So, I'm winding down my first quarter of instruction for the Business department. It's been so fun and I have to say, I've employed Royce Ann's deck of playing cards to determine group members. The students thought I was going to play solitaire while they worked on a response. I have also taken my Collaborative Teaching and Learning Techniques book out. I am hoping to use more from that book next quarter. Another great tool is contracting for a grade. If it sounds like I'm too excited about this idea, well, it's because I am. I allowed my communications class to contract for a grade on a writing assignment and figured maybe a couple of them would seize the opportunity. Out of 18 students, 16 contracted for an A. It was pretty incredible. Before I began teaching that class there was another professor in there. She had the students write something. I carried it around all quarter and finally gave them back yesterday. I told them to read their assignments and think about what they learned about writing. Many of them commented about how poorly crafted their response was. It was nice to see and hear how much they believe their writing has grown.

I've enjoyed some great discussions with colleagues about motivation, learning opportunities, learning theory. I know, sounds kind of dorky, but it's actually nice to have background information to share. I've found other educators are familiar with the ideas because of practice, but don't know how to articulate some of it.

In one recent discussion, we were discussing how we can take qualitative data- students can type better- and make it quantitative- gains in words per minute and accuracy. The administrator of that program doesn't have an education background, she's from the social services side of things. She writes grants and our program is reviewed by the state, so we need reports that clearly illustrate the gains our students make. It's fun to discuss her needs, what we've done, and how it looks on paper. The typing thing is easy to quantify, but how do we discuss students' attitudes about attending school? No idea. I guess through attendance records- when they're on a roll, they attend; when they aren't experiencing successes or are frustrated, they don't attend.

I will have a full load of classes next quarter- 2 business classes- those are pretty easy to teach because there is a curriculum and the students are degree seeking. From a teaching stand point, I get to be more creative in the assessments, which is nice. I will continue teaching computers for English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Those classes are really rewarding and fun. That population doesn't stop to think about Theory of Margin- to them, it's just an excuse. They're very remarkable and if the tables were turned, I would have every excuse to quit. I will continue my low-income class year-round. The greatest challenge is engaging each person. It's an open enrollment set-up, so new faces roll in pretty much every week. They run the gamut from telling me they know how to use a computer to being afraid of computers. Another challenge is buy-in, many of them will tell me, "I've already done this so why do I need to do it again?" It's just another challenge and sometimes my answer is, "Because I said we have to."

That's about it for now. Time to work on some buy-in.