Meditation and Mental Health

Are you feeling like you need a bit of quiet reflection in your day?

Join us for a workshop on Meditation and Mental Health--a collaboration of the student organization Psi Beta, MCC's Health & Wellness department, and the Office of Professional Development: 

Meditation and Mental Health

Thursday, March 12, 2015

2:30 - 3:50 p.m.

Luecht Conference Center, MCC

This will be an interactive workshop from the perspective of positive psychology. Learn more about the mind-body relationship, and how individuals can develop strategies to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression more effectively through the use of meditation.

Susan Hannan, M.A. (MCC Instructor of Psychology), and Bhante Sujatha, who is an abbot at the Blue Lotus Temple in Woodstock will lead the workshop. The session will end with a meditation led by Bhante Sujatha.

Bhante Sujatha, abbot at the Blue Lotus Temple in Woodstock

Spring 2014 Faculty Development Day

Happy New Year, faculty!

Although we've had a relaxing winter break, we're looking forward to getting back to work next week for the Spring 2014 Faculty Development Day. Take a look at the program of workshops we have lined up!

Tips on using the Prezi--click on the "Full Screen" button in the lower-right hand corner, and use your mouse to click and drag to somewhere new in the presentation, or scroll in and out for zooming in on text.

November is a Cornucopia of Faculty Development!

This month, we're giving thanks for the terrific workshops offered here on campus. Look over the calendar and choose one that's right for you.

Click to enlarge

And remember that if you can't make a workshop because of a scheduling conflict, let us know what day and time might work better for you!

Using Your Brain: Notes from NISOD

Julie Freelove, Jim Falco, and I were able to attend NISOD's 35th Annual International Conference on Teaching & Leadership Excellence (and Juletta Patrick was able to present at the conference! check out her blurb on page 38 of the conference program PDF).

The three of us scoured through thirty-one pages of breakout session listings to find some really terrific sessions, and today's post will give you a few tidbits from two of them.

On Monday, May 27, the first full day of the conference, I attended two back-to-back workshops led by Dr. Janet Zadina, an educational neuroscientist and adjunct associate professor at Tulane University's School of Medicine. I hadn't planned on attending Zadina's second session ("The Multiple Pathways Model: Using Brain Research to Orchestrate Teaching and Learning"), but during her first session ("Tapping Into the Brain's Reward Pathway to Energize Instruction") I quickly recognized that she was a presenter with great content and great style; so I decided to attend her second workshop.

Dr. Zadina and a brain (not her own)

One thing Zadina talked about that hit home was student success in the classroom. There are many reasons students don't succeed in any particular class, but one of the things that we, as instructors, can address specifically is a student's lack of prior knowledge.

Zadina gave tips for addressing this:

• Give students some background information (a YouTube video clip, a newspaper or magazine article that's slightly below reading level) on course content before they start a new reading or project; this will help them to create a meaningful context for the material and will help them dip their toes into water that may be very cold and very unfamiliar
• Use visuals whenever you can (we use emoticons and emojis in text messages and casual e-mails to signal meaning [especially sarcasm], so why not use images and pictures with students to help communicate the meaning behind the words and concepts?)

Cookies & photos by Bee In Our Bonnet--maybe a perfect project for a pastries class...?

During the second workshop, which focused on the brain's frontal lobe (a good frontal lobe = a good life!), Zadina gave some great tips for helping students learn those all important "executive" (higher level) brain functions:

• Teach students the process of doing the tasks by modeling them ahead of time during class
• Show students how to take good notes (on days one or two of the semester, show them your own notes from a seminar or workshop, and spend a minute talking about your own process)
• Show students how to study for tests and quizzes (use small groups or in-class study sessions to model good studying)
• Start with short-term, concrete projects before moving on to long-term higher-learning function projects
• Require meta-cognition (before an assignment or quiz/exam, ask students to answer questions like How much time do I plan to spend preparing for this assignment/quiz? and What techniques will I use to complete this assignment/study for this quiz? After assignments, students can answer questions like Am I satisfied with my final product? and What will I do differently to prepare for the next assignment/quiz?)

There was so much more great information, but hopefully this will get you started thinking about how to be more aware of students' brains and how we can use our own amazing brains when preparing for class.

Look forward to more notes from NISOD, coming soon!

Ignite Your Passion and Your Presentations!

When was the last time you were asked to do a short presentation to a group of people (students, colleagues, conference attendees...) and you didn't want to show them the same old thing--the same old PowerPoint, the same old podium speech?

Well, why not use an Ignite Talk? It's a five minute presentation format that's generating some buzz at conferences (I saw my first Ignite talk at last Fall's Chicago Writer's Conference), and it's an excellent way to demonstrate your excitement about a focused topic using tightly rehearsed points and twenty hand-picked images.

The basics:

• It's a five minute presentation
• Your topic is specific & focused
• As you talk, your slideshow automatically scrolls through slides/images (20 total slides scroll every 15 seconds for 5 total minutes)
• Your quick, well rehearsed presentation ignites enthusiasm in your audience members!

If you're interested, follow these five easy steps to put your presentation together (I'll give you my Spring '13 Faculty Development Day presentation as an example):

1. Identify a specific and focused topic (Ex.: Why I Love Teaching at MCC)
2. Organize your presentation into three or four main points (Ex.: My students, my colleagues, and the community college mission)
3. Brainstorm one or two short narratives for each of your points (Narratives are easier for you to remember, which helps because you won't have any notes!)
4. Choose images to show off your points, your stories, and your enthusiasm (Ex.: pictures of my students in class and on Alternative Spring Break, pictures of my colleagues at MCC, a goofy picture of my high school cheerleading squad...)
5. Rehearse! (and then rehearse some more--you want to make sure what you're saying coincides with the slides that are moving behind you)

And that's it!

If you need help with images, ask OMPR--they have a terrific library of images from MCC events. You can also use the Internet to snag appropriate images, take your own pictures, or use the Media Center (A210) to scan in your old photos.

Interested in seeing a few more Ignite talks before giving your own? Check out the Ignite website or attend the group Ignite talk at MCC on March 12 that will be honoring Women's History Month by highlighting some of our terrific women at MCC.

And let us know when you give your own Ignite presentation so we can come cheer you on!