communicating for
LEARNERS
Fall #2 2008
featured in this issue Updates from the Center
Visionary Status
Student Motivation
Hot 5 Web Resources
Workshops
Did You Know?
Updates from the Center Announcing the Third Annual BGSU Teaching and Learning Fair! When is the Fair? The BGSU community will gather in the Lenhart Grand Ballroom on February 6, 2009 to celebrate and discuss student success through best teaching and learning practices. The Fair will begin at 9:30 a.m. and presentations are centered on our BGSU Learning Outcomes: critical and constructive thinking, skillful communication, and engagement. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Barbara Millis, and Provost Baugher will be visiting with presenters from 9:30-10:30. What will you see at the Fair? Fair goers will interact with BGSU community members who are displaying and discussing the following: • course planning and activities that promote critical and constructive thinking • advising activities that extend teaching and learning • learner activities that promote communication and presentation using multiple media, such as logical, mathematical, visual, spatial, or musical • course design and experiences that afford learners opportunities to participate in an organized service activity • learner activities that occur outside of the classroom and encourage students to engage others in action while participating and leading • living-learning residential communities with creative environments that enhance academic success and provide richly rewarding extracurricular activities When is the Keynote Presentation? At 11:00 a.m. Dr. Mark Gromko, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Programs, will introduce our keynote speaker, Dr. Barbara Millis.
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Who is Dr. Millis and what will she talk about? Barbara J. Millis is the Director of the Teaching and Learning Center at the University of Texas, San Antonio. She was formerly the Director of the Excellence in Teaching Program at the University of Nevada at Reno. Barbara received her Ph.D. in English literature from Florida State University. She frequently offers workshops at professional conferences (AAC&U, Lilly conferences, Teaching Professor Conference) and for over 300
colleges and universities. She publishes articles on a variety of faculty development topics such as cooperative learning, peer classroom observations, the professional portfolio, syllabus construction, classroom assessment/research, critical thinking, writing for publication, writing across the curriculum, academic games, and course redesign. She has published three books, including the March 2008 release ( Jossey-Bass) of the 2nd Edition of Judith Grunert’s The Course Syllabus: A LearningCentered Approach, co-authored with Margaret Cohen. While at USAFA, Barbara won both a teaching award and a research award. Dr. Millis’ keynote address is titled “Persisting with Passion: Break-throughs in Teaching and Learning” According to Barbara, “this keynote is the teaching/learning version of ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged’—Barbara Millis’ lifetime of critical events summarized tidily in one hour (with time for questions). Teaching, as with life, seems to happen one break-through at a time, with revelations typically building on one another over time, creating more complexity and strength every time a new element is added. We will get in one quick, interactive presentation, a summary of the ‘best-of-the-best,’ the groundbreaking innovations of cooperative learning, deep learning, the research on how people learn, and several other findings that enable teachers to become intentional, purposeful educators. This session is in a sense a ‘confessional,’ as the breakthroughs often came slowly, serendipitously, and with great effort over (gasp!) my forty years in the classroom and later in online classrooms. I hope that this presentation will save you years of wasted energy in your teaching life by reducing the cycle of teaching blunders and naïveté many of us well-intentioned teachers experience. Please attend, and then heed it and leap!” Don’t miss Dr. Millis’ keynote address in the Lenhart Grand Ballroom at 11:15 a.m. Friday, February 6, 2009, is a day to celebrate BGSU teaching and learning at the Fair; mark your calendars! Sign up to present at the Third Annual, BGSU Teaching and Learning Fair. Starting on December 1, 2008, you can register as a Fair presenter at the Center’s website.