Volume XXXIX, No. 21 | September 28, 2017 The Place of Reading in the Freshman Composition Class Immediately before the beginning of student debates in my second semester freshman composition class, a student announced, “This is a writing class. I see no point in doing oral things like debates.” Admittedly, she was [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 20 | September 21, 2017 As I Watch My Students Leave As I watch students leave my classroom after their final exam, it is with sadness that I realize I will never see many of them again. I have been an educator for 26 years, including as a middle [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 19 | September 14, 2017 Elevating Your Educational “Hotness”: Achieving Teaching Excellence Recently, my colleagues and I facilitated a National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) webinar titled, “Bird by Bird: Creating a Culture of Teaching Excellence.” The webinar focused on creating a culture of teaching excellence through [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 18 | September 7, 2017 Capitalizing on Social Presence in Online Course Design: Five Strategies That Work How can we create a more effective, efficient online-course experience for students and instructors? One thing we know: social presence matters. Social presence, briefly defined as the connectedness between and among students [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 17 | August 31, 2017 Using Icebreakers to Build Community It’s the first day of class, and students nervously find their seats. They may or may not know anyone in the class. Tension of the unknown is palpable. Students are unsure what to expect: What will this course be [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 16 | May 4, 2017 Teaching Community College Students the Soft Skills Demanded by Employers Many of us in community colleges work with employers and students. Therefore, we seek to understand what employers need in future employees, then we prepare students to fill those roles. This process is relatively straight [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 15 | April 27, 2017 Raise Your Hand if You Have Questions In traditional face-to-face classes, it’s easy to know when students have questions. Typically, we don’t even need to wait for students to raise their hands because we see a sea of blank stares and bewildered faces. In online [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 14 | April 20, 2017 Metacognition and Next-Gen Learning Models: Meeting Student Success Goals Through Information Literacy Austin Community College (ACC) recently implemented a required student success course, EDUC 1300, to increase college readiness and student success for first-time-in-college (FTIC) students. The goals for this course include student engagement—which students [...]
Volume XXXIX, No. 13 | April 13, 2017 Technology in the Classroom? Instructional Technology Certification Program Increases Engagement When I began teaching, which was initially in K-12, my school was not rich in resources. More times than not, I had to purchase copies of handouts for my English classes, and occasionally also purchase [...]
NISOD Names 2017 Conference Scholarship Recipients Austin, Texas, April 6, 2017 – The National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) is honored to announce the faculty scholarship recipients for the 2017 International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence, May 27-30, in Austin, Texas: Mandy Aaberg, Bates Technical College Essie Childers, Blinn College Thomas [...]