"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"
Tuesday Teaching Question is a regular feature that attempts to get a conversation going about teaching. Typically, the questions attempt to be very practical. TTQ is brought to you by CAST. If you have a question that you’re dying to have featured in an upcoming TTQ, e-mail me at hwc_cast@ccc.edu.
I’ll admit, that I’ve got some vested interest in this question. Look at my name. Anyhow, this Thursday will be the first meeting of the WAC (Writing Across the Curriculum) Committee. They’ll also have a meeting on Monday 2/7. Check the calendar on the CAST page for the time. This got me thinking. In fact, I just finished writing the long overdue report about the Assessment Committee’s QR assessment from Fall ’09. Two of the big questions I ended the report with were (in parenthesis are variations for you)…
How is mathematics used in other (non-math) classes? (How do you use mathematics in your courses?)
Do we have (or can we move towards) MAC (math across the curriculum)? (Do you feel we should have a MAC culture at HW?)
I often make the claim to my students that math is everywhere. This TTQ will hopefully help me (and other math instructors) put my money where my mouth is.
This article is one I’ve had stashed for awhile. It’s inspired me to post a giant logic puzzle on the bulletin board of my classroom. Check out what it says:
This and other recent research suggest that the appeal of puzzles goes far deeper than the dopamine-reward rush of finding a solution. The very idea of doing a crossword or a Sudoku puzzle typically shifts the brain into an open, playful state that is itself a pleasing escape, captivating to people as different as Bill Clinton, a puzzle addict, and the famous amnesiac Henry Molaison, or H.M., whose damaged brain craved crosswords.
And that escape is all the more tantalizing for being incomplete. Unlike the cryptic social and professional mazes of real life, puzzles are reassuringly soluble; but like any serious problem, they require more than mere intellect to crack.
“It’s imagination, it’s inference, it’s guessing; and much of it is happening subconsciously,” said Marcel Danesi, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto and the author of “The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life.”
“It’s all about you, using your own mind, without any method or schema, to restore order from chaos,” Dr. Danesi said. “And once you have, you can sit back and say, ‘Hey, the rest of my life may be a disaster, but at least I have a solution.’ ”
Now if I can only get around to actually printing it out and putting it up…
#4) Why is it that the seven colleges’ graduation practice is being changed without so much as a glimmer toward a justification, other than the Chancellor’s (unexplained) excitement about holding a single, combined graduation? Why should we be excited about that, again? Why is it better?
Monday Music is a regular feature whose goal is to provide you with some music to get you fired up for another week of doing the yeoperson’s work of educating the citizenry.
If you play it loud enough, it will melt the snow.
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.
Monday, 1/31: New Student Welcome Reception (2-3:30pm, rm 103).
Tuesday, 2/1: Black History Month (BHM) Kickoff featuring Martin L. King, President of Operation Push (2-3:30pm, rm 103); Women’s Studies Committee Meeting to plan Women’s History Month events (3:30pm, rm 621); and Sustainability Alliance Mini Grant Applications are Due (Midnight!).
Wednesday, 2/2: BHM Event: African American Lit Read-In (11am-1:30pm, rm1002); Auditions for Loop Players Production (6-7pm, rm 103). Sustainability Committee (2-3 Rm. 1046); Assessment Committee (3-4 Rm 1046)
Thursday, 2/3: Writing Across the Curriculum Meeting, (2-3, rm 1046); Auditions for Loop Players Production (6-7pm, rm 103).
Friday, 2/4: WL Language Symposium (8am-5pm, rm 1115)–please note that I have no idea what it is or whether it’s open to everyone–ask Margarita Chavez (or a WL/ELL colleague) if you’re interested.
Saturday, 2/5: Deadline for applying for Spring Graduation, probably better to let students know about this sometime during the week; make your Super Bowl preparations (and if you’re a Steelers fan that will mean preparing yourself for emotional distress).
What did I miss? Post it in the comments, and please accept my apologies.
From the fabulous and indefatigable Ellen Goldberg:
Hello distinguished colleagues!
I am pleased to announce that the New Student Welcome Reception is Monday from 2-3:30 in room 103!
Thanks so much for agreeing to participate or to mention it to your students! I appreciate the help! I am sending this to the Faculty, Academic Departments, Participating Offices, Instructors of SENCER Cohorts, Instructors in the URC Program, and College Success Instructors! Please forward it to anyone that I may have missed! I would also love it if you could put it on your blogs (Harold Lounge!) and on Blackboard as announcements to your students or simply announce it on Monday! We would love to have a stellar turnout!
The following Offices have agreed to have tables at the Fair.
Advising Office
DAC
International Student Office
Transfer Center
Social Work Programs
ENCORE
English Language Learners Department
Learning Center
Writing Lab
Entrepreneurship Program
Career Planning and Placement
Office of Information Technology (Computer Labs)
Library
Wellness Center
Student Clubs (CLUB DAY)
Legal Clinic
Financial Aid Office/ Veteran’s Services
I ask that someone from your department stay the entire time from 2:00-3:30 on Monday in room 102. The students will be instructed to participate in a BINGO Activity, and I will give all of you stickers to give them when they come to your table. I would say that it’s up to you about how you want to distribute the stickers. You can tell them some information or have them ask you one question about your department. The student last semester really got into the BINGO game! Those who fill out the entire card can win a Candy Bar until they run out!
Thanks so much for your department’s participation! I appreciate it!
If you have any questions, let me know. I will be running around on Monday so feel free to reach me on my cell at 773-330-5413.
Also, please encourage new and returning students to attend. Studies have shown that students who are connected to campus are more likely to graduate!
Have a great day! I appreciate you and the students do too!
Ellen
Ellen Goldberg, M.Ed, MA
College Advisor/ Adjunct Spanish Professor
Harold Washington College
30 E. Lake St.
Chicago, IL 60601
(312)553-5778
There is a speech by author Phillip Pullman (The Golden Compass, etc.) in praise of the Library that is whizzing around the intertoobz in light of some potential closings as a result of the dire budget cuts being imposed there.
Whether you agree or not (and I think most of you will agree with the thesis he’s putting forth), the speech, which you can read here, is absolutely gorgeous. For example:
I still remember the first library ticket I ever had. It must have been about 1957. My mother took me to the public library just off Battersea Park Road and enrolled me. I was thrilled. All those books, and I was allowed to borrow whichever I wanted! And I remember some of the first books I borrowed and fell in love with: the Moomin books by Tove Jansson; a French novel for children called A Hundred Million Francs; why did I like that? Why did I read it over and over again, and borrow it many times? I don’t know. But what a gift to give a child, this chance to discover that you can love a book and the characters in it, you can become their friend and share their adventures in your own imagination.
And the secrecy of it! The blessed privacy! No-one else can get in the way, no-one else can invade it, no-one else even knows what’s going on in that wonderful space that opens up between the reader and the book. That open democratic space full of thrills, full of excitement and fear, full of astonishment, where your own emotions and ideas are given back to you clarified, magnified, purified, valued. You’re a citizen of that great democratic space that opens up between you and the book. And the body that gave it to you is the public library. Can I possibly convey the magnitude of that gift?
Somewhere in Blackbird Leys, somewhere in Berinsfield, somewhere in Botley, somewhere in Benson or in Bampton, to name only the communities beginning with B whose libraries are going to be abolished, somewhere in each of them there is a child right now, there are children, just like me at that age in Battersea, children who only need to make that discovery to learn that they too are citizens of the republic of reading. Only the public library can give them that gift.
It’s feisty, too, as here:
What I personally hate about this bidding culture is that it sets one community, one group, one school, against another. If one wins, the other loses. I’ve always hated it. It started coming in when I left the teaching profession 25 years ago, and I could see the way things were going then. In a way it’s an abdication of responsibility. We elect people to decide things, and they don’t really want to decide, so they set up this bidding nonsense and then they aren’t really responsible for the outcome. “Well, if the community really wanted it, they would have put in a better bid … Nothing I can do about it … My hands are tied …”
And it always results in victory for one side and defeat for the other. It’s set up to do that. It’s imported the worst excesses of market fundamentalism into the one arena that used to be safe from them, the one part of our public and social life that used to be free of the commercial pressure to win or to lose, to survive or to die, which is the very essence of the religion of the market. Like all fundamentalists who get their clammy hands on the levers of political power, the market fanatics are going to kill off every humane, life-enhancing, generous, imaginative and decent corner of our public life. I think that little by little we’re waking up to the truth about the market fanatics and their creed. We’re coming to see that old Karl Marx had his finger on the heart of the matter when he pointed out that the market in the end will destroy everything we know, everything we thought was safe and solid. It is the most powerful solvent known to history. “Everything solid melts into air,” he said. “All that is holy is profaned.”
Market fundamentalism, this madness that’s infected the human race, is like a greedy ghost that haunts the boardrooms and council chambers and committee rooms from which the world is run these days.
And it’s funny, too; and outraging. You should read it. Then spend the afternoon in a library.
A team of researchers from Stanford and the National Staff Development Council released their Phase III report of their multi-year research project into the policies and practices that make for effective educational professional development.
All three reports are available at Learning Forward’s Web site (click HERE), along with a description of the project’s aims, scope and findings.
The reports are described like this:
Phase I: In 2009, NSDC released Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in the United States and Abroad. This report examines what research has revealed about professional learning that improves teachers’ practice and student learning. The report describes the availability of such opportunities in the United States and high-achieving nations around the world, which have been making substantial and sustained investments in professional learning for teachers over the last two decades. Funding for the multiyear research effort comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, MetLife Foundation, NSDC, and The Wallace Foundation.
Phase II: The report from Phase II of this multiyear research initiative examines the status of professional learning in the United States. The findings indicate that the nation is making some progress in providing increased support and mentoring for new teachers. However, the study also reveals that teachers’ opportunities for the kind of ongoing, intensive professional learning that research shows has a substantial impact on student learning are decreasing.
Researchers examined 2008 data from the federal government’s Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and other sources. The report also includes assessments of each state on the quality of their professional development across 11 indicators that comprise a newly developed Professional Development Access Index.
Phase III: Policy shapes practices, and the increasingly important realm of professional development is no exception. To identify effective professional development policies and strategies, the Stanford University research team examined the policy frameworks supporting high levels of professional development activity in four states in Phase III of the multiyear research study.
The states—Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, and Vermont—were identified as “professionally active” based on evidence of high levels of teacher participation in professional development in the 2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, and the teacher surveys associated with the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); a reputation in the literature for enacting reforms that are consistent with the research based on “effective” professional development; and improvements in student achievement as measured in the 2009 NAEP.
Your local Faculty Council has been contacted by a couple of members of the Staff and Professional Development Task Force (they want to get some information from HW faculty), and we’re working out the details of what will happen and how. In the meantime, it might be valuable to take a gander at these reports (at least the first one, which gives an overview of research on PD) to fertilize your own thinking on the subject.
The emotional health of college freshmen — who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school — has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago.
In the survey, “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2010,” involving more than 200,000 incoming full-time students at four-year colleges, the percentage of students rating themselves as “below average” in emotional health rose. Meanwhile, the percentage of students who said their emotional health was above average fell to 52 percent. It was 64 percent in 1985.
Think, Know, Prove is a regular Saturday feature, where a topic with both mystery and importance is posted for community discussion. The title is a shortened version of the Investigative Mantra: What do we think, what do we know, what can we prove? and everything from wild speculation to resource referencing fact is welcome here.
We have a new version of Blackboard, you know. My students seem to be navigating it without difficulty, so far; mostly the same is true for me, in no small part thanks to Ephrem’s screencast videos. Issues remain, though.
I have heard that there is an issue with the email function; don’t know if that has been fixed yet. My three biggest problems so far have been 1) student difficulties opening and printing .pdfs; 2) the fact that when I post an External Link to specific YouTube video, it initially goes to the video, but then redirects to the home site before the video loads; and 3) when I tried to solve that problem by posting the video under the “Mashup” column (in a strange use of that word, it seems), I get only an error message.
The first one is solved easily enough with a link to Adobe Reader and a brief explanation (and demonstration) that students should print from the .pdf frame rather than the browser. The second and third is resolved by having students right click on the link and open it in a new window. Still, something about that isn’t right.
Mathissexy likes the new Gradebook much better than the old one, and I agree except for the fact that the frame is so tiny that I can only see 8 or so names at a time and the thing scrolls like walking zombie (as in not smooth).I like the Journal function, too, and suggested that students use it as a place to record their learning as we go (I might even require that next semester; not sure, though), but I haven’t made use of the Blog or some of the other new tools.
Surely that is not all anyone has to say about it. What do you like? What do you despise? What should they fix?
What do you think? What do you know? What can you prove?
This message just arrived in our CCC email accounts.
I thought I’d copy and paste it to The Lounge for two reasons:
1. Some of us may be selective in reading our emails (Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.)
2. Maybe y’all want to talk about it. Maybe make carpool plans, grab a bite to eat before the ceremony, during the ceremony, or after.
Here it is:
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
I am excited to announce that, for the first time in recent CCC history, all seven City Colleges will come together to honor our Associate degree completers at a district-wide spring commencement ceremony. This event is made all the more special as it will help us mark our 100th anniversary year.
Completers and their guests will be invited to attend the ceremony on:
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion
525 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, IL
(Overflow accommodations at the UIC Forum, 725 West Roosevelt Road)
If you expect to graduate this spring, we ask that you save this date on your calendar. Information regarding ticket allotment, cap and gown pick up and further logistical details will be sent to graduation candidates in late February.
In addition to this ceremony, we will host a recognition ceremony for Adult Education and certificate candidates on a separate date. Details regarding the recognition ceremonies will follow shortly.
Graduation is a significant milestone on the path to a rewarding career or further education. I look forward to celebrating this achievement with the Class of 2011.
Whaddya Know? is (going to be) a regularly featured podcast conversation with the Chair of the HW Assessment Committee highlighting recent assessment activities, results, and consequent recommendations of the college’s hardest working committee. It appears every Friday afternoon.
Enjoy the (brief) assessment stylings of Committee Chair Michael Heathfield. If you have any questions that you’d like me to pose to him in future interviews, please post them in the comments.
PS: We’re working on a theme song. Maybe next week!
James’s approach to teaching includes key components of what experts consider sound environmental education practices, and those practices are very different, experts say, from what one might think. “Often people have the misconception that environmental education is training tree huggers,” explains Brian Day, executive director of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). “That couldn’t be farther from the truth.”
Teaching students about the environment does, indeed, lend itself to controversial issues—climate change, coal mining, oil spills, and coastal erosion, to name a few. But the intent, Day says, is not to take sides. Instead, he says, environmental education has two main objectives: to teach students about the complex interactions between human systems and natural systems, and to show them how to make informed and responsible decisions about their lives and the environment. To achieve these goals, environmental educators say, there are certain guidelines teachers should keep in mind. One of those is to do what James does and encourage students to draw their own conclusions.
I’ve always been interested in teaching an ethics class with an environmental ed angle, but I don’t think I know enough, and I’ve always been hesitant to put myself in the position of a proselytizer for any specific position rather than for philosophy in general. Still not sure about it, though…
Why are we in such denial? Carl Safina’s ambitious new book, “The View From Lazy Point,” is a series of field reports entwined with a loving meditation on the interconnectedness of nature and humanity. The story he tells is “partly about a kind of heartbreak for a world that remains so vitally unaware of how imperiled it is.” But it’s also about how, despite the gloomy reports, “the world still sings.” Safina’s account of “a natural year in an unnatural world” can be harrowing, but its impassioned, informed urgency is also filled with hope, joy and love.
Doesn’t it make you want to lie down and crack it open? Does for me.
PhiloDave
cnepstad
mathissexy
itejeda
writingisthinking
Kamran Swanson
Realist
Matt U.
domenicorocco
speechfromtheblock
casthwc
