Every now and then, someone posts a blog about their undergraduate experience. It is usually written by someone who is now an instructor in college. Sometimes the post is more about reminiscing rather than providing good ideas built on their experience. Susan Shapiro, who is an instructor at Columbia, has written one of the latter. She looks back on her undergraduate experience and regrets that she was the kind of student that currently gives her problems. She writes, "I enjoyed going to college at the University of Michigan, an hour from home, but my secret humiliation is: I was the type of mediocre student I now disdain. As a freshman, I cared about my friends, my boyfriend and my poetry. Or, I cared about what my boyfriend thought of my friends, what my friends thought of him, and what they thought of my poetry about him. Here’s what I wish I’d known and done differently." You can read the entire article here. More importantly, I encourage you to share this with your students.

What skills did you possess as an undergraduate that made you successful? Who taught you about the methods you used to navigate college? Were you lucky enough to have a mentor? A recent discussion about our undergraduate experience made me take a new look at the current research about student mentoring. As expected, having a mentor increases a students chance to persist and graduate under the right circumstances. In Buffy Smith's Mentoring At-risk Students through the Hidden Curriculum of Higher Education, she notes three actions that mentors should do in order to help students including: (1) telling students what they should do (advising), (2) advocacy, defined as motivating and connecting students with individuals on campus, and (3) showing and empowering students how to acquire the highest degree of capital from the mentoring relationship (academic apprenticeship). Many institutions include mentoring as part of their first-generation programs. Joya Misra and Jennifer Lundquist provide a really nice overview of mentoring in their article for Inside Higher Ed. The article focuses on what faculty can do in the form of mentoring to help students succeed. One of the points they make is about the relationship itself as they note, "Individual faculty mentors also should recognize the backgrounds, resources and needs of their students, rather than assuming that students are all the same and have all of the resources they need. Students benefit from faculty mentors who see them as whole people. By recognizing who a student is beyond their role as a student, faculty members can develop trusting relationships with them."

Does it seem like every other conversation about higher education begins with the words retention or persistence? Are there differences between students who attend community college versus a four year institution? Do we have definitive results that can be applied in every situation? We know that one of the many problems posed by the questions surrounding retention and persistence are the myriad of factors that are at play. In the latest addition of The Review of Higher Education (Spring 2017, V40, N3), Deryl K. Hatch and Crystal E. Garcia report on their research about these topics. In "Academic Advising and the Persistence Intentions of Community College Students in their First Weeks in College," the authors point out that there has been very little work that connects the factors that lead to dropping out and the student's initial goal. They acknowledge that academic advising centers and training for faculty advisors are two practices that could contribute to improving retention. The main results they report from the research include: 1) the relationship between engagement and persistence intentions heavily depends on individual goals, 2) different kinds of advising may have different effects for different students, and 3) the role of academic and social support networks matter in the near term and likely in the long term. Continue reading here.

DOES YOUR MAJOR MATTER
Since we are about to open registration for the Spring 2017 semester, I thought you might like related to that topic. June Y. Chu has an interesting take on student majors. "As an adviser to college-age students, it could be easy for me to say major in what you love and be done. Research shows that employers often recruit for transferable skills, and there is no direct correlation between one’s major and career. In fact, Forbes magazine has presented research findings indicating that only 27 percent of college graduates are working in a job that relates to their major. Google the phrase “Does your major matter?” and you will find that most articles out there succinctly state, “Nope, doesn’t matter.” Yet, sometimes, it does. To be better advisers, we need to consider the cultural baggage a student brings to a conversation when discussing their major."

NO LAUGHING MATTER
If you were not able to attend the classroom management faculty development session yesterday, we missed you. The good news is there are more sessions planned, so I encourage you to take a look at the events calendar. One of the topics we discussed was the use of humor in the classroom. Mary Bart offers her take on this teaching technique in a new post. She writes, "I am still pretty regularly criticized for my use of humor—I have been known to use too much. The long-standing objection is that education is serious business. It’s no laughing matter. Our goal is education; not entertainment. Writing about the history of humor in the classroom, Debra Korobkin notes that before the 20^th century, “collectively, teachers perceived instructing with a sense of humor as unprofessional, uncontrolled, and undignified.” (p. 154) Use humor and don’t expect to be taken as a serious professional. Some of that thinking still lingers today." Continue reading here.

DECODING THE BRAIN
Scientists can now map what happens neurologically when new information influences a person to change his or her mind, a finding that offers more insight into the mechanics of learning according to a recent research paper. "At a fundamental level, it is difficult to measure what someone knows," said co-author and psychology associate professor Alison Preston. "In our new paper, we employ brain decoding techniques that allow us deeper insight into the knowledge people have available to make decisions. We were able to measure when a person's knowledge changes to reflect new goals or opinions." The process, researchers said, involves two components of the brain working together to update and "bias" conceptual knowledge with new information to form new ideas. Continue reading here.

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL STUDENT NEED TO KNOW
While we continue to offer a college success skills course, many of the students who would benefit most are not enrolling in the class. If you are advising a student who has struggled with time management, test anxiety, metacognition issues, critical thinking or any other issues that prevent their academic progress, it may be time to suggest they enroll in a CSSK 102 class. In the absence of taking that class, you should strongly encourage them to take advantage of the various workshops offered by the Academic Learning Center. Karp and Bork, of the Community College Research Center, have written a working paper on the topic. They note "While low college success rates are typically linked to students’ lack of academic preparation for college and their subsequent need for developmental or remedial instruction, research suggests that even many students who are deemed “college-ready” by virtue of their placement test scores or completion of developmental coursework still do not earn a credential." Their paper builds on previous work arguing that community college success is dependent not only upon academic preparation but also upon a host of important skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are often left unspoken. The paper  clarifies the role of the community college student and the components of that role that must be enacted for students to be successful. They provide a concrete, actionable description of the community college student role and present a framework that practitioners can use to help students learn how to be successful community college students.

USING STUDENT RATING FEEDBACK EFFECTIVELY
As our students begin to complete their ratings of their experiences in our classes, it is a good time to take a look at how we as faculty can use the data and what the current research says about the process.  Safavi and Bakar, et al. suggest that faculty may want to add some additional questions to the ratings in order to gather information more specific to their subject matter and teaching approach. In research performed by Slocombe, Miller, and Hite, they note that students tended to give higher evaluations to professors who used humor and to professors they liked but the difficulty of the class did not impact students' ratings of faculty. Ronald A. Berk's research revealed that students' expectations about how the results will be used are also critical to future response rates. Chen and Hoshower found that students’ motivation to participate in  the  rating  system  hinged  on  the following semi-observable outcomes (in order  of decreasing importance): (1) improvements in teaching, (2) improvements in course content and format, and (3) faculty personnel decisions (promotion, tenure, salary increase).

BECOMING A LEARNER-CENTERED EDUCATOR
Dr. James Lang has written a column for The Chronicle of Higher Education about some of the small decisions he has made that had a big impact on his classes. He writes, "When I first started teaching, the open space of a 50- or 75-minute class period seemed an eternity. Like many a new faculty member, I worried about having enough material. I wanted to ensure that, if discussion faltered or if I rushed through the lecture too quickly, I would have options to fill the remaining time. My greatest fear was using up everything I had and finding 30 minutes still left on the clock. Twenty years later I seem to have the opposite problem: not enough time in the class period to accomplish everything I have planned. It seems so difficult to me now to do much of substance in 50 minutes. I don’t know whether to blame that shift in perspective on the fact that I have more teaching experience or that I’m just older. I suppose those two possibilities don’t untangle very easily." Continue reading here.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW
Join us for what promises to be an energetic and informative faculty development session, Teaching as Performance: Learning to Get the Most Out of Your Voice, on October 15 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM. Dr. Tony Medlin, assistant professor of Theatre Arts, will facilitate this session. The workshop will cover simple and easy techniques to improve projection, articulation, and preserve your chops, based on Lessac speech production. The workshop will be held in 311 Magnolia and is sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center. You can register now. You can also view all of the Teaching+Learning Center's upcoming events here.

HOW TO SUCCEED AT COLLEGE
If you are noticing that a student is struggling in your course, reaching out to them is always a good thing. Perhaps sending an email or catching them at the end of class and asking how things are going may be enough to get the student to open up. After talking with them about their study habits, you discover that is the area that is probably causing them the most trouble. So then what? I can suggest three things that you can offer. The first is suggesting that they enroll in the College Success Skills class offered each semester. The knowledge shared in this class is great not only for their academic progress but very valuable to their life post-college. The second is to suggest they take advantage of the workshops offered by the Academic Learning Center. The third is using your personal experience to illustrate how you were a successful student and Dr. Lisa Lawmaster Hess offers some great ideas in this Faculty Focus article that can be used to supplement your own suggestions. What has become more apparent to me over the last few years is under-prepared students don't want to stay that way. Talking with them honestly about what is required in order to be successful in college can really turn the tide for many of them. Finally, I would remind you to follow up with them in about a week to see if they have implemented the study strategies you suggested. If you have any suggestions on this topic, feel free to share them here or send them to me so that I can share them.


THE IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL LITERACY
In our most recent faculty development session on The Millennial Learner: Greatest Generation or Generation Me, we discussed how imperative it is for students to learn digital literacy. While many of us do not have time to teach on this topic for an entire class period, dropping bits of knowledge throughout your classes may be an option. To help you do that, Dr. Lauren Arend has posted an informative piece on the topic.  Here is a small sample of her article. "While students enter our programs with limited background on what they know about content in their respective fields, they come to us with some preconceptions about what it feels like and looks like to be a professional in that field.  Students come to us with a history of interactions with news media, film, television, music, literature, and advertisements that have shaped their understanding of who teachers are, what a doctor is like, or what it means to work in criminal justice. Without framing, it is highly unlikely that students were examining those decades worth of images through a critical lens.  This is where critical media literacy pedagogy becomes crucial."

STUDENT RATING WORKSHOP
What role does faculty organization play in student ratings? How can you better illustrate concern for your student's success in your courses? How many ways can you state the course objectives? Can you increase rigor without hurting your student rating scores? These are some of the questions we will discuss at the upcoming professional development session, Interpreting Your Student Ratings and Using Them for Professional Development, on Thursday, February 26. The session begins at 1:00 pm in 311 Magnolia Building. If you have specific issues that have cropped up in your student rating feedback, now if a great time to send me an email (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu). I will include it in the anonymous list and provide suggestions for improvement at the workshop. You can register now for this event being sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center.

INCREASING OFFICE VISITS
One of the more common complaints we hear is that students rarely take advantage of our office hours. Having a student visit you is not only a proven method to improve student success but provides us with a wonderful opportunity to provide some career advice for our students. So how do we get them to make a purposeful trip to our offices? The latest blog from Faculty Focus offers several suggestions. One of the more straight-forward is requiring your students to visit. It is suggested that you require this visit to occur early in the semester. The post suggests, "If the visit is to discuss some course issue, say possible term paper topics, that conversation can show students the value of meeting with the prof. They get good feedback on the topic they’re considering, get ideas about other options, and can ask questions about assignment details." The post also suggests using course centers which consist of scheduled one- or two-hour time blocks in unoccupied classrooms.

IMPROVING COURSE RIGOR
Most of us have heard of (and hopefully are using) Bloom's Taxonomy to increase rigor in our classrooms. The Teaching+Learning Center has been distributing a Quick Flip Question booklet for the past several years. If you have not received one of these handy resources, contact me and we will get one to you. Another good resource to help you increase rigor in your classes is Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DoK) Levels.  Many instructors are using the DoK scale to improve instruction leading to better learning by their students. Take a look at this site which provides an overview and some videos to help you understand how to use DoK properly.

NOON REFLECTION BRINGS IDEAS
The Mid Day Musings held earlier today delivered some powerful messages about student persistence and our efforts at retention. Bettinger's article about student supports spurred discussions about community college's missions, the Louisiana Grad Act, proactive advising, and financial aid. Amy Cable, Director of Financial Aid, made a surprise visit to dispel some myths and provide us with some great information that we can use to help our students make the best decision about their academic progress. Moon's article about high-impact educational practices provided the background for a conversation about the benefits of supplemental instruction (SI) programs. Dr. Jo Dale Ales, Dean of the STEM Division, shared her experience with SI by using examples of the current program they are using for gateway courses (calculus, physics, and engineering). Drake's article on academic advising encouraged a discussion about first-class experiences, namely spending most of the time talking about study skills, test preparation, and what is required to complete the class (other than just coming to class). Several ideas were generated that could be turned into pilots at BRCC that may increase our retention rates.

LEARNING WITH GAMES
One of the latest teaching methods trending now is the use of games in class. According to an article by Katie Lepi, gamification of just about anything has been tried by teachers around the globe. She also provides a list of ten colleges who are leading the way in this trend. For instance, the University of Texas at Brownsville has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for the efforts of one of its professors to use video games to teach physics. Associate professor Soumya Mohanty created and taught the school’s inaugural “Elementary Physics Through Video Games” course in the 2010-2011 school year. He said the increased level of reality in modern games has made them valuable teaching tools for physical principles. He used three Playstation 3 consoles and two plasma screens for the course.

OFFICE HOURS AND GREAT TEACHERS
But what deeply moved me, largely because I had foolishly believed that it couldn’t possibly be true, was this important truth: Professor Northcut wants to be at Richland and she is there on purpose. She is convinced that community colleges serve a vital purpose in aiding the best and brightest students who lack the resources to attend four-year schools right out of high school, or perhaps got sidetracked along the way. By her description, Richland exists explicitly to help those students find their way to universities and brighter futures. She is not at Richland because she never found a better job, or to collect a few extra paychecks before retirement. And she certainly does not see her students as the caricatures they often become in our higher-education debates -- representatives of broken systems; too unprepared to make it at a “real college.” Are you intrigued enough to read more? If you do, I promise this op-ed piece will make you feel good about what you do at BRCC. 

ACADEMIC ADVISING FRONT AND CENTER
Academic advising discussions are probably still occurring after the past two days of professional development opportunities. Tuesday we heard from the professional development workshop panel that included Dr. Mary Boudreaux, Wendy Devall, Vinetta Frie, Brandy Gros, Lisa Hibner, and Jeanne Stacy. Each panelist brought a different aspect of expertise to the academic advising discussion held in the Teaching+Learning Center. The participants included academic advising staff, senior and new faculty who were more than willing to engage in serious discussions about the need for better advising as a deterrent for low retention rates. One of the main takeaways was agreement that a cohesive, consistent approach to academic advising would improve our persistence and graduation rates. The conversation continued on Wednesday at the Mid-Day Musings in the faculty and staff dining room of the Bienvenue Building. A different group gathered to discuss the merits of engaging students in conversation about their future. Many of the participants found the pre-session short video interview with Dr. Daniel Chambliss, who wrote How Colleges Work, to be very useful. The main takeaway from Wednesday's session was the importance of being engaged and making connections with our students regardless of your position. Research indicates that often a connection with anyone at the college, not just instructors or counselors, leads to student success and greater persistence rates. The advising handbook is close to being completed and will be distributed shortly. We also plan to post a list of some of the questions and answers from Tuesday's session on the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Faculty Development Community discussion board.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING IMPROVES CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY
Dr. James A. Griesemer has written an interesting article about the use of active, cooperative learning and how it can enhance student success. He writes, "Incorporating active, cooperative quality learning exercises in a course requires instructors to modify their teaching strategy in a number of important ways but the most critical is their roles as educator, mentor, and facilitator. Research confirms the effectiveness of active, cooperative learning. Compared to students taught with conventional methods, cooperatively taught students tend to exhibit better grades as well as better analytical, creative, and critical thinking skills among other traits. Both instructors and students reported numerous benefits of incorporating active, cooperative learning quality exercises into an undergraduate operations/supply chain management course." Read more.

IMPACTING THE PERSISTENCE RATE
As the nation becomes increasingly focused on improving college completion rates, policy makers, practitioners, and scholars are calling for renewed efforts to help students succeed (e.g., Lumina Foundation, 2009). Central to these plans is the promotion of postsecondary access and opportunity, as well as the improvement of persistence and completion rates. College student persistence, in particular, is a necessary condition for social mobility, bridging access and attainment. We are well aware of a renewed focus on persistence and completion at BRCC and we have implemented interventions intended to improve our rates in both categories. Drs. Gregory C. Wolniak, Matthew J. Mayhew, and Mark E. Engberg have written a paper based on their research in this area and published in the Journal of Higher Education. They note, "Several key areas inform our understanding of students’ likelihood of persisting after the first year of college. These areas consist of student demographics and socioeconomic status, precollege academics, college choice and financial aid, institutional characteristics, the role of academic and social integration, and college grades. Persisting students reported higher levels of academic and social integration during their first year of college in areas related to exposure to quality teaching, frequency of faculty contact, peer interactions, and cocurricular involvement, while also demonstrating greater average scores on three of the five measures of assessed student learning (leadership, need for cognition, and content mastery). Alternatively, compared to nonpersisting students, a smaller share of persisters obtained financial aid in the form of federal grants."

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IDEAS THAT WORK
Drs. Ned Zepke and Linda Leach offer us some great engagement approaches in their article Improving Student Engagement: Ten Proposals for Action that appeared in Active Learning in Higher Education. The authors propose definitions broad enough to include more specific descriptions. For example: engagement is “students’ cognitive investment in, active participation in, and emotional commitment to their learning.” Or, engagement is “students’ involvement with activities and conditions likely to generate high-quality learning.” Two of their top ten ideas include the following. Enable students to work autonomously, enjoy learning relationships with others, and feel they are competent to achieve their own objectives — “When institutions provide opportunities for students to learn both autonomously and with others, and to develop their sense of competence, students are more likely to be motivated, to engage and succeed.” Maryellen Weimer says that the focus here is on cultivating intrinsic motivation, which fosters the self-determination that leads to engagement. Zepke and Leach also suggest that we 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.” You can take a look at the full article here.

ACADEMIC ADVISING ON TAP
Many of you have asked that we offer a faculty professional development workshop on academic advising and here it is. Join us for Focus on Academic Advising: Bring on the Questions on Tuesday, October 7 at 1:00 pm. The workshop will include a panel of discussants led by CSSK Assistant Professor Vinetta Frie and Career Center Director Lisa Hibner and will be held in room 311 Magnolia Building (Mid City Campus). This workshop is sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center. Registration is now open.

CLARITY OF EXPECTATIONS IMPROVES RETENTION
As the How Learning Works Faculty Learning Community enters its sixth week, they wanted to share a retention tip related to what types of practice and feedback enhance student learning. FLC members include Jo Dale Ales, Gabriel Aluko, Pearce Cinman, Gery Frie, Vinetta Frie, Wes Harris, Steven Keeten, Jennifer Linscott, Divina Miranda, Todd Pourciau, and Kate Schexnayder. Research has shown that learning and performance are best fostered when students engage in practice that focuses on a specific goal or criterion for performance, targets an appropriate level of challenge relative to students' current performance, and is of sufficient quantity and frequency to meet the performance criteria. The book's authors (including Susan Amrose, et. al.) suggest that we be very specific about our goals in our course material. They note without specific goals for the course as a whole or for individual assignments, students often rely on their assumptions to decide how they should spend their time. This makes it all the more important to articulate your goals clearly (in your course syllabus and with each specific assignment), so students know what your expectations are and can use them to guide their practice. Students are more likely to use the goals to guide their practice when the goals are stated in terms of what students should be able to do at the end of an assignment or the course. The next Faculty Learning Community will use Ken Bain's book What the Best College Teachers Do and begins on October 24. If you would like to participate, please contact Academic Support Specialist Barbara Linder at linderb@mybrcc.edu or 216.8228.

ADVISING MOVEMENT TAKES SHAPE
The movement to create a academic advising program of excellence for our students continues to move forward. A good number of our colleagues gathered on Tuesday, April 29 to discuss a number of issues that included the need for a guidebook, academic progress checklists, a database on student advising, selection of an appropriate advising model, and the creation of a discussion board. Two ad-hoc committees were created to handle the main issues. The Academic Advising Handbook ad-hoc committee is being co-chaired by Science Department Chair Laura Younger and Nursing and Allied Health Academic Advisor Martha Sealey and includes the following members:  Dr. Mary Boudreaux (STEM Division), Gery Frie (Construction Management), Dr. Sandra Harris (Title 3), Leigh Potts, (Title 3), Jeanne Stacy (Academic Learning Center), Leroy Waguespack (Computer Information Systems), and Rebecca Wesley (Veterinary Technology). The Student Advising Records ad-hoc committee is being co-chaired by Business and Social Sciences Department Chair Amy Pinero and Business and Social Sciences Division Academic Advisor Eric Whitfield and includes the following members: Nisha Aroskar (Business), Vinetta Frie (CSSK) Peter Klubek (Library), Marla Kameny (Business), and Krista Schmitt (Business). If you would like to be involved in either ad-hoc committee, please contact one of the co-chairs.

MEASURING TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS
Faculty Focus presents us with a timely article on an issue that we are currently wrestling with; namely student ratings of faculty. She writes, "When we talk about teaching effectiveness, it’s usually in the context of evaluation. Student ratings are frequently described as measures of teaching effectiveness, and that makes our understanding of the term important. Researcher Leslie Layne wondered whether students and teachers define the term similarly. If they don’t, Layne writes that understanding the differences “is crucial to faculty and administrators when interpreting student survey results.”

WHERE DO THE LIBERAL ARTS FIT
Dr. William Durden has written a very provocative opinion piece on the current state of affairs concerning liberal art degrees. He writes, "Americans don’t like cheaters. When it comes to how we learn and what we’re able to do with our acquired knowledge, a game has been going on. And many will find themselves systematically locked out of opportunity. This is not about students cheating on tests or principals downplaying ineffective teaching strategies. Nor is it about the latest argument concerning higher education — that college is too expensive and there’s no guarantee of gainful employment. It a national reckoning of how much we’re willing to tolerate regarding class, status and the suppression of economic mobility. This issue demands that we take responsibility for the way that our educational decisions play out in our lives and throughout our communities. Until we take ownership of these things, we will continue to play a fool’s game of winners and losers."

WHAT SHOULD ACADEMIC ADVISING LOOK LIKE AT BRCC
Jeffrey Selingo's article on academic advising lists many of the same issues we are currently experiencing. In his article, he notes that academic advising "has always been one of those intractable problems on college campuses. Students rarely think about it until that frantic moment when they need someone to sign the registration form for next semester's classes. Only 4 of 10 students consider counselors their primary source of advice regarding academic plans, according to the National Survey of Student Engagement, an annual poll of freshmen and seniors. A third of freshmen turn to friends or family. One in 10 students never even meet with an academic counselor." Please remember to join us tomorrow at 1:00 pm in the Teaching+Learning Center as we continue with our discussion on creating an academic advising program of excellence.

CAN YOU HOLD THAT IDEA FOR A MINUTE
Dr. Maryellen Weimer's latest blog post offers some solid assistance for those who like to use classroom discussion. She writes, "The classroom discussion is going pretty well. Students are offering some good comments and more than one hand is in the air. Then a student makes a really excellent observation that opens up a whole avenue of relevant possibilities. You follow-up by calling on a student whose hand has been in the air for some time. Her comment is fine, but it’s totally unrelated to the previous comment. How do you get students to respond to each other’s comments? How do you get student comments to build on a key topic so that it becomes more like a real discussion?"

DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION IS AN OPPORTUNITY
Dr. Hunter Boylan's editorial on community colleges and remedial education strikes a few familiar chords. He writes, "Members of the professional community in developmental education agree with many studies suggesting that simply placing students in remedial courses is an inadequate response to the problems of underpreparedness among entering college students. They would further tend to agree that the current process of identifying and placing underprepared students is flawed and that the entire process of assessing, advising and teaching them needs reform. But if there is a 'solution' to the remediation education 'problem,' it is vastly more complex than many reform advocates and most policy makers acknowledge. It will require that community colleges change the way they do remediation. It will also require that they address non-academic issues that may prevent students from succeeding, improve the quality of instruction at all levels, revise financial aid policies, provide better advising to students at risk, integrate instruction and support services, teach college success skills, invest in professional development and do all of these things in a systematic manner integrated into the mainstream of the institution."

WHY DO UNICORNS ALWAYS LAND ON ALL FOUR LEGS
Are you ready to discuss your ideas and solutions with your colleagues about how to improve student success at BRCC? As academics, we are at the teaching front-line. The success of our institution is squarely on our shoulders. Having seen the passion you have for the success of your students, I know that the community of scholars at BRCC is ready to start the movement. On Thursday, April 24 beginning at 1:00 pm, we will gather in the Teaching+Learning Center to discuss the happiness effect, strategies for rewiring our brains, random acts of kindness, and how to create a flourishing campus. Engagement specialists Dr. Sandra Guzman and Mr. Paul Guidry will facilitate the session along with me. We need for you to come and have a frank, honest discussion with your colleagues. Will you answer the call? You can register now. Then watch this TEDx video (it is only 13 minutes long) to help prepare yourself for the gathering.

ACADEMIC ADVISING PROGRAM NEEDS YOUR INPUT
Student success depends on many things and one of the most important components is academic advising, as indicated by the coverage it it receiving in the press. That is why many of your faculty and professional staff members came together on April 2 to hear what the current academic advising landscape looks like. The webinar presented several different models for success and we need to adopt our own version to create an advising program of excellence. The next opportunity for you to have input into that process is April 29. We will gather in the Teaching+Learning Center at 1:00 pm to discuss how we plan to move forward. During the last session, we asked that academic advising be defined and we have received a number of suggestions. As we pare the suggestions to one, it is important to receive input for each of you. That is one of the topics up for discussion at the session on the 29th. We will also discuss the creation of an academic advising handbook and how we can build a sustainable model that maximizes student success.

FREE RESOURCES ON FLIPPING THE CLASSROOM
Inside Higher Ed is today releasing a free compilation of articles and essays -- in print-on-demand format -- about the flipped classroom. The articles and essays reflect key discussions about pedagogy, technology and the role of faculty members. Download the booklet here. This booklet is part of a series of such compilations that Inside Higher Ed is publishing on a range of topics. On Thursday May 8, at 1 p.m. Inside Higher Ed editors Scott Jaschik and Doug Lederman will conduct a free webinar to talk about the issues raised in the booklet's articles. To register for the webinar, please click here.