A popular book proclaimed that everything we need to know we
learned in kindergarten. For me, everything I needed to growinto a healthy human I
learned as a teacher of Introduction to Psychology. I don’t think I’m
overselling it – teaching this course has changed the trajectory of my life.
The story is not a pretty one. Rather, mine was a story of do as I teach, not as I do. The
prescription for physical and mental wellness is woven throughout any PSY 101
textbook, and I was doing my best to dole out the appropriate medicine to my students.
“Adequate sleep helps
memory consolidation.”
“There is a link
between exercise and a positive mood.”
“Stress can be
regulated through mindfulness and meditation.”
Meanwhile, I myself was sleeping too little, sitting too
much, and stress dominated most of my days. I regularly used food to regulate
my mood. How I could warn my students about the “self-medication hypothesis”
with a straight face remains a mystery to me.
But, with each new group of students, my awareness of my own
hypocrisy grew. Just as I was beginning to muse about making some healthy changes,
life hurried me along. Faced at the time with a more pressing need to find
balance in my life, I turned to lessons ripped from the pages of PSY 101. I wanted
to achieve greater peace in my life and get down to a healthy weight. I wanted
more energy to face life’s challenges. I wanted strength when I was feeling
broken.
As an educational psychologist, I know a little bit about how change happens. I know simplicity can be key when forming new habits, and I also know the power of mnemonic devices that help us to remember our goals. I therefore focused on just the following five directives from psychological research on how to live a healthy life (and they just so happen to rhyme!):
Soothe involves finding ways to regulate stress. Choose
means opting, for the most part, to eat foods that make the body feel good and
provide energy. Move involves finding some way to engage the body every day,
even if it is just a walk around the block. Snooze means taking sleep
hygiene seriously and getting in those zzz’s. Groove underpins all the
previous elements and relates to setting up structures and habits that lead to
healthy actions (like planning workouts for the week and stocking the fridge
with veggies).
There is nothing sexy about this prescription. It also is no
quick fix. There is nothing extreme involved, but rather balance is at the
centerpoint. Each day I remember the words soothe,
choose, move, snooze, and groove, and they help me to stay in
balance.
So what did these five words do for me? Over a year later, I am perhaps healthier than I have ever been in my life. I have a much deeper sense of inner peace. I went from a BMI classified as “obese” to one smack-dab in the “normal” level. I feel energetic and strong. And, I no longer feel like a phony when sharing with my students how to be healthy and well.
This post is part of the Write 6X6 challenge at Glendale Community College.
A popular book proclaimed that everything we need to know we
learned in kindergarten. For me, everything I needed to growinto a healthy human I
learned as a teacher of Introduction to Psychology. I don’t think I’m
overselling it – teaching this course has changed the trajectory of my life.
The story is not a pretty one. Rather, mine was a story of do as I teach, not as I do. The
prescription for physical and mental wellness is woven throughout any PSY 101
textbook, and I was doing my best to dole out the appropriate medicine to my students.
“Adequate sleep helps
memory consolidation.”
“There is a link
between exercise and a positive mood.”
“Stress can be
regulated through mindfulness and meditation.”
Meanwhile, I myself was sleeping too little, sitting too
much, and stress dominated most of my days. I regularly used food to regulate
my mood. How I could warn my students about the “self-medication hypothesis”
with a straight face remains a mystery to me.
But, with each new group of students, my awareness of my own
hypocrisy grew. Just as I was beginning to muse about making some healthy changes,
life hurried me along. Faced at the time with a more pressing need to find
balance in my life, I turned to lessons ripped from the pages of PSY 101. I wanted
to achieve greater peace in my life and get down to a healthy weight. I wanted
more energy to face life’s challenges. I wanted strength when I was feeling
broken.
As an educational psychologist, I know a little bit about how change happens. I know simplicity can be key when forming new habits, and I also know the power of mnemonic devices that help us to remember our goals. I therefore focused on just the following five directives from psychological research on how to live a healthy life (and they just so happen to rhyme!):
Soothe involves finding ways to regulate stress. Choose
means opting, for the most part, to eat foods that make the body feel good and
provide energy. Move involves finding some way to engage the body every day,
even if it is just a walk around the block. Snooze means taking sleep
hygiene seriously and getting in those zzz’s. Groove underpins all the
previous elements and relates to setting up structures and habits that lead to
healthy actions (like planning workouts for the week and stocking the fridge
with veggies).
There is nothing sexy about this prescription. It also is no
quick fix. There is nothing extreme involved, but rather balance is at the
centerpoint. Each day I remember the words soothe,
choose, move, snooze, and groove, and they help me to stay in
balance.
So what did these five words do for me? Over a year later, I am perhaps healthier than I have ever been in my life. I have a much deeper sense of inner peace. I went from a BMI classified as “obese” to one smack-dab in the “normal” level. I feel energetic and strong. And, I no longer feel like a phony when sharing with my students how to be healthy and well.
This post is part of the Write 6X6 challenge at Glendale Community College.
I have a confession to make. I am a super giant nerd. In case this hasn’t been obvious in previous posts, read on to confirm. I think it started back in my undergrad when I learned that I would have to take a statistics class for my psychology degree. I was dreading the class because I struggled with math for my entire school life.
PSSSSST! Hey, you! The busy professional! Want to skip past my personal narrative and reflections and just hear about ideas for assessment? Skip to the bottom; find the Skip to End image and read from there! Otherwise, enjoy my rambling below!
However, something miraculous happened. Statistics just clicked for me. Suddenly, math made sense! When the numbers I was calculating actually connected to something tangible and meaningful, my brain could compute. And right there, my love for an early research was born.
Choose your team! (More evidence of my nerdiness)
My first year of grad school, we had to take a basic Communication Research classes: one course in quantitative studies and one course in qualitative studies. It quickly became evident that the “side” you chose predicted your personality: “Quantoids” were deemed the nerdy number-crunchers whereas “Qaullies” were the philosophers of thought. (I wish I had made up these labels as a joke. Alas, kids are cruel even as adults.) I was a “Quantoid” yet I rejected the nerdy implications of the label… to the extend that I re-designed my thesis dissertation as a qualitative study just to prove I wasn’t only a statistics nerd. But even in the early onset of my academic career, I loved numbers. I loved seeing the statistics as useful metrics for how my students performed, thus helping me assess how well I was succeeding as a teacher.
All this is precursor to explain and justify my affinity for assessment. For many of my colleagues, assessment draws one of several negative reactions: ambivalence, annoyance, confusion, or a general feeling that it is a waste of our precious teaching time.
For me, assessment is the opportunity to collect valuable data and to use that data for the noble purpose of improving education for students, whether that means improving students’ comprehension or grades or helping me to deliver my content more effectively.
When I hear “assessment,” my brain immediately goes to formal, mandated assessment required in colleges to obtain and keep accreditation credentials. I first think of identifying a specific college or district student learning outcome and finding a quantitative way to calculate students results in that particular category.
For me (and fellow nerds), this is exciting and fun, while for other people, this is the workplace equivalent of having a root canal. However, the more I have studied the formal side of assessment (as a department assessment coordinator and currently a course co- lead), I realize that assessment does not have to be a huge, formal, quantitative research undertaking.
We assess in our classes every single day formally and informally, directly and indirectly, with grades and without. We are all familiar with the traditional forms of assessment like exams and papers. Most of my classes have a heavy emphasis on public speaking. In my COM 225 class, which is Public Speaking, a whopping 75% of their grade comes from speeches. These are the formal assessments of the class.
But to help students build the necessary skills needed to deliver great presentations, I administer many practice activities and skill building activities throughout the semester. These are rarely graded, but are required as part of the students participation. I realized that these are an excellent source of formative assessment; they assess the students’ current strengths and weaknesses so I can provide more direct feedback. This results in improved scores on the students graded tests, but even more than that, it provides a place where students can practice their skills and gain more confidence, and helps to foster a more friendly and knowledgeable audience, which decreases students’ nervousness.
The rest of the post describes two in-class assessment activities.
One such activity is something I call the Actor’s Studio. A group of students will be assigned a particular concept from the lesson of the day. The students create a skit where they demonstrate the concept for the rest of the class, then the audience (the other students) try to guess the concept being demonstrated.
I love this activity because it requires creativity from the presenters as well as collaboration with their fellow group members. It also uses higher level thinking along Bloom’s Taxonomy. Rather than simply defining the concept, performing a skit requires deeper understanding to be able to apply the content to a scenario. In addition, it helps the rest of the students practice good audience behavior with active listening and critical thinking. This helps me identify areas where students clearly “get” a concept and areas where students could be confused.
Another activity I use for assessment is the Great Debate. In this activity, I put a resolution on the board that clearly has at least two sides. I start with a lighter, pop culture prompt such as “Joaquin Phoenix was the best Joker.”(We move on to more serious issues based on the class and their interests.) Upon initial reading of the resolution, students have to place themselves against one of three walls in the room: the right side if they agree with the resolution, the left side of the room if they disagree with the resolution, and the back wall of the room if they are undecided or ambivalent.
Next, I asked for a volunteer from the “pro wall” to explain why they support this particular resolution. The speaker has one minute to attempt to persuade the rest of the audience. At the end of the one minute I ask if anyone has been persuaded? If so, they can move to a different wall. Then, I ask for a volunteer from the con side to explain why they are against the resolution. Again, the speaker has one minute to attempt to persuade us. And students are allowed to relocate should they be persuaded. This activity engages students and encourages them to analyze information as well as their decision-making.
In the debrief to this activity, we discuss which speeches persuaded us and why. Regarless of the actual topic, the stratgies we use to convince others to change their mind (or feelings or attitudes or beleifs or behaviors) are the concepts of Persuaive speaking fromt he textbook. This activity assesses understanding of the concepts while also challenging students to apply the concepts in real life.
These two activities hopefully help to demonstrate the variation Assessment can take, from formal and traditional to playful and, dare-I-say fun.
Having been a participant in
establishing a pilot program in the Philosophy and Religious Studies department
regarding student engagement, I wanted to write up some reflections regarding
student engagement and the role of Student Engagement Staff we have created.
The phrase “student engagement”
can have differing meanings and connotations depending on the context. One way to conceptualize these differing
conceptions is to orient the concept of student engagement around the following
three categories.
Techniques
Practices
Modalities
The following analysis attempts
to bring out the varying emphases in the ideas of student engagement.
Techniques
A quick perusal of online
search engines for the phrase “student engagement” often brings up specific
classroom techniques that are offered to engage the student’s interest and
attention in the classroom. In fact, a
recent article stressed that one of the best things to emphasis for student
engagement is for students to study![1]
Practices
The Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) issued a
report in 2013 that covered twelve high-impact practices for student
engagement.[2]
Experiential learning beyond
classroom
Class attendance
Alert intervention
Supplemental instruction
Academic goal setting and
planning
Orientation
Accelerated/fast-track
developmental education
First year experience
Student success course
Tutoring
Assessment and placement
Learning community
This list of high-impact
practices can be divided into two distinct arenas of implementation. First, there are those practices that can be
implemented by the professor in the classroom.
Second, there practices which are more administrative and operate at the
level of the larger institution. The
following delineates this breakdown:
Professor/Classroom Level
Administrative/Institutional Level
Experiential learning beyond
classroom
Academic goal setting &
planning
Class attendance
Orientation
Alert intervention
Accelerated/fast-track dev.
ed.
Supplemental instruction
First year experience
Student success course
Tutoring
Assessment & placement
Learning community
The main difference between
these practices is that some are directed by the individual professor and are
much quicker to implement. The second
set of practices requires auxiliary departments and specialization beyond the
individual professor’s control.
Modalities
“Modalities” refers to the
modes in which student engagement manifests itself. Think of modalities like vehicles. Modalities are the differing configurations
of personnel and structures that allow for practices and techniques to be
expressed. Consider, for example, the
modality of the professor. The professor
is uniquely situated to be the vehicle for implementing specific student
engagement practices listed above (e.g., alert intervention). Beyond the individual professor there are
also institutional and structural departments organized around implementing
student engagement practices. Think, for
example, of the advisement department.
This is an organized collective of people structured toward the end of
giving students effective counsel regarding course selection in light of the
student’s stated goals.
The
pilot program we have developed in the Philosophy and Religious studies
department centers around the creation of a new modality we have called
“Student Engagement Staff.” In my next
piece I will give an overview of the specific dynamics of this modality and how
it has functioned over the past three semesters.
[1]
“Another form of student engagement is also linked to educational progress and
post-graduate success. It’s called
studying. And its effects include what
some may now regard as old-fashioned—even quaint—notions that serious reading
increases the understanding of factual and fictional worlds, that intentional
writing improves the ability to think clearly, and that mathematical analysis
promotes better use and evaluation of data.
Even memorization-often denigrated as rote trivialization—has the value
of enabling one to know something without always having to look it up.” Michael
T. Nietzel, “A Best Practice for Student Engagement: It’s Called Studying” Forbes (January 10, 2019)—online: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2019/01/10/a-best-practice-for-student-engagement-its-called-studying/#6b4cc38e54ab.
[2]
Center for Community College Student Engagement. (2013). A Matter of Degrees: Engaging Practices, Engaging Students (High-Impact
Practices for Community College Student Engagement). Austin, TX: The
University of Texas at Austin, Community College Leadership Program.
When was the last time you saw a film or television show where someone was supposed to play an instrument or sing well? When that moment of reckoning occurs I always hold my breath and wait for the tell. The tell is the point where it is clear that the actor is faking it. That actor may be faking it successfully or poorly – or, of course, the actor may actually be a musician, as many are, and is not faking it at all. But if faking does occur, an editor often gets involved to fake it further. We see, we listen, we constantly assess.
When we assess students isn’t this ultimately what we are trying to determine? Are they faking it, or do they know and understand the material? As a musician, do they know how to play musically or are they simply playing the notes?
When we assess aren’t we also looking for those who fake it well?
One of the jokes among instructors of applied music (performing music) is when the teacher corrects the student and the student says, “Well, I just don’t understand. It sounded perfectly fine in the practice room.”
What that means is that most of the time (not all) the student can’t tell the difference and is, ultimately, faking it.
Fake It ‘Til You Make It?
I remember a student who was excellent at mimicry. I learned never to play a piece for her because she had too good an ear and could fake it. The problem was that she could not read music. She was a good pianist but when asked to play something that she misheard or ostensibly misread because it was incorrect she could not “replicate the results.”
I have tremendous respect for her because she had been playing for many years and had to face the fact that not only was shefaking it but she had to face the degree of how much she was faking it. If she wanted to continue lessons she had to re-learn how to read music after many years of classical piano lessons, her chosen genre.
There is a part of me that thinks she always knew how much she was faking it but she had choices moving forward. She could have stayed at the level where she was because she could fool many. She could have gone on her merry way and continued to play the way she did. She could have walked away and given up. Music was not her major so that might have been the easiest choice. She chose instead to go back to the basics and learn how to read music. It was a daunting task and I commend her for her perseverance. It was a lesson in patience because, in this case, one does not fake it until you make it. She’d already been down that path.
Two Studies that May Surprise You
I love surprising students (not that you are students) so I leave you with two listenings of people who are not faking it – or are they? In the first example, Bence Peter’s Fibonacci series moves to a video image which allows him to re-sequence the series so that it can go backward, using digital editing. This video clip often offers my students a new “take” on music and they are surprised because they are hearing something different. If you are using speakers, turn them up. In the classroom, I usually turn off the lights.
The second video clip shows an interesting twist on talking and singing where he includes the spoken word. Is he having trouble or is he faking it? Here is Al Jarreau.
Writer’s block prompted me to search for an idea for this week’s post. I turned to the poetry of Alberto Rios, 2013 Arizona poet laureate. In his poem An Instruction to Myself, I found my inspiration. Rios defined the task of a writer in the first line. His instruction suggests we “Shepherd the things of the world to the page.”
I love his word choice. The
verb shepherd communicates such a
gentle guidance. Now I can visualize gently guiding my thoughts into words.
Thanks Alberto.
I met Alberto Rios last semester when he spoke here at GCC. He read the following poem. Perhaps sharing is the ultimate gift of a writer.
My colleagues have already done an excellent job of breaking down inclusion and how to accomplish it in an academic setting.
Rather than echo what was already stated, I wanted to briefly discuss one of the barriers to inclusion: titles.
Titles, or labels, are either earned or given by society. Sometimes they relate to our cultural background, sometimes they relate to our level of education, and other times they simply seem to be bestowed without reason.
I do want to be clear. There is nothing wrong with having a title as a way to identify function or purpose. After all, most of us are professors, a title that denotes our specialization in the education of others in a particular field.
Most positions have a title: Biologist, Commissioner, Dean, Director, Doctor, Mayor, President, Professor… the world is not wanting from a lack of titles.
In their multitudes, however, titles have become barriers to inclusion as they are used to judge others or ourselves.
I have struggled to combat this thought process, the idea that someone is better or worse, smarter or less educated, simply by the title they carry. If a County Commissioner was at odds with a Level I Planner, or a Dean was at odds with the parents of a student, my initial inclination, without knowledge of the situation, was to side with the higher title.
On a personal level, I have seen others change their opinion of me, almost immediately, after finding I had gained or lost a certain title.
The problem with titles is that within each one there is an incredible range of talent, expertise, and intelligence:
Think about all the medical doctors you have ever met.
Were they all equally talented? Knowledgable?
Of course not. Yet, they have the same title, and sight unseen there is a tendency to put all doctors on the same level.
Categorization without knowing. The antithesis of inclusion.
Although I am personally still working on breaking free of title bias, I can say the first important step is to realize that titles denote a function, not intelligence, kindness, or capability.
They merely answer the question “What do you do?” not “Who are you as a person?”
As long as I can remember that, I know I am on my way to becoming a more inclusive individual.
We recently received the news that our former GCC President Dr. Velvie Green had passed away. She inspired me when I met her as a student at GCC. In 2018, I posted a cultural reflection/inspirational story connected to her on Write 6 x 6. I thought that it would be appropriate to re-post it here in honor of her.
Originally posted February 8th, 2018
Dr. Velvie Green
My cultural reflection/inspirational story is connected to Dr. Velvie Green, the former President of Glendale Community College. I met her when I was a student at GCC. I was hanging around the Communication Department and Jim Reed, the Department Chair, was giving our newly appointed President a tour of the department. Jim came around the corner and said that he wanted to introduce me to her. When she came around the corner I saw an African American woman standing in front of me. I had a moment of pause. I looked at this stranger and felt like I was looking at my future physical self. I couldn’t tell you what I was expecting, but I could definitely tell you that I was not expecting her.
I recognized something in her that connected with me on a level I had never recognized before. I recognized possibility in something that I would have never considered without this encounter, the possibility that I could become a college president myself. I saw a cultural reflection of myself on campus and it inspired me. For years I pursued becoming a college president. My pursuit brought me to teaching and I fell in love with it and changed course.
That day motivates and inspires me daily. It really showcases the importance of cultural reflection on college campuses. That day is one of the things that motivates me to bring excellence into everything that I do, because someone out there may see themselves in me through my work. They may see me and they may be encouraged to be excellent in their career. They may see me and see the possibility of a career path that they would have never considered for themselves. They look at me and think to themselves if she can do it, I can do it too.
I encourage others to think of themselves in the same way. All it takes is someone seeing themselves represented, right in front of them to inspire and motivate them to greatness. Each encounter that you have on this campus could make or break someone’s hopes, dreams, or desires. Be mindful of the fact that you matter to someone and that they are paying attention to what you say and do.
I don’t know Dr. Velvie Green personally. She doesn’t know the impact she has had on me. I hope that she will come across this one day, so she can read about the difference she has made in my life. I am thankful and grateful that I had the opportunity to meet her. It changed my life.
Collaborative group projects in online and hybrid classes – Is there value in having students do them?
I go back and forth with whether I should dump it or keep it. Students hate it, but I think there is value, and it’s a lesson students need to experience. Things don’t always go the way they should, and students can learn a lot from having to deal with this adversity.
I’ve been using a group project in my ENG102 hybrid course for about two years now, and I think it teaches students a lot about collaborating, working in a team, and sharing in the learning process with others. In the video below, I’ll share my process with you, as well as a few tools in Canvas that you may or may not be familiar with: Collaborations, Groups, Perusall and NoodleTools.
Purpose: The purpose of the project is to teach students the process of writing an argumentative research paper. In groups of four the work through the whole process in four weeks. The only thing they don’t do is the actual research. I provide that for them. Let’s take a look, and I’ll show the tools as they are integrated into the process.
Sometimes when I think of assessment, I think of business regulations and why they are necessary for free trade. I like to hear different viewpoints on regulation and take them into consideration. For example, I was once working with a colleague from MCC’s business department who really felt that fewer regulations were important to more successful international import/export trade. It was her viewpoint that the more we could free up channels and remove blockages, delays, etc. the more the economy could grow through the exchange of trade. Seems simple, and I see her perspective. However, I also believe that some regulations are important because they provide critical protections to consumers. For example, the ban on using lead paint in children’s toys. That just seems like common sense, but without regulation, who/how can it be monitored?
I think of assessment in a similar way, as far as, yeah, sometimes it seems like an inconvenience or a little extra work, but on the other hand, if we never checked in with ourselves and each other regarding our work, how could we possibly ensure that effective teaching & learning is going on within our classrooms? (That sentence contained a lot of prepositional phrases… I apologize!).
But what I’m getting at is, basically, effective assessment ensures accountability.
I don’t want to become one of those workers who just chugs along, performing at “status quo,” and frankly, I have an expectation of our college that as an institution we, as a whole, regularly challenge our own performance and standards, and routinely strive to do better.
This reminds me of a line from the old comedy series, “Reno, 9-1-1”: “We aim to try.”
I want to revise this and turn it into a motto: “We aim to try harder and do better.”
I think assessment is a meaningful process that helps us reflect regularly and start to attempt to answer the question: “HOW should we try harder, next time?”
