Kimberly's+page

[|Click here to see Kimberbly's final presentation] (RealPlayer)

Hello,

I have just been able to join, as I am not techinically savvy.

Here are some of my assignments.

My interview with my colleague was with Juli R.

She said the biggest challenge is getting students to go from practitioner to scholar. She tries to get them to rely on evidence-based support. This seems to be a challenge for everyone which causes them worry and anxiety. Some of the other challenges are recruitment of students for the program and helping students find jobs after graduating. Some students wonder about the usefulness of the degree and wonder what is the career path. The students are also so busy, that they can not find time to read.

My existing pattern of course design is to create or update a syllabus first, with accompanying objectives. Then I do any reading that needs to be done and I might update the syllabus again after that. I create assignment sheets and rubrics and review and revise as necessary. I also create study guides and tests. My last step is to place everything on SAC CT. From readings and interactions, I have come to realize how important objectives are. I will spend more time with them now in my planning and designing process.

High Impact Teaching is really cool, as a strategy for helping students learn. I will be using collaborative projects in my policy course this Spring. I really like the case study idea suggested by Vanessa and commented on by others in our group. I will have fun over break designing this and other course aspects.

Comparing Visual Instructional Design Languages is a case study that I read off of the wiki resources. I also read an article about micro-teaching activities which I found on my own. I am not much of a visual instructional designer nor do I teach with visuals that often. I found the approach in the"visual" article very complex, when to me designing curriculum is more simple. This article did give me some food for thought, though. Today's students are very visual and appreciate visuals when learning. If only I thought more about visuals while planning and designing.

The microteaching article focuses more on one actual pedgogical strategy that could be used in one's course design. I chose it because I use discussion leader assignments often in graduate classes. Although these are not video taped, these experiences represent microteaching for the grad students. It is a very good idea since most grad students in our program want to teach at some level. The benefits of microteaching that were relayed in the article such as obtaining practical experience and learning and gaining metacognitive knowledge validated my use of discussion leader assignments with grad students. It is important, though that the students understand the purpose of these assignments. I believe "discussion leader" is good because it is very hands-on and applied.

Hello!

As for assignment #4, I am going to help them with the challenge of understanding how the course concepts are connected and to help them start working on the final assignment before hand. I will do this by periodically pointing them to the higher order and lower order concepts in the syllabus. I have also put in the syllabus timeline specific dates for voluntarily presenting material for the final project assignment. I will check to see if I have been successfull with these two objectives with an open-ended survey. On the survey, I will ask them to draw a concept map of course ideas. Then I will ask two or three open-ended questions about progress on the final assignment. I am looking forward to seeing all of you on 2/18.

Hi,

I had to change my password to get back on my page. I completed a formative assessment of the student knowledge and learning and things are looking pretty good in my 215 class right now. The students understand how the class fits together and they feel they are learning. Last friday, I presented about the formative assessment and my experience this semester. It has been great! I really enjoy the FLC and Mark Stoner!!!! Hopefully, we can have a reunion next semester or sometime next year. I will work on my colloquium for my department this May and summer. It will be similar to my presentation last Friday.