New Graduate Classes Begin

Today is the first day for new classes that I’m teaching for Furman. They are EDEX962 and EDEX963, both are practicums in Special Education. My students are certified teachers who are getting their master’s degree in Special Education and this class is the last class they are required to pass in order to get their degree. 

I’ve been teaching this class since 2007 and I’ve felt that I’ve had a good handle on the process and procedures for making these classes meaningful and successful. It was a month-long class that met at a school for four hours a day, four days a week.

This year is going to be very different from all the other years that I’ve taught these classes. Furman has decided that summer graduate courses will be taught online for 8 weeks. This has been a big challenge for me because I really want this time to be meaningful to my students.

I have created an online program for children and my students will be the teachers. The classes will meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 – 11 for eight weeks. There will be four classes with two teachers and eight children. The teachers will come up with a daily schedule that includes lessons in reading, math, and writing as well as scheduled breaks. 

There are many positives to the way this year will work. In the past, the teachers have had to do blog posts, weekly seminars, and weekly reports all in four weeks. This year, the teachers will have the same work but eight weeks to complete the work so it may be less stressful for them. Instead of meeting every day with children, they will be meeting only twice a week with the children.

Teaching online will be a challenge for the teachers because they will have to be more creative. I look forward to observing lessons that will be taught.

I have asked the teachers to come up with three goals for themselves before we start. I also asked them to tell me how they are feeling and their expectations. At the end of the course, I will ask them to look at their goals and see if they have achieved them. I will try to do the same along with them.

My goals:

1.     Help my students (the teachers) as much as possible to make this class meaningful.

2.     Give constructive suggestions for online teaching.

3.     Look at ways that I can make this online class better for the next time it is taught online.  

I’m excited about this class being taught online this year. I’m confident that the teachers will be able to handle it because they have already been teaching online for many weeks before taking this class. I’ve been communicating with the teachers a lot recently and I’m impressed with how excited they seem to be about taking this class.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Nature of Learning Disabilities Class

Last week I started teaching a class called Nature of Learning Disabilities. It is a combined class meaning it is an undergraduate class (EDU222) and a graduate class (EDEX622).  This class meets one night a week for 16 weeks and consists of 9 students. Undergraduates have to do a  field experience/case study and the graduates have to do the case study. Everyone has to do 2 article abstracts. The graduates will be doing a term project on a learning strategy and present it to the class. Plus they will have a midterm and a final exam.

The biggest challenge for me is that I want to make this meaningful for all of my students. I don’t want the undergraduates to be intimidated by the graduate students who are all teachers. I don’t want the graduate students to think that I’m watering this down because they are in the class with undergraduate students. I want a good balance of informational material but I want the activities to meet their ability levels.

In order to do this I put my students in groups of threes. One group is the graduate students and when they do their activities, they will be able to apply their experience and knowledge to their work. Another group is the seniors who may have a some experience with children. The other group consists of the juniors who have a little less experience than everyone else.

I plan on spending every class period going over the informational things (from the textbook and personal stories). They will also do some group activities covering the main topic for the class.

The last part of class is going to be simulations. I want them to apply what they have learned in class and what they have read in their textbook to a class simulation. Each group will be given a roster of 3 children. I will give them some information about previous class struggles and some testing information I have on each child. Each week they will apply the activity to their group of students. This will include preassessments, behavior plans, instructional activities, post assessments, and writing an IEP. I hope by doing this application of knowledge, they will find what they learn in my class to be meaningful.

I also hope that the graduate students learn some things that they can use in their own classrooms. Maybe the undergraduates will learn strategies that will help them in their own learning.

I hope you can tell that I’m excited about this class! I just hope the students feel the same way and at the end of the class, we all can feel that we accomplished something.

The 2016 Teaching & Learning Forum

This week I attended the 2016 Teaching & Learning Forum at Furman University. It was great because all of the sessions were so informative! Each session was short and had a lot of information that was useful and made me want to find out more about different topics.

Facilitating and Managing Online Discussions: Building Classroom Community

Presenter: Bobbi Siefert, Education

1.     Online Groups and Roles:

A.   Engaged students with scenario-based responses. Shows how they process and apply what they have learned.

a.     Scenario Leaders - Team members 1-3 Discuss scenarios – Monday

b.     Discussion Enhancer – Team members 4-6 Discussion Enhancers – Wednesday

c.     Provocateur: a person who stirs up others in order to upset the status quo and further a political, social, or other cause (embody the roles of people that they might encounter – parent, taxpayer, board member etc.)

d.     Summarizer – Sum it all up

B.    Assigned to groups in Moodle (Users – groups-create group)

a.     Group 1

b.     Group 2

C.    Summing It Up! The so what- Friday.

a.     Reflection: So why does this matter for this course? What connections do you make to your educational context and professional practice?

E.    Post group with roles and names each week

F.    Weaving in and out of the conversations gave me the opportunity to probe and extend discussions

G.   When both groups got back together, pull quotes or key points to share with class and open up discussion.

H.   Use reading quotes to back up decisions

Group Dynamics and grading challenges:

Catme – create teams and team feedback

Survivor – team can vote someone off the team and they have to work all by themself the rest of the semester.

Group grade and individual grade

Explain in a paper the duties of each individual.

Rubric – group presentation and individual evaluation too.

Stress Less, Learn More: Mindfulness Practices for Students and Faculty

Presenter: Min-Ken Liao, Biology; Meghan Slining, Health Sciences

Teaching Mindfulness to College Students

1.     Challenges

a.     Needing relief and impatient for improvement

b.     Curious, open, flexible

c.     Respond well to humor and stories

d.     Excited about the science of mindfulness

2.     The Center for Koru – mindfulness

3.     Book – Mindfulness for the Next Generation

4.     19-29 year olds don’t like just sit

5.     Koru Mindfulness - 4 session mindfulness training program specifically designed to meet the developmental needs of emerging adults

6.     Koru is the New Zealand Maori word for the unfurling fern frond

7.     Koru Key factors

a.     Taught in small diverse groups (12)

b.     Require commitment to attendance and practice including 10 minutes daily homework.

c.     Keep it focused and brief(ish) – 75 min. session

d.     Self-calming skills

8.     Koru Course Requirements

a.     Mandatory attendance to four classes

b.     Read the book Wherever You Go, There You Are by Kabat Zinn

c.     10 min. mindfulness practice each day

d.     weekly mindfulness activity

e.     a log that must be completed and returned each week.

9.     Each class includes

a.     5-10 min. short opening meditation

b.     check-in

c.     mind-body skill

d.     mindfulness meditation practice

10.  Course

a.     Week 1 – dynamic breathing and diaphragmatic breathing; body scan

b.     Week 2 – Walking Meditation; Gatha

c.     Week 3 – Guided Imagery; Labeling Thoughts

d.     Week 4 – Eating Meditation; Labeling Thoughts

11.  Study – A randomized control trial of Koru

12.  Email: bemindful@furman.edu

           

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Creating a Successful Writing Assignment

Presenter: Margaret Oakes, English

1.     Figure out what you want them to learn.

2.     Think about the genre of writing you will be focusing on

3.     What skills?

4.     How is your content going to play into that?

5.     The scope of the assignment – how long is this going to be?

Engaging Students at the Lightboard: Approaches Across the Curriculum

Presenters: Melinda Menzer, English; Brian Goess, Cheistry; Amy Buttell, Business and Accounting; Kerstin Blomquist, Psychology; Amy Boyter, CTL

The Lightboard

Video examples:

English:

Diagraming Sentences for English class to demonstrate understanding of information

Chemistry:

    Research:

·      What forms of creative language do students use to describe complex scientific content on a student centered wiki?

·      How can we preserve problem solving strategies through successive generations of students?

·      What value does it have?

Business & Accounting:

Marketing: Students at the Lightboard –

·      Developing Storytelling Skills,

·      research a specific marketing topic,

·      teach that topic,

·      acquire video presentation skills,

·      build a video presentation library to free up class time for discussion/projects and assignments

LB Project Outcomes

·      Student perception: Most unpopular project at mid-term

·      Most challenging of the projects

·      Very direct type of storytelling

·      Video presentation very different than in class presentation

·      Plan to do again next year = may allow more latitude in choosing topics or link it with another project

·      Will use most in video content library

Example: The 3 Bs of Storytelling – Be Authentic, Be Creative, Be Strategic

Psychology – taking the research and how do we apply it?

How marketing can be misleading

Example: Debunking P90X (vimeo)

Preview outline before the video so wrong info is not given

Work in teams for checks and balances

Suggestions from Amy Boyter, CTL

1.     Make sure you explain clearly why the Lightboard will enhance their learning.

2.     Stress to go to orientation session.

3.     Stress how important it is to practice the presentation

4.     Practice in front of a white board or set up a camera

Options for storage for videos:

(chemistry) Link to Box for the class but not good for embedding.

Department Vimeo or YouTube account

Furman isn’t good for streaming.

The Storytellers: Improving Peer Feedback

Presenter: Jenny Colvin, Library

Storytelling is a performance.

Storytelling May X 2014: Group Feedback Self-Reflection

1.     Basic premise of story

2.     What do you wish you’d said (hindsight)?

3.     What could you have said with more time (expansion)?

4.     What feedback did you get from others (at least two)? – Get in groups

Don’t just say – Give each other feedback.

What is the one thing the person did well?

What is one thing that they person can work on?

Many didn’t want to say something negative in person even though they knew it would be useful.

Move feedback out of class and structured.

Video Capture

1.     Lesson 1: Talk to Joe Hiltabidel

2.     Looking for easiest, least complicated solution

3.     Happy with “good enough”

Solution: Zoom (We have this at Furman; audio is good quality) and Vialogues (request space for educational purposes)

In an assigned group of four, each person must provide feedback to 3 other people and him or herself. Using Vialogues, locate the video for the day. Your comment must be specific and cover two categories

·      One thing that was successful.

·      Ones specific element that needs improvement.

Uncomfortable Students and Sensitive Topics: Dream or Nightmare?

Presenter: Savita Nair, History & Asian Studies

Connecting Content to Life

Split into gender groups and explain why the other group chose that group

Tedx Video: Understanding the Complexities of Gender: Sam Killermann

1.     Global Feminism

2.     Intersectionality – thinking all things connect (Women in Science and Women in Politics change that) State of Women state by state.

3.     Intersex - Anne Fausto-Sterling article “The Five Sexes” compare this to your grandmother.

Exposes the invisible, privilege, sense of entitlement

How did you do gender today?

(painting coolers?)

What’s New in the Upcoming Moodle Release

Presenter: Corey Gheesling, Information Technology

Moodle 3.1- A Guide to the Update for the Furman Community

6/4/16 updating the University’s Learning Management System.

Security

2-year upgrade plan

What’s new?

Utilized as a hub for education, not simply as a repository of information.  At Furman, we have a multitude of learning technologies that are at our disposal, but often are not utilized. Moodle has made this integration a central part of Moodle moving forward.  This development serves to promotes more active and engaging learning experiences

Better User experience. Cleaner and more useful.

Students upload assignments. No need to go to assessment inbox or download files. Better.

You can lock it down when students see it.

Online annotator.

Moodle is open source

Gradebook is streamlined. Gradebook setup is the only option. You can do single view for grades.

Grade History

Big Upgrade – includes Competency Based Education and Conditional Activity

·      When mastery or a skillset is a required portion of classes.

·      You can now set up activities with multiple parts to promote competency based education

·      Now you can edit assignments and activities that an be opened or restricted based on completion or a grade in a prior assignment or activity.

·       

Looking to use more analytics to help better understand a larger picture of learning. Which activities are being used? How long did students spend on various aspects? Is course participation trailing off at the end of a term? Do you value parts of the course that students are not?

Cothran Faculty Seminar Panel: Community Engagement or Political Activism

Panel: Matt Cohen, Earth & Environmental Sciences; Brandon Inabinet, Communication Studies; Liz Smith, Political Science; Aaron Simmons, Philosophy

Discussion:

Think about our calling. How do our talents meet the world’s needs?

What is scholarship? Service? Expanding our teaching?

How do we avoid advocacy or should we?

What are the constrainsts of liberal arts professors?

At what point do we understand the scope and boundaries of political engagement?

Book: On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt

There is a need for more training on Public Engagement.

Disciplinary Expert or Private Citizen?

What about people who want to be a pure researcher?

My Thoughts:

This was a great day and I really enjoyed all the sessions. I learned a lot of things that would be useful in my classes. There were also some things that I want to know more about and books that I want to read. I found it very inspiring to listen to the discussion that occurred at the end of each session. Attending this was definitely well worth the time and I’m truly thankful for all of the people involved who made it happen.