Teaching Excellence

Keep your students “On Course” with more ideas from Skip Downing

By Erica Kerns, ECA Reading & College Success Experience instructor

Have you ever had a student who was academically capable of doing well in your class, but for some reason or another did not succeed? Probably several. 

These are the students who baffle us as educators.  They are the bright lights that drift “off-course” toward the horizon into obscurity.  What happens to them?  And, is there anything we can do about it?

According to Skip Downing, there is a lot we can do for promising students who persistently make poor choices in life.  The 35 CNM instructors who attended the June On Course workshop learned many strategies, applicable to any discipline, that empower students to take responsibility for their learning.  I would like to share one process from the workshop that I wish I had been able to offer some of my students in past semesters!

Imagine a student comes to you with a PROBLEM.  For example, they can’t meet deadlines, must miss several classes, etc.  In reality, it is not our problem, but we can guide the student in making the best decisions in how to deal with their problem.  This is called “the Wise-Choice Process” and is best practiced when you have a bit of time to spend with the student, perhaps during office hours.  Use the following steps to allow the student to discover their own positive solutions:

1. What’s your present situation?  (What’s the problem or obstacle?)
2. How would you like it to be?  (What’s your goal?)
3. Do you have a choice here?  (Yes… always!)
4. What are your possible choices?  (Don’t offer solutions- draw them out from the student.  You can offer information the student may not be aware of.)
5. What’s the likely outcome of each choice?
6. Which choice(s) will you commit to doing?

Adapt the language to fit your own style, use active listening, and avoid being evaluative.  Practice this process with family and friends to see how it works. 

I hope to be able to use this process with my students who are facing obstacles in their education, in order to help them get back “on-course.”  If you see me around, ask me how the Wise-Choice Process is going!

Skip Downing also offers “24 Strategies for Guiding Students to Choose Greater Self-Responsibility.”  See any of the workshop attendees for a copy of these ideas. 

Additionally, visit www.oncourseworkshop.com and click on the first link, “Student Success Strategies.”  Here you will find approximately 200 cross- disciplinary strategies that you can incorporate into your existing content, all of which empower students to develop the intangible personal skills we desire in our students.

You can contact Erica at ekerns@cnm.edu.

7-Second Survey What question(s) would you like CNM instructors and instructional staff to answer on future 7-Second Surveys?  To put it another way, what information or opinions would you like CNM educators to provide on this 7-Second Survey? Thanks. Thanks for your feedback. The results will be posted next week in this e-newsletter. Last week, four instructors replied to the 7-Second Survey, answering this question--What strategy (or strategies) have you used and found effective to entice--or coerce--students to keep coming to class, class after class, week after week? Read their responses..

At-your-desk learning
Learn or improve your technology skills right at your desk

Flash Tutorials and Resources

If you're interested in learning how to create Flash animations, you'll want to take the upcoming Flash workshops offered through Organizational Learning beginning July 20. 

Or if you're not sure whether you want to learn how to use Flash, check out this webpage of Flash tutorials and resources on the Entheos website.

What's cool about these tutorials is that they provide short animated demos to show what a particular Flash tool can do--such as these:

• Working in layers
• Motion guide
• Masking
• Zoom in and zoom out

The same page offers Flash resources such as Free Flash Games for Kids.

Once you're convinced you have to learn Flash, you can sign up for the workshops on the Organizational Learning calendar.

Productivity Primer  
Strategic planning can be your best time-management tip
"Strategic planning provides the means for gaining clarity, focus, and direction. A strategic plan differs from a business plan in that when your strategic plan is complete you will have a dashboard indicating specifically what must be done by when, what resources you will need, and who is accountable for each required action in the plan."

Read this article by Cheryl Clausen on the E-zine @rticles website.

Joke of the Week

☺ These are actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays.

►"Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a thigh master."

►"His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."

►"The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge free ATM." 

►"She grew on him like E. coli and he was room temperature Canadian beef."

►"She had a deep throaty genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before he throws up."

►"Her vocabulary was as bad, as, like, whatever."

►"He was as tall as a six foot three inch tree."

►"From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7 pm instead of 7:30."

About Organizational Learning The Organizational Learning Division's mission is to create professional development pathways for college employees that support the strategic mission of CNM and contribute in meaningful ways to college personnel’s lifelong learning and job enrichment. For more information about Organizational Learning or any of its events, contact
	Jean Montaño Admin. Coordinator	224-4400 jmontano@ cnm.edu
	Greg Casaus Director	224-4244 gcasaus6@ cnm.edu
	Eleanor Radius Director	224-4237 elarm@ cnm.edu
	Timothy Ligon Tech Support	224-4243 tligon@ cnm.edu
	Kayleigh Carabajal Executive Director	224-4401 kcarabajal@ cnm.edu

News & previews

Update on Microsoft Office 2007 training

The online Office 2007 training expected to be available last week didn't happen, as those of you who tried to register for it discovered.

Organizational Learning Director Greg Casaus says he is working out details with the vendor so that the training will be available sometime in the next two weeks.  

The good news, however, is that the Office 2007 classroom training will begin July 23.  You can sign up for the Office 2007 training as of July 9. These workshops are designed for users with intermediate and higher skills withprevious versions of Microsoft Office.

News flash about upcoming Flash workshops

Organizational Learning will be  offering Macromedia Flash 1 and 2 workshops beginning on July 20.  John O’Laughlin of O'Laughlin Consulting will facilitate the trainings.

A Macromedia Dreamweaver training scheduled for July 12 was cancelled due to low enrollment but will be rescheduled at a later time.

Greg Casaus, director of Organizational Learning, says, "We've received very positive freedback from those who attended the first Flash workshop"  and urges staff and faculty to take advantage of this opportunity. 

You can register for the Flash workshops on the Organization Learning calendar.

Preview of events for the week of July 9-13
The following events are taking place at CNM during the week of July 9-13.  Register on this webpage.

Preview of events for the week of July 16-21
The following events are taking place at CNM during the week of July 9-13.  Register on this webpage.

*TBD: To be determined

Quotation

"We are born trying to gain power over our environment. We live and die trying to figure out who we are; what life means; how to understand joy, pain, victory, and death; how we relate to each other; and why we are here. The disciplines we study- art music, literature, mathematics, science or philosophy- give us lenses... the skills... the power to use the understandings in meaningful ways."
-Phenix

This newsletter is produced by Nancy King, for the Organizational Learning Division.