Lincoln Excellence Returns

A while back I posed the question “What is Lincoln Excellence?” and encouraged you, dear readers, to chime in by taking a survey that asked “How do you practice excellence in your classroom? Give an example of a practice or teaching technique that you feel promotes excellence in teaching and learning.”  I promised to share the answers, so here I go:

Seven people answered the question and there were a few common themes:

•  Emphasize problem solving and teach students how to think, not what to think
•  Combine some lecture or theory with group work that allows student to solve problems and discuss issues in groups
• Know the students and respect their opinions – teach students how to respect each other’s opinions
• Draw on same reading material and sources that are used at other reputable universities.
• Focus on learning and application rather than route memorization
• Push students to develop and grow by continually questioning everything
• Begin on time, use lessons plans to follow a well-developed syllabus, return assignments promptly 

According to the above list, we are absolutely amazing! I would send my child to a school that advertised the above as their goals for teaching and learning.

In the above list, there is one point that jumps out at me the most: Focus on learning and application rather than route memorization. This intrigues me, not only because I think it is extremely important – and probably the underlying reason why I use a lot of problem solving and discussion in all my classes, but because I think it is the most difficult to do well. It is so easy to ask students to memorize facts and then quiz them on those facts. It is much more difficult to come up with good assignments that includes the memorization, but then goes a step further and helps students find meaning in the memorized facts through real world application that helps them expand their learning and hopefully encourages them to become life-long learners. I would love to hear if anybody out there has figured out how to do this well! 

What is your greatest challenge in achieving teaching and learning excellence?

If you intended to reply to the survey three weeks ago, but let it slip too far down into the abyss of your inbox or to-do list, here is another opportunity: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PJRY9HW

If you prefer to share directly in this blog, please go ahead and add your thoughts on Lincoln Excellence below.

Lessons Learned in the Classroom

 I can never resist articles that promise a finite number of answers: the three most important qualities of a good teacher, the five new technology tools everyone needs to know, the seven characteristics of a good manager, that sort of thing.  So when I saw Dr. Paula Cohen’s article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the 10 lessons she’s learned from her teaching career, I had to check it out. 

Cohen’s 10 lessons, learned over three decades of teaching English at Drexel University, were these:

1. Don't take things personally.
2. Be accountable to your students.
3. Make students accountable for their performance.
4. Simplify.
5. Don't rush—i.e., slow down.
6. Listen.
7. Use. (I was relieved to see that this didn’t refer to illegal substances but rather to using everything said or done in the classroom as part of the teaching process).
8. Connect learning to life.
9. Make form follow function. (Don’t adopt a new tool until you weigh both what will be gained and what will be lost.)
10. Trust your voice and amplify it. (Admit, for instance, when you don’t know something and then model “how not to know.”)

Her exploration of each of these 10 lessons is thought-provoking, and for me it raised the question of what else I would add. One “lesson” that came to mind was “Appreciate the joy.”  When I’m in the classroom, I’m doing something I love, and I think it’s important to my students and to myself that I remember to be grateful for that, even when faced with stacks of homework awaiting my attention or hours of meetings awaiting my presence.   

What would you add?  What lessons have you learned from your classroom during your teaching career?  Can we make it a baker’s dozen? Or two?

Our Mission to Teach

by Linda Stine

This has been a particularly difficult week.  The week’s writing assignment in my online class, I discovered, had not been explained well enough, as evidenced by the essays students were submitting that didn’t address the assignment (at least the assignment as I had it in my mind), so I was spending a lot of extra time  posting explanations and feeling guilty for making my hard-working students essentially do double work.

Non-teaching duties kept piling up as well, with meetings to attend and reports coming due and all of the administrative details that nibble away at every spare minute.  I was immediately interested, therefore, when I happened upon an article on teaching* that started out, “Have you ever become so frustrated with students and overwhelmed by your workload that you start questioning what you are doing?” 

“I sure have,” I muttered, as I read further.

The authors, Candice Dowd Barnes, Ed.D. and Patricia Kohler-Evans, Ed.D, remind us that we need to “remember and affirm our purpose, acknowledge the contributions we make in students' lives and professional pursuits, and respect the call or passion that brought each of us to the teaching profession.”  Two of the most important of these contributions, they suggest, are helping students to think deeply and helping them to build relationships. 

How can we, they ask us to consider, bring about those occasions of cognitive dissonance that force students to question their previous ideas and ways of thinking so that they can enrich, deepen or change them?  How can we, additionally, build the kinds of relationships with students that set a model for them later in life as they build personal and professional relationships with others?

I would love to hear how you have answered any of those questions for yourself.  Why do you teach?  What kind of activities have you created that help students think more deeply and critically about the subject you’re teaching?  How do you structure your relationships with students so that you might provide a good template for their relationship-building in life after Lincoln? Any thoughts?

 *The full article can be found at http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/philosophy-of-teaching/remembering-our-mission-to-teach/

Routine or Ritual?

Guest Blogger: Mel Leaman

Is it routine or ritual? The former suggests the mundane; merely a thoughtless “it’s just something you have to do” expense of energy. Its purpose is lost in its practice. However, if those first five minutes hold a sense of the sacramental, the seemingly routine is alive with an auspicious presence. It sets the stage for wonder; a mystery of the moment. Someone notices. Something is missed in the absence of the ritual. So it is that everyday I walk into the classroom I share a word of welcome. A half-hearted response by the few who do not have their ears muffed with headphones or their eyes skimming texts messages is a sufficient connection. Someone would notice if the class was not greeted with a smiling face and a “Good morning, class.” The absence of presence would bring a cause for pause: “What’s wrong with Dr. Leaman today?” The ritual plays on as I state the objectives for the day and then remind them that as I take attendance they should be sure to make their last minute calls or text messages. Frequently, as they acknowledge their presence I will say “welcome” to each student. When the final name is called the students anticipate, not necessarily appreciate, the professor’s next line: “Ok, we are ready for the day. Let’s put everything away that is not pertinent to the educational process and get started.”

Since midterm I inserted another part of the ritual. On the first day of class the students were given an information form. In addition to name, major, birthday, and hometown they were invited to list hobbies, a color that represents an aspect of their personality, and a favorite movie and song. They used these forms to introduce themselves to their nearest neighbor. A few weeks ago I started to feature a student and his/her favorite song while I took attendance. Pertinent and appropriate information from the student’s form is flashed on the screen and the You Tube version of his/her favorite song is played. It was stated on the first day of this exercise that if a student did not want to be featured or wanted to change his/her song, it was not too late to notify me of these wishes. One student took advantage of this opportunity. She selected a different song.

Is it routine or ritual? Is it just something you have to do or a sacred, celebrative act that creates connection and community- an auspicious moment of meaning and belonging? Yesterday, the ritual was affirmed. It was test day. We all know the usual anxiety that accompanies exams. Students want to quickly regurgitate what they had crammed down their throats prior to the class. In that light, the professor decided to forego the feature student and song. The test was distributed and instructions were beginning when a student interrupted, “Dr. Leaman, you forgot the song!” I smiled to myself and mused about how religious we had already become in regard to this ritual. My heart was warmed.

Teacher Education

Guest Blogger: Dipali Puri

Teacher education programs continue to change and evolve in an effort to address the changing needs concerning what pre-service teachers need to know to successfully function in today's schools. In order to better prepare pre-service teachers for a career in education, where they feel ready and prepared to take on the classroom and address the needs of their students, it is important to look at the pre-service teachers themselves and their perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about education.

The perceptions and expectations of teachers are of crucial importance to the way that a teacher behaves in a classroom (Giovannelli, 2003; Ross & Gray, 2006). The study of pre-service teacher perception is a crucial topic of research for, not only the teacher education community, but for the larger educational community as a whole. Teacher perception, or cognition, is a concept that encompasses what teachers know, believe and think. This concept comes into play in the larger educational discourse through the recognition of the relationship that perceptions and cognitions have with teacher behaviors. In other words, teacher perceptions are an important topic of study because they influence what a teacher does on a day-to-day basis in the classroom

Pre-service teachers should be questioned on what their vision of a classroom looks like, who the students in that classroom are, and where that classroom is located For example, do undergraduate pre-service teachers perceive that ideal classroom as located in an urban, suburban or rural area? What type of student population do they envision teaching in the future? What type of teaching technique do they plan to implement? Student centered, teacher directed, etc? What is their philosophy of education? In turn, how does this influence their beliefs about education?

Through teacher preparation programs, pre-service teachers are beginning to think about and reflect on what they envision their own classrooms will look like. As a result of this, it is important that teacher educators provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to reflect on their own teaching practices and how this will translate into their future career as educators.

Helping Students Reach their Dreams

Guest Blogger: Kristin Anderson

It started as a typical Sunday on a bitter cold January morning in 2007. My photographer and I approached the news desk, dreading an assignment outside in the blinding snow. Our editor handed us a police press release detailing the events of a drug deal gone bad. We looked at each other, knowing full well that we would not be welcomed guests in the most dangerous housing project in Cleveland.

We drove up to the scene, now empty of the police presence that had filled the area during the shootout. After many years as a television news reporter I had covered this story too often. This time it was a 14-year-old boy who, ironically, lost his life while selling drugs to survive. He never had a father. His mother left him. His grandmother kicked him out and the Cleveland School district gave up on him when he dropped out at the age of 12. He did not even have someone to give him a proper burial. Everyone in his life failed him, no one told him that he mattered. I was haunted by this teen's death. I could not stop asking myself, "What can I do to make a difference?" I tried to write a heart-touching story that would penetrate the television screen and reach the hearts of viewers. It somehow inspired the community to pull together and bury the teenager, but it wasn't enough for me. A year later, I made a life-changing decision to leave television and start teaching upcoming news professionals about the changing world of news and deliver a message that THEY MATTER!

In the past two years in the classroom, from West Chester University to Lincoln, I have found that students know how to dream. They know what they would like out of a career, but they don't fully realize how important they are and how much they have to contribute. As a result, they don't know how to make their dreams turn into reality. When I ask them what they want "to be" after graduation, they often respond with "music producer, news anchor, radio announcer," and that's just from one student. That's impossible! It's great to shoot for the stars but where is the reality? What I am trying to do this semester is get students to focus on their dream and come with a realistic plan to make it happen. I can teach them how to write in broadcast style, how to use the ENG cameras to record professional video, and how to edit using the highest quality equipment in the industry, but it all falls to the wayside without a focused plan.

I'm going to experiment with one class and have them narrow down their career path to just one position. From there I'm going to have them pick a role model in their chosen industry and research how that person reached the top of his/her field. Finally, students will have to come up with a plan of their own to find internships, meet mentors, create resumes and job search. I wish I could blog that I have attempted this approach in the past, at numerous universities, and 100% of the students are successful in their chosen careers; however, the truth is that I don’t know. I am relatively new to this, but I know that something needs to be done to motivate students to reach their potential, to rise up and not be average.

I can't go back in time and save the life of the 14-year-old boy in Cleveland, but I can try to get students to realize that THEY MATTER, and that the world needs what they have to offer!!!

Problem-Solving Leading to Self-Renewal and Change

Guest Blogger: Dana Flint

Thank you for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you.

Not long before his tragic death in 1951, Albert Barnes sent a couple of pages of John Dewey’s Democracy and Education (pp. 177-178 of the 1916 edition, if you want to know) to his good friend Horace Mann Bond. Those pages emphasized the central role of thinking as problem-solving, and highlighted some educational emphases that Barnes hoped Lincoln would adopt. He highlighted the now familiar problem-solving steps of an initial sense of a problem, observation and investigation of factors, construction of solutions, hypotheses, and conclusions, and testing those constructions. In the spirit of Dewey, he understood that this process of problem-solving towards more “intelligent” adjustments (to use Dewey’s term) would be repeated again and again in the constant self-renewal of human living, and, Barnes hoped, in the self-renewal of the educational process at Lincoln. That was then. Nowadays, it seems that this is what we commonly do in our instructional approaches. Here are a few examples from my FYE class this semester:

• I wanted students to come away with a usable skill associated with each subject area in the course, for example, the module on Research. Previously, I brought students to a Library computer lab to receive instruction on searching Library databases. This year I continued in an analogous manner with an in-class demonstration using my laptop and a projector. But somewhere along the line I had a “sense of a problem.” Do students come away from such demonstrations with a usable skill? How could I know? So I got them to define some problems which were of interest to them: abortion, war and technology, global warming, and violence and Grand Theft Auto. Then I showed them a web site that demonstrated the format of annotated bibliographies, and asked them to submit an annotated bibliography, with five varied references, as a demonstration of their skill in doing research. Well, I am still in the process of “testing” (that is, assessing) this solution.
• Second, I thought the usable skill associated with the Speech module would be pretty easy: Let the students make speeches before the class and have another group of students evaluate them. I have done this before, but this semester I got a surprise. Instead of speeches, the students did PowerPoint presentations with the lights out and which ended with a movie, of course. The trouble was that there was a lot more high tech and a lot less speaking. So I went with the flow and found a web site containing a PowerPoint presentation on how to do PowerPoint presentations, and I presented this PowerPoint presentation while instructing the student-judges to critique the PowerPoint presentations of the students, using what they had learned about PowerPoint presentations. This seemed to represent a double process of self-renewal going on at instructional and learning levels.

Am I right in assuming that nowadays we commonly see the process of teaching and learning as a process of facilitating ever more educated adjustments to ourselves and world? Would the “Fitness for Life” course be another such example of this process, or would it not?

Teaching Philosophy / Classroom Technology

Guest Blogger: Michele Petrovsky

I’d like to chat with you about the dovetailing of teaching philosophy and classroom technology.

I’ve designed and implemented software that administers and grades exams; draws exam questions from a single test bank, regardless of question type (e.g., true/false versus fill-in-the-blank), exam type (e.g., quiz versus midterm), or course; and uses randomization to help ensure that no two students receive exactly the same exam. Since I wanted to present the whole package, including graded exams, through the Web, I ended up with a rather extensive web site, of which the test generator makes up only about 20 per cent. The generator was built with MySQL 4.0.15 and PHP 4.0. It runs under SuSE Linux Professional 9.0 (kernel release 2.4.21-99-default), using Apache 2.0 as its Web server and HTML 1.1 as the basis for its forms. The server that supports the generator also provides a variety of administrative tools such as scheduled backups and rotation of log files, as well as a firewall that monitors HTTP, FTP, and TELNET (that is, Web, file upload/download and remote login, respectively) traffic.

That’s some fairly serious tech. I’m proud of it, but no more proud than I am of knowing how to drive a stick-shift car, and being able to hold said car on a hill with a skillful combination of clutch and gas pedals. In other words, I think it’s neat. What’s more, I firmly and deeply believe that it’s neat, that I enjoyed creating it as much as I did, and that it works as well as it has, because of the perspective that led me to the project in the first place.

I’m not trained as an academician. But, I’ve been reading and talking and learning since the age of three. My father was a teacher, who, when I was five, enlisted me as his assistant in grading his middle school students’ papers and exams. It simply never occurred to me until I was well into adulthood that learning was anything out of the ordinary, or anything one needed to work at. Rather, it, like the clutch/gas combo, was something ‘neat’ that was available to anyone.

When I began teaching, it was in a community college. Most of my students were out of work or had never worked, and were attempting not only to
gain a certificate or degree but, also, to embark on a new life. To stand in front of a room full of such folks is a humbling experience. It taught me in no uncertain terms the truth of the saying, “A master is someone who started before you.” For both these reasons, I saw little role then, and see no larger one now, for an ivory-tower approach to education, even when the ivory tower is built in part of silicon and copper.

I hope none of this seems disrespectful of the sincere and strenuous efforts so many of you have made to become and remain effective educators. Those who love teaching and learning have my utmost respect. But, in this as in everything, I feel strongly that individuality and individual means and styles of expression, including the choice of classroom technologies, must be honored. The marvelous tech we have available can make our teaching more effective. But it can never substitute for excitement about the process of learning.