PLANNING FOR COLLEGE CLOSURES
The weather is wreaking havoc with our academic calendar this spring semester. We will not be holding classes on Tuesday, January 28 due to icy (and possibly snowy) conditions which also caused us to cancel classes on Friday, January 24. Losing one class time may not be too disruptive but two days lost may be causing you some stress. We suggest you look over the missed lessons and decide what is the most important information that students will need for future learning. When you do get back to class, focus on that and perhaps post videos or fact sheets about the other material you had planned to teach during those class meetings. In addition, you can certainly use your Blackboard page to assign readings, hold virtual office hours or give an online quiz. You could even have an online discussion with your students using Blackboard. This assumes that all of your students will have access to the web and that our electricity will withstand the freezing temperatures. We recommend that, at minimum, you remind students of important upcoming dates and deadlines now by posting this information on your Blackboard page and sending an email blast to your classes. This will allow you to continue to move forward with student learning despite the weather interruptions. By the way, the last day to add or drop classes has been extended to January 31 because of the weather disruptions.

CELEBRATE ENGAGEMENT DAY

We celebrated engagement at BRCC today and captured some pictures from classrooms and support Division of Innovative Learning and Academic Support staff also wore their t-shirts to celebrate engagement at BRCC. Research shows that using engagement techniques early and often is one of the best ways to improve your class participation and retention rates. As Dr. Mary Clement Keep Calm and Be Engaged t-shirts on today. All of the members of the pointed out on BRCC Faculty Development Day, engagement also improves your student ratings. Faculty Focus provides us with a nice overview of engagement practices and I want to mention two here. First, recognize that teaching and teachers are central to engagement. Much research places teachers at the heart of engagement. For example, one study found that “if the teacher is perceived to be approachable, well prepared, and sensitive to student needs, students are committed to work harder, get more out of the session, and are more willing to express their opinion.” We continue to promote active learning as the preferred delivery method for your teaching. The engagement research provides another opportunity to create self-directed learners. There is no agreement in the research literature as to what motivates learners to engage, but the

offices around the Mid City Campus. You may have seen some of our faculty engagement experts with their

dominant view is that students engage when they act as their own learning agents working to achieve goals meaningful to them. This means that what students believe about themselves as learners is very important. They must believe they can learn, including that they can overcome and learn from failure. Giving students some control over learning processes helps develop this confidence and commitment to learning. Remember to Keep Calm and Be Engaged and sign up as a follower of the Teaching+Learning Center's twitter site @brcctlc to receive the latest news.