PAYING ATTENTION TO THE INTROVERTS IN YOUR CLASS

Nicki Monahan, Faculty Facilitator in the Staff and Organizational Development Department at George Brown College, Toronto, Canada, has written an interesting article about introverts in the classroom. She writes, “Who are they and how do we ensure they thrive in active learning classrooms? If you have ever come to the midterm point of the semester and graded a stellar paper of a student whose name you don’t recognize and who has never raised her hand in class, you may have just identified an introvert in your classroom. In many learning situations, introverts may need to stretch beyond their comfort zones, and they should be encouraged to do so, as should extroverts. Our goal is not to turn introverts into extroverts, or vice-versa, but to maximize learning for all students and to help them develop the skills often identified by potential employers — teamwork, problem solving, and interpersonal communication. When designing learning activities for your classroom, consider the key elements of balance and choice in order to create a comfortable learning environment which also encourages all students to stretch and take risks.” Read more…

FACULTY LEARNING COMMUNITY DECONSTRUCTS ASSESSMENT

The Common Reader Faculty Learning Community recently completed a learning experience about the type of assessment we use to determine if our students are learning. The discussion centered on performance-based versus learning-based approaches. Traditionalists who use performance-based methods tend to base their evaluation and assessment on their student’s ability to comply with the dictates of the course. The requirements may very well be tied to learning considerations but those are often forgotten as the requirements and worry about covering the material begin to take over. Learning-centered approaches tend to emphasize assessment and evaluative tools that focus on helping students understand their progress in learning and help us evaluate our teaching. It assumes that learning is a developmental process that entails helping students to undergo intellectual and personal changes as they develop new understandings and reasoning abilities. Grading is more about communicating with our students rather than a way to rank them. This exercise in critical self-reflection proved to be beneficial to the FLC members but it does not need to be limited to group situations. You can study and reflect on your approaches to determine if you are using the right assessment tools to determine your effectiveness as a teacher. Contact the Teaching+Learning Center if you would like some resources to help you with this self-evaluation.

GETTING YOU READY FOR THE SEMESTER'S END

The Blackboard Series continues with an upcoming professional development session that could help you be more efficient when completing the end-of-semester tasks we are required to handle. Susan Nealy and Lenora White will deliver an interactive workshop on how to use the Blackboard Gradebook feature to help you with end-of-semester reporting responsibilities on Tuesday, November 5. Upon completion of this session, you will be able to: enter all grades into Blackboard including the manual entry of a final grade; organize grades separate from attendance (if taken in Blackboard); “drop" grades while still maintaining the grade in Blackboard (based on faculty syllabus); download the Gradebook into an Excel spreadsheet for submission to your Academic Division. This workshop is part of the Teaching+Learning Center's ongoing faculty professional development programming. The session from 3:00-4:00 PM is for beginner users of Blackboard while the 4:00-5:00 PM session is better suited for advanced users. Registration is now open.