An updated version of a video tutorial for Academic Search Premier, one of the most used Virtual Library databases, is now available.
http://www.coloradomtn.edu/library/videos/asp.html
Monday, September 29, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Adding to CMC's Brain-Based Events
This 35 minute video discusses the impact of brain-based research on future education.
Early this fall, Summit and Timberline co-hosted a session on brain-based teaching practices and the October 19th Faculty Day at Vail will host another key session on this topic.
Early this fall, Summit and Timberline co-hosted a session on brain-based teaching practices and the October 19th Faculty Day at Vail will host another key session on this topic.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Using Professional Development Funds
CMC's Professional Development Funds Advances Community College Scholarship
Using CMC’s professional development funding, I connected with a national network of higher education professionals who are addressing current and emerging issues faced by the growing community college movement. I also hoped to contribute to the understanding of the critical role that community colleges play in embracing the diverse perspectives and cultures of our learning communities.
In April 2008, I attended the 50th annual conference for the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), which is an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). CSCC members include university-based researchers and community college practitioners who further scholarship on the community college enterprise. The Council contributes to the development of community college professionals and conducts and disseminates research pertaining to community colleges.
In addition, I presented my research on the lived experiences of community college educators who teach college in prison. My co-presenters were my dissertation advisors from Colorado State University’s School of Education, Community College Leadership Program. My research interest grew from my initial involvement in a college program in which CMC hired adjunct instructors to teach transfer level general education courses to incarcerated learners at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex.
Through this innovative educational partnership with the Colorado Department of Corrections, CMC offered a rewarding and challenging experience that our instructors used to develop professionally. Our full-time and part-time faculty members increasingly deal with issues of race, gender, class, national origin, and sexual orientation and they strive to equalize the educational opportunities for all students. I believe we may gain some insight into a teaching practice based on caring, community, and social justice from exploring what drives educators who teach college in prison.
Furthermore, my research may have implications for understanding the adjunct teaching experience in general. College-wide, we have a large number of part-time instructors whose role is becoming increasingly important. Adjunct faculty members often feel isolated from the college community and we frequently do not reward them for keeping up with best teaching practices. In order to provide appropriate support for our part-time instructors, I believe that we need to understand the adjunct teaching experience, which may be further illuminated by the experiences of those adjunct instructors who teach in prison.
The themes that I discovered of working in borderlands, negotiating hierarchical relationships, and making personal transformations may be generative. Therefore, these themes could be applied to the adjunct experience of teaching in a regular classroom. This deeper understanding might help us find ways to support the professional growth of our part-time instructors who infuse real world perspectives into many of their courses. This approach coincides with the premise in the 1993 book, The Invisible Faculty, which explores the role of adjunct teaching and offers ways to improve our support of our part-time instructors.
I am grateful that CMC funded this opportunity for me to develop professionally. Interfacing with researchers whose work I had studied exhilarated me: Arthur Cohen and Florence Brawer (The American Community College), Marilyn Amy (Breaking Out of the Box: Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Faculty Work), Barbara Townsend and Susan Twombly (Community College: Policy in the Future Context). I was honored when Barbara Townsend attended my session and was interested in my research on teaching college in prison and its implications for community colleges.
Now in this blog, I am please to share my experience presenting at a professional conference and the results of my research. I’ve attached the program from the 2008 Conference of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges and the PowerPoint slides that I used in my presentation at the conference. Please contact me if you have questions or what more information at sspaulding@coloradomtn.edu.
Attachments:
2008 CSCC Conference Program: 2008%20CSCC%20Conference%20Program.pdf
Spaulding CSCC PowerPoint Presentation:
Teaching%20College%20Inside%20Prison%20Walls.ppt
Using CMC’s professional development funding, I connected with a national network of higher education professionals who are addressing current and emerging issues faced by the growing community college movement. I also hoped to contribute to the understanding of the critical role that community colleges play in embracing the diverse perspectives and cultures of our learning communities.
In April 2008, I attended the 50th annual conference for the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), which is an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). CSCC members include university-based researchers and community college practitioners who further scholarship on the community college enterprise. The Council contributes to the development of community college professionals and conducts and disseminates research pertaining to community colleges.
In addition, I presented my research on the lived experiences of community college educators who teach college in prison. My co-presenters were my dissertation advisors from Colorado State University’s School of Education, Community College Leadership Program. My research interest grew from my initial involvement in a college program in which CMC hired adjunct instructors to teach transfer level general education courses to incarcerated learners at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex.
Through this innovative educational partnership with the Colorado Department of Corrections, CMC offered a rewarding and challenging experience that our instructors used to develop professionally. Our full-time and part-time faculty members increasingly deal with issues of race, gender, class, national origin, and sexual orientation and they strive to equalize the educational opportunities for all students. I believe we may gain some insight into a teaching practice based on caring, community, and social justice from exploring what drives educators who teach college in prison.
Furthermore, my research may have implications for understanding the adjunct teaching experience in general. College-wide, we have a large number of part-time instructors whose role is becoming increasingly important. Adjunct faculty members often feel isolated from the college community and we frequently do not reward them for keeping up with best teaching practices. In order to provide appropriate support for our part-time instructors, I believe that we need to understand the adjunct teaching experience, which may be further illuminated by the experiences of those adjunct instructors who teach in prison.
The themes that I discovered of working in borderlands, negotiating hierarchical relationships, and making personal transformations may be generative. Therefore, these themes could be applied to the adjunct experience of teaching in a regular classroom. This deeper understanding might help us find ways to support the professional growth of our part-time instructors who infuse real world perspectives into many of their courses. This approach coincides with the premise in the 1993 book, The Invisible Faculty, which explores the role of adjunct teaching and offers ways to improve our support of our part-time instructors.
I am grateful that CMC funded this opportunity for me to develop professionally. Interfacing with researchers whose work I had studied exhilarated me: Arthur Cohen and Florence Brawer (The American Community College), Marilyn Amy (Breaking Out of the Box: Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Faculty Work), Barbara Townsend and Susan Twombly (Community College: Policy in the Future Context). I was honored when Barbara Townsend attended my session and was interested in my research on teaching college in prison and its implications for community colleges.
Now in this blog, I am please to share my experience presenting at a professional conference and the results of my research. I’ve attached the program from the 2008 Conference of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges and the PowerPoint slides that I used in my presentation at the conference. Please contact me if you have questions or what more information at sspaulding@coloradomtn.edu.
Attachments:
2008 CSCC Conference Program: 2008%20CSCC%20Conference%20Program.pdf
Spaulding CSCC PowerPoint Presentation:
Teaching%20College%20Inside%20Prison%20Walls.ppt
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Blackboard Website Aimed at Greater Faculty Engagement
ATTENTION FACULTY!
Make collaboration the rule rather than the exception and visit the CMC Faculty Website on Blackboard. There you will find a one-stop website with information about our learning college culture, our people, and campus news. It is a place to find innovative lesson plans and rich resources for faculty to continuously improve their approach to teaching and learning. There is also an interactive discussion board where forums are categorized by campus and discipline.
If you are not enrolled in this site, please call the Help Desk at 888-845-0016 or 970-947-8438 and request to be added
As we begin this school year here are some suggestions for staying informed and demonstrating our commitment to CMC’s learning college culture:
Share and celebrate often! Post successful and innovative class lessons to the CMC Faculty Web site. These examples provide the culture of evidence so important in maintaining CMC’s reputation as a (newly designated) Vanguard College.
Visit the CMC Faculty Web site regularly. Stay current with campus happenings, initiatives and policy decisions. College-wide committees, their members and meeting minutes are available here. Contribute to college-wide forums on the discussion board.
See the CMC Faculty Website for AQIP and Learning College information. This provides the guidelines to engage our students and colleagues and help communicate to our constituents how a learning college really transforms lives.
Now is the time to make CMC the First Choice in education and community partnerships.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Philosphy 101 Site
The Chronicle of Higher Ed made mention of this site for philosphy faculty (especially new faculty). Thanks to Faculty John Immewahr for generously sharing the rights to these resources:
Teach Philosophy 101
Teach Philosophy 101
Monday, September 22, 2008
Colorado's Plenty with CMC Culinary Institute Kevin Clarke
Not only are some of our campuses reading Plenty this fall, CMC's own Keven Clarke from the the Colorado Mountain College Culinary Institute recently prepared CO foods in a Channel 2 TV segment:Kevin Clarke prepares a Colorado-Grown Dish:
This video screen also provides the recipe for Colorado Summer Squash and Sweet Corn Saute.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Virtual Library News
The Virtual Library offers a lot of new resources this year. Our multimedia collection now includes training videos for Health Science and Public Safety programs, documentaries, feature and foreign films, fitness and travel videos. The Virtual Library introduces two additional literature databases, a history collection, and a set of new e-books. Please take a look at our Newsletter to learn more.
VLNewsletterFall08.pdf
VLNewsletterFall08.pdf
Friday, September 12, 2008
Assessment is Not "On Hold"
Howdy! As the new Dean of Arts and Sciences, I am excited to be at CMC and see so many wonderful things happening. In fact, this blog is just one great innovation that everyone at CMC can be involved in to get the word out. I decided to talk about a subject that I know often causes moans and groans from faculty and administration across the college. Having only done a preliminary search of files, I discovered CMC began work on assessment several years ago at multiple levels. This was great news to me as I have been asked to provide leadership and direction for assessment in the coming years. Yes, I said years! Why, you are wondering, are we still talking about assessment and we can't be done with it? Because the Higher Learning Commission will not provide accreditation without proof of ongoing improvement at a college. CMC must continue to move forward with assessment activities!
I have talked with some terrific faculty and administrators about their views on assessment and what they were doing a year ago. Because nobody asked for assessment reports this year, it is a common viewpoint that assessment was "on hold." Much work was done on writing course outcomes, developing rubrics, implementing common writing assignments, and even changing common practice to improve instruction. Hey! Hey! way to go faculty! You have always been doing "assessments" within your courses to determine if students were learning the outcomes that you deemed important within the AA, AS, DevEd, and CTE programs. Now we need to move forward to develop a simple but effective reporting procedure followed by improvements.
Assessment basics are not difficult to comprehend when explained in simple terms. Assessment is a cyclic process for educational improvement. An effective assessment program can be used to improve student learning, facilitate institutional improvements, and validate institutional effectiveness (HLC likes this one). CMC's commitment to assessment enables the College to realize its core values of Learning.
Assessment of student learning is a systematic attempt to...
1) Understand what students are/aren't learning
2) Provide feedback to reinforce student learning
3) Improve student learning!
Assessment is NOT...
1) Solely an administrative activity
2) A means of punishment. It is for improvement only!
3) An intrusion into a faculty member's classroom or an infringement on academic freedom.
Many people's immediate reaction to assessment is bewilderment. I plan to use several electronic media to talk about assessment in the coming weeks. I look forward to a healthy dialogue with faculty about how to make the process simple but effective. My goal is to develop a collaborative process and positive working relationship across CMC.
Sunny Schmitt
I have talked with some terrific faculty and administrators about their views on assessment and what they were doing a year ago. Because nobody asked for assessment reports this year, it is a common viewpoint that assessment was "on hold." Much work was done on writing course outcomes, developing rubrics, implementing common writing assignments, and even changing common practice to improve instruction. Hey! Hey! way to go faculty! You have always been doing "assessments" within your courses to determine if students were learning the outcomes that you deemed important within the AA, AS, DevEd, and CTE programs. Now we need to move forward to develop a simple but effective reporting procedure followed by improvements.
Assessment basics are not difficult to comprehend when explained in simple terms. Assessment is a cyclic process for educational improvement. An effective assessment program can be used to improve student learning, facilitate institutional improvements, and validate institutional effectiveness (HLC likes this one). CMC's commitment to assessment enables the College to realize its core values of Learning.
Assessment of student learning is a systematic attempt to...
1) Understand what students are/aren't learning
2) Provide feedback to reinforce student learning
3) Improve student learning!
Assessment is NOT...
1) Solely an administrative activity
2) A means of punishment. It is for improvement only!
3) An intrusion into a faculty member's classroom or an infringement on academic freedom.
Many people's immediate reaction to assessment is bewilderment. I plan to use several electronic media to talk about assessment in the coming weeks. I look forward to a healthy dialogue with faculty about how to make the process simple but effective. My goal is to develop a collaborative process and positive working relationship across CMC.
Sunny Schmitt
Monday, September 8, 2008
HowtoStudy.Org
howtostudy.org
Five hundred schools have linked to Chemetka College's resources for students across many disciplines. We'd like to know which you find valuable for learners in your classes, from this site or from other sources.
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