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| 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!
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
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.
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!
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!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Excellence in Teaching Showcase
This October was one of the handful of months during the academic year that has a fifth Tuesday. Tuesday afternoons are dedicated to various faculty meetings, but since fifth Tuesdays are floating inconsistencies, we try to take advantage of them whenever we can and have a Fifth Tuesday get together for faculty members.
Our last meeting was just this week, Tuesday, October 29, and it was used to showcase our fantastic faculty members here at MCC and how we're all using tenants from the Excellence in Teaching definition in our classrooms.
Each faculty member brainstormed something they're using in the classroom to connect to subject matter, pedagogy, professionalism, and/or assessment. They wrote short descriptions on a notecard and dropped their cards into our plastic pumpkin. We pulled out names of faculty members across all divisions and got interesting and steal-able ideas from everyone.
Gayle Cochin-Swidler, Instructor of Nursing, was just one of the half-dozen or so names we drew from the pumpkin head. Gayle talked about a video she uses in her Nursing 210 course; the video, called A Virtual Hallucination, is produced by Mindstorm and simulates a schizophrenic hallucination. Here's what Gayle said about using this simulation in class:
You can experience a bit of the video yourself right here:
For the next few weeks I'll be highlighting more things from the notecards, and I might be calling on you (yes, you!) for more information on your idea. Stay tuned!
Our last meeting was just this week, Tuesday, October 29, and it was used to showcase our fantastic faculty members here at MCC and how we're all using tenants from the Excellence in Teaching definition in our classrooms.
Each faculty member brainstormed something they're using in the classroom to connect to subject matter, pedagogy, professionalism, and/or assessment. They wrote short descriptions on a notecard and dropped their cards into our plastic pumpkin. We pulled out names of faculty members across all divisions and got interesting and steal-able ideas from everyone.
Gayle Cochin-Swidler, Instructor of Nursing, was just one of the half-dozen or so names we drew from the pumpkin head. Gayle talked about a video she uses in her Nursing 210 course; the video, called A Virtual Hallucination, is produced by Mindstorm and simulates a schizophrenic hallucination. Here's what Gayle said about using this simulation in class:
"Students experienced a simulation of severe audio and visual hallucinations similar to the symptoms experienced every day by millions of people diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The students found the experience to be compelling, which helped them better understand horrific symptoms of schizophrenia and the importance of treating symptoms in order to improve their quality of life."
You can experience a bit of the video yourself right here:
For the next few weeks I'll be highlighting more things from the notecards, and I might be calling on you (yes, you!) for more information on your idea. Stay tuned!
Friday, October 11, 2013
Get Your Passport Ready!
If you're a full time faculty member at MCC and are looking for an exciting, adventurous, and pedagogically relevant travel opportunity, Lindsay Carson has something for you.
For the past five years, Lindsay has been hard at work honing the College's study abroad programming, made available through the Illinois Consortium for International Studies and Programs (ICISP), and that programming includes three teaching abroad programs. It's not just the students who get to have all the fun--we get in on the action, too!
Here's a breakdown of our three programs. Compare, contrast, and find one that's perfect for you.
Because of ICISP regulations and the institutions through which ICISP organizes, current opportunities are only available to full time faculty members. At this time, the three excellent programs outlined above fill our international studies plate--of course Lindsay may be developing additional opportunities in the future, but for now, we hope you find that one of our existing programs fits your availability and interests.
Lindsay will also be leading two workshops this semester, scheduled for October 23 and November 11, and a lunch-n-learn about our three programs (date to be scheduled). The curriculum map for her two workshops is posted below. Visit the Professional Development auto-registration system to enroll, and feel free to contact Lindsay with additional questions!
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| Image by Robert Wood |
Here's a breakdown of our three programs. Compare, contrast, and find one that's perfect for you.
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| Click to englarge |
Because of ICISP regulations and the institutions through which ICISP organizes, current opportunities are only available to full time faculty members. At this time, the three excellent programs outlined above fill our international studies plate--of course Lindsay may be developing additional opportunities in the future, but for now, we hope you find that one of our existing programs fits your availability and interests.
Lindsay will also be leading two workshops this semester, scheduled for October 23 and November 11, and a lunch-n-learn about our three programs (date to be scheduled). The curriculum map for her two workshops is posted below. Visit the Professional Development auto-registration system to enroll, and feel free to contact Lindsay with additional questions!
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| Click to enlarge |
Monday, October 07, 2013
So Many Workshops!
October offers up some excellent workshops for faculty development. Check them out!
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| Click to enlarge |
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Customize Your Professional Development
Contributed by Janet Scott, Reference Librarian
A new concept in professional development was suggested recently by English instructor Robert McCord with the blessings of Faculty Development and Professional Development.
Robert’s idea was to allow classroom faculty to earn one clock hour advanced placement credit for spending an hour or so one-on-one with a librarian to collaborate and/or learn something information-literacy related.
This resulted in the librarians creating a workshop titled Librarian/Instructor Consultation, the description of which is:
A one-on-one workshop/consultation to discuss information literacy in your course(s), including such topics as integrating and assessing this general education objective in your discipline, discussing available resources on a class topic, designing research assignments and any needed scaffolding, etc.
Each of these “workshops” will be custom-designed to meet the instructor’s needs. So if you want to collaborate with a librarian on a project, create or revise a research assignment, learn more about resources in a particular topic area, integrate information literacy into your curriculum/course, learn a new research skill, or if you have another information literacy-related idea, pitch it to Janet or Cynthia and we’ll go from there.
A new concept in professional development was suggested recently by English instructor Robert McCord with the blessings of Faculty Development and Professional Development.
Robert’s idea was to allow classroom faculty to earn one clock hour advanced placement credit for spending an hour or so one-on-one with a librarian to collaborate and/or learn something information-literacy related.
This resulted in the librarians creating a workshop titled Librarian/Instructor Consultation, the description of which is:
A one-on-one workshop/consultation to discuss information literacy in your course(s), including such topics as integrating and assessing this general education objective in your discipline, discussing available resources on a class topic, designing research assignments and any needed scaffolding, etc.
Each of these “workshops” will be custom-designed to meet the instructor’s needs. So if you want to collaborate with a librarian on a project, create or revise a research assignment, learn more about resources in a particular topic area, integrate information literacy into your curriculum/course, learn a new research skill, or if you have another information literacy-related idea, pitch it to Janet or Cynthia and we’ll go from there.
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| Contact Janet or Cynthia for a one-on-one information literacy collaboration! |
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Service Learning: Five Easy Steps to Get Started
Contributed by Lisa Jensen, Coordinator of Service Learning
MCC defines service learning as "a teaching strategy that combines meaningful community service with course reflection and instruction."
If you're interested in implementing service learning into your curriculum--either as a required or an optional component of the class--here are the five quick and easy steps to begin engaging students in a context rich and meaningful way:
You can get a few ideas from this presentation Lisa put together...
But for more information, visit MCC's Service Learning web page and contact Lisa!
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| Lisa Jensen, Coordinator of Service Learning |
If you're interested in implementing service learning into your curriculum--either as a required or an optional component of the class--here are the five quick and easy steps to begin engaging students in a context rich and meaningful way:
- Identify what you would like students to gain from Service Learning experience
- Meet with Lisa, Coordinator of Service Learning
- Discuss service options
- Go over timeline
- Work on syllabus
- Invite Lisa and organization representative to class to discuss Service Learning and the history, vision, and goals of organization
- Start service and reflection {enjoy the process}
- Meet with Lisa to discuss positive outcomes as well as challenge
You can get a few ideas from this presentation Lisa put together...
But for more information, visit MCC's Service Learning web page and contact Lisa!
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Teaching Professionalism
In the past few months I have had two instances where I've had a moment. These have not been "senior" moments, and they weren't really "ah-ha!" moments, either. They've been "teacher" moments: moments when I am out an about and I have a realization about my classroom, my students, my syllabus, or something else that has to do with me as a teacher--and if you're a teacher, too (and you likely are if you're reading this post), then you know exactly what I mean. And both of my realizations--my moments--had to do with professionalism, one of our four tenants of Excellence in Teaching here at MCC.
My first moment was while I was opening a checking account at a bank in Chicago, and the account associate--a young man who couldn't have been more than a few years out of college--spoke to me as though we were frat buddies, even though I'd only just met him, and even though I was a female at least a decade his senior. He told me why he was having a bad day; he compared my credit score to other customers who lived in the surrounding area; and he gave me a run-down of the woman who'd come in before me and what banking issues she was having. I was, as you might imagine, taken aback. What, I asked myself, would this man say about me to his coworkers or customers as soon as I walked out the door?
The second moment was last weekend while I was at a big box electronics store in Crystal Lake, looking at televisions with my husband. The salesperson--a young woman who reminded me very much of our traditional aged college students here at MCC--was terrifically helpful and knowledgeable, answering all of our questions and anticipating our concerns about features, size, quality, and (of course), cost. But then, she brought over her manager to speak with us, and he treated us as though we were offensive, scoffing at our concerns, and treating us like children (stupid children at that). In fact, his lack of professionalism left such a bad taste in our mouths, we walked away without making a purchase and instead got a t.v. elsewhere.
And these two moments almost immediately started me thinking: our students are working at stores like this, and they are trying to get jobs as account associates at large national banks. But am I doing a good enough job teaching them skills to apply to their lives outside of the classroom, including professionalism?
There is much written about teaching and assessing professionalism in the field of medicine, but I could find little written about professionalism in other areas (although see the end of this post for some resources). Of course it's essential in the medical fields--our students will be dealing with patients in serious medical situations, and the need for care, privacy, and discretion is of the utmost importance.
But why do we--not just the "we" here at MCC, but the whole higher education "we"--not give more weight to teaching professionalism in other disciplines? Banking, like nursing or occupational therapy, is also a field that requires care, privacy, and discretion (though certainly in a very different way than medicine). Our money is no one's business but ours and our banker's, and I would certainly hope (though my experience might prove to the contrary) that my banker wasn't talking about my business to other customers.
So, I will now start paying even more attention to professionalism in my classrooms. I will continue to try to be a role model of professional behavior--something we all can and already all do in our classrooms--but I will think beyond that. I'll try to create more real-world writing assignments to help students practice professional written communication. I currently have a project in my creative writing class that requires students to investigate a literary magazine to which they'll eventually submit their own work--but now I'll require that they write an actual cover letter to the editor as a part of their report. They need to understand that it is not just their grade in my class that's at stake.
Here are a handful of resources that you might find interesting or helpful:
Using Wikis to Teach Professionalism
Varga-Atkins, Tünde, Peter Dangerfield, and David Brigden. "Developing Professionalism Through The Use Of Wikis: A Study With First-Year Undergraduate Medical Students." Medical Teacher 32.10 (2010): 824-829. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Aug. 2013.
Using Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to Teach Professionalism:
Rademacher, Ruth, Deborah Simpson, and Karen Marcdante. "Critical Incidents As A Technique For Teaching Professionalism." Medical Teacher 32.3 (2010): 244-249. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Aug. 2013.
Using A Student Built Town to Teach...a Lot!
Hall, Candace. "LE[Superscript 3]AD Academy Builds Professionalism In Vocational Students." Techniques: Connecting Education And Careers 87.7 (2012): 48-51. ERIC. Web. 29 Aug. 2013.
And here's an interesting article about assessing professionalism in counseling.
What new methods of teaching and modeling professionalism might you use in your classrooms? Use the "Comments" section below to add your ideas!
My first moment was while I was opening a checking account at a bank in Chicago, and the account associate--a young man who couldn't have been more than a few years out of college--spoke to me as though we were frat buddies, even though I'd only just met him, and even though I was a female at least a decade his senior. He told me why he was having a bad day; he compared my credit score to other customers who lived in the surrounding area; and he gave me a run-down of the woman who'd come in before me and what banking issues she was having. I was, as you might imagine, taken aback. What, I asked myself, would this man say about me to his coworkers or customers as soon as I walked out the door?
The second moment was last weekend while I was at a big box electronics store in Crystal Lake, looking at televisions with my husband. The salesperson--a young woman who reminded me very much of our traditional aged college students here at MCC--was terrifically helpful and knowledgeable, answering all of our questions and anticipating our concerns about features, size, quality, and (of course), cost. But then, she brought over her manager to speak with us, and he treated us as though we were offensive, scoffing at our concerns, and treating us like children (stupid children at that). In fact, his lack of professionalism left such a bad taste in our mouths, we walked away without making a purchase and instead got a t.v. elsewhere.
And these two moments almost immediately started me thinking: our students are working at stores like this, and they are trying to get jobs as account associates at large national banks. But am I doing a good enough job teaching them skills to apply to their lives outside of the classroom, including professionalism?
There is much written about teaching and assessing professionalism in the field of medicine, but I could find little written about professionalism in other areas (although see the end of this post for some resources). Of course it's essential in the medical fields--our students will be dealing with patients in serious medical situations, and the need for care, privacy, and discretion is of the utmost importance.
But why do we--not just the "we" here at MCC, but the whole higher education "we"--not give more weight to teaching professionalism in other disciplines? Banking, like nursing or occupational therapy, is also a field that requires care, privacy, and discretion (though certainly in a very different way than medicine). Our money is no one's business but ours and our banker's, and I would certainly hope (though my experience might prove to the contrary) that my banker wasn't talking about my business to other customers.
So, I will now start paying even more attention to professionalism in my classrooms. I will continue to try to be a role model of professional behavior--something we all can and already all do in our classrooms--but I will think beyond that. I'll try to create more real-world writing assignments to help students practice professional written communication. I currently have a project in my creative writing class that requires students to investigate a literary magazine to which they'll eventually submit their own work--but now I'll require that they write an actual cover letter to the editor as a part of their report. They need to understand that it is not just their grade in my class that's at stake.
Here are a handful of resources that you might find interesting or helpful:
Using Wikis to Teach Professionalism
Varga-Atkins, Tünde, Peter Dangerfield, and David Brigden. "Developing Professionalism Through The Use Of Wikis: A Study With First-Year Undergraduate Medical Students." Medical Teacher 32.10 (2010): 824-829. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Aug. 2013.
Using Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to Teach Professionalism:
Rademacher, Ruth, Deborah Simpson, and Karen Marcdante. "Critical Incidents As A Technique For Teaching Professionalism." Medical Teacher 32.3 (2010): 244-249. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Aug. 2013.
Using A Student Built Town to Teach...a Lot!
Hall, Candace. "LE[Superscript 3]AD Academy Builds Professionalism In Vocational Students." Techniques: Connecting Education And Careers 87.7 (2012): 48-51. ERIC. Web. 29 Aug. 2013.
And here's an interesting article about assessing professionalism in counseling.
What new methods of teaching and modeling professionalism might you use in your classrooms? Use the "Comments" section below to add your ideas!
Our Faculty Development Workshops Make September Look Good!
Check out the terrific September calendar of workshops offered through Professional Development:
Hope to see you in A210!
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| Click to enlarge |
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Making Groups Work in the Classroom
Last semester I participated in the Undergraduate Research Scholar Program here at the College. The student I worked with was interested in researching the impact of positive teacher-student relationships in the classroom on student success, and one of her information gathering methods was to observe a number of faculty members at MCC.
One technique she noted during her observations was the teaching style each instructor used: lecture, lab, small group work, discussion, or something altogether different. And although she drew a lot of interesting conclusions based on her observations, the one I found most interesting was this:
Students were more interested in group work if there was no grade, or if the grade was low-stakes.
Now, I've always worked under the assumption--based on my own experiences--that students care less when there's nothing "at stake" (i.e. no grade). This has, in particular, caused me to stop grading participation (a sticky wicket to try to grade anyway) and to no longer "grade" attendance, and to use in-class activities instead. But this group grade conclusion was really a revelation!
After talking with my student, Shaz, and Anne Humphrey and Elaine Whalen, I came up with some ideas to make group work work for the classroom:
Use group work as a method of practicing what they'll need to do on their own for an independent assignment
The second paper my English Composition 2 students write is an argumentative problem solving paper. Right after I hand out the assignment and explain the principles of problem solving, I have the students practice problem solving during an in-class activity. By doing this, the students can try out the new concept they've just learned in a low-stakes group activity (currently, it's weighted at 3% of their overall grade). And, if they pay attention during the group work, they can use the exercise as a template for the paper they'll spend the following month writing.
Let students "fire" members of their group
In Elaine Whalen's group research project, students can "fire" a student group member who is not pulling her weight. The group must give the student in question a verbal warning, and then a written warning, and the instructor must know about all of it. The student who has been let go from the group will either get a zero on the project or she can ask another group to take her in and hopefully redeem herself. Elaine has found that students who get "fired" work doubly hard in their adopted group.
Use the drafting process for student accountability
If you're giving a group grade on a project but want to make sure that each student has contributed their fair share and has mastered all of the content--not just a small portion of it--ask each student to submit a "rough" final project with all elements included. This allows you to track their participation, and it allows the full group to then decide which elements from each individual student's work should be included (they vet the pieces to create a stronger "whole" piece).
Assign a student to be the designated a-hole
The book You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney (yes, the title is awful, but it's an interesting book) has a chapter on "Group Think." McRaney writes about this phenomenon. The misconception, McRaney writes, is that "problems are easier to solve when a group of people get together to discuss solutions." But the actuality is that "desire to reach consensus and avoid confrontation hinders progress."
Based on that idea and the rest of McRaney's chapter, we can suggest a few things for successful small group problem solving:
One technique she noted during her observations was the teaching style each instructor used: lecture, lab, small group work, discussion, or something altogether different. And although she drew a lot of interesting conclusions based on her observations, the one I found most interesting was this:
Students were more interested in group work if there was no grade, or if the grade was low-stakes.
Now, I've always worked under the assumption--based on my own experiences--that students care less when there's nothing "at stake" (i.e. no grade). This has, in particular, caused me to stop grading participation (a sticky wicket to try to grade anyway) and to no longer "grade" attendance, and to use in-class activities instead. But this group grade conclusion was really a revelation!
After talking with my student, Shaz, and Anne Humphrey and Elaine Whalen, I came up with some ideas to make group work work for the classroom:
Use group work as a method of practicing what they'll need to do on their own for an independent assignment
The second paper my English Composition 2 students write is an argumentative problem solving paper. Right after I hand out the assignment and explain the principles of problem solving, I have the students practice problem solving during an in-class activity. By doing this, the students can try out the new concept they've just learned in a low-stakes group activity (currently, it's weighted at 3% of their overall grade). And, if they pay attention during the group work, they can use the exercise as a template for the paper they'll spend the following month writing.
Let students "fire" members of their group
In Elaine Whalen's group research project, students can "fire" a student group member who is not pulling her weight. The group must give the student in question a verbal warning, and then a written warning, and the instructor must know about all of it. The student who has been let go from the group will either get a zero on the project or she can ask another group to take her in and hopefully redeem herself. Elaine has found that students who get "fired" work doubly hard in their adopted group.
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| You're fired. |
If you're giving a group grade on a project but want to make sure that each student has contributed their fair share and has mastered all of the content--not just a small portion of it--ask each student to submit a "rough" final project with all elements included. This allows you to track their participation, and it allows the full group to then decide which elements from each individual student's work should be included (they vet the pieces to create a stronger "whole" piece).
Assign a student to be the designated a-hole
The book You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney (yes, the title is awful, but it's an interesting book) has a chapter on "Group Think." McRaney writes about this phenomenon. The misconception, McRaney writes, is that "problems are easier to solve when a group of people get together to discuss solutions." But the actuality is that "desire to reach consensus and avoid confrontation hinders progress."
Based on that idea and the rest of McRaney's chapter, we can suggest a few things for successful small group problem solving:
- Don't tell your students your opinion as their instructor--they will think that, because you're the "boss," this opinion is the only one, the "right" one.
- Allow students in groups to break into pairs--this will allow dissent to manifest, and that dissent might be very good for the problem solving or discussion at hand. Left in the larger group, however, students might simply wait for consensus to be reached and say nothing about their own contrary ideas.
- Assign an a-hole to the group--McRaney states, "for any group to work, every team needs at least one asshole, who doesn't give a shit if he or she gets fired, or exiled, or excommunicated." So, make sure that there is that voice of dissent by giving one student in each small group the role of devil's advocate. Not only will this produce some interesting results, but the students will get a kick out of it!
Friday, August 16, 2013
A Very Successful Day
Yesterday's bi-annual Faculty Development Day was partnered--for the third year in a row--with our New Student Convocation. Although we haven't gotten the official evaluation data (check your e-mail for the evaluation link!), we got lots of great feedback throughout the day! Many thanks to all of you who came out, participated, and made the day a tremendous success for our students and for our faculty members.
We had a slideshow playing as you all entered for the College Update, but in case you missed it, check it out here for some important announcements and some great pictures of the day:
For more photos, visit out our Facebook photo album, and check back here later for more details recapping the day.
Have a terrific first week of classes!
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| We've still got VIP passes & lanyards in A210, so come down if you didn't get one! |
We had a slideshow playing as you all entered for the College Update, but in case you missed it, check it out here for some important announcements and some great pictures of the day:
For more photos, visit out our Facebook photo album, and check back here later for more details recapping the day.
Have a terrific first week of classes!
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