And So It Goes

I am bringing back the blog.

I am still as passionate about higher education as ever, and in a few short weeks I will be starting work on a Doctorate of Education in Higher Education at the University of Denver. As such, I plan to revamp the blog over the coming semester to focus on my studies and experiences in the Colorado higher education system. This is an exciting time in my life, and I can’t wait to start this new chapter.

I have been in love with Pandora internet radio for quite some time now. If you are a music lover and are not yet on Pandora, you are seriously missing out. I love Pandora’s ability to let you create a station for any mood and customize your stations to your exact tastes. Obviously you can create stations for specific genres, but you can even challenge it further. Do you want an entire station of Muppet songs? Would you like to while away the hours relaxing to soothing sounds of nothing but bagpipes? Or how about a channel solely for songs in Spanish? It’s all possible with Pandora.

When I am working on a station, I feel like a sculptor chiseling away the pieces (in this case, unwanted songs) until I am left with a beautiful work of art. And just like a great work of art, if I don’t like where it is going, I can scrap it and start over. Also, with the help of my new Android phone and AUX plugin in my car, I can rock out to Pandora anywhere. Even as I write this, I am perfecting my brand new oldies station. If you would like to check out my Pandora stations and have a listen for yourself, click here.

This blog isn’t updated with as much frequency as my Twitter page, so if you want to keep up with me, click here to follow me on Twitter.

I recently finished reading Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do. In this book, Bain explores what differentiates a truly good teacher that engages students and facilitates learning from one that is simply going through the motions.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because Bain hit on points that align with my current teaching philosophy while providing ideas that I could implement in my own courses to strengthen the learning experience. The common thread connecting all of the book’s suggestions is that teachers should respect their students, create an environment in which students feel empowered to take control of their own educations, and give them opportunities to engage in critical thinking by grappling with real-world issues relating to the subject matter. This book is a must-read for any current or aspiring educators.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from this book:

“The best teaching occurred when people came into their classes filled with intentions to stimulate their students’ interests, to communicate clearly and effectively, to help everybody understand, to provoke responses, to foster deep thinking, to engage, and to entertain multiple perspectives.”

“I cannot stress enough the simple yet powerful notion that the key to understanding the best teaching can be found not in particular practices or rules, but in the attitudes of the teachers, in their faith in their students’ abilities to achieve in their willingness to take their students seriously and let them assume control of their own education, and in their commitment to let all policies and practices flow from central learning objectives and from a mutual respect and agreement between students and teachers.”

“The best teachers ask themselves what they hope students can do intellectually, physically or emotionally by the end of the course and why these abilities are important.”

And, my personal favorite:

“The moments of this class must belong to the student, not the students, but to the very undivided student. You don’t teach a class. You teach a student.”

I recently wrote out my teaching philosophy for a job application, and I found it to be an enlightening exercise. I realized that while I constantly put this philosophy into practice, I have never actually tried to articulate it in writing before. Though I probably could have gone on for twenty more pages about the things that feel make me an effective teacher, I think the following reflects the core values of my teaching philosophy:

Strong communication skills are essential to success in life. As a communication instructor I strive to help my students build their communication skills by employing two important concepts: purpose and respect. First, I believe that teaching should be purposeful. Teaching involves more than simply reciting textbook information to the students. Every lesson is designed to achieve a specific purpose and build a specific skill. I believe in using class time to cultivate understanding of the material and show the students how to apply that knowledge to their coursework. Also, for every chapter, assignment, lesson or activity, I discuss with my students how the knowledge and experience they are gaining will be useful to them beyond the classroom. Furthermore, I believe that learning can be both purposeful and fun. When students are enjoying the lesson, they will not only remember it better, but they will also be more engaged in the learning experience.

The second tenet of my teaching philosophy is respect. A classroom is not a homogenous group of people. Each student has a distinct personality and learning style, and should be treated with respect to that uniqueness. I take the time to learn who each student is as an individual so that I can make the course material relevant to everyone in the class. I encourage openness and mutual respect so that students feel comfortable expressing ideas and opinions. It is equally important that students learn about each other as individuals. Public speaking usually causes students a great deal of anxiety, so cultivating an environment where students regularly interact with each other makes them feel more comfortable when giving speeches. Finally, I take the time to sincerely listen to my students because their feedback helps me improve upon my own teaching. Every semester I find that even though I am the one teaching my students, there is always something new I learn from them.

Since I posted not long ago about my dislike of glaring grammar errors, and since I am a huge fan of Failbook, I feel compelled to share the following fail:

see more Failbook

I am pleased to announce that my cousin, John Rector, has brought great honor to the Rector name by publishing his first novel, The Cold Kiss. I just finished reading the book, and I have to say that it is a great read for anyone who likes crime thrillers.

Generally, I am not a fan of fiction because I find most new books to be boring and predictable. I generally read nonfiction because real life to me is far more entertaining than fantasy. A few notable exceptions for me would be the Harry Potter series and classics such as Brave New World. Naturally, however, I had to give this book a try and I was glad I did.

A quick read of the synopsis on the inside cover tells you that the novel focuses on Nate and Sara, two lovers on the run from their problems. They encounter a mysterious stranger who offers to pay them for a ride to Omaha. Caught in a blizzard, the characters are forced to stay the night in a motel in the middle of nowhere. Nate and Sara’s problems worsen when they find their passenger dead in the backseat with a large sum of money on him and they are trapped at the motel with no hopes of escape until the roads clear. From there, things basically descend into chaos as the characters fight to hide their secret from the other hotel occupants.

One thing I liked about this book is the writing style. It is written in first person from Nate’s point of view and the writing is natural and accessible. As I was reading, I felt transported and could easily imagine the characters and the setting. The dialogue is straightforward so you don’t have to hack through a jumble of words to try to figure out what the characters are trying to say. The plot is nice too because it moves along very quickly. I often find myself bored with books that are overly verbose and descriptive because it slows down the momentum of the story (Mary Higgins Clark, for example, has a tendency to overly describe what her characters are wearing, how they styled their hair and makeup and what they ordered for dinner). In The Cold Kiss on the other hand, things for Nate and Sara rapidly snowball into calamity, which leaves the reader desperately wanting to know how on earth they will possibly get themselves out of this terrible situation. It is definitely a book that is difficult to put down, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good crime novel.

When people think of community colleges, chances are a lot of stereotypes spring to mind. Community college has the reputation of being a place for people who can’t hack it at a four year university, people who just want vocational degrees, people who are unmotivated and aren’t going to amount to anything. If you have these perceptions, then I highly recommend you read this article about the Top 7 Community College Myths.

I have taught communication courses both at a major university and at a community college and these preconceived notions that people have about community colleges are gross misconceptions. At Pikes Peak Community College where I currently work, I have had the pleasure of teaching some of the brightest, most creative, hardest working and most motivated individuals I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Here are some of my favorite things I have noticed about my own students:

1) They have big dreams. Community college is not the place where unmotivated people go for an easy degree. I have students who want to be nurses, doctors, engineers, accountants, teachers, psychologists, lawyers, business managers, politicians, and architects just to name a few. Based on the caliber of work they have put out, I firmly believe they will be successful in achieving these ambitions and becoming successful in their careers.

2) They have a desire to learn. Attending college isn’t something you just happen into. It is a conscious decision that is not entered into lightly. These students are in school because they have ambitions and goals to achieve.  Many plan on continuing their education by pursuing bachelors and graduate level degrees. Most of them don’t complain about the class or coursework because they genuinely want to be there. I have found most of my students to be exceptionally hardworking and eager to learn. They don’t just show up and passively attend class. They participate in discussions and classroom activities and ask thought-provoking questions. Often I find that the teacher has become the student, because I learn as much from them as they do from me.

3) They are diverse. I know this is a rather general statement, but this is the best way I can describe it. In one class the age range might be anywhere from 16 to 65. My students are diverse in race, gender, religion, political ideals, sexual orientation, upbringing, education level, work experience, relationship status, family makeup, etc. The list goes on. If everyone at a college was the same, certainly my job would be easier, but it would not be nearly as fun and interesting. I love the challenge of figuring out the unique culture of each class and how to best relate to everyone. The more diverse the group, the more difficult this can be, but it also makes the whole experience far more exciting. At PPCC I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the most interesting people I have ever met in my entire life. Their stories entertain and inspire me. No two classes are ever the same. Even teaching the same lesson to three different classes yields three completely different experiences.

4) They are creative. As a speech teacher, one thing that can get annoying for me is when students pick generic, run-of-the-mill speech topics. In my past teaching experience, every semester in every class there would be at least one speech about why you should wear your seat belt, why you should wear sunscreen, and why you should donate blood. These generic topics would generally bore me to tears. At PPCC though, this has not been an issue. Instead I have been treated to topics such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the predictions of Nostradamus, the history of hula dancing and why the zombie apocalypse is a genuine possibility. These creative, outside-the-box speeches are vastly more interesting than generic ones and I rarely hear the same topic twice. Also, class time tends to yield more creative responses to questions. For example, this was an in-class exchange a week ago:

Me: What is one type of nonverbal feedback you might get from your audience?

Student: Rotten tomatoes.

5) They are highly intelligent and successful. The only students who fail my classes are the ones that stop showing up or don’t do the work. The rest tend to put out high quality work and get excellent grades. This is not because I am an easy grader either. On the contrary, I hold my PPCC students to the same standards I did at Auburn because they deserve the same caliber of education and should be properly prepared for a four year college should they decide to transfer. The quality of work I have seen over the past several semesters has been amazing. The misconception about community college students that bothers me the most is that they are somehow less intelligent than students at large universities. This is a horrible stereotype that I hope people will one day see past. My students are anything but stupid. In fact, there are many I would call downright brilliant. Like I said before, the ones who don’t succeed in my classes fail because they don’t do the work, not because they aren’t smart enough.

Now don’t get me wrong, not every student I encounter is as wonderful as the ones I describe above. However, in my experience, the awesome ones far outweigh the not-so-awesome ones. I find it personally offensive when people make judgmental blanket statements about my students. Anyone who has any of these stereotyped preconceptions about community colleges should sign up and take a course at one. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at all of the amazing individuals you will meet.

A recent article in USA Today discusses a study about the use of social media among community college students. The study suggests that online social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter can help students become more engaged in their schooling. Many community college students already use these sites for personal socialization, so they may have untapped potential for reaching out to these students for academic purposes. As a community college instructor, I am constantly looking for new ways to engage students in learning, so I have been thinking about ways that I might use these tools in my own courses.

There are some definite advantages and disadvantages to using social media to reach students. On the pro side, these are media that most students are familiar with and may be better able to navigate than school sites such as Blackboard or Desire2Learn. In addition, these are sites that students with smart phones can easily access when they are away from their computers.  It also gives students a forum to connect with each other as well as the instructor. In my communication courses it is important to my students’ success that they interact with each other. Social media could help them establish relationships both in and outside the classroom.

On the con side, there are some obvious disadvantages to using social media to connect with students. First, not all students are tech savvy and might not be comfortable or familiar with sites like Twitter and Facebook. Also, because most people use these sites for casual social relationships, it might be difficult to establish a clear boundary between professional and personal relationships. Many students would probably not want their personal Facebook pages visible to their instructors, instructors would have to create a professional account separate from their personal accounts. Also, both students and instructors would have to remember to check these accounts every day to keep up-to-date.

Though I have not yet tried using Facebook or Twitter in my own classes, I am absolutely considering them for future semesters. Communication is fundamental to everything we do in life, and we should always explore new options for engaging with others. This is especially important in academia where effective communication among students and teachers is key to students success.

If there are any instructors out there who have tried using Facebook or Twitter to connect with students, I would be interested to hear how you are using it and how successful it has been.