"where faculty are committed to teaching and serving students; where enthusiasm and morale are high; and where faculty professionalism and dedication find full expression, working in harmony with students, staff, and administration to fulfill the mission of the college"
Next up! is a regular feature on Sundays, showcasing HWC (and beyond) events in the coming week. Use the “Comments” section to provide updates and additions.
Welcome to Week 11.
Ongoing: Loop Players performances of 12 Angry Jurors. See here for the schedule and info. Also, there is the Transfer Career fair running all week (click here for more information), and Native American Heritage events start this week, too, including film screenings, lectures, and book discussions. More info on that when I have it. And don’t forget that the Chicago Humanities Festival is running all week, too, with many amazing, free events for students and teachers.
Monday, 11/1: Remind your students to vote on Tuesday, and be sure to ask them if they plan to attend any of the above.
Tuesday, 11/2: Vote. Ask your students if they voted. Ask them if they intend to on their way home. Also, come to the Faculty Council Special Meeting, that President Amanda Loos called to discuss all of the myriad things we have to discuss in light of the last week or two’s events (3:30pm, rm 1046).
Wednesday, 11/3: I don’t know what’s going on (other than the things listed above), so maybe today would be a good day to check out Blackboard 9.1 using Ephrem’s training video or do that electronic grade submission training that we have to do before November 19th.
Thursday, 11/4: Maybe think about going to this month’s Board meeting (9am @ 226 W. Jackson), if you happen to be free. And if you go, let us know what happened.
Friday, 11/5: The November Chair’s meeting happens sometime in the morning. The rest of us are not allowed to attend, but if you have anything in particular that you’d like your chair to say to the administration from you or your department, try to make sure they know it before 9 am or so.
In what ways can we teachers actually impede the growth of a student, despite our best intentions? It is a fundamental element of my teaching philosophy that it is my job to stimulate a student’s curiosity and enable them to learn and process new information on their own, and that I must avoid the model in which I give them the information that I expect them to absorb. Despite this being my goal, I probably get in the way of that goal, every time I get frustrated by something a student says or writes, and every time I try to give them my “wise advice” about learning and life.
I was meeting with some students today, and one of them related a conversation had with a professor. The student’s account was of expressing about two hours worth of thoughts to the professor, and that the professor merely listened with enthusiasm and interest. The student’s reaction was absolutely warm and positive. I realize that if I had been in the student’s position, I would probably have felt the same way, and thankful that someone’s character and intellect I respected would let me elaborate my thoughts. I also realized that I have never been that professor: that when a student comes to visit me, I perhaps deliver “sage advice” all too often. If I was a student visiting myself as a professor, I wonder if I would become frustrated? I wonder if I would have “learned” that my thoughts were not good enough? My teaching habits may be at odds with my teaching philosophy goals.
PhiloDave related a story a while back about dealing with “silent students” that is of a similar vein: the desire to get students talking can be distracting and counter-productive for those students, of whom I was a member, who are generally quiet and reflective, and more comfortable thinking through the ideas slowly.
Have you had a similar epiphany? In what ways have you gotten in the way of a student’s learning?
Ok, so this week has been–by turns and sometimes all at once–stunning, frustrating, saddening, enraging, worrying and depressing–and that’s how it’s been for those of us who still HAVE our jobs. Lest we forget what we’re doing and why, I thought I might show you this. I was going to save it until April for National Poetry Month, and I’m sure that 95% of you have received an email text version, but those don’t really do it justice.
It’s a piece that was written as Spoken Word, and so Taylor Mali’s piece must be heard to be experienced. And the animation doesn’t hurt either…
The registration fee is $65 and includes a year membership, but I wrote to them and asked if they could wiggle on that and they generously agreed to let HWC (and CCC) adjuncts register for $20. It’s a great opportunity for adjuncts to see some papers (and network a bit) and get an inexpensive professional development opportunity (as well as another line on the CV). PLEASE share this with the adjuncts in your department. Back when I was one, I would have jumped at the chance to feel and be academic in any sense other than just in front of my students.
As it says on the program, the conference is taking place in Film Row Cinema Center, which is part of Columbia College, located in the South Loop.
If you have any questions you can write me or go right to the horse’s mouth; Allen Johnston from DePaul is the President of the SPSE and the guy who coordinated the rate negotiation for the adjuncts. His email is AJOHNST2@depaul.edu. Please keep in mind though, that he has a large role in putting together a conference that starts six days from now, so try not to overwhelm him with things that you might be able to figure out by other means.
You can register the morning of the conference, but if my memory serves me right, they could not process credit cards for the registration, so please bring cash or a personal check.
I posted this about student email over the summer. If you take a look, the post is dated July 21, 2010. Now, just FOUR months later, Reinvention Central has changed course.
Once again, a straight copy-and-paste (no changes to the formatting either) from an email dated 10/22/10 12:42 pm that went out to our student body:
DATE: October 22, 2010
SUBJECT: NEW AND IMPROVED STUDENT E-MAIL COMING SOON!
TO: STUDENTS
It’s Faster, Bigger, Safer, and does more stuff! It’s the new CCC Student Email, coming soon to an in-box near you. The new CCC Student Email, powered by Microsoft’s Live@Edu email services, provides many educational applications to enhance your communication and collaboration with other students and faculty, all by using your same CCC student account. So why did we choose Microsoft’s Live@Edu service? There are a few reasons:
Students will be more prepared to enter the workforce by using the same Office applications used by more than 500 million people and businesses around the world
Students gain access to web-based versions of Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote with no costly licenses required
Larger email inbox of 10GB
Web based document storage space of 25GB, more room to save classroom assignments and other instructional materials
Plus, students will have improved anti-spam and anti-virus protection
Communication with other students and faculty will now be easier than ever! The conversion to the new CCC Student Email service will be on November 8th. Prior to November 8th, you must change your password. Below is the link where you will be prompted for information to reset your password: http://ccc.edu/passwordreset If you have questions about CCC Student Email, please submit a request at the http://ccc.edu/help web page.
Gmail, we hardly knew ya.
So was that Microsoft presentation during DWFDW a pure formality?
As you may recall, way back in August at DWFDW, Perry Buckley told us that he’d have a survey for members to get some input on their concerns and campus climates and so forth. He said it would be out by November 1st and wrote himself a note. I think he might have lost the note. My point is not to say, “Liar, liar” or anything like that–he has a gigantic job and things are probably hot all over, but they’ve been particularly strange at CCC. I forget stuff all the time that I say I’ll do, and I only have 180 students, not thousands of members.
Anyhow, I heard that one of our enterprising young faculty members took the initiative to follow up on the survey for the rest of us, and Perry responded saying that the survey would go out with the Winter edition of the Union Newsletter (The Voice)–not the one that went out this week, but the one that goes out in December. He also asked her what questions she’d like to have on it. And so for today’s thinker, I pose the question to y’all. If you were designing the survey for the Union to send to its members (and, in truth, you are), what questions would you ask on it?
What do you think? What do you know? What can you prove?
UPDATE: Sorry about the error on the first poll question (effect should be affect–duh…), but I can’t change it without wiping out the votes already cast. Avert your eyes, please; mea culpa. (Thanks, Matt for the heads up. Sorry about the Phillies. Carry on.)
As you may or may not know, our District Wide Faculty Council President will address the Board of the City Colleges of Chicago and the Chancellor next Wednesday. Speaking for a large and multi-varied group is hard enough, but it’s infinitely more complicated of a task in these, umm….interesting times. I am told that at the last FC4 meeting, she agreed to send the draft of her address to the other FC4 representatives for feedback. I thought we might be able to give her some help with the draft part.
So, what would you like her to say? Any and all contributions, serious or snark, are welcome. All you have to do is finish the sentence: If I were President of FC4, I would tell the Board…
Taking a break from thinking about reinvention, I’ve posted the calendar for room 1046 in the CAST tab. The link is at the bottom of the CAST page. Check it out. If you’d like to use the room for a meeting (formal or informal), you can schedule it through me (csabino@ccc.edu). Let’s use this space. I’m also going to put a guestbook into the room (finally, Carrie suggested this a month ago) to track how and when the room is being used so we can make sure we have this crucial faculty space for a long, long time. If you haven’t checked out the room yet, you should. I’ll see you there.
Friday Spotlight is a regular feature (based on the frequency of email replies) in which we highlight a member of our HWC faculty, staff, or admin through a Q&A session. After responding, our member then has to “tag” another member of our community in order to keep the spotlight feature active. Check your CCC mailbox. You may be next!
Alrightythen, so in light of all that happened at our college this past week, I leave the spotlight in your hands this Friday, peeps. Shine it on an HWC member that was with last week, but is no longer. We didn’t get a chance to say good-bye so tell ‘em what was great about having worked with and for ‘em over the years.
Don’t let that big elephant on the stage get in the way.
I thought that this article was a really interesting and thought provoking piece of Comparative Education research.
For example:
The cost of a university education may be charged to the individual student but they will be forced to pay for it through the sort of debt-financing that governments across the world now consider so inappropriate for themselves. The scale of national debt is so ruinous we are told it requires emergency austerity measures (like all state intervention these days couched in the inevitable military metaphor of Osborne’s ‘war of welfare and waste’). Students, meanwhile, will be encouraged to take on loans based upon an imagined future income. They will effectively gamble that the loan will eventually pay-off by enhancing their future job prospects and earning power. It will be a hedge against their future security. What are effectively sub-prime loans are guaranteed by the state. Higher education is now modeled on the types of financial speculation that has helped get us in to this mess.
As many of you know, our former colleague Isabelle Belance was a fantastic educator, versatile musician, proud Haitian-Canadian, and, too briefly, loving mother. She was, of course, much, much more, too. In honor of her memory, and the commemoration of her upcoming birthday, her husband and friends have put together an event, Isabelle-a-palooza (check out the AWESOME logo), that takes place tonight out at Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn. I’ll let HW Music faculty and Sax man Matt Shevitz give the pitch:
Below is information for an event I’m playing for. It’s a great cause so if you can make it, please come! My group plays from 7:00pm-7:45pm. I’ve changed my repertoire a little bit so it’s more blues-oriented but there will still be some jazz tunes. Hope to see you there!
“I’m writing this time to tell you all about a fundraiser being held to honor Isabelle and to raise some money for a charity she supported. Isabelle was on the Executive Board of the DuSable Heritage Association which is currently sending donations to help with earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti.We’re calling the event “Isabelle-A-Palooza” — Thursday, October 28th at FitzGerald’s nightclub in suburban Berwyn, Illinois. It will feature lots of music by some of Isabelle’s pals and a unique Haitian performer named Rafo. We’ll also have Haitian art for sale and a raffle. It should be fun.”
“Admission price is $20.00 online, $25.00 at the door. Even if you can’t make it to the fundraiser, consider making a donation to the cause. If “Isabelle-A-Palooza” is a success…we plan to make this an annual thing.
We hope to see you there!
Greg (and Chloe)
Please help celebrate our friend Isa, while contributing to a good (and URGENT) cause.
PhiloDave
cnepstad
mathissexy
itejeda
writingisthinking
Kamran Swanson
Realist
Matt U.
domenicorocco
speechfromtheblock
casthwc
