I have been working hard to keep my students actively engaged in class and have found that making class worthwhile is what keeps them coming back.
I have to ask myself, “what can my students get from me that they cannot get from watching a youtube video?” We are literally competing with the internet and all of the knowledge it holds. We must be better than the videos, even the ones we create, when students are in front of us. Why should they come to class if they can have the same experience online?
This is why I have embraced flipped classroom models and active learning. Putting the learning onto my students ahead of class and creating dynamic and engaging cooperative learning on the days and times that my class meets has created the draw for students to come to class consistently.
If you are going to flip your classroom I suggest making video assignments (preferably video cued), where students watch a short clip of a longer video, answer a question or two related to the content in the video, then proceed to watching more of the same video or another short video, then answering more questions, and so on. This models more of the classroom feel of taking in some information and practicing it or reflecting on the new information before taking on more new information.
Before using video assignments, my students were not prepared for the active group learning activities that I had planned for the scheduled class times. These video assignments assess their progress and help to motivate the students to be prepared for class.
One of my goals as an instructor here at GCC is to improve students’ listening skills. Most of the time I do this without them consciously knowing it. That sounds rather odd. It’s not that they aren’t conscious, but they may be distracted — paying attention to other things — while improving their listening at the same time.
I ask questions that I hope will make them think about what they listen to in their every day life. I ask them to describe what they are hearing and what their first reactions are. I’ve found if I can include visuals they will listen a lot longer and understand more clearly what the music is trying to convey. I have discovered that students start paying more attention to everything that is part of their listening day, and that is my intention.
One of the questions I often ask is “Do you listen to orchestral music?” Most students answer, “No, never.” I then talk a little about film. Do they watch films? Again, most of them say, “Oh, yes, I watch movies all of the time.”
With that they usually realize that they have listened to lots of orchestral music. Here’s an example: Composer John Towner Williams (we have learned through trial and error that there are a lot of ‘John Williams’ out there so I have become accustomed to using his middle name just to make sure we are all talking about and listening to the same guy), who has had the temerity to scare us out of the water, share the feeling of flying under all sorts of conditions, whether on a broom, a bicycle, or as a bird, and show us the martial qualities of The Dark Force. I chose this clip because of the content, the audience reaction, and, in this case, not for the visual images, which are slightly blurry. The answer to your question about the first instrument you see is – a contrabassoon. This is as iconic as Bernard Herrmann’s strings in Pyscho, but I digress. One of these days someone will re-master it and it will be clear — but in the mean time, I dare you to stick your toe in the water….
Williams’ Jaws
Known for many different kinds of music, Elmer Bernstein’s music has been patriotic and poetic. Here is a well-known theme. I usually choose something from the film “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but you should all be familiar with this.
Elmer Bernstein’s National Geographic Theme
There are a number of others I could have included if we were learning some specifics, but I thought it might be interesting to simply poke a little fun with Vangelis:
Mr. Bean with one of my favorite conductors – Sir Simon Rattle
I hope you enjoyed the listening.
Apologies for any advertising that may have appeared. In Canvas this does not show up.
Now I slide down a potentially slippery incline plane to make a case for a life philosophy based on a line from a cheesy comedy-western film. Hardly the fodder for rigorous academic inquiry.
Note: This is another installment in my participation in the 2022 Write 6×6 Challenge, they must sometimes shake their heads at what gets syndicated into their site!PS who even remembers what I mean by blog syndications? Oops I am already writing off my intended path…
But there was always something more to this sequence between Billy Crystal’s Mitch character and Jack Palance’s Curly in City Slickers:
Here I have the dialogue:
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
Curly: This. [holds up one finger]
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit.
Mitch: But what is the “one thing?”
Curly: [smiles] That’s what you gotta figure out.
As usual with the internet, I am hardly the first or only to find meaning in it.
To me I think in the edtech field there is often a Secret of Life desire for the “best tool” or teaching strategy or resource or X, this is the allure of solutionism (AI! eportfolios! Blogs! Web 2.0! Web3! Metaverse! the LMS! Badges!) when the better approach as a practitioner (be it teaching, using technology, etc) is that you have to (a) work at something like a practice (“stick to it”) and (b) that you need to figure out what it is, not rely on some company/blogger/consultant/keynoter to tell you what it is (“That’s what you gotta figure out”).
That’s fine, the usual CogDogBlog trope of sweeping up crumbs of the past. What about 2022?
Well…
I am slated to do an online conference session May 6 (yes I am being fuzzy on the details, still waiting confirmation) pitched as:
Take all suggestions for pitched solutions to pandemic sized challenges, inspirational messages from keynote speakers, promises of educational technology tools or teaching strategies as a magic fix, with the largest grain of salt. What can we get from a cliché dialogue from a Hollywood western character? Maybe more than you might think. I offer some lessons learned from the serendipity of the internet, tours of rabbit holes of curiosity, kitchen metaphors, image thinking, all to drive some discussion about finding and sticking to your one thing.
What’s Your One Thing?
I am seeking examples of types of “things” educators… well actually anyone, takes up in a Curly-like fashion. Something you do, likely outside the worky-work stuff, that you just stick with. That you find the practice eventually awards in maybe an achievement (running a marathon, baking a quiche, building a giant sculpture) but also, that gives you an internal sense of that Curly spirit.
It’s not something you are passionate about, it’s a thing you take on with a regular practice.
Is anyone willing to share their one thing? Often it is something our colleagues may not even know about.
What’s Someone Else’s One Thing?
If you are stuck on that, share what you know from a friend, colleague, maybe someone you see signs of the one thing in social media as a “One Thing” they seem to do…
Like I know Dave Cormier builds doors and garden gnomes and other wood things in his workshop.
I can't tell you how hard it is to avoid using ONLY woodworking examples every time I talk about edtech.
Or Laura Ritchie runs a lot and wrote a book!). I see other colleagues building log cabins, long distance trail runners, being master gardeners, flying planes, making beer at home, heck I know 5 colleagues who make wood pens.
You see, these One Things would not really work for me, but it works for them. That’s a key.
It’s more than a hobby- I have a sense that the focus and practice that goes into someone’s one thing helps them decompress and even rethink their work or teaching practice.
That’s my experience when I take that deliberate time each day to go outside with a camera, try to relax and find something that would make for an interesting photo. I’ve not been doing Daily Photo thing 15 years to get an award or claim some achievement, it’s that the practice, the focus itself is the real reward.
Again I ask, what is your One Thing (and likely you have more than one, it’s not exclusionary). What is something you “stick to” doing on a regular basis? What does it do for you?
Featured Image: Yes a bit ironic that my photo was posted for the original @DailyShoot challenge (which inspired the DS106 Daily Create) but also references Curly’s Law.
I have to be honest. When people started throwing around the term 4DX last year, I tuned them all out. After teaching for over 30 years, I think I’ve pretty much seen everything come and go over the years. It wasn’t that I’d planned to not participate. As I’ve said before, I’m a team player, so you want to play 4DX? I’ll play. I may not like it, but somebody somewhere thinks this is worthwhile. So I’ll play, but I’m going in blind.
So our department set up two professional learning communities (PLC), and apparently, we’re doing a good job of making and keeping our goals each week. Our team lead informs us that we are at 94% for making and keeping our goals. That’s good. Attendance is not so great, but seriously, I think we’ve all figured out that meeting once a week just to say you’ve done what you were supposed to do is a bit of a waste of time. That’s indicated by our 41% attendance last week. But overall, I get a sense that our team really wants to reach our goal.
What is our goal?
Well, apparently we have an overall college super goal and then 3 Battle WIGs. A WIG is a wildly important goal. Each departs chooses a WIG to align with any of the three institutional Battle WIGs. Below are our goals.
GCC SUPER GOAL: Increase completion with equity from 23% to 33% by Fall 2024.
Battle WIG #1- Increase headcount of the new-student fall cohort with equity from 3,395 to 3,500 by October 2022.
Battle WIG #2- Increase student successful course completion with equity from 62% to 65% by October 2022. <–WE ALIGNED TO THIS ONE
Battle WIG #3- Increase Fall-to-Fall retention with equity from 54% to 57% by Fall 2022.
Our Dept WIG: Because we value learning, we will increase student successful completion with equity from 67.3% to 70.3% averaged across all department course offerings by October 2022.
Each week we’ve come up with some really good interventions to help our students be successful in our courses, but I’m getting a sense that most of us are not seeing any changes in student success. All the things we are trying can’t help a student who is just over his or her head. I think many students have this unrealistic view of what it takes to be successful in college. Our students have jobs. They have families. They have a lot going on. And then they register for 3-4 college courses and think they have enough time to be successful. Well, we’re all learning that these students are not set up to succeed. We’re doing all this outreach only to discover that many of our students are never going to be successful because they are already behind the 8-ball.
We recruit them and tell them to register. It’s affordable. We have flexible courses. You can take online courses or live-online. What we should be telling students is how much time it takes to be successful in a course. They need to be told to map out their time on a calendar and see how much time they have left for a course. They need to be told about support on campus before they start a class and perhaps given some suggestions for how to ask for help and/or how to read the course syllabus. But the most important skill they need is how to motivate themselves to do their work.
With all the weekly interventions we’ve tried this semester, most are met with silence. Students don’t even reply. After just two weeks into the semester, I was ghosted by a number of students. And those who did reply had excuses and promises to submit the missing assignment which never did materialize. Those that I could get to talk to me said they just didn’t have enough time to do all the work and seemed surprised that they had so much to do in one class, which is the case when you register for an 8-week or even a 12-week class.
Sadly I think we’re wizzy WIGging to no avail. I think the best interventions are those that could happen before students register for their courses. I think it’s too late for most after the course has started. They can’t quit their job. They can’t quit their family. So what’s left? Not doing their coursework. Basically quitting school before they’ve actually started.
There is the need for civil dialogue on the complex and controversial issues of our time. It should be one of the tasks of higher education to illuminate the path toward such a goal. This quest, however, is fraught with danger in that there are some who would rather shut down dialogue and debate rather than engage in rational intellectual interchange. The examination of ideas and perspectives different from one’s own can be disorienting. I often remind students to embrace the cognitive dissonance they may at times experience as they learn new philosophical ideas, rather than simply run from it. Even if one does not change their views on a given topic, the challenge of working through the intellectual discomfort of foreign ideas can lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the views which they hold. I hope all would resonate with the words found in the Arizona Revised Statutes when they state:
“It is not the proper role of an institution of higher education to shield individuals from speech protected by the first amendment, including, without limitation, ideas and opinions that may be unwelcome, disagreeable or deeply offensive.”
Toward this end of promoting free exchange in the marketplace of ideas, the GCC Philosophy and Religious Studies Department along with the GCC Philosophy Club continues to sponsor its bi-annual panel discussions—God & Truth; Critical Dialogues. These events allow a spectrum of speakers to engage significant and, sometimes, controversial topics in an atmosphere of mutual respect and reasoned engagement. The issues discussed run the gamut from religious issues such as the meaning of life and God and morality to the political and cultural issues of transgenderism and religious rights and civil rights.
We are already planning our next Critical Dialogues panel discussion set for October and we are planning to tackle one of the most contentious issues in our culture—Abortion. Dealing with a topic which is prone to sloganeering and emotion is challenging and we are hopeful of examining the philosophical and legal aspects of this debate from different perspectives. And, as always, we will be seeking to model to our students, staff, and community how to have a serious and substantive conversation in an engaging and civil manner.
I wrote a piece for the 6×6 blog series back in February 2020 (before Covid!)—Celebrating the Value of Free Speech!—and I ended that piece with the following words which still seem apropos:
The Need for Vigilance
The culture of free expression and civil disagreement is healthy at Glendale Community College. This is partly a function of the laws enshrined in the Arizona statutes as well as the legal precedents handed down in defense of the Maricopa County Community College District. For example, in a 2010 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit—Rodriquez v. Maricopa County Community College District—these powerful words are found:
“Without the right to stand against society’s most strongly-held convictions, the marketplace of ideas would decline into a boutique of the banal, as the urge to censor is greatest where debate is most disquieting and orthodoxy most entrenched. The right to provoke, offend and shock lies at the core of the First Amendment. This is particularly so on college campuses.”
Laws and legal precedent are necessary but not sufficient. There is always the need for vigilance. There must continue to be a firm commitment to freedom on the part of individuals who inhabit our institutions of higher learning. As Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate remind us, “Freedom dies in the heart and will before it dies in the law.” It is for this reason that institutions like Glendale Community College with their commitment to the free exchange of ideas ought to be celebrated and emulated.
Set your long term goals to a year of completion 2023-2024.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl add:
1 c. positive attitude: This may at times be on backorder, but if you search you will find it.
1 tsp teamwork: Success tastes the same achieved all alone or in tandem with your peers.
1 TBSP motivation: Remembering why you are here and your dreams helps!
1 c. time management: An essential item in the nursing school/life process. Measure accurately!
1 oz of hope
Stir until well blended. Cover and set in a warm place allowing for Success to rise for 2 years. Bake and serve at pinning. Enjoy!
The new Graduate Nurse
Dr. Mary Resler
Congratulations! As a new graduate nurse you have successfully completed a nursing program and have completed your NCLEX exam. This may seem like the end of the road for education but it is not. Nurses are lifelong learners! Success is keeping current on evidence based practices. Success is participating in policy change. Success is improving your patient outcomes. Success is maintaining your license. Success looks different as a lifelong learner then it does for a nursing student.
Many new graduate nurses measure success by completing a difficult patient assignment. They measure success by the years they have worked. They measure success by working on a specialty unit. They measure success by catching a medication error. They measure success by favorable patient satisfaction scores. True success as a lifelong learner or new graduate nurse is to never be complacent in your knowledge. Always push yourself to learn by asking questions and continuing in your education. Knowledge is of no use if you do not use it.
The new Nurse Educator
Dr. Grace Paul
Students have jumped over hoops, taken several exams, sacrificed participating in several occasions, and spent several hours pondering and even working in a hospital environment to know if this is indeed what they want to do with the rest of their lives. They know what their career goal is, and now they are in our classrooms.
Once they are in our classroom, they are our responsibility. While there may be several factors connected to student success like age, gender, previous experiences, GPA, etc, these are all non-modifiable factors that we as educators, can do nothing about. What we have in our hands to help these students succeed are the modifiable factors – factors that we as educators can help make a difference in these students’ lives, and allow our students to be successful in their chosen careers.
There are several modifiable factors that we can use to our advantage for student success. One such factor is responsiveness. Responsiveness is responding to a student. This can be in the classroom during class. A slight nod, a smile, a positive gesture, direct eye contact or a positive note sent to the student are all ways by which the student feels safe and positive about themselves. Smiling eases the students and makes it easier for students to come forward with questions and be communicative.
As the new nurse educator figures out how things work in the new environment, the curriculum, and the work culture, students are usually quick to recognize that the instructor is new. But the timely response, open communication, a smiling and respectful attitude, and humor in the classroom, makes a huge difference as to how the students accept and respond to the instructor.
The responsiveness of the instructor makes the students feel loved and cared for, knowing that they are the priority for the instructor. Keep the classroom space non-judgmental, which helps students to focus on the learning. This creates a trusting relationship between the students and the teacher, contributing immensely to the success of the class as a whole and the individual student.
Responsiveness is also important when corrections have to be made. When a student makes a mistake, and when the mistake is recognized and acknowledged, use the situation as a learning opportunity. Do not make it punitive. If the student does not learn from the mistake, then it is an opportunity lost. It is important for the educator to provide resources to correct the mistake.
Another important tool for responsiveness is remediation. Remediation is a powerful tool when it comes to improving test results. It is helpful for the instructor and the student to go through the test, and look for a pattern, and to understand the reasoning behind the right and wrong answers. It is helpful for the student to bring another student to these meetings, as students tend to learn better from their peers rather than from the instructor.
To summarize, student success is a commitment from the student as well as the educator. There are modifiable and non-modifiable factors when it comes to student success. Responsiveness is one such tool that will help to promote trust, and therefore a positive relationship, which will help promote student success.
Picture if you will: I’m wearing a pencil skirt and high heels, and I am dragging a luggage cart behind me. I’m bobbing and weaving through corridors to get to my destination. Am I a flight attendant? No, I am a first-year fourth-grade teacher circa 1986, and the luggage cart is full of books and papers. The destination? Home, where I will grade papers and write lesson plans. All weekend.
I wish I could say that so much has changed since then. But I constantly find myself needing to set time boundaries around my teaching. Case in point just a few years ago when I was teaching fully online for the first time: My husband would be stunned to come home to a completely dark house, save the beam of light from my home office door. Day would turn into night, and I wouldn’t have left the office to turn on the lights in the house.
Maybe you’ve never had days like those. Maybe you have figured out the secret. Maybe it’s just me who has to remind myself to find work-life balance, but I don’t think so. Teachers are reporting increasingly higher levels of stress, and feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day is a definite stressor.
In the early years of our marriage, my husband would suggest that it was all a matter of “time management.” (It really is a miracle we’re still married.) But then years later when I was a professional development specialist, I suggested to a group of teachers that they take two minutes out of the day periodically to breathe with their students. One teacher snapped back, “I don’t have two minutes to breathe!”
Yes, the words “time management” almost escaped my lips. But, it’s really not about time management, but rather it’s boundary management. It’s deciding what I want my life to be like, and the structures that need to be in place in order for that life to happen. It’s deciding what is important and acknowledging that I can’t please everyone. It’s accepting that good is most often good enough.
One boundary I put up a few years ago is letting students know I am unavailable on nights and weekends. This is more of an issue with online students who have a vision that I’m chained to my computer at all hours, waiting for their burning questions. I make a big show of this in a regular Friday e-mail reminding students that I am unplugging for the weekend and perhaps sharing any fun plans I might have.
Not only does that put up the stiff-arm for weekend meetings, but I believe it is good modeling for our students. After all, our students are watching us closely. What do I want them to see? Someone ever-available-but-frazzled or someone who practices healthy self-care? Even if I have to fake it sometimes, I choose the latter. And my students know and accept my boundaries. One of my stats students remarked in a mid-term survey this semester: “You seem to have a great work/life balance.” A student in another class wrote, “I enjoy the weekend reminders and hearing about how you are unplugging for the weekend.”
Beyond just telling students I don’t work on nights and weekends, I have to actually follow through with this plan. This is challenging because there is always something else that can be done to make my class run better. My work could eat up every hour of my day if I let it, and the line has to be drawn somewhere. So 6pm at night and the weekend is the boundary I set for work. Now, I do break that boundary occasionally, but it serves a purpose of mostly keeping my over-work tendencies in check.
Because I have set boundaries for work, there are times when I make people wait. I disappoint people every now and then. I definitely don’t accomplish all that I want. I drop the many balls I’m juggling with regularity, but somehow the world keeps spinning and my students keep learning, and that’s what will keep me teaching.
Picture if you will: I’m wearing a pencil skirt and pumps, and I am dragging a luggage cart behind me. I’m bobbing and weaving through corridors to get to my destination. Am I a flight attendant? No, I am a first-year fourth-grade teacher circa 1986, and the luggage cart is full of books and papers. The destination? Home, where I will grade papers and write lesson plans. All weekend.
I wish I could say that so much has changed since then. But I constantly find myself needing to set time boundaries around my teaching. Case in point just a few years ago when I was teaching fully online for the first time: My husband would be stunned to come home to a completely dark house, save the beam of light from my home office door. Day would turn into night without me leaving my desk.
Maybe you’ve never had days like these. Maybe you have figured out the secret. Maybe it’s just me who has to remind myself to find work-life balance, but I don’t think so. Teachers are reporting increasingly higher levels of stress, and feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day is a definite stressor.
In the early years of our marriage, my husband would suggest that it was all a matter of “time management.” (It really is a miracle we’re still married.) But then years later when I was a professional development specialist, I encouraged a group of teachers to take two minutes out of the day periodically to breathe with their students. One teacher snapped back, “I don’t have two minutes to breathe!”
Yes, the words “time management” almost escaped my lips. But, it’s really not about time management, rather it’s boundary management. It’s deciding what I want my life to be like, and the structures that need to be in place in order for that life to happen. It’s reflecting on what is important and acknowledging that I can’t please everyone. It’s accepting that good is most often good enough.
One boundary I put up a few years ago is letting students know I am unavailable on nights and weekends. This is more of an issue with online students who have a vision that I’m chained to my computer at all hours, waiting for their burning questions. I make a big show of this in a regular Friday e-mail reminding students that I am unplugging for the weekend and perhaps sharing any fun activities I might have planned.
Not only does this put up the stiff-arm for weekend meetings, but I believe it is good modeling for students. After all, our students are watching us closely. What do I want them to see? Someone ever-available-but-frazzled or someone who practices healthy self-care? Even if I have to fake it sometimes, I choose the latter. And my students know and accept my boundaries. One of my stats students remarked in a mid-term survey this semester: “You seem to have a great work/life balance and an overall positive attitude and I really like that.” A student in another class wrote, “I enjoy the weekend reminders and hearing about how you are unplugging for the weekend.”
Beyond just telling students I don’t work on nights and weekends, I have to actually follow through with this plan. This is challenging because there is always something else that can be done to make my class run better. My work could eat up every hour of my day if I let it, and the line has to be drawn somewhere. So 6pm at night and the weekend are boundaries I set for work. Now, I do break a boundary occasionally, but my boundaries serve a purpose of (mostly) keeping my over-work tendencies in check.
Because I have set boundaries for work, there are times when I make people wait. I disappoint people every now and then. I definitely don’t accomplish all that I want. I drop the many balls I’m juggling with regularity, but somehow the world keeps spinning and my students keep learning, and that’s what will keep me teaching.
Picture if you will: I’m wearing a pencil skirt and pumps, and I am dragging a luggage cart behind me. I’m bobbing and weaving through corridors to get to my destination. Am I a flight attendant? No, I am a first-year fourth-grade teacher circa 1986, and the luggage cart is full of books and papers. The destination? Home, where I will grade papers and write lesson plans. All weekend.
I wish I could say that so much has changed since then. But I constantly find myself needing to set time boundaries around my teaching. Case in point just a few years ago when I was teaching fully online for the first time: My husband would be stunned to come home to a completely dark house, save the beam of light from my home office door. Day would turn into night without me leaving my desk.
Maybe you’ve never had days like these. Maybe you have figured out the secret. Maybe it’s just me who has to remind myself to find work-life balance, but I don’t think so. Teachers are reporting increasingly higher levels of stress, and feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day is a definite stressor.
In the early years of our marriage, my husband would suggest that it was all a matter of “time management.” (It really is a miracle we’re still married.) But then years later when I was a professional development specialist, I encouraged a group of teachers to take two minutes out of the day periodically to breathe with their students. One teacher snapped back, “I don’t have two minutes to breathe!”
Yes, the words “time management” almost escaped my lips. But, it’s really not about time management, rather it’s boundary management. It’s deciding what I want my life to be like, and the structures that need to be in place in order for that life to happen. It’s reflecting on what is important and acknowledging that I can’t please everyone. It’s accepting that good is most often good enough.
One boundary I put up a few years ago is letting students know I am unavailable on nights and weekends. This is more of an issue with online students who have a vision that I’m chained to my computer at all hours, waiting for their burning questions. I make a big show of this in a regular Friday e-mail reminding students that I am unplugging for the weekend and perhaps sharing any fun activities I might have planned.
Not only does this put up the stiff-arm for weekend meetings, but I believe it is good modeling for students. After all, our students are watching us closely. What do I want them to see? Someone ever-available-but-frazzled or someone who practices healthy self-care? Even if I have to fake it sometimes, I choose the latter. And my students know and accept my boundaries. One of my stats students remarked in a mid-term survey this semester: “You seem to have a great work/life balance and an overall positive attitude and I really like that.” A student in another class wrote, “I enjoy the weekend reminders and hearing about how you are unplugging for the weekend.”
Beyond just telling students I don’t work on nights and weekends, I have to actually follow through with this plan. This is challenging because there is always something else that can be done to make my class run better. My work could eat up every hour of my day if I let it, and the line has to be drawn somewhere. So 6pm at night and the weekend are boundaries I set for work. Now, I do break a boundary occasionally, but my boundaries serve a purpose of (mostly) keeping my over-work tendencies in check.
Because I have set boundaries for work, there are times when I make people wait. I disappoint people every now and then. I definitely don’t accomplish all that I want. I drop the many balls I’m juggling with regularity, but somehow the world keeps spinning and my students keep learning, and that’s what will keep me teaching.
Does great risk equal great reward? I guess it depends on the risk. Though, despite my rebel tendencies, likely due to my fascination with Star Wars and wanting to fly an X-Wing and fight for the Rebel Alliance, I’m really not that risky of a person in life. Overall, I like to stay in balance; taking risks feels unstable, dangerous. Professionally, and yes, I’m hip-with-professional-jargon, taking risks equals growth. I mean, look at all the books written about this very concept. Throughout my years (almost a decade!) at GCC, my favorite risks would be the following: applying and surviving the interview process to be hired full-time; leading a team to create and implement a campus-wide mentoring program for developmental students; presenting at conferences, especially about how to support students with executive function differences; teaching in a learning community of ENG102/CRE102 with Sherry Wangen; putting my students into learning teams at the beginning of the semester to achieve the course competencies by solving a community issue and creating real-life deliverables where students tangibly connected the classroom and their community; serving as an Assistant Chair; leaning into the hybrid and, then, hyflex modalities; trying all the shiny, new tools with students: PearDeck, Weebly, Prezi, Voki, Animoto, SoundCloud, FlipGrid, Kahoot, etc. etc. etc.; and most of all, being vulnerable with students in teaching by providing models from my own life experience, constantly learning, being open to feedback from students throughout the semester (What’s working? What’s not? Stop-Start-Continue), and not being afraid to make mistakes. As I look back, I think I answered my own question; indubitably, the risks I’ve taken while serving as faculty at GCC have been some of the greatest rewards of my professional life.
