Gabe plays detective to solve the mystery of the missing father in this episode.
Rosalie “Hotsie” Totsie turns the tables on the boys and they deserved it because of the sexual innuendos they’ve playfully tossed around. We laugh at the jokes and see the justice of her pretense but do we stop to think about the behavior of our own students?
All Rosalie wanted was to be treated like a lady. She can’t help being attractive and its not her fault testosterone rages through the bodies of her male classmates. Is she so different from the women on our campuses?
Young men need positive role models to show them how to behave properly especially when it comes to the subject of the opposite gender. I don’t believe I’m saying this – I must have gotten really old all of a sudden but there it is. Young men need someone to talk with. Their fathers aren’t on campus so they naturally migrate to those faculty members they respect. Its up to us to mentor them. It may not be comfortable but we have to be honest about our own sexuality and the lessons we’ve learned.
Remember to treat the women on campus as ladies. Open a few doors. Rise when a lady enters the room. Its contagious.
A webinar is essentially a meeting broadcast over the Internet. They do vary a bit in nature with some being more interactive than others. Another variable is syncronicity with some offers asynchronous viewing. Asynchronous viewing is essentially the same thing as viewing a vodcast.
How do you know whether or not to participate in a webinar. Like all presentations the things to consider are the topic and the speaker(s). What is the credibility of the speaker? How interesting is the topic to you? My hot topics now are cloud computing and Python. If Google were offering a webinar in cloud computing I’d be interesting because the joint effort between Google and Apple constitutes the most powerful cloud avaliable. Likewise I’d be interested in an O’Reilly webinar on Python because they are a leading publisher and advocate of the programming language. I would not be interested in a webinar on a new version of Windows offered by Bill Gates because I’m a Mac guy but you many would be.
So does this technology promise any radical changes in education? I’ve seen it used in the area of computational biology but I wasn’t impressed. Coordination can be cumbersome because of the synchronous nature of the presentation. Large numbers of participants often make it difficult to participate. Questions are problematic when the webinar is finished and all the players have gone home. I think asynchronous modes of transmitting information are more promising.
Gabe faces pressure to pass an academically failing athlete in this episode of Welcome Back, Kotter. I have to admit I was once faced the same challenge. It was many years ago when I taught at a community college. A key baseball player flunked my class by means of total non-participation. He was under the misunderstanding that athletes didn’t have to work to pass or maybe someone forget to tell me. The coach remembered to fill me in after the fact.
Our baseball coach was very friendly as he stood in my office doorway. He talked about what a fine young man my failed student was and how important he was to the college baseball team. He almost had me for a moment because I’m a big Cubbies fan. Then it happened. He asked me to change the grade because the school’s destiny depended on my student’s performance on the pitcher’s mound. My response was furious as I verbally threw him out of my office with instructions to never return. I thought the matter closed but I was wrong.
A few days later I was asked to come to the Dean’s office. She sat me down and started a bit of comforting small talk which turned to the fine attributes of our star pitcher and his wonderful family. Then it happened. She repeatedly asked me to change the grade with increasing levels of intensity. I finally capitulated with some conditions of my own.
I agreed to change the grade of this student if she would put her request in writing and sign it. I added that I would also change the grades of every student who had ever failed the course so we wouldn’t risk accusations of favoritism. That’s the last I heard on the matter but I also had a terrible price to pay as the Dean’s wrath was an attack on my application for tenure the following year. I won that battle too and left the school immediately thereafter.
Was doing the right thing worth the price I had to pay? Yes. I can still walk the halls holding my head high. Sure its not the same school but my career has been a richer adventure because I didn’t stay.
The grumpy old vice principal becomes popular when he takes over Gabe’s history class for a day.
Today’s lesson is patience and I’m at the head of the line for instruction.
Its easy to criticize our counterparts on campus. The faculty too easily criticize the administration. The administrative staff envies the “free time” of the faculty. Its just too easy to find fault with others because our observational lenses are myopic. Before long we lose respect for others and they lose respect for us. This is no way to live.
We each have our roles to play in the educational enterprise. We each know our own jobs best. Faculty know how to teach. Administrators know how to do whatever it is they do. I’m faculty so I admit my ignorance of the work day of my Dean or the pressures he has to deal with. I need to trust that he will deal with it to the best of his ability and that should be good enough for me. We need a little more trust in each other.
Epstein’s dream of becoming a veterinarian are shattered by a left-brained guidance counselor.
We are the dream weavers. People come to us to build a better life. A few have a full blown dreams with every detail worked out while others have the seed of a dream and need help to create a plan to realize their potential. More come in search of a dream because of the dissatisfaction they feel in their lives. Our avocation is helping each and every one work toward their dream no matter where they are. Sometimes they fail. Sometimes the succeed. Sometimes the dreams change. But our job remains the same, we are the dream weavers.
It is wrong to ever discourage a student. We can point out the difficulties along the path of realization but we should never tell a student their dream is impossible because they just might prove us wrong.
I was once a kid without a dream. Then I met a Claude Beavers who had more faith in me than I did. All I wanted to do was go back to high school and get my diploma. Yes, I was a dropout. Claude challenged me to skip attending high school and enroll in college. I never found out what he was smoking but I got hooked when he made a bet with me. So I took it and enrolled at Lansing Community College knowing full well I couldn’t cut it. However, I would soon have some of Dr. Beavers’ hard earned money in my pocket. I lost the bet to my own amazement. College was fascinating. The professors were beyond interesting. I was inspired at had all A’s at the end of the first term.
Claude was the only person who believed in me and because of that I began an intellectual journey that would go far beyond a doctoral degree. I’ve been a professor, software engineer, engineering manager, and now I’m a professor again. The most important lesson I’ve learned in my life is the power of encouragement.
Claude Beavers was a dreamweaver and we ought to be too.
Vinnie gets some tutoring from a brainy girl and gets harassed by the sweathogs in this episode of Welcome Back, Kotter.
Sometimes learning involves growing pains. It can be scary changing your environment and the people you hang out with and old friends may not understand. This is a time when personal mistakes may be made.
Many of my students are first generation college students. Their families are supportive of their studies but don’t understand many of the things being taught. They often find it difficult to talk with the folks back home about their studies and new lives and this can be a demotivator. I bet you have some students like this too.
As like Lou Rawls says…
This is an opportunity for mentoring. We can help students understand their conflicted worlds are really one place. Show them the commonalities are greater than the differences. And most importantly show them someone understands and cares. After all, “We’re all in this together!” (Red Green).
“Adult learners have a variety of experiences of life which represent the richest resource for learning. These experiences however are imbued with bias and presupposition.”
Jimi Hendrix asks “Are you experienced?” and the answer is yes. We are all experienced. Everyone on campus has years of rich experiences but they aren’t the same from one individual to another. This is what makes us unique.
Our experiential diversity makes us valuable to society. We learn from each other through open discourse. Of course our experiences are shaded by learned bias and presupposition but the process of sharing with others allows us to peel away our biases like the skin of an onion. It works because we of our vast commonalities. George Carlin did a comedy skit about our common experiences.
We laugh at Carlin’s jokes because of they ring true. We’ll miss him even though his comedy could be a bit crude at times.
Experiences are powerful because they are anchored into our personality. We can remember better when we make connections between new information and past experience. This is called grounding. A wise instructor looks for ways to ground new information into the common experiences of mankind.
One way to help students ground new information is to explain how it applies to their aspirations. For instance, you might want to tell computer programming students that professionals work together to make their software products better by performing a structured walk-through before discussing the process itself. This way learners understand the significance of the new information in their desired profession.
Another technique is to use an analogy. You can describe the structured walk-through as a group of programming students helping each other by presenting their code to peers at dinner. We actually did this back in the old days at Lansing Community College. Students may more easily identify with the scenario because it connects with their experience. The skills and process are the same. Once they understand you can reveal the process as a professional practice rather than a study group activity.
Metaphors can also be powerful tools for grounding new information. I often talk about my stereo system and the nature of its components as a warm up to teaching the concept of modular programming and functional cohesion. We move through the metaphor as though we were having a personal conversation and naturally slide right into the new information to be learned. The students get it every time! When component stereo systems will be out of memory I’ll shift to the roles of baseball players. All it takes to use a metaphor is a little imagination and an understanding of the nature of material presented.
The trick of helping students ground is to have an understanding of their world. This takes work but it can be a lot of fun. Hang out with your students. Listen to their music. Learn about their concerns. Listen to them and observe their behavior. Get to know them as a group. Show you are concerned for them and never be judgemental.
A brave few will soon be facing their first day of teaching. Its an exciting and terrifying time. The excitement comes from feeling like you are about to do something that matters. The terror comes from the fear of failure. So we listen to the voices of the past. Hopefully they’re saying “just be yourself.”
I remember my first college teaching job as if it were yesterday. My mentor kept telling me to make an example of a student as early in the semester as possible to set the tone of the class and I admit trying it a few times. It worked with the tougher sections who needed discipline but there is one thing every section needs more than a disciplinarian and that is someone who cares. If students believe you really care for them they will worked harder in your class.
So relax rookie. Just be yourself and get on with teaching. You know your stuff. Now go in there and show it to the students.
Today was the annual kick-off meeting on my campus. We began with a plea to touch our students hearts with the pain of the world. Our speaker proposed pain as the essential ingredient necessary in producing caring adults ready to meet earth’s challenges. He challenged us all to honor our Catholic heritage by teaching our students to care for the lives of others. This lead to a lively discussion of how we might be able to reach this new generation of college students. I sat back and wondered, “why not use podcasts?” I waited for just one of my colleagues to mention it but no one did. I obviously have more work to do.
This podcast uses the song We Are The World and still photographs to call attention to the genicide happening today in Darfur. You see a child dying of starvation, refugees in camp, the wounded and murdered, and the desperation of mothers with no where to turn for help and justice. This podcast will touch many hearts yet it falls far short of showing the true horror and pain of Darfur.
This sample shows us stark contrast between the life of a typical American student and the youth of Darfur. There are action video clips and a hip hop theme song. It shows the same sort of stills of victims. It calls for specific action. Personally I think it is more compelling than the previous podcast.
This final video is a lengthy (0:45:50) documentary on the crisis in Darfur. It tells the stories of the people. You can see them and hear them. You sense the humanity of the victims. They become more real to us than a still photograph. Its hard to ignore their pain. Most importantly it offers hope for the future as well as a call to action.
Yes, I believe podcasts can bring the world into your students’ lives. It can put them in touch with the pain of others and light the lamp of understanding.
There is no shortage of human issues and tragedies to bring to the awareness of our students. Pick any one and then search for podcasts about it. I found all three of these on youtube.com by searching on Darfur. There are many more.
“Adults need to be responsible for their own decisions and to be treated as capable of self-direction.”
Legendary drummer Dom Famularo talks about winning and self-empowerment in this video clip. Listen to the passion he has about his teaching and his art. It’s contagious!
Dom is passionate about his work because he is following his own path. He loves what he is doing and he’s a mater but he was once a neophyte learning his art. At some point he decided this was his path. His parents didn’t choose for him. His teachers didn’t either. Who would advise a young person to pursue a career in rock’n'roll drumming? It was his decision. And because it was his decision is acted on it with a passion that brought him success against great odds. Wouldn’t you enjoy teaching students who were passionate about your subject?
First students must be empowered to make their own decisions. This means allowing them to fly and to fall. “Why do we fall? To learn to pick ourselves up.” I think we need to give undergraduates more flexibility in designing their curriculum. I’m not talking about just picking out electives but designing custom majors and majors by remixing courses to foster individual passions. This is empowerment.
Undergraduates are learning to be adults. They are on their own for the first times in their lives. They are going to make mistakes. We can’t prevent it and we shouldn’t try. What we should do is mentor our students when they goof up. We should help them see the mistake as just that, a mistake. We should show them that they are valued but the mistake is not. It is critical we hold them responsible for correcting their mistakes and tell them what our future expectations are. I suggest reading Ken Blanchard’s One Minute Manager and focusing on the methodology of the one minute reprimand. I like this technique because it builds self-respect rather than tearing it down.
I think we demonstrate a deep respect for our students when we allow them to follow their passions and hold them accountable for their mistakes. In this way we accept them as peers in the learning process and adult life.
