Community College Relationships......

When you first look at the title of this blog, you might think it will be based on the faculty/support staff relationship a community college has with its staff. That would be half true, it will touch upon that direct topic, but I wanted to cover a number of things in this week's blog.

Kathy Zabel took the baton this week and did another outstanding job. She found a great article about the personal relationship of teachers and students. She posed the question, "what type of relationship should a teacher/student have?" Okay, it wasn't word for word, but KZ asked whether students and teachers should have a friend-friend relationship within the classroom. my opinion on this matter was an overwhelmingly, NO! I can't say there was an majority answer on either side. My personal thought is higher learning needs designated roles. Teachers need to know that their relationship with a student is a direct reflection on the outcome of the student. If a student and instructor maintain their designated roles, the contingency of the of the student's classroom experience is more likely to be positive.

Here is one for the rest of the cohort. Pat addressed the discussion board and asked an ethical or role question of why students no longer engage in a social setting after a long academia endeavor. Now, there is talk about a social gathering among the cohort after the GMIT series is completed in a couple of weeks. Based on this set of scenarios, is a cohort member going to invite Pat? If so, is he going to accept? I found this topic fascinating and the timing impeccable. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

I have a suggestion to Pat for the next series of GMIT classes and I have to credit it to KZ. When the next cohort members reach the 650/660 classes, each student should come up with their own objectives for their seminar leadership week. I think that might be the most difficult part of the week's assignments. It's just a suggestion and I think it would be a nice touch after our final project from last term.

The great thing KZ does for the rest of the cohort is she sets a standard of measurement, I mean besides the class rubric assigned this term.

Learning Objectives:
Compare traditional education and adult education in the area of relationships between students and instructors.
Discuss how community college instructors constrained by accreditation practices can effectively distribute power to their learners.
Share your biggest annoyance, fear, or guilt as you establish teacher-student relationships and what your advance plan is to address it.
Discuss the electronic relationship between teachers and learners.
Explore instructional technology resources at cognitivedesignsolutions.com.
Discuss how the teacher-learner relationship can influence student success and retention.

After reviewing KZ's objectives, I would have to say she did an outstanding job. In fact, Pat might want to make the article she chose as a scholarly reference a must read in the next cohort.
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Enquiring Minds Want to Know!!

Community College prospectives are always a hot button at SCC. It was good to see the cohort members on their best behavior regarding their comments on the college. I don't suppose it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact it is now July and we have not seen a letter regarding our 2007-08 employment and salary increase. I know it's a formality, but it has to be somewhat discouraging the letter haven't shown up.

Jessie LaCross and Al Allen did a great job this week. In fact, the three seminar leaders this week are the most active in the discussion boards. I was pleased to see Jessie was one of the leaders this week because she is commenting on this topic as an adjunct faculty. She is the only member in the cohort that a full-time benefits employee of the college. That does not mean she is less involved on the topics at hand, but she always does not have to go through the motions of LRP's, performance reviews, and staff meetings. In essence, she has the best of both worlds: she's gets to teach and do it without cutting through the red tape.

Al and Jessie gave us another great week of personal experience and theory based questions in the discussion boards. It's a funny thing, the three of us that have not taught at the college in any capacity has decreased by 66%. Al has become an adjunct instructor and I have started to drink the teaching kool-aid as well. **(Did you know kool-aid was invented in Nebraska?)

After I read the Johnson CC assessment article, I forwarded it to our Vice President of Academic Instruction for a couple of reasons. JCC is reasonably close and considered a competitor and I wanted to see what his response was in regards to what we are doing for assessment. I will have to wait for another week to get his response because he is on vacation.

I would not consider myself an expert on assessment, but this past few weeks has really made me curious as to what SCC is doing in this area. I have to remember to be to inquisitive on this topic, I wouldn't want him to think I am questioning his job. Before I know it, my letter will never show up. What's the saying in that old annoying commercial, "Enquiring minds want to know!"

Happy 4th of July Everyone!!!