Concurrent Sessions A: Teaching First-Year Students Across the Curriculum

Betsy Barefoot — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:45:00 PDT

The academic experiences of a first year student are critical to their long-term academic success. Dr. Barefoot shares her expertise in describing best practices for teaching first year students that can apply to disciplines across the curriculum.

Concurrent Sessions A: Smith College Center for Work and Life: Reflecting on a Life WellLived

Julianne Ohotnicky et al. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:45:00 PDT

Students’ evolving self‐awareness and their expanding knowledge of a fast‐changing world provide the inner framework for defining ambitions, developing as leaders and building rewarding lives at college and beyond. This session explores the creation of the Center for Work and Life, which has built bridges between co‐curricular and curricular programs on campus, to encourage students to identify their passions, develop as leaders and build rewarding lives.

Concurrent Sessions A: Meeting the Needs of Returning Military Veterans: The At Ease Project

Kris Kozuch et al. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:45:00 PDT

With the recent implementation of the Post 9/11 GI Bill, military veterans are entering college campuses at a greater rate than ever before. Not all institutions are ready to meet and respond to the needs of our country’s veterans. The goal of the At Ease Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is to create and test a replicable model of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) college success program for returning combat veterans with disabilities. The project utilizes “wraparound” interventions, surrounding veteran students with a welcoming environment; supportive faculty; intensive pre‐enrollment preparation; ongoing academic support through tutoring, mentoring, and advising; and networking opportunities with other veterans. STCC has designed a model for community colleges that drastically increases the enrollment and graduation rates for veterans with disabilities in STEM certificate programs. Staff from the project will share their experiences working with military veterans and identify challenges and obstacles in developing a veteran‐friendly campus.

Concurrent Sessions A: Bright Ideas in Faculty Pedagogy

Keith Barker et al. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:45:00 PDT

*Bright Ideas* panel sessions bring together presenters from a variety of campuses to discuss their strategies on a specific topic.

Topic: Student success derives from educating enthusiastic future teachers: A series of courses to develop teaching skills in graduate students

Topic: Developing metacognitive literacy in faculty

Concurrent Sessions A: Educating the Whole Peer Advisor/Mentor: Developing Peer Facilitated Programs that Empower Peers

Lynn Phillips et al. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:45:00 PDT

As campuses increasingly recognize the value of peer advising or mentoring programs for educating and supporting the whole student, we need to ask, "How well is this whole‐student philosophy incorporated into our approach to the peer advisors/mentors, themselves?" Are peer mentors/advisors seen primarily as student workers hired to increase retention or ease staff workloads during times of budgetary stress, or are they understood as service learners whose social, emotional, and academic development is as central to the program as that of the students they support? This session describes two peer‐facilitated programs (one academic, one residentially‐based) that extend the whole student philosophy to their orientation toward and work with peer mentors/advisors. Facilitated by a faculty advisor, a first year specialist, and an undergraduate peer advisor/mentor involved in both programs, participants are offered concrete suggestions and invited to develop strategies for translating these ideas into their own programs across a range of settings.

Concurrent Session B: How the Millennial Generation Learns

Arthur Keene — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:00:00 PDT

In this workshop we will explore three questions: who are the folks who inhabit our classrooms, what do we need to know about them in order to create effective learning environments, and how might this knowledge lead us to tweak our own teaching? In the first part of the workshop Keene will share observations distilled largely from research undertaken from 2007‐10 by students in his senior capstone honors seminar, The Ethnography of Us (but also from Keene’s own ethnographic observations from his last decade of engaged teaching). In, The Ethnography of Us, students designed individual ethnographic projects to explore the question: who are the people in our classrooms and what is their disposition toward education, learning and the university? In the second half of the workshop we will discuss some of these observations, compare them with the experiences of session participants, and consider how we might fine‐tune our pedagogy to address the specific needs and dispositions of the Millennial generation.

Concurrent Session B: What the Research Says about the Relation Between Revenues and Success

Jane Wellman — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:00:00 PDT

This session will discuss the importance of looking at the spending side of student success – and being more purposeful about spending in ways that promote student success. The bad fiscal climate is not likely to change significantly in the next decade; all institutions are being challenged to do more with less. The academic culture has historically equated resources with quality, when research on spending and effectiveness tell us that the way that money is spent is more important than the absolute level of resources. The session will explore ways to look at spending patterns, and to develop strategies for generating cost savings to reinvest in increased student success. We will conclude with suggestions of approaches to consider for institutions just getting started with this type of work

Concurrent Session B: Teaching FirstYear Students across the Curriculum

Betsy Barefoot — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:00:00 PDT

Teaching in the first‐year classroom is both a challenge and an opportunity. Students bring with them attitudes, behaviors, and habits of mind that sometimes become barriers to college‐level learning. In this session, Dr. Barefoot will bring together research and best practices to offer a set of strategies for maximizing the opportunities instructors have to engage first‐year students in learning. In addition, participants will be invited to share their own knowledge, experience, and questions.

Concurrent Session B: Invest in Your Future with Student Success Coaching: Classroom Motivational Techniques Provide Positive Results

Andrea Macnoow et al. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:00:00 PDT

Student success coaching has addressed retention and persistence problems for developmental students at Housatonic Community College. Session presenters will discuss how helping students choose a major increases student engagement, retention and persistence rates. In student success coaching, students complete a career interest inventory, attend career panel discussions, and hear from faculty and staff regarding their educational and career paths. This workshop will include a career path history exercise for participants and describe the administrative and student support elements of the program.

Concurrent Session B: Bright Ideas in Student Pedagogy

Susan B. Bronstein et al. — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:00:00 PDT