Friday @ the Center
February 12, 2010
SPU Faculty Teachers of the Year
In order to honor and celebrate the vocation of teaching at SPU, the Faculty Development Committee (FDC) and the Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development last year initiated a new peer-selected award: the SPU Faculty Teacher of the Year. Each school or CAS division follows its own procedure to name its Teacher of the Year. Those selected as the Teacher of the Year from the different academic units this year are:
Michelle Beauclair, CAS Humanities
Kathleen Braden, CAS Social and Behavior Sciences
Carlene Brown, CAS Fine and Performing Arts
Kerry Dearborn, School of Theology
Kathy Lustyk, School of Psychology, Family, and Community
Chris Sink, School of Education
Lisa Surdyk, School of Business and Economics
Cara Wall-Scheffler, CAS Science and Technology
The final SPU Faculty Teacher of the Year will be selected from among these nominees by a FDC subcommittee and announced at the June in-service. Please join me in congratulating these fine teachers among us!
Developing Independent Learning: Organizing Information
This is the third of a series on eight skills for independent learning that professors should help students acquire and practice, based on Terry Doyle’s Helping Students Learn in a Learner-Center Environment.
Skill 1: Finding and evaluating quality sources of information.
Skill 2: Identifying important information.
Skill 3: Organizing information.
How do you teach organizational skills? (Some of us are still trying to develop organizational skills ourselves!) Doyle recommends showing students common organizational patterns and then letting them practice fitting their information into these formats. For example, develop a comparison and contrast chart between two events, theories, or writers, and then have your students do the same. Your example will help them learn the kinds of comparisons or categories that are useful. Showing examples and giving practice, with feedback—always sure pedagogical winners.
Headline of the Week
Are Smarter People More Likely to Own Cats Than Dogs?
Happy Teaching,
Susan Susan VanZanten |
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