Reflections

Participating in the 9x9x25 blogging adventure has been a rich experience. I have grown as a teacher, learner, and writer. For example, when writing the first blog on new student orientations, I finished and was pleased with the results. Then I counted the sentences and realized I only had 15. So I had to return and write more, which in and of itself caused me to dive deeper and add more specific details, and isn't that what I keep telling my students? By the end of this experience, I had to count sentences to hold myself back.

Then I wrote about the Ning thing. I had been wanting to write about that experience for quite a while, and this venue gave me the opportunity and an audience to listen. Thanks for the privilege! One blog never got published even though I had spent at least six hours crafting it. The title was Big Business, Big Government. I never seemed to get the right blend of what I wanted to say in a way that was not too political. I decided that was not where I wanted to go as a writer.

Reading comments from other faculty gave me ideas for teaching without going to an expensive conference or driving to Prescott for an Institute. However, I will say that going to one conference a year and/or attending both Winter and Summer Institute are outstanding opportunities. Yet, it is nice to have another way to gain new ideas, and virtually for free.

And when our blogging developed outside interest from other institutions, excitement grew. We read blogs from other institutions of higher learning and gave these faculty members' feedback on their blogs. When we received comments back, that was moving and delightful. Yes, Karly, I was sure you were right as soon as I had read the email you sent out. I saw that I had received a comment right after your email arrived.

But the best thing that blogging has done for me is getting me to write again. I have made a commitment to myself to keep blogging. I have been invited to write blogs for a writer who wants to take five weeks off for Christmas, and I feel ready to dive in. I also dug out the papers I had saved from my Creative Writing classes and want to revise and publish anything worthwhile. So, thanks for the challenge and the blessings that have come from the entire experience.

And thanks for the Ben & Jerry's, the certificate, the book, the hat, the USB drive, the cookies, and more. Good job, Todd and family! Hey, maybe I will have my students write a blog, and then have it be a reward. Why not!

Gearing Up for a New Semester . . Soon

Every semester when I see things winding down, the faithful students seeking to finish well, I think, wow, my work is almost done here. But then it hits me . . .  Think again! Now is the time to start building for the new semester.

So what process do instructors go through to prepare for a new semester? Instructors receive a new Course Management System (CMS) shell to build new content. That means we don't just copy the course from last semester and change the dates. Why not, you may ask? Each semester instructors find ways of teaching the class that they can improve upon. Often I write notes right onto the syllabus of the face-to-face classes to help me remember what changes to make. In online classes, I sometimes change the assignment the week after the students finish it so it is already ready when I do roll over content into the new Blackboard shell.

But I thought you said you don't copy the course. Well, since I am a limited human being, I do copy the main portion of the course, especially between fall and spring, and then I do the major rewriting during the summer . . . when I am off contract. But I still change textbooks, content, assignments, the way the directions are written to improve clarity, and so on.

Instructors also go to conferences and develop new ideas. In addition, most instructors network with other faculty at their campuses to gain insight into new and better ways to deliver instruction. We also network to make sure that students taking a particular course are getting a similar experience regardless of which section they take.

In fact, blogging here in this TeLS 9x9x25 challenge has become one more way for instructors, both locally and around the country, to similarly learn from one another and to network. I was pleased to get a great idea from a professor of writing from another institution today that I will definitely incorporate. And with funding for professional growth shrinking, we as instructors need to turn to the Internet for more and more ways to learn from one another.

One important point I would like to make about developing an online course is to write into it your conversational voice. Use proper grammar and punctuation, but write your personality into the course. Be warm and open in the voice you present to the students, and they will find you to be inviting. They will be more likely to contact you when they have trouble. The first time I taught online, I inherited a course from a professor at Northern Arizona University. I spent most of the rewriting just changing the information into my voice. And as Matt Pearcy taught us at the last Summer Institute, be sure to make your syllabus friendly for students.

And all throughout that semester, when students sent me an email asking to clarify directions, I was logging into the CMS to see how I could improve them. Each semester I seemed to have fewer emails with students having difficulty. If one student had an issue, I didn't consider it to be a problem, but as soon as I heard from two, I figured that a lot of others probably had the same issue, but didn't have the courage to ask or hadn't gotten to that point in the lesson yet. That is when I made sure I got into the course and changed things.

So here it is, November. Time to get started with Spring semester courses. Let's get our fingers nimble and go to work. After all, isn't that what Thanksgiving vacation is for? Well, at least after filling ourselves with turkey and thanking God for all of his many blessings, but seriously.

Signing off . . .

Intelligence and How to Get It

Here is one article I found in Facebook that I can't get out of my mind: There's one key difference between kids who excel at math and those who don't. The article states, "While American fourth and eighth grades score quite well in international math comparisons--beating countries like Germany, the UK and Sweden--our high-schoolers underperform those countries by a wide margin." The authors go on to say that "some influential voices in American education policy have suggested simply teaching less math--for example, Andrew Hacker has called for algebra to no longer be a requirement. The subtext, of course, is that large numbers of American kids are simply not born with the ability to solve for x. And how will that help America compete in a global marketplace?

Ever since teaching GED classes here at Yavapai College, I have been listening to students tell me, "I'm just not a math person." So why do I care? I teach English. Yet, the students who are good in math transfer this thinking into "I'm just not good at writing."

So what if you have trouble getting math concepts right away? Not all brains are created the same. We have multiple intelligences. Howard Gardener wrote books on the subject, and I even wrote a thesis on it. For anyone who really wants to dive into Gardener's theory, here is a list of his books: The Disciplined Mind (1999), Leading Minds (1995), Creating Minds and Multiple Intelligences (1993). For those of you who teach English or who wonder why I like to use collaborative learning, you can read my thesis.

But even if one student has more trouble than another in learning math or how to write, does that mean the student should shrug his or her shoulders and give up? Maybe in America, but certainly not in foreign countries. According to this article, students who have more trouble learning in other countries learn to work hard. What a concept! I remember my oldest daughter having such a struggle in college calculus. She told me that she was determined that no matter how many times she had to take Calculus II, she was going to pass the class. And she did. Eventually.

So how do we create a more dynamic educational system in our country, a system where people dive in when the going get tough? Where the challenged keep striving for excellence and intelligence in all we say and do? We as the adults need to change our language. We need to set the example. Don't say that we ourselves can't remember the times tables and dig out our cell phone calculator, for example. Don't tell our kids that mommy or daddy weren't good at writing papers in high school and then send the kids off to bed without at least trying to talk them through some basic ideas about a topic they are supposed to write about for homework.

That isn't to say we shouldn't also point them in the direction of a tutor, teacher, or friend who is good at the subject. But let us set the example of people who are willing to try, willing to strive for success, even when it is difficult.