May 07 2012
Interesting Will MA. follow in CT.’s footsteps? What does this mean for the future of developmental education? Read on.
Connecticut Legislature Passes Remedial Education Overhaul | Inside Higher Ed.
Interesting Will MA. follow in CT.’s footsteps? What does this mean for the future of developmental education? Read on.
Connecticut Legislature Passes Remedial Education Overhaul | Inside Higher Ed.
May 01 2012
Last week I interviewed students in one of our developmental English classes. I asked them about their experiences, thus far, at BCC as well as their goals and dreams for the future. I want to thank the students for their willingness to be interviewed. Attached is a short film of the interview. Inspiring. Thanks, also, to Joan Timberlake, the instructor of the course, for inviting me in to talk with her students.
Click on the links below to hear the interview. It’s in two parts in order to allow for upload.
Enjoy
Interview with Berkshire Community College English Class Spring 2012 ( part 1)
Interview with Berkshire Community College English Class Spring 2012 ( part 2)
Apr 25 2012
This post is from one of our GetREAL advisors, Mark Clatterbaugh. It highlights one of our GetREAL students and shows that we need not look further than our own backyard to find gems. Thanks, Mark
The BCC Diamond Mine
Russell Conwell, the first President of my Alma Mater, Temple University, gave a lecture called “Acres of Diamonds” over 6,000 times around the world and it later became widely published due to its popularity.
The gist of the original lecture centers on the legend of a Persian farmer who sells his farm and travels the world hoping to find a diamond mine and his fortune. To make a long story short, after years of searching and much despair and futility the farmer in some versions of the lecture casts himself into the sea. Meanwhile a priest, the farmer encountered during his long journey returns to the farmer’s original home and the new owner has a shiny gem sitting on the mantle. The two go into the yard and explore in a small stream and discover many of the shiny rocks. The site becomes one of the largest diamond mines in the world.
I had heard snip-its’ of this story throughout my college days and upon retiring to the Berkshires, I spent some time taking in the full story. It has been for me an inspiration.
And, so, at BCC, I find myself mining diamonds in the GetREAL program. This program is designed to help get students off to a good start during their first year here. So imagine our delight when several of the faculty mentors stumbled upon a real diamond, when we were asked to help look over an English assignment for Samantha Lincoln. Samantha’s short essay about her grandmother entitled “Wait Until You Get a Load of This” bowled us over. Our first reaction was to submit this to NPR and have them read it on Selected Shorts but that seemed a bit ambitious, so we forwarded the story to the Zine publication team.
Well Sam’s story was accepted and won the inaugural “Dr. Andrew Howitt Award For Best Humor”. We continue to encourage Sam with her writing. We actually have found several other pieces that we think are of similar caliber. It is nice to see our mine producing gems.
Apr 24 2012
Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Sara Cain, a young woman who came to BCC last fall through Project Link, a transitions program for students some of whom, like Sara, have earned a GED.
The transition into BCC wasn’t easy for Sara. There was a point where she almost left. Thankfully, she turned things around and has worked hard to stay on track towards her goals. Good luck, Sara. I’m cheering you on!
Apr 04 2012
College success courses continue to fight the legitimacy battle despite their proven track record of helping students stay in college and graduate.
The arguments against success courses have remained the same over the last decade: they’re too expensive, they take away from other courses that students need to take in their program, students should come to college already knowing these skills.
If we are really interested in helping students persist and graduate, we need to look at what helps them and admit that success courses do this. It’s time to stop putting these courses on trial. They’ve already proven their worth.
Student success courses catch on, slowly, at community colleges | Inside Higher Ed.
Apr 03 2012
The push to reduce the time students spend in developmental courses is overdue. Read the attached link for more details.
Doing Developmental Education Differently | Scaling Innovation.
Mar 23 2012
Community Colleges need to continue their focus on liberal arts.
Mar 09 2012
When it comes to motivation, not all praise is the same.
It makes sense to me that if I want to spark motivation in my students, giving them feedback, as long as it’s positive, will help them feel motivated. After all, praise is praise right? Maybe not. Yesterday I listened to an excellent eSeminar, “The Science of Motivating Students for Success,” Christine Harrington, author of Student Success in College: Doing What Works!, To access the seminar go to:
http://community.cengage.com/Site/devstudies/m/mediagallery/1704.aspx?channel=Eloqua&elq_mid=2996&elq_cid=
One of the points she made related to the nature of praise and how different kinds of praise inspire more motivation than others. For example, telling a student “You did a great job on this. You’re clearly very bright.” vs. “You did a great job on this. You clearly worked hard.” Results in differing levels of motivation for these students to persist, succeed, etc.
Why might this be so? The answer lies in the interplay between how a person explains his success and the type of feedback we give him. Telling a student that she must be really smart gives her the message that the reason she did well was because of something internal to her but also something that is pretty fixed. Intelligence or ability is usually seen as unchangeable. If, on the other hand, telling same student that she worked really hard gives her message that it’s still something internal, but it isn’t fixed. If she keeps putting effort in, she will do well. Effort is changeable. We can always choose to try harder. Continue Reading »
Feb 24 2012
The Unprepared Nation Infographic #collegereadiness #highered #edu11.
Graphics tell the story better than words.
Feb 21 2012
It never ceases to amaze me that colleges, especially community colleges, are so resistant to acknowledge that student success courses do work
Student success courses catch on, slowly, at community colleges | Inside Higher Ed.
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