THE DAY THE WORLD STOPPED TURNING
For the past 11 years, we have commemorated of one of the most tragic of days in our nation's history. We join with people around the world who mourn the losses we incurred that horrific day. As educators it is certainly an opportunity to engage with our students about the events of that day. While it easy to imagine tackling this topic in history or political science, there are just as many opportunities to create a discussion in biology, English, or psychology. However you choose to approach it, I hope that you take some time today to honor the memories of all that lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

FREE WEBINAR OPPORTUNITY
There is still time to register for the free webinar How To Help Students Discover Their Ideal Learning Environment that will be held on Thursday, September 13 at 2:00PM. This webinar will focus on a new program being implemented at Colorado State University, called LifeTraits. This innovative 20-question assessment is designed to profile both students and staff to map their individual personalities to their ideal environments. Unlike other personality profiles, LifeTraits helps students express the needs and wants they seek in their surroundings and gives staff a vocabulary to aid in that approach.Some of the specific topics scheduled to be covered include: understanding which students are most likely to drop out and identifying behavior indicators prior to a stressful encounter; identifying the ideal environment/stressors based on student and staff personality; developing strategies for adapting to the environment to promote learning; and, using student personality data to better reach and communicate with students.

ONLINE COURSE REDESIGN TIPS
If you are looking to revise a current or create a new online course, we recommend Dr. Robin M. Smith's book Conquering the Content: A step-by-step guide to online course design (LB 1044.87 S617). Dr. Smith developed and directed the Center for Web-Based Learning at Southern Arkansas University Tech and was the first WebCT trainer in the South Central United States. Not only is her book filled with useful advice, she includes templates and forms that help guide you to create an online course of excellence. Each chapter begins with learning outcomes as she models the behavior she is championing. Levin, Cox, Cerven, and Haberler in their article The Recipe for Promising Practices in Community Colleges identify and examine the key practices of California community college programs that have demonstrated success in improving (or that have shown significant potential to improve) the achievement of underrepresented groups. They note, "Programs in our study were prepared to work with the students they served while addressing their surrounding social, geographic, and economic contexts. The college program with promising practices, often as a result of faculty behaviors, develops and maintains relationships with local communities, industries, institutions, and agencies."