, $100 in British Pounds, a clean t-shirt, socks,drawers, a bar of hotel soap, and three individual serving boxes of cereal. That was my box, and it wasready when I was told to go.

I recently went on-line, and found a “Class In A Box,” a set of fiber optics expendables and tools to teacha class in fiber optic installation and repair. Someone has thought inside a box, and provided thenecessary tools required to teach a class without having to scramble at the last minute to find the properresources.

I had a boss that was fond of using clichés as a substitute for independent thought. He often said that weneeded to think outside the box. How is that done, or how do you even know if you are thinking outsidethe box, if you have no idea of what is in the box already?

It is frustrating to the learners in the classroom to be told to think outside the box, when they enrolled in acourse to learn what is in the box. Until they learn the basics of the topic at hand, they will not be able toexpand that learning to more abstract concepts.

I focused on, and knew without a doubt, what was in my box in Germany. I know exactly what is in myfiber optics Class In A Box. The question now is whether the learners in my classroom have reached thesame level of understanding regarding the box they have been challenged to learn in my course. Sometimes you have to stay in the box, as uncomfortable as that may be, and as difficult as the subjectmay be, before climbing out and exploring what is on the other side of the box.

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Lifetime Writing Prompt & Order of Magnitude

by Taoufik Nadji - Friday, November 01, 2013


Instead of telling the students what the concept of order of magnitude is, I let them discover its meaningthrough a writing prompt. Following is the prompt statement (derived from a Just-In-Time physicsquestion), the students' results, & the lead up to the definition of order of magnitude and as a bonus theconcepts of scientific notation and Significant Figures logically and naturally emerge.

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An Argument Against Averaging Student Grades & Using theKiller Zero

by Ryan Bernstein - Wednesday, October 30, 2013


Averaging student grades is an inaccurate way ofmeasuring what they've achieved in class. At the end of the semester, do you add up all the points astudent has earned throughout the term and then divide that number by the total amount of points possibleto determine the student’s overall score? If you do, I encourage you to stop and adopt the practice ofanalyzing trends in student performance to determine their final G.P.A. First, let’s use an analogy toexplain why averaging is a disservice to our students.

Pretend you’re a meteorologist charged with the task of reporting the average high temperature for 5 daysin Traverse City during the spring term. On Monday you record a high of 59°, on Tuesday you record ahigh of 62°, on Wednesday a high of 63°, but on Thursday you drop the ball. You’re so busy with otherobligations that you to forget to take the day’s high temperature. On Friday, you rebound strongly andrecord a high temperature of 65° - what do you do now?

Do you add in a zero for the high temperature on Thursday like a lot of instructors would for a missingassignment? If you did, the average high temperature for the week would be about 50° and undeniablyinaccurate. In this instance, adding in the “killer zero” falsifies your records and the same thing happensin the instructor’s grade book. Fortunately, there is a better option for determining the average hightemperature for the week.

Obviously, the temperature during this spring week was trending upward - the days got warmer as theweek progressed. By analyzing the trend in weather, the meteorologist can safely say that Thursday wasprobably in the low 60s and the average high temperature for the week was probably in the low 60s too.Students are just like this meteorologist (they drop the ball, they have bad days, and they forget to turn intheir work), but we, as instructors, can protect the sanctity of our grade books and even retain morestudents by avoiding the “killer zero” and analyzing trends in grades instead of averaging them together.A lot of my thoughts about this topic originated from Rick Wormeli's Fair Isn't Always Equal.

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Own It: Learn How to Learn

by Deb Pharo - Tuesday, October 29, 2013


When I look back on my college education I see class time spent listening to lectures and watchinginstructors work math problems on the board. Seldom, if ever, were we students given class time to thinksomething through or work something out for ourselves. If connections were going to be made, theywere going to be made on our own time away from the classroom and instructor.

As an instructor, I try to give my students opportunities to understand the material we are covering duringclass before I send them home to try it for themselves. This is seldom appreciated by the students in myclasses who seem to want to be spoon fed the material so as not to have to think hard about it.

Following are some excerpts from an email I received from a student early this semester: “This is veryfrustrating for me because I am working really hard on this stuff but have no idea where to start athought process, mainly because I have never seen this kind of material or examples of it.” “I quite simplycan not learn this kind of complex math by reading a power point and then be given a problem to do withother frustrated students. I am not alone in these feelings, other students in the class feel the same. I cansee some of the students sitting in the back seem to be able to do it, but most of us can not.”

This is a good student, one of my best, but he does not like to have to figure anything out. His expectationfor me is that I will show the class one of every kind of problem they might encounter in homework or ona test. He is unhappy that I ask him to think hard about it before I tell all the secrets. I know that the way Iam teaching it helps my students to learn the material better than when I just showed a bunch of examplesand asked nothing of them. At times, though (like when I got this email), I ask myself if it is worth it. It iseasier to just lecture. The students are happier when I just lecture, even though their test grades are lower,go figure! But then I think back to my own education, how I truly owned it when I figured it out formyself, and that is what I want for my students. I want them to learn how to learn.

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In Search of the Somatic

by Dorothy Eisenstein - Monday, October 28, 2013


My writings involve movement descriptions taken from my classroom. I am trying to bring the readerinto a dance classroom to catch a glimpse of movement education.

"We will start with an inhaling breath. On the exhale, bring both knees to the chest. Feel the flexion inyour hip sockets as you begin to rock side to side. Continue to breathe as you sense the sacrum makingcontact with the floor. On the next inhale, stretch your arms and legs away from each other. Feel the fullextension through the body. Imagine that there is no endpoint to the stretch. Start to feel the energyemanating from your center to the limbs. Return to the flexed position on your back. Begin to feel themusic support your movement. Listen to the tone and texture of the music as you slowly extend for thenext sixteen counts. Now, repeat this pattern of flexion and extension on your own time. What does it feellike to extend without an endpoint? Allow the mind to focus on the breath. The breath connects the mindand the body. Reach out and feel alive!"

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Active Learning: More Than Just Busy

by Jeff Straw - Monday, October 28, 2013


Many of our classrooms have been active for years, maybe decades. In a typical CIT course, for example,students interact with hardware and/or software almost every time they meet. But is doing enough toguarantee learning? Are students forming synapses - or are they just connecting dots?

Authenticity

Students must connect if we hope to help them to learn. Memorization is not too hard, but unfortunately,it is rarely deep and facts are often fleeting. Because we strive for learning rather than just short-termrecall, we need to help students sense personal value.

One way is to place lessons in a familiar context. Finding a few scenarios that students share is usuallyfeasible; we can talk of class registration, parking, Traverse City events, Sodexo meal plans, and so forth.However, since we don't know our students - not deeply, anyway, and certainly not all of them - we runout of fresh and stimulating ideas long before the end of the semester.

Students tend to be open to the unfamiliar if they believe they will face similar situations in their future.They also connect when a project feels "real." Service learning and well-designed simulations work well,but both are risky - we must be ready with "plan B" if (more likely, when) something unexpectedhappens. Both also take tremendous energy to facilitate.

Repetition

Unless learners are exposed to unusual or intense stimuli, most learning does not happen during the firstexposure to new material. I aim for three or more distinct student interactions for each significantconcept. Are we (am I?) creative enough to design a variety of activities that drive home a new topicwithout making it feel repetitious? It's challenging! Boredom is the enemy! Occasionally we can addexcitement - we can share our stories, our passions; we can be "up." Sometimes we can even bringcookies.

Cognition

Do students learn better when they contemplate their learning? That's a topic for next week...

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Video Games and the Learning Process

by Brian Sweeney - Friday, October 25, 2013


When I first learned to play Monopoly, we had the pressed cardboard game area, the small pieces (Ialways wanted the car), and the rulebook near in case we needed to check if someone was playing fair. We read the book, set up the board, dealt the money, and began to play after understanding most of therules. We read, understood, and then attempted to play the game.

Jump forward 35 years to the age of the video game. Without reading any instructions, my kids open thebox, put the cartridge in the game console, and begin to hit buttons to see what will happen next. If theyfail, they hit reset, and try again. Eventually, they master the game through a process of trial-and-error,plus some hints from the web if they get stuck in a game.

In teaching math related courses, I find that the trial-and-error mentality cascades into the homeworksolutions. A learner in the class will manipulate the numbers, look in the back of the book, and checktheir answer. Any learner, given a few numbers, will eventually put them into their calculator in thecorrect order and get the correct answer. That does not mean that the method for arriving at the solutionis correct. I find it a challenge to convince them that getting the right number does not always mean thatthe concept was understood before, during, or after completing the problem. I encourage them to showtheir work, so that I can follow their thought process. I am looking for ways to evaluate whether thelearner is actually using a logical process to arrive at a solution. Some subjects are not easy to determineif they have actually learned the topic of the day. In the electronics lab, it is a little easier to determine. The small puff of smoke from a circuit board indicates that at least one of their processes needs to be re-examined and changed prior to the next learning activity.

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Audio Recording Feedback to Students

by Gary Klotzbach - Friday, October 25, 2013


Often there are time constraints in providing detailed and individualized feedback toa large number of students regarding their class participation or a particular assignment. An audiorecording can facilitate your provision of this feedback and allow you to explore critical thinking nuancesthat might take much longer to type out.

An audio recording can be embedded within a PowerPoint screen by simply opening up PowerPoint anddoing the following. Click on Insert at the top of the screen, then click on Audio at the far right of thetoolbar, and then click on Record Audio in the drop down menu. A small box will then appear that willlet you record by clicking on the red circle; you may also pause the recording or, by clicking on thearrow, listen to what you have recorded. When you have completed your recording, click on OK and aspeaker icon will appear on the PowerPoint page. This PowerPoint page can then be uploaded intoMoodle using the feedback option within an assignment; the student can then, by clicking on the speakericon, listen to your individualized recording.

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4 x 4 x 16 = Ice Cream!

by Mark DeLonge - Wednesday, October 16, 2013


We are inviting instructors at NMC to create 4 new pieces of writing for 4 straight weeks. Each piece ofwriting should be at least 16 sentences in length and should be focused on teaching and learning. “That’sit?” you ask.

But wait, there’s more!

If we have just 10 instructors participate in the 4 x 4 x 16 challenge, we will then have 40 new pieces onteaching and learning from our very own NMC experts. You. Our hope is that then some of theparticipants will then want to continue sharing their thoughts and ideas even after the challenge is over.We also hope that others will be inspired by the new writing and want to share some of their ideas. An It’s Contagious type of thing...

But wait, there’s more!

To sweeten the pot both literally and figuratively, we are able to offer some very cool gifts and prizes.The first week, all those that create a new piece of writing will be rewarded with a pint of Ben andJerry’s ice cream delivered to their office. That’s right, Ben and Jerry’s! The weeks to follow willinclude gift certificates for coffee and lunch out at a place downtown.

But wait there’s more!

We will be using the new teaching.nmc.edu site to write and share your new blog posts with the NMCcommunity. The new blog posts will be indexed, searchable, and can be shared with others outside ofNMC too. We can train you on how to become a blog-master in less than 10 minutes. Just let us knowabout a convenient time.

The challenge starts this week. Your first piece of writing should be complete around Monday, October28th. This will allow the challenge to be complete around the 18th of November, a week beforeThanksgiving.

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http://teaching.nmc.edu/




Want to know what 16 sentences looks like? You just read about 20 sentences.

So what do ya say? Want to give it a try? Let Mark DeLonge know that you would like to sign up with ane-mail ([email protected]) or a phone call (995-1962).

There’s ice cream involved!

Thanks to Yavapai College for the idea.

What's your favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry's ice cream? Share it using the comment feature below.

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