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Contact person: Lynne Boele, Bulding 1, Ocala Campus, Ext. 1438 |
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The Community College as Servant by Dr. Charles Dassance
Interview: A New Educational Approach by Ron Cooper
Conference Summaries
Monet in Our Midst by Jack Thursby
Cultural Competency: Where Do We Stand As An Institution? by Jana Bernhardt
BEBOC (Big EyeBall On Campus) by Dave Hartley
Interview With Kathy Kilcrease by Joe Zimmerman
Teaching and Learning Mini-Grant Awards Spring 2000
The Community College as Servant
by Dr. Charles Dassance, President
For some reason, perhaps a mid-life crisis, I feel compelled to write a few lines for Directions. I will probably be cured soon, but for now I want to share a couple of things.
Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the public community college in America. The concept of the community college is America’s contribution to education in the world, as it was truly a unique idea. There are many things embedded in the community college concept, including a philosophical underpinning of democratic and humanitarian values. But, I think what sets the community college apart from other institutions is its strong commitment to serving others, most especially students.
The university, as a concept, came from a very different tradition than the community college: the German research university. This model, with its focus on research, has served our nation well. The university role emphasizes expanding knowledge within the various disciplines, an admirable and necessary endeavor.
The community college, on the other hand, has focused on serving society in a different way. The community college has focused on consistently improving the teaching/learning process itself. In short, the community college has focused on serving students by helping them learn.
The generation of new knowledge, an important role for faculty, particularly at the university, is not necessarily a smooth and linear process. “Experimentation,” whether in scientific or other disciplines, leads to a constant reassessment of existing assumptions and theories. We think it quite natural that theories which are tested will often be changed as a result of the results.
At the community college, we also have an important task, but the experimentation process has a different focus. In our case, we are not changing abstract theories through our experimentation, but theories about the learning process itself. It takes courage to challenge our long held assumptions and beliefs about how students learn best, but such courage is part of the tradition of the role of educator.
At CFCC, there seems to be a strong cultural commitment to making student learning our primary focus. Many faculty are willing to experiment with new student learning techniques and, depending on the results, adjust their thinking about what teaching approaches are most effective. Of course, not every new approach works better, and some “fads” pass away, much like what happens with other types of research efforts.
I believe that the important thing is the journey, not the destination. Our journey, collectively and individually should be dedicated to the continuing exploration of how we can serve our students better—how we can help them learn in ways we can observe, in ways that will enrich their lives. To do otherwise is to betray our responsibility as educators; to do otherwise is to assume that we already have all the answers. And while having all the answers may have some appeal, it would really be quite boring. Our journey of on-going discovery, even though frustrating and even painful at times, is a journey that is fulfilling and meaningful for our professional as well as our personal lives.
Interview: A New Educational Approach
by Ron Cooper, Humanities and Social Sciences
Profs. Totie Lee Zhoor and Hazitts Day are the co-authors of Model Approach to Measurement Theory: How to Learn to Teach Learning to Teachers of Learners. The book is being lauded as the most important breakthrough in education since last month’s Model Theory to Measurement Approach by Quindy S. Kemo and Kai Meera. I caught up with them at the Pedagogical-Hyphenated-Learning-Enhancement Education Seminar (PHLEES) in Key West where they conducted a workshop.
Cooper: Thanks for taking a few minutes to tell me about your new educational theory.
Day: First of all, it’s an approach, not a theory. Theories are open to critical investigation, and we sure don’t need any of that!
Zhoor: We call it the “Approach Day-Zhoor.”
Cooper: I see. What should Directions readers understand about your approach?
Day: Gee, I’m not sure how to answer that. People come to us because they want to know how to apply our approach, not because they wish to understand anything.
Zhoor: That’s right. In fact we begin our workshop with, “Don’t think you’re going to learn anything here—you’re teachers.” But let me try. I’ve labeled my portion of the Approach Day-Zhoor the “Learning Hand Model.” You see, I have discovered, through years of being an expert, that students typically write with either the right hand or the left hand, but not both. I’ve devised a series of tests that help to determine which, for any given student, is his or her learning hand.
Cooper: Right-handed people learn differently from lefties?
Zhoor: Absolutely. In my workshop, I demonstrate that left-hand learners, for instance, always take notes with their left hands. I can train teachers how to spot left-hand learners and right-hand learners and even how to perform a self-examination to determine their own hand-learningness.
Cooper: Prof. Day, obviously you agree with this hand learning theory, right?
Day: Of course I do, and that’s why my component of the approach complements it so well. I call the results of my years of authority the “Listening/hearing-Hearing/listening Model.”
Cooper: That we are either listening hearers or hearing listeners?
Day: Ah, you must have read our book. But most people do not know whether they listen to what they hear or hear what they listen to. Let me demonstrate. With both eyes open, point towards that oak tree there across the parking lot. Now, close your right eye. Now open your right eye, and close your left eye. Did your finger appear to move when you closed one eye?
Cooper: Yeah, yeah—we all did this in grammar school. Like most people, I’m right-eyed!
Day: What?
Cooper: People usually have a dominant eye that . . . .
Day: You’re missing the point. You must be a hearing listener. “Listening” means that you hear what you are being told to listen to, while “hearing” means that you listen to what you have heard. Only a skilled expert can help you discover your processing style.
Cooper: What did the little pointing-and-closing-one-eye trick have to do with it?
Day: You’re such a hearing listener!
Cooper: In any case, I take it that you’ve based this model on some work by perceptual psychologists or perhaps by philosophers doing phenomenology, right?
Day: Are you crazy? If we had been concerned with scientific experimentation, yada yada yada, there’s no telling what sort of crap we’d have come up with
Cooper: You’re telling me that your approach is derived from mere speculation.
Zhoor: And your point is . . .?
Cooper: OK, let’s just say that you’re correct. What are the differences between a right-handed-hearing listener, and, say, a left-handed-listening hearer?
Zhoor: Come again?
Cooper: You end up with four types of students given these two binary categories.
Day: I think you missed something—I described two sorts of learners.
Zhoor: So did I.
Cooper: But that makes four combinations.
Zhoor: That sounds like a typical right-handed statement.
Day: See how accurate our approach is?
Zhoor: He sounds rather closed-minded to me.
Day: Say, Totie, maybe you’re onto something—open minded versus closed-minded learners.
Zhoor: Yeah! Let’s hit the computer!
Cooper: Wait—I didn’t get what subject you two teach.
Day: We aren’t caught up in that whole “content” thing. We’re experts!
Zhoor: That’s right—we’re recognized experts.
Day: We give workshops.
Zhoor: We’re from out of town.
Cooper: I’m happy to hear that. Are you off to another conference now?
Day: Actually, we’re on our way to accept the Day-Zhoor Prize in Educational Innovation.
Cooper: The Day-Zhoor Prize?
Zhoor: Yes. We established the prize last year.
Day: We won last year, too.
Cooper: And you thoroughly deserve it. Thank you.
Exit Survey: Please answer the following questions.
1. When I read this piece, I ...
a. learned about an exciting new educational approach.
b. wondered why I didn’t get to go to that seminar.
c. dozed off.
d. recognized immediately that it was meant to be humorous and to poke a little fun at ourselves. I’m not saying it really was funny, just was meant to be.2. My opinion of Profs. Day and Zhoor is that they ...
a. are dedicated to learning—I wish we could hire them!
b. have a pretty good gimmick going. Can I get in on it?
c. Who?
d. should be shot on sight (except that they’re fictional characters) or be forced to read their own book.3. In the future I plan to ...
a. find out more about the Day-Zhoor Approach and use it with my students.
b. come up my own “approach” and peddle it off at 400-dollars-a-pop seminars in places like Key West.
c. schedule all my classes in the afternoon.
d. write something myself to submit to Directions. Obviously, they’ll take anything.4. When I am presented with surveys such as this one, I ...
a. delightedly answer each question. I also dot each “i” with a smiley face.
b. answer “c” all the way down and sign a colleague’s name to it. Wait a minute—this answer is “b.” Now I’m stuck in a paradox. Thanks a lot!
c. take it with me to fill out “later.”
d. gripe a little but fill it out anyway. Hey, you buy your ticket, you take a chance.Scoring: Give yourself 1 point for each “a” answer, 5 points for each “b” answer, 20 points for each “c”answer, and 0 points for each “d” answer. If you scored anything above 0, you must spend the rest of this year reading the master satirists like Juvenal, Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and Joseph Heller. If you scored 0, you should still read those guys, but also we look forward to your contribution to the next issue of Directions.
“Good teaching comes from the identity and
integrity of the teacher.” Parker PalmerUnderstanding Anger: A Seminar For Health Professionals,
Ocala, Florida
Carol Blakeman, Health OccupationsRecently I attended a workshop here in Ocala on “Understanding Anger” with other ADN faculty. I was surprised to see several hundred people attending the workshop. I saw many people I knew that work in health care. I think this showed the magnitude of the problem we are seeing with society and with our students.
Managing anger is difficult for a number of reasons. Anger appears to “work.” Some people believe the angrier they get, the more likely they will get what they want. How many times have we seen our students do this? Anger is also viewed as a more acceptable emotion than other emotions such as hurt or sadness. Anger is experienced more frequently than the other basic emotions of sadness, shame, guilt, and joy. Anger lasts longer than other emotional states and includes an experience of greater power or potency. The only emotion people are less likely to want to change than anger is joy. People like being angry.
Some hard truths about anger are it destroys health and important relationships. Society punishes people who get angry and behave aggressively based on their anger. Life punishes angry people. People tell themselves lies to justify their anger. “If I don’t get angry, people will think I’m a wimp and walk all over me.” “Only by expressing my anger am I going to feel better. I should never keep my anger bottled up!” “There is such a thing as healthy anger.” “If I hit an inanimate object, like a pillow, that will help me deal better with my anger!” “I can’t help it if other people make me angry!”
Anger is defined as the emotion humans experience when they do not get what they think they should or must get, or when they are denied what they believe they are entitled to. Anger is the emotion humans experience when they are confronted by the realization they cannot control others. Anger is the emotion that activates the sympathetic nervous system (increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased muscle tension), it results in a significantly increased likelihood of verbally or physically aggressive behavior, and it results in seriously diminished problem solving, parenting and relationship skills. Irritation is defined as the emotion humans experience when they do not get what they prefer, desire, hope, want, or wish for. Irritation is the emotion that results with an increased likelihood of assertive behavior and leads to problem solving, parenting and relationship skills.
The goal of anger management is to move away from being angry in a given situation to feeling irritated. Some behavioral strategies are to recognize early warning signs of anger and take personal time out. Remove yourself from the situation for a period of time. Inform the other person that you are getting angry yourself and need to have some time away before returning to work on the problem. If the other person reacts negatively to your request for the time out, then remind the other person you are trying to regain control of yourself so you can deal with them more reasonably. Pat yourself on the back psychologically for better dealing with your anger. When dealing with angry students, use what we call “therapeutic communication,” but that’s another topic in itself.
Nation Seminars Group - Advanced Troubleshooting Techniques
Jacksonville, Florida
Sally Douglass, Business TechnologyThe worksop was an all-day, hands-on tutorial on Advanced Troubleshooting Techniques for DOS- clones and Windows 95. We dealt with installing circuit boards and troubleshooting them once in. We worked with resolving IRQQ problems through the use of Plug-n-Play, changing jumper settings and placing cards in the machine in different order. We also discussed memory errors and why they occur.
I will use the information and technology I learned to improve my courses: Architecture II and PC Management. I would recommend this workshop for novice users, but not for more advanced PC users.
League of Innovations 2000 Conference
Report, Orlando, Florida
Roberta “Robin” Seymour, CommunicationsThe Innovations conference brings together community college colleagues from all over the United States, and even the world. The conference is divided into five streams: Basic Skills and Developmental Education, Leadership and Organization, Learning and Teaching, Student Services and Activities, and Workforce Preparation and Development. The 1,600 participants in this year’s conference attended general sessions, roundtables, and/or forums on a variety of different topics - varying from “cutting edge” to the presentation facilitated by Jana Bernhardt and me, “Am I Buggin’ Ya’ Yet: Tips and Techniques Dealing With Difficult Students.” Indeed, CFCC was well represented: Pat Fleming led a session, “Transforming Small Grant Dollars into High-End Online Learning Experiences”; Dr. Dassance and Lynne Boele presented a forum on “Changing Roles: TLCs in 2003”; and Mac Dismuke and Judith Wood were part of a team on “Adding Up the Distance: Critical Success Factors for Internet Based Learning in Developmental Mathematics.” Key note speakers included are John and Suanne Rouche, Robert McCabe, Paul Gianini, and K. Patricia Gross.
I highly recommend this conference to anyone interested in community college innovations, trends, and learning/teaching strategies.
Innovations 2001 will be held in Atlanta, February 28 - March 3: the deadline for submission of conference proposals is September 1, 2000. You may submit
online proposals through the League’s Web site at http://www.league.org/welcome.htm or contact the Teaching and Learning Center for proposal forms.FCRC Spring Reading Workshop
Orlando, Florida
Elvira Surmons, CommunicationsGoals for Activity:
1. To gain strategies that will aid our minority student population in completing their
college prep courses.
2. To build up a stronger network system with the other state community college
reading educators.
3. To be refreshed professionally in my work as a reading instructor.
4. To gain information that will help our reading department stay in compliance with
state guidelines.The Spring FCRC Reading Conference/Workshop is getting more beneficial each year. This year, particularly, I felt a higher level of energy than in the previous years, so everyone seems to be really pleased that this concept of a one-day Spring Reading Conference has been resurrected.
The informational session on the state-mandated Reading Exit Exam by Kathy Fearon from the Division of Community Colleges; the more academic presentation on “Literature in the Classroom” by Dee Beasley of the University of Central Florida; and the down-to-earth, instructor-to-instructor overview of teaching reading online by Linda Wolverton all came together for the good, solid day of professional growth and development. The Reading Council’s business session following the presentations was helpful to everyone as we explored cut-off scores for the State Reading Exit Exam and the CPT. We also talked considerably about instructional materials (such as software, textbooks and other print materials) that are proving to be successful with different student populations.
I achieved the goals I had set to accomplish as a conference participant and really, for a change, had no disappointments. The number of presentations, the degree of participant involvement, and the appropriate level of formality just came together beautifully for a grade “A” mini-conference.
Anger Management
Ocala, Florida
Jane Kay BlackwellThis conference was extremely informative and interesting. The speaker began with the physiology of the brain associated with anger. As the conference progressed, he discussed a variety of manifestations of anger in various age groups. A major focus was the child and current problems affecting children and adolescents to include management strategies.
I feel that this conference will be most helpful in educating students on the major concepts of anger and how to manage it. The speaker gave insightful information into growth and development issues and incorporated information helpful to the student studying psychiatric and pediatric nursing.
It was a positive experience and one in which I gained new knowledge. A few of the speaker’s recommendations for anger management were challenged. However, given the nature of the topic and society’s differing views on rearing children, this was not surprising.
Overall, I felt the speaker was knowledgeable of the topic and was well organized. His handout was excellent and following the presentation was easy. At times, he was quite entertaining!
by Jack Thursby, Fine Arts
Yesterday, I received a special treat. Tom Larose, Curator of the Harn Museum in Gainesville, called and invited me to lunch. This was a farewell lunch, as Tom will be moving to Virginia with his wife and son to complete a two-year doctoral program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Tom is one of CFCC’s success stories. Tom was an art major at CFCC many years ago and was a great help to me, acting as my student assistant. He finished his undergraduate work at UF and also completed his graduate studies at UF in Art History. Shortly thereafter, he became the Curator at the Appleton Museum of Art, and two years later moved on to the Harn Museum.
I was anxious to meet Tom at the Harn, not only to see a good friend, but also to get a good look at the Harn’s new addition: Monet’s Champ d’avione.
Even if you are not a fan of French Impressionism (just in case there might be a few out there), this “new” Monet is worth a trip to Gainesville. The Harn has an impressive
collection, and always new traveling exhibitions to see. The Monet will surely boost attendance at this museum. It is a lovely, peaceful work, typical of the great French master, completed at the height of his career. Champ d’avione (Oat Fields), dated 1890, is one of a series of five paintings of a rural French landscape, produced in Giverny: the region of France Monet had called home since 1883, and where he would spend the rest of his life. This was a high point during Monet’s career, for with the new decade came a solid reputation and improved financial conditions, as well as a shift in subject matter. His subject matter now became devoid of figures and turns its focus to the agrarian nature of the land. Champ d’avione was selected from the series and purchased by the Parisian art dealer Durand-Ruel in October of 1890. It was sold in April 1891 to an American collector, John Nicholas Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, whose family retained ownership until recently. The remaining four paintings in the series were exhibited at Durand-Ruel’s gallery the following month, accompanying Monet’s Haystack series.The Harn becomes the new owner due to the generous benefactor Michael Singer, developer and owner of Medical Manager, computer software. Instead of purchasing the painting from the David Guen Gallery in London as originally planned, Mr. Singer gave the monetary donation to the Harn Foundation and arranged for the purchase. Whatever system of donation works out best for the donator is irrelevant, for it is to all of our benefit that the work is now on display. Please take the drive to the Harn to see this piece. It is filled with beautiful light (a soft peach toned sky illuminates the simple scene and silhouettes a majestic, richly colored tree) and the viewer get to witness Monet’s use of just about every color on the artist’s palette close up and personal.
Southeastern Center for Cooperative Learning will sponsor two training seminars: Foundations of Cooperative Learning
and
Advanced Concepts of Cooperative Learning
Jacksonville, Florida
June 28 - July 1, 2000Please contact
the Teaching and Learning Center for details or visit their website at
http://www.fccj.cc.fl.us/~sccl/2000ss.htmUniversity of Florida
will be offering a graduate courseAdministration of Workforce Programs
Summer A Semester
May 15 - June 23
Monday and Wednesday EveningsObtain an application form from
Angela Rowe
Department of Educational Leadership
Policy and Foundations
258 Norman Hill
Gainesville, Florida
If you have any additional questions concerning admissions or registration please call (352) 392-2391 ext 281.Cultural Competency: Where Do We Stand As An Institution?
by Jana Bernhardt, Counseling
Assessing and developing levels of cultural competence is an important function of an institution as well as an individual. As faculty, staff and administrators at CFCC, it is our imperative to provide the best possible teaching/learning environment for our students in order to attract, retain and graduate them. In order to do this, we must take a look at not only ourselves as individuals interacting with students and each other, but also we must examine our institution as an organization. What are we doing as an institution to promote cultural diversity among our faculty, staff, administration and students? What attitude toward diversity are we projecting to our students, our community and ourselves? Do we accommodate cultural influences and different learning styles in our
classrooms? Do we provide diversity in our curricula and our instructional methods? Do we engage students in experiential and diverse learning experiences?As an institution, do we project the message of true acceptance of cultural diversity or mere tolerance of it? One model, which can be helpful in examining answers to these
questions, is the Cross Model of Cultural Competence. This model was one of the assessment models presented to participants as part of the National Multicultural Institute diversity certification training course I attended last fall.This model was developed by sociologist Terry Cross to describe the stages of cultural competence at the organizational level. It can be adapted for use at the individual level and has similarities and confluence with the Bennett model. The Bennett model is used primarily to assess individual levels of cultural competence and was presented in the March issue of Directions.
The Cross model presents six stages of cultural competency: cultural destructiveness, cultural incapacity, cultural blindness, cultural pre-competence, basic cultural
competence and advanced cultural competence.1. Cultural destructiveness – This is the most negative end of the continuum. Organizations (and individuals) in this phase:
Example(s): Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Boarding school policies, U.S. Governmental policies for Native Americans, U.S. Governmental policies for African Americans (before and after abolition of slavery), U.S. Immigration policies for Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
- View culture and cultural differences as a problem
- Believe that if a culture can be suppressed or destroyed, people will be “better off”
- Believe that all people should be more like the “mainstream”
- Assumes that one culture is superior and should “eliminate” values of “lesser” cultures.
2. Cultural Incapacity – (corresponds with the denial stage of the Bennett model)
Organizations (and individuals) in this phase:
- Lack cultural awareness and skills
- Lack policies and procedures which promote cultural awareness and skills
- May be located in a homogeneous community which believes in certain behavioral values that are “right”
- May have been brought up in a homogeneous society and been taught to behave in certain ways and never questioned those ways
- Believe in racial superiority of a dominant group and assume a paternalistic posture toward others who are racially and ethnically different
- Maintain and promote stereotypes (overtly and covertly, deliberately and unintentionally)
- At the organizational level, this translates into supporting segregation or having lower expectations of persons from other cultures
Example: U.S. Government segregation policies in employment, housing, education, public accommodations, etc. for African Americans prior to Civil Rights Acts, U.S. Government segregation/internment policies for Japanese Americans during WWII.3. Cultural Blindness – (corresponds with Bennett’s Minimization stage)
Individuals and organizations in this stage:At the organizational level, services are so ethnocentric and geared toward the dominant culture that they are virtually useless to all but the most assimilated. Also, any possible diversity services or accommodations are severely limited or non-existent.
- See others in terms of their own culture and claim all people are exactly alike
- Believe that culture makes no difference. We are all the same.
- Believe that because all people are alike, all people should be treated in the same way, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, language, religion and cultural values.
4. Cultural Pre-Competence – (corresponds with Bennett’s Acceptance stage). Individuals and organizations in this stage:
5. Basic Cultural Competence – (corresponds with Bennett’s Adaptation stage). Individuals in this stage:
- Recognize that there are cultural differences and start to educate themselves and others concerning these differences. Differences are recognized as a positive rather than negative attribute
- Realize shortcomings in creating, promoting and interacting in a diverse environment
- May become complacent in their efforts after beginning and do “just enough”
At the organizational level, an effort is made to hire unbiased employees, to seek advice from communities of color, to assess what services can be provided to constituents from culturally diverse backgrounds, to hire staff from different racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural groups.
- Accept, appreciate and accommodate individual cultural differences (rather than simply tolerate them)
- Value diversity and accept and respect differences
- Accept and recognize the influence of their own culture in relation with other cultures
- Understand and positively manage the dynamics of differences when cultures intersect
- Are willing to examine components of cross-cultural interactions (communication, problem solving, etc.)
6. Advanced Cultural Competence
Individuals and organizations at this stage:
At the organizational level, this translates into proactive hiring practices to hire persons of culturally diverse backgrounds, proactive recruiting practices to recruit and serve constituents of culturally diverse backgrounds, conducting research, hiring staff who are specialists in cultural competence practices, acting as an advocate for cultural
- Move beyond accepting, appreciating and accommodating cultural differences and actively advocate for cultural diversity and educate less informed individuals about cultural differences. Become cultural diversity advocates in their communities.
- Seek out knowledge, develop skills to interact in diverse environments, become allies with and are comfortable interacting with others in multicultural settings
- Assume a proactive (rather than reactive) approach to cultural diversity through training, education, activities, policies and procedures that reflect the institutional commitment to cultural diversity.
competency by promoting and providing cultural competency training for staff and constituents, providing policies, procedures and activities which promote an
organizational climate which truly values cultural diversity and culturally competent employees.Source: Cross, T. (1988). Services to minority populations: cultural competence
Continuum. Focal Point, (3). National Multicultural Institute, Washington, D.C.
Spring Conference: Technology for Instruction
Thursday, June 8, 2000
9:00 - 4:00Seminole Community College
$35.00Get a look at the future of high technology instruction.
Send your registration request to
Patricia DeSalvo
Seminole CC
100 Weldon Blvd.
Sanford, FL 32773
OR
Visit their website:
http://www.facc.org/techno.htmBEBOC
(Big EyeBall On Campus)
The Attack of the Big Eyeballby Dave Hartley, Fine Arts
The Big Eyeball, where the Drama Instructor tries to bring everyone to a new sense of REALITY. Is there irony here, or what?
Congratulations to Vanessa Baxley on another successful student activity event on the lawn. CFCC can sometimes make people feel like climbing the walls.
I am a little confused about the new exhibit of the Webber Center. I thought a “sacred space” was when you still had a marked parking spot...
Have you noticed that the Information Center fills e-mail and phone mail with information, but never knows about something when you call.
A couple of the most recent rumors about the eternal construction in Building One: Is it true that a lighthouse is being installed in the eternal tower in Building One? Or a drawbridge? Or that there will be eternal bells controlled by a hearing- impaired guy named Quasi-something – hired as part of our efforts to achieve diversity?
The bookstore recently offered deep discounts on their fiction and popular books, but now I need a leave of absence to read them.
Dave Lanzilla’s psychic computer patrol has gotten almost scary. They arrive BEFORE the machines cause trouble. Kind of gives a whole new meaning to the term “Screensavers.”
The new pedestrian crosswalk which appeared on campus over Spring Break, and which is constructed apparently from left over materials from the Brick City Center, is now the highest spot on the CFCC campus. Great place for Kodak moments.
Combining a pedestrian crosswalk and a speedbump is a great idea. The pedestrians have not been getting hit nearly so hard as before…For all those still trying to figure out what a PF (Program Facilitator) is…they are like Vice Presidents, except that they are visible outside of Building One.
For those caught in the crosshairs of possibly being appointed PF in your area, don’t be aPFraid, of Pfailure, or of Pfizzling, you can still run away and be a PF Flyer.
Doctor Dassance was recently seen scooping ice cream at another successful activity on the lawn. The flavor…Chocolate Chick.
Many of us are still having trouble with Dr. Dassance’s nickname… especially around Easter.
You can tell the fiscal year is ending in the TLC…. no jellybeans, chocolate lips, or candy corn. These are the times that try education.
One of the big rumors in the Building 4 area is that some student (doubtless an EVIL DRAMA STUDENT, or EDS) has an illicit key to the auditorium. After careful investigation out there amidst the EVIL DRAMA STUDENTS (see post office posters for actual images) I received these responses:
“The only key any Drama Student would want would be one to get us OUT OF THE AUDITORIUM.” “We all have keys; we make copies for our friends, and have started sending ‘chain keys.” “Why would we need keys? The place is open all the time.” “All you have to do is ask Security…they’ll let you right in.”
Who says imagination is dead?
Is it true that the Board of Trustees is taking action on passing a rule that no campus activities which involve free lunches will be allowed to take place on the same day. It is tough to teach classes and have time to eat twice in the middle of the day…
Crowds are beginning to gather for the opening of the Building 4 elevator. Tommy Morelock and his crews are now finishing up installing alarms, etc. From what I can determine, if you get caught in the elevator, the alarm will go off in the custodial closet in the back of the auditorium. Maybe taking a bag lunch with you would be a good idea.
The BIG EYEBALL: where PEER evaluation really begins…SQUINT, SQUINT.
Interview With Kathy Kilcrease
by Joe Zimmerman, Communications
Hello, Kathy. You teach a new course, Darwin and Dinosaurs, why don’t you tell us something about that.
Well, let’s start way back. I started out with degrees in biology— a bachelors and masters— and for years I taught biological sciences. I started out teaching high school, then I came to CFCC—twenty three years ago.You were an adjunct for a while, weren’t you?
Yes—the first six years I was an adjunct. Anyhow about eleven years ago I was doing trips to the Galapagos islands with students. I went down there initially to do biology, but I soon became interested in the geology of the islands as well, so I came back, decided to take a year’s leave of absence and began a master’s degree program in geology at the University of Florida. So when I came back, I had enough graduate hours to teach a physical geology course.While I was at UF I studied with Dr. Bruce McFadden who’s a vertebrate paleontologist up there. He taught a course he called Dinosaurs and Darwin. He said Kathy, why don’t you start a course at CF similar to this. So I worked with him and developed a course based on his.
How is the course different from the other science courses that you teach?
Well, it takes a subject that’s popular right now—dinosaurs— and allows me to teach a lot of good science, teach how science works. I’m able to bring in a lot of experiences that I’ve had personally with some of the worlds leading dinosaur paleontologists…working with them in the field and talking with them. Students get to know these people, what they’re doing, the controversies that go on between scientists, they learn how science works—how data is gathered, how theories develop, how theories are published and how the research must be substantiated by peers.Is this something at the bottom of your teaching philosophy, teaching “how science works.”
It depends in the course. Some courses are more content oriented some are more application oriented. Some try to tie science with everyday life.So is teaching Darwin difficult?
Some students come in with a preconceived notion of Darwin. I often get a large number of Creationists in the classroom.How do you deal with that?
Well the first thing I do is give a lecture on the difference between “truth” and “belief.” I explain how scientists are seekers of truth and how theologians are seekers of truth. There is only one truth, and at some point both science and theology must come together—because there is only one truth that we’re searching for…Both science and religion are searching for the same thing, yet some people fear science, are very skeptical of things scientific…
Well, pretty much only in that area. They are willing to accept other theories in science without much question, but when it comes to Darwin…well I think it’s because of the Creationist beliefs, that they have trouble with that. But a lot of it is misunderstanding.And that’s where you, the educator, come in…
Yes. Well, to understand science, they have to know what a hypothesis is. They have to know what a theory is. A theory is the best explanation we have at this point in time, given the data that’s been collected and hypotheses that have been tested. And theories can sometimes change, when new evidence comes along. Then I give a lecture on the difference between “evolution” and “evolutionary theory.”Enlighten us.
All evolution means is that organisms change over time. Lets look at the fossil record. One thing scientists do is try to interpret the fossil record, and when scientists examine the record they see changes in organisms over time. If you explain it that way it doesn’t seem to offend anybody. But if you say scientists see organisms “evolving” then some students have trouble. They accept “change” but not “evolve.”So you explain Darwin without mentioning the word “evolution” and you get through to the students.
Poor Darwin, he gets so much flack and basically all he did was explain how change can occur. He wasn’t the first person to recognize that change occurs in organisms over time, there were many before him that discovered this. All he did was propose a method for organisms to change over time.And that method is “evolutionary theory?”
Right. So there’s a difference between evolution-the evidence, what we see in the fossil record— and evolutionary theory which is how those changes could possibly occur. And that was in the mid 1800s that Darwin came up with his idea, and the evidence—thanks to great advances in genetics (which Darwin knew little about)—has substantiated what Darwin proposed so long ago.Let’s talk a little about teaching and learning. How do you motivate students?
That’s difficult.Do you feel the responsibility to motivate students?
To some degree. I think there will always be students you probably can’t motivate, no matter what you do. Yes, I think it’s part of our responsibility…How do you do it?
How do I do it? Well it’s difficult. What motivates one student won’t motivate another. I realize in a classroom there are a lot of different learning styles a lot of different interests. I try to relate as much material as I can in a class to everyday experience, to make it relevant. I think that helps motivate. I try humor…I use a lot of visuals…Your own experiences in the field —the Galapagos, your trips to Alaska—they must help.
Yes. I think its important that an instructor have experience in the things that they teach and then be able to bring those experiences into the classroom. It makes what you teach more…authentic, more credible.You teach TLC workshops in PowerPoint, in Adobe PhotoShop, so I’m assuming you use these things in the classroom. Do you feel this technology helps?
I think it does, but I see it as one tool out of many. I don’t think technology is the end-all for learning. There are students who are highly visual—I’m a visual learner—so I think PowerPoint allows you to use a lot of visuals. Some students are kinestetic learners, people who learn by touch. So I do some of hands on activities.I took your PowerPoint workshop last summer.
I remember.We had about fifteen unruly instructors in that workshop including David Hartley, and everyone was learning at a different rate, going here, going there, but you were our patient and knowledgeable guide.
[Laughs] Well thanks. I’m a linear learner myself and I’ve learned from teaching science for so long how to take a complex concept and break it down into steps that students can follow, even rowdy instructors.Are you a different kind of teacher now compared with twenty years ago, or have you...evolved?
You mean have I changed over time? [Laughs]. I think every time I leave a classroom I realize there wasa something I could have done differently or something I could have done better, and I think if any of us ever stop feeling that way then we should probably get out of teaching. We should continually try to change, to motivate, to better relate the material.Have you grown more confident over the years?
Yes. I’m a much more confident instructor now. I have more experiences under my belt that I can draw on, so overall I feel better about my teaching now. But am I satisfied? No. There’s always room for improvement, new things to explore…I just heard you’re taking a year’s leave of absence. What’s that all about?
Well after twenty-three years of teaching at CFCC, I just feel I need a break. So I’m going to Utah. There’s wonderful geology there and Utah is the dinosaur Mecca of the world. Also, my grandchildren are there. I’ll have to support myself somehow, but I hope to have time for some geology and some paleontology while I’m there.Well, we’re going to miss you, Kathy.
I know I’m going to miss everybody here.Come back safely.
Well I hope to come back in one piece, if I don’t fall off a cliff or something.
“There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors who have no aim beyond their facts are one-story minds. Two-story minds compare, reason, generalize, using the labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story minds idealize, imagine, predict - their best illumination comes from above through skylight.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
“I do not know what I could make entirely clear to an outsider the pleasure I have in teaching. I had rather earn my living by teaching than in any other way. In my mind, teaching is not merely a life work, a profession, an occupation, a struggle; it is a passion. I love to teach. I love to teach as a painter loves to paint, as a musician loves to play, as a singer loves to sing, as a strong man rejoices to run a race. Teaching is an art-an art so great and so difficult to master that a man or woman can spend a long life at it without realizing much more than his limitations and mistakes, and his distance from the ideal. But the main aim of my happy days has been to become a good teacher, just as every architect and every
professional poet strives toward perfection.”William Lyon Phelps
Carol Blakeman, Health Occupations This project will help students in the health occupations program to take multiple choice licensing exams more successfully. The program Writing Better Test Questions to Increase Critical Thinking Skills will allow faculty to write questions that are creative, better understood by the students, and that stimulate critical thinking.
Computerized Software to Assist Faculty in Writing Multiple Choice Questions
Susan Cable, Science This project involves the implementation of a modular approach to the algebra-based physics course at CFCC. Each module uses a series of learning cycles and
Implementation of a Modular Approach to Algebra-based Physics
incorporates many teaching techniques that are based on physics education research.The second part of the project is a comparison of the new modular based course with traditional teaching methods. Students in General Physics currently take a nationally recognized diagnostic test in a pre- and post-test sequence. Increase in scores after traditional teaching methods will then be compared with any increases seen after the new modular approach.
Ron Cooper, Humanities and Social Science Feminist approaches to philosophy, literature, anthropology, and other fields have exposed male bias, sometimes blatant, sometimes hidden.
Ellen Klein: Guest Lecturer on FeminismEllen Klien, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at Flagler College, believes that feminism perhaps has done more harm to women than good. Her talk will help students evaluate the claim that Western (and Eastern for that matter) traditions are saturated with male-biased thoughts.
Richard Pendarvis, Science This project will provide molecular modeling software for student use on campus. The software “Molecules 3D” is considered a user friendly packages for student use and provides a high degree of functionality. Much of the wonder of chemistry comes from understanding the three dimensional aspects of molecular structure. This software program should result in greater understanding of the importance of chemistry in many fields and improve the technical abilities of students.
Molecular Visualization
SarahMarie Schmidt, Fine Arts Dr. Gray Wolf has agreed to instruct a piano Master Class and to perform a full length solo piano recital. The students who choose to fully participate in the Master Class will perform a prepared selection for Dr. Wolf and then receive his tutelage on their performance. The recital benefits all attendees by presenting an opportunity to hear a live performance of standard piano repertoire. A reputable presentation of accepted performance interpretation of literature gives listeners a reliable exposure to the art of the composer. Also, students need to see an artist, working in the music field as an educator who is also an artist/performer.
Master Class and Piano Recital by Dr. Gray Wolf
Debra Vazquez, Communications Prof. Michael Hofmann of Gainesville and London, poet and recent winner of the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Award will visit the college for a scheduled reading/discussion. This will provide teachers with a creative and energetic venue to encourage student interest in literature and creative writing. Part of the culture of a learning centered institution includes exposure to renowned thinkers and writers, which is essential for instructors as well as students.
Hofmann on Poetry and the Novel
Judith Wood, Mathematics This project is designed to enhance the teaching methodology, strategies, and use of technological equipment in the Interactive Television (ITV) classroom. The project will consist of workshops held during the summer for faculty who will teach in the ITV classroom during the Fall 2000 semester. Faculty who will teach using this medium for delivery need an opportunity to learn how to use the equipment properly, especially with the expansion to three sites; learn alternative teaching methodologies to traditional classroom lecture, and possibly how to incorporate PowerPoint presentations, videos, etc. into these lessons.
Developing Teaching Strategies and Use of Technology for ITV Teaching
