From the Director:

By Dr. Stella Smith

Winter 2011
In this Issue....
From the Director D2L Transition A Teacher Speaks: Coaching Your Classroom: Five Principles for Student Motivation Looking Backward, Looking Forward Faculty Kudos

Stephen Brookfield has written a number of excellent books on teaching and learning, among them The Skillful Teacher and Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. I highly recommend both as well as his latest book, Teaching for Critical Thinking. As you begin to design courses for next semester, you might want to consider this list of times that Brookfield identifies as particularly important to critical thinking (defined as clarifying and checking assumptions by viewing material from different perspectives p. 79). When skills and knowledge have to be applied in the real world When independent judgment is needed When alternative interpretations and perspectives are possible When actions and decisions need to be informed When rapid judgments are called for When students are encouraged to see themselves as knowledge generators
Brookfield, S.D. Teaching for Critical Thinking. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

Contact Information Stella Smith, Director ssmith2@ggc.edu 678-407-5720 David Robinson, Learning Management Systems Administrator drobinso@ggc.edu 678-407-5111 Gautam Saha Instructional Designer gsaha@ggc.edu 678-407-5561 Stephanie Whittington Technical Trainer swhittin@ggc.edu 678-407-5560
How Can We (or You) Help Improve Teaching and Learning at GGC? We invite you to send us ideas for workshops or programs you might be interested in doing or having us organize. We are also willing to work with individual schools to help develop discipline-based programs. Contact Stella Smith to discuss any ideas (ssmith2@ggc. edu). Special Thanks: Dr. Jason Mosser, Editorial Support for the The Teachers Edge

By David Robinson

D2L Transition

News on GGC Transition to Desire2Learn

Between now and Summer 2012, GGC will be transitioning from Blackboard Vista (WebCT) to Desire2Learn (D2L) as our campus Learning Management System. We are excited that 150 faculty have asked to make the move early and begin teaching in D2L for Spring. D2L will bring us some clear advantages over BVb Vista, including a much easier Grade Book, a more flexible Calendar, and a more intuitive Content delivery approach. CTE will be offering both high-level overviews and tool-by-tool training throughout the Spring as we move toward the Summer switch-over to this new LMS. For more information on the transition to D2L, visit our LMS Transition web site.

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A Teacher Speaks: Coaching Your Classroom: Five Principles for Student Motivation
Professors may be baffled by the realization that not every student is excited about being in class. After all, when we were in college, we were prepared for class, attentive during lectures, and did more than what was required. In fact, we enjoyed college so much that we decided to stay here the rest of our lives, and make it a career! You have probably noticed that students like we were are in the minority. Motivating the majority of students to expend their best efforts, to learn for the sake of learning, and to be engaged in the classroom, remains a challenge. Malcolm Knowles (2010) studied the classroom factors that moved adults beyond memorizing facts and toward becoming self-motivated students. Knowles principles for the teachers of these students can be summarized by caring, building community, inspiring capability, connecting, and providing consequences, by what resembles coaching more than traditional teaching. By slightly adjusting your teaching paradigm, you can motivate all learners, even the ones who are the least like you were in school. Each of these qualities will be explained below, along with some practical ways of implementing them into the college classroom. Caring Good coaches know their players; they understand their strengths and needs, aspirations, and something about their lives outside the classroom. Students are more open to learning when they believe the professor knows them, and takes the role of a partner in working toward their short and long term goal. Some ways of developing this relationship are: Begin with an attitude of trust and understanding until proven wrong. Tell the students the first day of class that you will assume if they are absent or tardy that there was a good reason for it. If a student is frequently absent or tardy, ask what the reason is and what you can do to help, if anything. Be aware of student difficulties (money, child care, juggling work and school, etc.). Negotiate flexible due dates when the extra time to complete an assignment is truly needed. Community Building Motivating a class of students also involves its members getting to know one another and share leadership responsibilities. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow people are motivated by their needs. Directly after biological and safety needs, humans have the need for companionship and acceptance within a social group. Classrooms that rely heavily on competition and individual achievement sometime limit the Continued at the top.

opportunities for the rapport that builds connections between students, and limit the opportunities for leadership within groups. However, there are many ways a professor can encourage intra-class relationships are: Encourage group work and mix up the groups frequently. Work behind the scenes to create an especially encouraging group for shy or reluctant people, or to put people together in partners or a group who you think might enjoy getting to know each other. Offer choices of assignments, locales, and groupings to meet learning styles and preferences. Some students may need to get up and move around, some may prefer to work outside, and some may enjoy the quiet atmosphere of the library. Inspiring Capability Students often disengage because they feel discouraged and incapable of understanding the course material. Nontraditional students may especially struggle with what is known as self-efficacy, since they have not been in school in many years, and are often not as familiar with technology. Effective coaches dont begin a game by telling the players that theyll probably lose; they begin a game with high hopes, and monitor players to see who needs more, well, coaching. Professors can help every student feel capable by: Offer a variety of project possibilities, questions to choose from, and writing prompts. Clearly explaining all assignments. Grading as quickly as possible and giving specific feedback. Offering a test review using clickers, jeopardy, or just discussion, so the students will feel confident and prepared. Reteaching and retesting questions missed by over half the class. Connecting Adults are motivated to learn what is meaningful to them. Facts with no connection to real life may be memorized but never really learned. Real learning takes place when students apply it to real-life situations. Teaching the material for knowledge and comprehension isnt enough. Students need to be able to see why that information is personally useful. Psychologist Jean Piaget noted that people learn new information when they can find a link to something they already know. Professors can assist with this by creating metaphorical connections. For example, an accounting professor may use the metaphor of a checkbook to explain the concept of an income statement, and biologists may talk about a factory when explaining a cell. Ways of helping students to make connections include: Continued on the next page.

Page 3 Share anecdotes and insights, in and out of the classroom, to model the idea of connecting personal experiences to the classroom material. Find metaphors or connections from a common reference point, e.g. T.V. show, common experience, etc. To the extent possible, create authentic, real world projects and activities that relate to the classroom material.
An effective coach will use examples of past games to explain new plays. An effective teacher will seek for the connections that make students past experiences a springboard for the new. Providing Consequences Related to connections, students need to see the consequences of their actions. Frequent grading and reporting allows them to monitor their progress and set goals. It provides valuable information, so that they know if they have learned something, and can get help before its too late. We are motivated when consequences of our actions are clear, when justice is served by good grades following good work and poor grades following poor work. Dont make class too easy. Create a doable challenge, so that students feel a sense of accomplishment. Allow students to check on their own progress frequently by grading and posting assignment results within a week. If you are using an on-line system that allows it, create graphs of student progress as a whole, so that they can compare their progress to their peers. Have clear consequences for absences, tardiness, and late work. People who follow the rules dont appreciate receiving the same consequence as those who dont. Dont change your consequences throughout the course, and dont make exceptions unless there is a really valid reason beyond the students control. When a professor has the characteristics of being caring, building community, inspiring capability, connecting learning to the students experiences, and providing fair consequences, students are motivated and inspired to learn for the sake of learning and to put forth their best efforts in your classroom. Good luck, coach!
Knowles, M.S., Holton, E.F.,& Swanson, R.A. (2005). The adult learner: the definitive classic in adult education and human resource development (6th ed.). Maryland Heights, MO: Gulf Professional Publishing. Shannon Howrey is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education.

Looking Backward: The CTE began the Fall Semester with New Faculty Orientation for new full-time and part-time professors and the Fall Into Technology event highlighting the facultys use of technology. The Center launched two

Looking Forward:

new programs for faculty this semester. The Master Teacher Program for returning faculty and the Teaching and Learning Academy for New Faculty. The Master Teacher session topics included applying Flow Theory to Motivation, Learning Preference, and Teaching to All Types. The new teachers attended sessions on the typical GGC student, technology for mentors, student motivation, and classroom assessment techniques and rubrics. Research Mondays and Breakfast Bytes gave faculty the opportunity to further develop their research and web skills. The Research Mondays topics included an introduction to R, SPSS, and grant writing. Breakfast Bytes were held on dropbox, evernote, and browser add-ons. The video brown bag series covered topics such as classroom management, student incivility, creating a climate for learning, epublishing, and academic dishonesty. Dr. Tess Reid from the School of Education also led a series for Disabilities Awareness Month on teaching strategies for exceptional and struggling students, ensuring a quality higher education for all, and assistive technologies.

The Center for Teaching Excellence will continue the Master Teacher Program and the Teaching and Learning Academy for New Faculty in the spring semester. Desire2Learn training will continue with more preview and hands-on training sessions. The Center will offer faculty- led workshops covering topics related to non-traditional students and teaching portfolios. The video brown bag lunch series and Research Mondays series will continue next semester as well. You can find the CTE calendar of events at cte.ggc.edu. Select events and then upcoming events. We look forward to seeing you in the New Year!
The Teachers Edge encourages submissions on any aspect of college teaching and learning. The articles should not exceed two or three double-spaced pages, so as to conform to the intent of the newsletter: providing concise, thought-provoking topics that promote discussion among faculty and staff. Articles may be submitted by GGC faculty, staff, and even students so that all voices are represented for our readers. Our web site gives us rich opportunities for posting ancillary materials to accompany submissions. Submit manuscripts to Stella Smith, CTE Director.

Submission Guidelines

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Conference Presentations/Publications/Awards
Jill Jones Two Perspectives on Girls Education in the 1890s: Netta Syrett and M. Vivian Hughes South Central Modern Language Association, Hot Springs, AR, October, 2011 Shannon Howrey Connections and understandings: Exploring culture and implications for reading instruction with pre-service teachers. The Reading Professor, Summer-Fall 2011, 33, 23-29 Kristi Amatucci Teacher Undone, awarded the Illinois Qualitative Dissertation Award Julia Paredes, Sonal Dekhane, David Gabrell, Kathleen Moore, Julia Paredes, Richard Pennington, David Pursell, Gautam Saha, Joseph Sloop and Mai Yin Tsoi Organic iTouch Project awarded The 2011 Technology Association of Georgia Excalibur Award Yingliang Liu and Justin Jernigan Cultural adaptation of NNES college faculty: A crossdisciplinary study Presented at 25th Southeast TESOL Conference, Richmond, VA, October, 2011 Natasha Brewley Mathematics literacy for liberation, and liberation in mathematics literacy National Science Foundation/Benjamin Banneker Association Mini-Conference, Georgia State University, November, 2011 The choice is yours! The ultimate education is an alternative Annual Metro Atlanta Mocha Moms Educational Forum, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta Natasha Brewley, Jenn Wunder, Alison DCosta, Kathryn Gray-White, Julie Weisberg Learning to teach from us all: Researching the development of an interdisciplinary content methods course. The 36th Annual Meeting of the Georgia Educational Research Association, Savannah, Georgia Alvina Atkinson, Barry Biddlecomb, Natasha Brewley Designing developmental mathematics for student success The 36th Annual Meeting of the Georgia Educational Research Association, Savannah, Georgia. Jamie Caudill & Christine Reilly Increasing Reading Comprehension (and Motivation!) Through The Use Of Technology CRLA Conference - (College Reading and Learning Association) - November 2011, San Diego, CA Stephan Desrochers Effects of meditation and dispositional mindfulness acceptance on cognitive flexibility Southeastern Psychological Association, 2011, New Orleans, LA Robert Anservitz Read4Life! -- a social business solution to adult illiteracy in Georgia -- developed by five GGC business school students under the guidance of Dr. Anservitz. Awarded third place in this first USG social business and micro-economics competition. Gillian Rudd ACS Science Coach Award: to assist chemistry teacher, Ana Vasileva, from the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, throughout the school year Brian Rose In-Service Learning of Teachers of ELLs: An Ecological Perspective 36th Annual meeting of the Georgia Educational Research Association Linda Mancillas Awarded American Political Science Associations 2011 Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell Award for Exemplary Mentoring of Graduate Latino/a Students in Political Science Kelly McCaffrey Environment in the Composition Classroom: Assignments That Evoke Critical Thinking SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Language Association) Annual Convention Deborah Sauder, Julia Paredes, Richard Pennington, Joseph Sloop Building a chemistry program ab initio Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chemical Education Division, Richmond, VA, November 2011