Volume XXXIII, No. 22 | October 7, 2011 Writing To Serve I teach writing, literature, and speech classes at a community college in rural Southeast Arkansas. This assignment was for my English Composition I class. Early on in my own education, I was taught that the primary purposes for writing were to instruct, [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 21 | September 30, 2011 Integrating Industry Certification into an Occupational Program It is quite clear these days that federal and state governments expect our nation’s mix of higher education institutions to get better at fulfilling the promises and hopes heard at their commencements or in their competitive marketing appeals. [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 20 | September 23, 2011 Collaborative Learning: Reducing Communication Apprehension When Aaron entered the classroom on the first day, he immediately joined his buddies and headed for the back of the small lecture hall. Just as he began to settle down with the normal gear (the overstuffed backpack and mandatory [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 19 | September 16, 2011 Calatrello’s Highly Unscientific Theory of Halves: A Primer for Student Success Those of you who know me know I occasionally may use some class time to regale students with leisurely pedagogical strolls down Amnesia Lane. Sure, some small-minded administrator might refer to such dramatic monologues as [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 18 | September 9, 2011 Traditional Note-Taking Meets Innovative Note-Creating Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, as the old adage goes. However, this “monkey-see, monkey-do” mentality has not transferred to effective note-taking skills that today’s students seem to lack. It’s a frustratingly perennial issue: students arrive to class, [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 17 | September 2, 2011 Can You Help Me Unpack? Overview: The 2010 American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) survey of over 99,000 college students indicates that students report stress/anxiety as the #1 factor that impacts their academic success and ability to complete college. Through situational and [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 16 | August 26, 2011 I Am a Community College Student Every day in every way we educators get better and better at what we do: improving and expanding the lives of our students. The reason we do this work is much more important to us than helping the U.S. [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 15 | May 6, 2011 Developing a Framework of Support for Adjunct Faculty: Collaboration between Stakeholders One of the biggest challenges that many colleges face is finding a way to communicate regularly with adjunct faculty about departmental guidelines and expectations about the courses they teach. Like many colleges, Cuyahoga Community [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 14 | April 29, 2011 Can We Talk?: Facilitating Successful Faculty-Student Visits Lack of engagement between students and faculty has been a personal and professional concern for some time. Over the years I have noticed that many students who were experiencing problems in my classes either waited too long [...]

Volume XXXIII, No. 13 | April 22, 2011 An ACAdemic Approach to Redesigning Faculty Professional Development San Jacinto College (SJC) began requiring a faculty certification course to teach online and hybrid courses in spring 2006. This initial course focused on general instructional theory and training for the learning management system and supporting tools. [...]