TEACH Program : TEACH

From Product to Process

mmeixner — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:49:00 GMT

Once again, I’d like to refer you to the latest Teaching Professor Blog posting by Maryellen Weimer: A Shift in Emphasis: From Product to Process. Weimer shares part of an article by Huntly Collins a journalism professor at La Salle University. I think Professor Collins is extremely insightful as she discusses the importance of recognizing the process of learning rather than just the outcome. Take a look and let me know what you think…

Announcements--April 1, 2009

mmeixner — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:57:00 GMT

At the risk of repeating myself, I wanted to remind everyone of several big TEACH events that are coming up in the next few weeks. If you have any questions about your TEACH project, peer observations, or workshop hours, please let us know!

Micah

Workshop hours are due on Friday, April 17^th. If you have questions regarding your cumulative hours, please contact your consultant.
Peer group follow-up consultations should be completed by April 28^th. If you have any questions about the peer observations, let us know!
TEACH applications are now open online at www.tltc.ttu.edu/teach/apply. Please tell your friends about the program, former TEACH fellows are one of our best ways of recruiting and we really value your recommendations! You should be receiving some postcards through campus mail in the next few days that you can share with anyone you think would be interested.
Your TEACH project poster is due to Ching Lee on Monday, April 20^th and your TEACH project documentation is due to the TEACH staff on Wednesday, April 22^nd. Please let us know if you have any questions about your project!

Course Characteristics that are Most Important to Students

mmeixner — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:56:00 GMT

Here is another great blog posting from Maryellen Weimer from the Teaching Professor. In the posting, “Course Characteristics that are Most Important to Students,” Weimer references an article from Issues in Accounting Education regarding millennial student values and trends. The article talks a look at a list of factors students take into consideration as they decide what course to take. The findings are very interesting…take a look and let me know what you think! Are you surprised? What would you have thought were the most important?

Reminders--March 25, 2009

mmeixner — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:37:00 GMT

Hello! I hope that everyone had a fantastic spring break and is ready to finish out the semester! Can you believe we’re so close to the end? Time flies. We’ve been sending out emails, but I wanted to post some additional reminders to help keep everything on your radar. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Micah

Reminders:

Please be sure to check your workshop hours and let us know if there is something you attended that you didn’t receive credit for. Also be sure that you’re signed up for enough sessions to complete your 20 hour requirement.
If you haven’t scheduled your peer group observation follow-up session, please email me (micah.meixner@ttu.edu) so that we can get that taken care of. The follow-up consultations need to be completed by April 28^th. If you have any questions about the peer observations, let us know!
TEACH applications are now open online at www.tltc.ttu.edu/teach/apply. Please tell your friends about the program, former TEACH fellows are one of our best ways of recruiting and we really value your recommendations! You should be receiving some postcards through campus mail in the next few days that you can share with anyone you think would be interested.
Your TEACH project poster is due to Ching Lee on Monday, April 20^th and your TEACH project documentation is due to the TEACH staff on Wednesday, April 22^nd. Please let us know if you have any questions about your project!

Announcement 2-16-09

mmeixner — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:55:00 GMT

Here are a few things to keep in mind for the upcoming weeks:

Have you been meeting with your mentor? As you begin or continue to work on your project, be sure to keep your mentor ‘in the loop’ and informed of what is going on.
TEACH Project Progress Reports are due next Friday. If you have any questions consult the TEACH Wiki or get in touch with your consultant.
Be sure to go online and register for your spring workshop hours. If you are unable to attend a session you registered for, that is okay, just be sure to sign up for something else so that you are able to fulfill your 10 hours.

Problem-Based Learning

mmeixner — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:55:00 GMT

The TEACH Lunch Series this week features Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and will be facilitated by Dr. Donna Davis and Dr. Debbie Laverie from Marketing. Both of these distinguished faculty members continue to successfully implement PBL in their classrooms and on Friday they will share more about that experience. I hope that you will all be able to come and learn more about how and why you could use PBL in your classrooms. To help provide you with some background information on PBL, check out the following resources for a brief overview.Problem-Based Learning (Center for Instructional Development and Research—University of Washington): The CIDR at the University of Washington provides an outline of PBL including why you should use it, how it works, how to get started, and what kind of classes it can be used in.

Pedagogy Resources—Problem-Based Learning (Teaching & Learning Center—University of Nevada, Las Vegas): The TLC at UNLV provides a more in depth look at a variety of topics related to PBL such as assessment, developing a PBL problem, finding PBL problems, etc.

StrengthsQuest Month

mmeixner — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:50:00 GMT

I don’t know whether or not you have received the emails from Jay Killough regarding StrengthsQuest Month, but this month (February) is StrengthsQuest Month and the staff at Career Services have organized a series of events geared towards helping us each learn more about our strengths. Sessions will be held throughout the month in the SUB Playa Room from 3:00-4:00pm, check out the calendar for specific dates.

If you haven’t taken the StrengthsQuest, all TTU students can take it once for free, so I would encourage you to take it and stop by some of the sessions. You’ll learn a lot about yourself!

Career Services Homepage

StrengthsQuest Homepage

Active Learning at MIT

mmeixner — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:29:00 GMT

Here is a great article from the New York Times describing a major shift in teaching at MIT. Introductory physics classes at MIT have recently switched from a purely large lecture format to a smaller and more interactive format which emphasizes active and collaborative learning. After you read the article, be sure to take a look at the comments and see what others are saying…especially the MIT students. I’d love to hear what you think!

Announcements

mmeixner — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:53:00 GMT

Hello and welcome back! Here are a few things to keep in mind as you start planning your semester:

Have you scheduled your initial consultation with your new TEACH consultant? You should be hearing from your new consultant soon, if you haven’t heard something by the end of the week let us know!
In case you haven’t been online to schedule your spring workshops, we have implemented a new scheduler…everything should be running smoothly, but let us know if you have problems. You need to sign up for your spring workshop hours by Friday, January 30. To log in to classes, follow this link and sign in with your eRaider. There are some great sessions this spring!
Don’t forget to take the StrengthsQuest assessment and sign up for the session on January 21. It is going to be a fantastic session that you won’t want to miss…you might learn something about yourself! If you have questions, let Micah know.

101 Things You Can Do The First Three Weeks of Class

mmeixner — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:52:00 GMT

Following last week’s posting on things to do the first day of class, take a look at the following post from Tomorrow’s Professor: 101 Things You Can Do The First Three Weeks of Class. Joyce Povlacs Lunde offers some great ideas for helping students make transitions, directing students’ attention, challenging students, encouraging active learning, building community in the classroom, and more. Check it out and let me know what you think! Is there anything new you think would be worth trying?

First Day of Class

mmeixner — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:06:00 GMT

Happy New Year! I hope that you have all had a restful and fun break and are ready to get back into the swing of things.As you each prepare for your first day of the semester, I thought you might be interested in some strategies related to having a successful and productive first day of class. While there are innumerable resources on this subject, many seem to touch on the same ideas including things like:

1.    Be enthusiastic about the course and the subject you are teaching…remember that if you don’t want to be there, neither will they.
2.    Establish communication. Use ice-breakers or other activities to get the students talking to each other and to you. Set a precedent for what you expect throughout the semester.
3.    Tell the students about yourself and about the class. Be explicit so they know exactly what to expect.

For more ideas and for some great recommendations for ice-breakers check out The Most Important Day: Starting Well, The First Day of Class: Advice and Ideas, and the First Day of Class: List of Useful URL’s.

Another important thing we deal with as we get to know our new students is learning their names. If you have a difficult time learning names, don’t forget about the articles posted at the beginning of the fall semester: Learning Your Students’ Names and Not Quite 101 Ways to Learning Students' Names.

TEACH Reminders

mmeixner — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:56:00 GMT

Hello all! I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving Holiday. There are just a few more things left before the end of the semester, so I wanted to remind you about a few things we need to get wrapped up before you take off for the break:

Portfolios are due by 5:00pm on Friday, December 12th.

Portfolios must be signed and approved by your mentor--be sure to communicate with your mentor so you know how much time they need and when they'll be in town.

Please turn in your Activity Contract revisions to your consultant as soon as possible.
Send Allison your spring schedules (teaching and class) as soon as possible so that she can begin to work on the Peer Groups for next semester.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions! Good luck with finals, papers, etc. these next few weeks!

Looking ahead...preparing for next semester

mmeixner — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:11:00 GMT

You may hate me for this, but as the semester comes to a close it will soon be time to start thinking ahead and planning for next semester. If you don’t have time (or the mental strength) to think about this now, that’s okay! Either way, here are some helpful resources for preparing for a new semester.

Tomorrow’s Professor Msg #871: Designing Courses

This is a very thoughtful article from the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning. They offer great advice for learning-centered course design and provide an overview of the steps involved in a course design or re-design.

Preparing or Revising a Course

In Tools for Teaching, Barbara Gross Davis always provides great pedagogical advice that consistently proves to be effective and efficient. In this chapter, she identifies general strategies for preparing for a new semester and addresses 3 major points: “what to teach, how to teach it, and how to ensure that students are learning what is being taught.”

Making it to the end without going crazy...

mmeixner — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:05:00 GMT

As we near the end of the semester we are all frantically trying to wrap up the classes we are teaching as well as the classes we are taking without dropping the ball or going completely crazy. Irene S. Levine maintains a bimonthly Mind Matters Column for “Science Careers” from the journal Science that offers some helpful advice on issues faced by young scientists. Although her articles are specifically geared towards scientists, she provides advice with universal applications. For instance, take a look at her article from July 2008, Get Moving where she discusses the positive impacts of physical activity on stress and professional productivity. Another great article that applies to many of us is Too Perfect? which addresses the difficulties resultant from our perfectionism.

Another provocative and potentially helpful article is by Jane Stemwedel, Balance is a nice idea, but my reality is closer to juggling. This article is geared more towards women with families, but Stemwedel discusses many things that are applicable to us all. An associate professor at San Jose State University, she approaches this issue in a very conversational and personal nature.

Take a look and let me know what you think!

Student Behavior

mmeixner — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:24:00 GMT

What are your thoughts on this new/current generation of students? Have you noticed a change in the way they behave and interact with their friends, colleagues, and professors? What are your thoughts on how they behave in class? Have you had any problems or issues with your students’ behavior?

Take a look at Neil Williams article The Rules of Engagement: Socializing College Students for the New Century. What are your thoughts on how he deals with classroom civility? I’d love to hear what you think!