Celebrating Teaching Circles at Century

Century College, in White Bear Lake, has had great success for 10 years now with a collaborative faculty-development approach that they call Teaching Circles. (Milton Cox and his colleagues at Miami University of Ohio would say that these teaching circles--though not all--are fine examples of Faculty Learning Communities.

I had a chance last month to participate in the end-of-semester celebration of Century's spring Teaching Circles, and got just a sampling of the good conversation, presentations of actual work, enthusiasm and good food that constitute meetings of these faculty learning communities.

Century faculty members Michele Neaton and Connie Poferl act as facilitators and organizers for the Teaching Circles, and they had put together a great jigsaw activity for that afternoon. About 60 of us sat at tables that by design included some members from each of the teaching circles. Each faculty member shared an overview of their group's purpose as well as something they'd produced or learned in the circle.

I'm convinced that the immediate future of effective faculty development will lie in peer-based, ongoing, problem-focused activities like these circles. Anyone in the Minnesota system would be well-served to learn more about how it's done by talking to the smart folks at Century.

Recognizing Student Work

I'm still thinking about the experience a month ago, when on a Friday at noon I visited Normandale Community College to attend the science faculty's Student Recognition event. NCC has a huge single lab used by all of the natural science departments, and every lab table was surrounded with students. In many cases, they were accompanied by family members--from infants to grandmas.

There were no prizes; the students gave no speeches; there was no guest speaker. Each of about 10 faculty members in turn identified several students who stood out during spring semester. They stood out for various reasons: for the improvement they'd made over 15 weeks, or for the obstacles they'd overcome, or for the long hours they put in in lab, or for the way they worked with a study group to make sure they got it.

The students got a round of applause, a letter from their instructor, and a light-snack reception afterward. And they all beamed. It wasn't graduation or scholarships. It was just a moment to shine, to hear that they mattered and that at a big school in busy classes, they were persons of distinction.

Reflect, Transform and Lead

Last week was a busy time for Career and Technology Education faculty and staff. So I spent my week sharing and learning in the Metro area at CTE meetings, workshops, and the annual conference. Monday was a workshop for the Perkins fiscal coordinators who learned about managing funds from Perkins IV; Tuesday was the statewide annual meeting for Perkins coordinators; and Wednesday was the annual CTE Conference. The theme for the conference was “Reflect, Transform and Lead”; and many sessions were available that focused on helping students successfully complete an integrated secondary and post-secondary Program of Study. Another emphasis at the Conference was on Technical Skill Attainment so that more and more POS would be ready to implement technical skill assessments in FY2011 and FY2012.

On Thursday I moved to St. Cloud for hands-on sessions about TSA. Representatives from NOCTI and SkillsUSA provided insights into their assessment tools and also gave participants access to trying out some of the assessments. All in all, it was a great week! Progress has been made, but we still have a lot to do—keep up the good work CTE folks!

Perkins Technical Skill Attainment--Early Childhood Education Career

The first day of a month is always a good one in which to concentrate on the first things in our lives. So I did that on Friday, October 1, by attending the Perkins Technical Skill Attainment on Early Childhood Education--Early Childhood Development and Services AND Teaching/Training. This session was the first of four meetings in which common core competencies and assessments are reviewed and analyzed for the pathway of Early Childhood Development and Services. Prior to the meeting, survey results from 43 secondary and post-secondary instructors were compiled and analyzed. The TSA process was established in the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 and sets an expectation that CTE concentrators are assessed beginning in the 2010-2011 year for their attainment of technical skills using valid and reliable assessment instruments aligned with industry standards.

Specialists in these two areas had a big job on October 1 reviewing the many performance indicators and measures; but they got it done! The next steps will be conducted in the following related meetings:

- Business/Industry Validation Meeting, Monday, November 22, 1010, Saint Paul College, 1:00-5:00 pm
- Winter Teacher/Faculty Meeting, Friday, February 4, 2011, Saint Paul College, 9:00 am-3:00 pm
- Spring Teacher/Faculty Meeting, Friday, March 4, 2011, Saint Paul College, 9:00 am-3:00 pm

While so much of this TSA implementation is new, it's really exciting to see how students can be recognized and how the assessment data can be used to improve curricula for the benefit of future students.

Teaching Styles and Learning Styles at Pine Technical College

One helpful hint to think of when designing your college classes is to consider that many people prefer to learn with a specific learning style.  For example, Auditory learners prefer to learn through listening, Visual learners through seeing, and Tactile learners through moving, doing and touching.

In September 15, CTL hosted a lively discussion about learning styles at Pine Tech.  17 faculty members came to the session to learn about learning styles and explore how learning styles can be applied to one's teaching style. The lively discussion was intersting and informative, with faculty members giving examples of how they teach in order to best reach students.

What was the consensus?  That all students will be more likely to learn if faculty members mix their classroom presentations to address all of the learning styles.

Here are some examples:

• In an American Sign Language class, students get up and move around the room, and practice with their classmates.(Appeals to tactile learners and visual learners.)
• A biology instructor annotates her PowerPoint classroom presentations with her own voice and makes the lessons available to students. (Appeals to visual and auditory learners.)
• A nursing instructor demonstrates a procedure while explaining it, then students follow by practicing. (Appeals to all three learning styles.)

Learn more about learning styles and how to use them at this website.

Investment in Pine Technical College will Spur Economic Development and Jobs

Entrepreneurship is alive and well and making more headway in the Pine City area. Pine Technical College received a $1.4 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration to assist in renovating an existing building for development of an entrepreneurship center and technology business incubator. The $2.4 million entrepreneurial center will receive other funding from various state sources including the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

The project will take advantage of the latest in technology infrastructure, including fiber optics and broadband internet access, and is expected to do much to advance productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the region. The high-bay incubator space is intended to be flexible enough for customizing company needs. Congressman James Oberstar believes that “This project will help attract new businesses and jobs and help retain existing jobs in the community.”

The project is anticipated to have a job-creation impact of 800 and result in additional investment that will advance productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the region. The renovation and building expansion on campus will begin this spring, and it will be an exciting venture to watch. Congratulations Pine Tech!

Sharing and Learning at Hibbing Community College

Yes, it was “duty day” at Hibbing Community College on February 16; and I was enthusiastic about facilitating two sessions for faculty on (1) Clicking in the Classroom and (2) Active Learning: Fostering Engagement. But I really had to focus on pedagogy in order to stop thinking about the fact that Hibbing CC was one of the first junior colleges in the United States—founded in 1916—AND that Hibbing, MN, is the home town of Bob Dylan. Am I easily impressed? Considering that I love learning and music, I guess I am.

It was a great day with faculty eager to improve learning for their students. In addition to the four sessions I presented on two topics, there were workshops on Podcasting, PowerPoint, D2L, FERPA, Sympodium, Culture in the Classroom, and Sustainability. Faculty and staff shared and explored more ideas about instructional methods and techniques. It was a rewarding time, even though I didn’t get to see Bob Dylan’s house.

Those committed to and interested in more about sustainability should check out the discipline workshop Sharing Approaches to Sustainability from Across the Curriculum to be held on March 25-26 at Lake Superior College in Duluth.

For more details, click here or copy and paste the link into your browser:  http://www.ctl.mnscu.edu/facdev/user_event-list.php?eventtype=discipline_workshop

Many thanks to Sandy Gustafson, Michael Raich, and other team members for helping to organize this great day at Hibbing Community College.