1.  T/F:  Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands are in the same time zone.
2.  T/F:  Alaska has the most northern, eastern, and western points in the 
     U. S.
3.  T/F:  If Alaska were divided into two states, Texas would become the 
     third largest state.
4.  T/F:  The Alaska coastline is twice the length of the “Lower 48.”
5.  T/F:  Alaska ranks #1 in attainment of high school degrees.
6.  T/F:  Alaskans rank #1 in per capita consumption of ice cream.
7.  T/F:  If an Alaskan says he/she is going “Outside,” he/she is probably 
     heading for the airport.
8.  T/F:  Alaskans are the highest per capita consumers of Spam.

If you answered “true” to all but #8, I hope you will reminisce with me about your Alaska experiences. If you don’t know why 1-7 are true, stop by and visit with me in the Office of Professional Development. 

As a new CFCC staff member, I have been warmly welcomed into a position which I consider to be a “dream” job—working with staff and faculty in a community college setting in Central Florida. These were my criteria as I began job hunting and planning to leave my home of 20 years, Anchorage, Alaska.

I bring with me several years’ experience as the adult education staff development specialist for the State of Alaska as well as seven years’ experience as Training and Professional Development Coordinator for the Anchorage School District. In that capacity I coordinated and/or provided training for staff, teachers, principals and administrators in a school district of 45,000 students. In addition, my community college experience includes being a student, administrative assistant to the chancellor, and faculty member.

As Professional Development Manager, I will be working with you, Dr. Dassance, and the Professional Development Advisory Committee to plan, coordinate, and expand professional development activities for all CFCC employees. To me, professional development provides the opportunities and experiences that allow all employees to strengthen skills, expand horizons, and develop talents in order to promote excellence in themselves and those with whom they work and/or teach.

Continuing in the Teaching/Learning Center is Sandy Pell, Professional Development Assistant. I’ve already figured out Sandy is the glue that holds the T/LC together! After a year’s sabbatical, Kathy Kilcrease has returned to the T/LC as Coordinator, Teaching/Learning Institute, replacing Lynne Boele in that position. Please be sure to ask Kathy about dinosaur bones and other “earthy” adventures she experienced during that time.

On a personal note, I have an M.A.T. in English from the University of Alaska, Anchorage; two married daughters, one in Dallas; the other, Boston; one precocious five-year-old granddaughter; and a Chihuahua named Chisai (“small” in Japanese) who thinks coming to Florida is the greatest thing that ever happened to her! (Yes, I did have doggie booties for her in Alaska when the temperature dropped below zero!) I enjoy traveling, reading, needlework, playing the piano, and am looking for a harp to purchase. 

I’m looking forward to meeting and working with each of you. 
(By the way, the answer to #8 is Hawaii)
 
 

In what feels like another lifetime, I earned a B.A. in classics from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in comparative literature from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and an M.Ed. in English education from Columbia University.

In what definitely feels like this lifetime, I taught at colleges and universities, urban high schools, TRIO programs, community-based family-learning centers, and prisons. A junkie for professional exploration and challenge, I relocated and retooled roughly every three years. Intermittently, I retreated from the "trenches" and taught at Ivy League institutions and other places with positive name recognition where, when you told people you worked there, they smiled.

Now, however, I have finally bested my staying-at-the-same-job record: For seven years, I've taught at the same institution. It is a community college.

People often ask me why I prefer to teach at a community college when I have degrees from more elite institutions. Why didn't I go on and get my Ph.D. and teach at colleges like the ones that I attended—where I can enjoy the rewards of more prestige and better pay?

Let me tell you how I respond.

First, I tell them, the misconceptions about community colleges run rampant. Many assume a community college is a  place where youth pay for screwing up in high school (remedial), adults pay into one system in the hopes of getting pay out of another system (vocational), and people older than 21 "do time" because they failed to "do" college "on time" (nontraditional).

Yet I've found that at Bristol Community College in southeastern Massachusetts, where I teach, the majority of our students are single mothers valiantly struggling to establish some modicum of security for themselves and their children through education. Their personal stories attest to the mind-blowing power of students determined to defy the odds.
They remind me of something I feel embarrassed to admit I seldom thought about before I came to the community college: that it is a privilege to demand people's attention and energy, to take their hard-earned money and often fragile self-esteem into your hands.
Students come to the community college with unbridled optimism. Try convincing students who feel they have "arrived" by starting courses at a community college that they're going nowhere! How often do you hear undergraduates at prestigious institutions sincerely espouse the belief that education can change one's life?

In fact, I am honored to have taught my community-college students. They make me proud, and they shame me, too, for they have surmounted much greater roadblocks than any I ever faced, and their ambitions for themselves make mine for them seem so small. They make it easy to celebrate their successes and hard to forget their struggles.
My experience at prestigious institutions has led me to believe that elite students go to such colleges to get away from the places that made them who they are—to be groomed in isolation to become the leaders of communities over which they will preside, but in which they have no daily, ordinary involvement. Precisely the opposite premise is what animates the community college: an institution of, by, and for the immediate community, not isolated, but evolving and involved. Students are drawn to the community college by the infectious sense of belonging that such a place emanates.

In my experience, community-college students focus less on grades and more on their long-term goals than their counterparts at four-year institutions. As a rule, community-college students rarely skip class; they've made too many sacrifices to attend. They remind you of the exact amount they're paying for every minute of your time in a class, and then turn around and offer you their gratitude for the priceless experience you've given them in a course.

I'll also wager that community-college students take advantage of the entire collegial experience and savor daily learning moments more often than students at privileged institutions. It never ceases to surprise me when former students reminisce about classmates, literature, turning points in a class, or the course of their own development at the community college.

Students who transfer to four-year institutions regularly return to tell me that they miss the language of family and love of the community college. They find it more fundamental and powerful than the prestige oozing from the lavish grounds, state-of-the-art seminar rooms, and distinguished alumni and faculty members trotted out to remind everyone that they're getting a great education.

I've found that students at prestigious institutions are more caught up in measuring the quality of their education by the future "success" that they expect to curry with their degrees than by the relationships with faculty mentors and intellectual peers. My own educational experience made me want to become a teacher. If choosing teaching as a profession reflects, in part, one's collegiate experience, what does the fact that so few graduates of prestigious institutions pursue teaching on any level tell us about their great education?

Misconceptions also abound about community-college faculty members. We usually are treated as if we teach at community colleges not because we want to, but because we can't get work elsewhere. Some glut of Ph.D.'s supposedly results in wannabe university professors suffering at community colleges for the sake of teaching-related employment. Those who can't "cut it" in the competitive university can "slum it" at the community college and pick up a paycheck for next to nothing.
It's the opposite in my case. I chose to teach at a community college because it celebrates committed, passionate teachers. You get credit for working intensively with people, not with paper, researching, and writing. Your professional stock rises in proportion to your caring about your students' learning. To define myself as a teacher and not a scholar would be an absurd dichotomy, one not possible for the community-college professor, although I seldom get credit for my out-of-classroom "product." We do research for publications and presentations at conferences, too. What's different? We devote much of our discussions at department and faculty meetings to who our students are and how we teach them.

If you don't want to teach, working at a community college is pure torture. You can't get away from students. The ambience is intimate: one-on-one, one by one. Not only do you lack a typical university professor's escape of fobbing off "introductory" lectures to graduate students, but you're forced into small classrooms where you can't even hide behind a podium (one way our lesser resources prove to be a bonus for students).

The word "community" is part of the college's name, but more important, it is the guiding principle for its faculty members. I am in the company of people who, regardless of their position or discipline, make it their business to identify which segments of our community are not making it to or through any primary or secondary school, and who relentlessly reach out to that community in its often overwhelming and ever-changing complexity and diversity.

My colleagues offer continued professional and personal support. Professors that I've worked among at the community college make me proud of our profession. Ours is a labor of love. How can you not embrace that devotion to educational opportunity and, by extension, the environment that solicits and is sustained by it?

If you were to teach at a community college, I guarantee that you would amass unanticipated delights as varied and numerous as the names of the students on your class roster. Rather than pursue a position at another institution to "do something different," I can stay in the same place and do a dozen jobs. I can work with college students of all abilities and backgrounds in introductory-level and advanced courses. I can work with high-school students through our Dual Enrollment and Upward Bound programs. As director of the Education Program, I work with students who transfer to four-year institutions to become professional educators.
Finally, oriented to students who are parents and accustomed to offering courses on all kinds of schedules to meet students' chaotic family and work commitments, my deans and colleagues have not forced me to choose between my personal and my professional dreams. I watched my mentors in college and graduate school driven to play Ping-Pong with their academic careers and their children's lives. As I have built my family through adoption, I haven't had to sacrifice my children for my job or my job for my children. That ease has brought me closer to my work—just as being a parent has brought me closer to my students.

The desire to meld my work and family life is also what brought me to the community college. It is yet another reason that I can say without qualification: Both professionally and personally, teaching at a community college is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Note: Reprinted from the May 25, 2001 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education with Ellen Olmstead’s permission. Ms. Olmstead was named a Professor of the Year in 1999 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
 

Looking Ahead: Professional Development Day  October 10, 2001 Professional Development Day on Wednesday, October 10th will have a “Faculty to Faculty” theme with special presentations by Endowed Chairs and Summer Fantasy workshop participants.  Mark your calendars for an interesting, introspective day!

Yes, I really have returned! I bet you thought that I couldn’t tear myself away from all those dinosaur bones out there in Utah. It was tough, but somehow I managed!

My year’s leave of absence was wonderful for the soul, but I am glad to be back—I really missed all of you. You don’t realize what a great work environment we have here at CFCC until you go out and see what’s happening in other parts of the “academic world.” We really are fortunate to have such a great faculty, staff and administration.

I hope that you had a great summer and that you are “fired up” about getting back into the classroom again. All those students with eager minds will soon be coming through our classroom doors, looking to us to provide them with a stimulating learning environment, and to fill their “empty vessels” with the knowledge that they earnestly seek. That may be a little far-fetched, but we can only hope that some of them will be as excited about learning as we are about teaching.

As you are probably aware, I have taken over as Coordinator of the Teaching/Learning Institute and am striving to fill a part of Lynne Boele’s “big shoes,” picking up where she left off. I’ll be teaching several classes in the science department this fall, but the remainder of my time will be spent at the TLC. Sandy Pell and I are sharing the office in 103-A; stop by and see us when you can! Carole Bartholomew, our new Professional Development Manager, is now in residence in Lynne’s old office (room 101) and will be coordinating professional development campus-wide. She will take over some of the responsibilities that formerly came under the T/LI, such as travel and tuition reimbursements.

The Teaching/Learning Institute will continue to be faculty driven through the Teaching/Learning Steering Committee and will continue to provide support to faculty with its services, many of which are centered in the Teaching/Learning Center. The TLSC encourages more visits with colleagues on our campus as well as at other colleges and universities and strives to continue to enhance the learning environment here at CFCC. If you don’t know them already, please do so, as they are your representatives in the T/LI (see chart below).

The T/LI will continue its present programs, including offering classes in the TLC to enhance your personal and professional development, sponsoring mini-grants, and hosting the “Summer Fantasy” workshops. We will also continue to look for new and better ways to serve faculty needs and sponsor programs that recognize the great job that you’re doing, as we presently do with our “Stars” awards.

Best wishes for a great year—remember, the T/LI is here for you, so please let us know how we can be of service.

Charles J. Mott attended a Workshop on Case Studies in College Science Teaching at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Amherst Campus, Amherst, NY, on May 20-25th.

Charles stated that, “Although the case studies method has been used for years to teach law, business, and medicine, it is not common in teaching science. The designers of this workshop state that the use of case studies hold great promise as a pedagogical technique for teaching science for the following reasons:

• this form of instruction is dramatic and can effectively engage the student;
• it humanizes science instruction for the science major and non-science major, alike;
• it can easily illustrate scientific methodology and values. 

Charles plans to try small-group discussion/quizzing, computer-assisted instruction and Internet (WWW) projects in his Earth Science classes, as well as submit a case study of his own design for review and possible publication in the University at Buffalo’s national data base.

Pat Fleming attended the 12th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference in Jacksonville, April 19-21:

“My experiences in Jacksonville were diverse and engaging. From a presentation point of view, Bertha Freeman and I were able to showcase the innovative Florida Landscape course to more than 100 conference participants at the software fair. In the process of this activity, we were able to enroll ten community college partners to receive the final course product. These products will be delivered during fall 2001. The slide show of Florida Native plants developed by the grant team was very well received and attracted many visitors to our booth. Several universities including UF, UCF and Georgia Southern were also quite interested in our courseware. This software fair was a big success.

Conference highlights were the opportunity to meet keynote presenters author Ray Bradbury and MIT Professor Rosalind Picard and to review Web CT 3.5, the newest version of CFCC's web based authoring tool of choice.”

Pat also gave a presentation on the nature of communication in an online course and thanks fellow conference attendees Joe Zimmerman, Ira Holmes and Bertha Freeman—for their support. 

Suzanne Garrett went to Nashville, Tennessee, June 24-27 to participate in the Assembly on Education, sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

“This conference targeted educators in the health information management field, both at the two-year and four-year levels. The first session I attended was a teacher preparation workshop in which I learned what CFCC’s health information management program needs to become AHIMA accredited and served as an opportunity to network with others.
Other topics covered during the conference included tips on revising technology curriculum, an update on the coding certificate program, health information technology recruiting strategies, informatics and practical application activities in the classroom.

The information and contacts resulting from this conference will be invaluable as I continue to develop and refine CFCC’s HIM program with the goal of becoming AHIMA accredited.”

Vern Allen was an attendee and program presenter at the Teachers of Accounting at Two-Year Colleges (TACTYC) annual meeting, May 17-20 in Kansas City, Missouri. Vern noted that the TACTYC, “Continues to provide a superb networking forum and four unparalleled accounting pedagogy concurrent sessions. Since my first opportunity to attend a TACTYC annual meeting several years ago, the organization continues to exhibit a unique commitment to promoting accounting academic excellence. Each two-hour concurrent session offered up to 7 different topics from which one could choose. I attended two ‘Sharing What Works’ sessions that focused on disciplines (managerial and intermediate accounting) I plan to teach during the Fall 2001 semester.

The TACTYC Steering Committee honored me with the opportunity to present ‘Bubba’s Horse Training Service— a QuickBooks 2000 Practice Set’ at two current sessions. This project originated with the TLC’s ‘Fantasy Classroom – 2000’ and continues to evolve into a final product scheduled for adoption by all traditional Ocala Campus financial accounting sections. By that time, ‘Bubba’s Horse Training Service’ will be upgraded to QuickBooks 2001.”

Vern also accepted Chairmanship of the TACTYC Scholarship Committee, and invites you to call on him to share his experiences with fellow CFCC colleagues.
 
 

I recently took advantage of a sunny day to get caught up on some reading in the commons area outside of building 8. Finding a bench that was not occupied, I sat down with every intention of reading, but soon got caught up in the flurry of activity that surrounded me. As I watched the students and faculty moving about I started to smile with the realization that I was very content to be part of Central Florida Community College. 

Though being content may not appear to be a strong endorsement, it is quite the accomplishment for me. I have been searching for answers to the mystery of life since I was a child—a search that has taken me from the temples of Thailand to the mountains of Italy. Interestingly, as my search brings answers, the question seems to change. Circumstances brought me to Ocala several years ago, and to CFCC within the past year. 

This quest has provided a collection of life experiences which I bring to my role as teacher here at CFCC. I believe that adjunct faculty provide a valuable asset to CFCC by infusing professional perspectives and content-specific knowledge into the classroom. In my capacity as a adjunct instructor at CFCC, I have been enriched by the students I have met, as well as the few relationships I have established with fellow faculty members. 

If there is one piece of advice I can give new adjunct faculty members, it is to introduce yourself to those around you. If you do not, then you will walk around without taking advantage of the one quality that makes a school effective—interpersonal relations. So, the next time you walk across campus, don’t look for an empty bench—share one with a 
fellow faculty member, potential student, or staff member and make a connection!
 
 

Mission accomplished! Another Summer Fantasy Workshop has come to a close with great results and reviews. Everyone who participated worked hard to achieve their projects, and here they are:

Human Migrations and their Accidental Baggage: Julius Alker developed a PowerPoint lesson for his science classes which tracks the migration of various diseases through the ages.

I’ve Been in the Real World, Not Just the Classroom: Rich Gustavson created a personal introduction to his College Success Skills class including animated slides of his experiences as a teenage “dork” (his word) in Germany and later an adult engaging in sky-diving and other endeavors which should endear him to students as a real person who has succeeded despite himself.

Pharmacology Hits: Linda Smith created new lyrics to pop tunes like “Doo Run Run” to help pharmacology students remember the indicators for prescription drugs and how to monitor them.

WebPages, Cool Links, and Other Neat Materials: Lela Kerley redesigned her web page for the Western Civilizations and American History courses, making navigation easier for students to respond to assignments and connecting them to interesting video sites relevant to the subject matter.

Access Database: John Gosford tried to tackle a Herculean task in order to track some 1200 EMT students and their training; he learned enough about Access to realize that he needed a programmer to input the data properly. John also updated a Field Site Administration program that schedules students and tracks their contacts with patients.

Anti-hypertensive Medications: Jane Hoesterey developed a PowerPoint lesson with some interesting graphics downloaded from the internet to perk up those Friday afternoon classes for Pharmacology students. Jane also learned to scan images from a variety of sources.

PTA Website: Jean McCauley created a site for prospective students which included the fall offerings, sample syllabus, and lots of interesting links.

“What we Have Here is a Failure to Communicate!”: Playing on that old saw, John Simpson fashioned a PowerPoint demonstration for his college prep students based on the idea of appropriate communication for appropriate groups and situations and selling the learning of standard English as a reason for staying in college.

Art Illustrations for Children’s Literature: Pooling their talents, Robin Seymour and Jack Thursby put together a beautiful PowerPoint—two of them in fact—using slides of artworks to demonstrate the changes in styles and illustrations through the ages.

WebCT: Judy Davis had to learn the new version of WebCT for the web-enhanced sociology telecourse she’ll be teaching in the fall, which combines videos, text, and online techniques.

Multiple PowerPoints for New Courses: Lori Kielty was busy creating materials to accompany text books for new classes.

Vocational Relations PowerPoint: Nancy Bradley prepared a lesson for the Practical Nursing class that helps students polish their professional skills and gives guidance on dealing with chemically impaired nurses.

“Hola, Isabel”: Judy Haisten revised her old hand-written transparencies, creating new exercises, lecture notes, and graphics, to sharpen her presentations and enhance student learning.

Biomathematics: For his philosophy and comparative religion classes, Scott Olsen perfected his presentation on the application of mathematics to science, nature, and technology, examining in particular the golden section in nature.

Theatre Archives: Dave Hartley produced over 100 slides scanned from past theatre performances to use for recruiting, marketing, and instruction for future drama presentations.

“How to” Tips for Education Technology Students: Rhonda Rawls developed modules for education majors in the Education Technology course, training them in scanning, down-loading, linking to interesting sites, and CD burning.

WebCT for Online and Traditional Classes: Joe Zimmerman assisted others in learning the new version of WebCT and gave tips on using online strategies to enhance regular classes.
 
 

Don’t forget – the deadline for the next issue of Directions is Friday, September 21. Please share your professional development and  book reviews with us!

A funny thing happened on the way to my classroom…

It was not with a small amount of trepidation that I attended the Summer Fantasy workshop between A and B summer terms in the T/LC. I have been teaching as an adjunct at CFCC for several semesters but have had little interaction with the faculty and administration. Though this may not necessarily be a bad thing, I realized that it was not conducive to fostering a positive learning experience for myself. So with application in hand, I applied for one of the quickly filling vacancies for the workshop and, happily, was accepted.

I was pleasantly surprised by the relaxed atmosphere afforded myself and the other participants as we set about honing our skills on everything from PowerPoint to Adobe PhotoShop. The T/LC support team did a great job providing the resources, food, professional instruction, food, and facilities (did I mention food) for the four day sessions. I am glad to report that I was able to learn several skills that will allow me to make better classroom presentations and, ultimately, improve the teaching 
experience for both myself and my students.

Every teacher participating in the workshop benefited from the professional support and a forum that fostered open communication. It is rare to see smiles on the faces of all the participants of professional development seminars, especially when they last four days, but the Summer Fantasy Workshop proved to be an exception. I am especially happy to have made the acquaintance of several faculty members and only have one suggestion for next year’s workshop—make it longer!
 
 

Lunch Bunch: Favorite Topic Bring your appetite for food and fellowship to the TLC! Sept.  5 – Connie Tice Oct. 19 – Ira Holmes Nov. 12 – Sandra Cooper Dec.   7 – Stacy Dickson

Debra Vazquez asked her Creative Writing class to describe an arrogant professor in such a way that use of the word arrogant or its synonyms was unnecessary. Here are a few selections:

It was the first day of class. The professor offered no introduction of himself aside from a syllabus which read as a Curriculum Vitae, listing his various publications. He lectured continuously and the camel tweed blazer with suede-patched elbows never left his back despite beads of perspiration on his brow. The Stetson cologne the atmosphere as he strode by confirming he preferred this suffocating fragrance to soap.

Dr. ‘X’ sat behind the desk in the front of the classroom opening his mail as the seats in the auditorium filled. Several students passed just in front of the desk and looked toward him to acknowledge him should he glance up, but he did not. Everyone was in place as the minute hand hit the moment class was to begin. He continued his task until the silence was complete, then he rose, picked up his lecture notes, and sauntered to the podium. He surveyed his audience with a slow sweep from one side of the room to the other, as if deciding whether it was worth continuing or not, then launched into the lesson.

“Welcome to CHM 1041! From today forward you will eat, drink, and breathe chemistry! You will have no social life, not that most of you have much of one anyway! Yes, that’s right, I now own you until the end of May!”