Pre-learning with videos for less lecture
by – Cynthia Vega This past year I have focused on ways to decrease the traditional lecture style and increase student engagement in classroom… Read More
Practice What We Preach
by – Amy Velchoff Project ACC was founded on the belief that Active & Engaged Learning is important, which I can affirm from my… Read More
Relational Repair in the Classroom
by Hilary Lynch Besides teaching course subjects, professors also manage the relational climate in their classrooms. One session at the Lilly Conference in January 2018 emphasized how professors can better manage these relationships, especially when stress creeps into the classroom. Dr. Pamela Szycygiel, Assistant Professor of Social Work at UNC Pembroke, shared how relationships are main catalysts for change, and our academic environments “have a lot of relating going on.” People learn, grow, and change in the “context of interpersonal and person-to-environment exchanges.” We will work with students who have had negative and unrepaired relationships with authority figures. Some students need to “work on new relationships” and have new positive experiences with those in supervisory roles. As we teach academic subjects, we can also teach students how to repair working relationships when tensions and anxieties surface. Read More
One Question, Much Discussion
by - Mary Havens In a classroom in Austin, a group discussion over plagiarism took place. An EDUC 1300 class of juniors and seniors from Garza High School thoughtfully discussed the topic. It was awesome. Read More
Student Learning Through Writing
by - Suzanne Wilson Summers At this year’s Lilly Conference, I attended a session on “Encouraging Student Learning Through Formal Writing: Notes and Future Practice” put on by G. Kevin Randall from Sam Houston State University. The session focused on best practices for designing formal writing assignments to promote deep learning. Read More
Nursing from a Global Perspective
by - John Nation MSN, RN As a participant in this year’s Globalizing Curriculum Faculty Learning Community, I have had the opportunity to attend fascinating lectures on a wide range of subjects and collaborate with colleagues at ACC on how best to incorporate global perspectives into our courses. As a nursing instructor, a great deal of my teaching focuses on the nursing management of diseases and health promotion in our community and in the United States. While participating in the Globalizing Curriculum Faculty Learning Community, I’ve been able to spend more time considering global issues in health care and nursing. Additionally, the monthly lectures by University of Texas at Austin professors about major global issues have been fascinating and thought-provoking. Read More
Contextualizing Social Issues as Human Rights Issues
by – Jackie Burns, PhD I recently had the privilege of participating in the Globalization of the Curriculum Faculty Learning Community. It was an extended… Read More
Building Community
by – Blanca Alvarado Building community is an important component of my teaching. I use various methods in my teaching that allow students to interact… Read More
Practice What We Preach
by - Amy Velchof Project ACC was founded on the belief that Active & Engaged Learning is important, which I can affirm from my own personal learning experiences. Yet, implementing such practices in the classroom can be challenging. For my Faculty Fellows project, I wanted to work on team building in the classroom, and I chose to focus on EDUC 1301, Introduction to Teaching. This course is intended to be the first course for students who are interested in pursuing the Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT), and who are potentially going to be future teachers. In general, it is important for students to learn how to collaborate effectively, skills that will come in handy for any future profession, but it is especially important to model to these future teachers the types of pedagogies we hope that they will use in their own classrooms. As a secondary focus, I really wanted to work on implementing skits in the classroom. Read More
Group Exams
by - Kathy Frost While at the Lilly Conference 2018, I had the opportunity to learn enough details about offering group exams that I was able to pilot this learning method during the spring semester. The group exam experience aims to foster deep and durable learning using collaboration – students discussing, questioning, critiquing each other – as well as memory retrieval practice at work when testing oneself (e.g., the “testing effect”). Read More