Notes from the Teaching Breakfast of Sept. 9, 2004 Present: C. Haessig, J. Tan, D. Li, K. Joest, Z. McKay, J. Mills, W. Benedict, H. Mi, R. Jagels, R. Rothenberg, J. Fleisher, K. Stearns, P. Conway, J. Greenberg This meeting focused on what topics the group would like to talk about in this academic year. Many excellent ideas were presented and discussed including: * Better and more ways to address the impact globalization is having on our students in all disciplines. * Freshmen retention. Contact Craig Bielert and ask him to join us for a discussion of how retention is really a by-product of the quality of the educational experience. Self-assessment for students, especially freshman, is also a key component of this issue. We should ask some students to attend this session. Issues such as time management, study skills, and survival skills are part of this issue. * How to make connections with students. Faculty tend to agree that students who make connections with their professors often do better. How can we create a climate in our classes and at the college where more students make connections with teachers. What do you do that works? * What are your reading and writing expectations for students? Invite a C.A.D.E. person to this. What do you expect of your students with respect to reading and writing? How do you assess (grade) their work? Give concrete examples. What assignments do you give? How to you grade them? * What inspires students? What do you do to inspire your students? * What do you do about the "sponge syndrome"? That is, students often are just looking for the right answer and not thinking. They have trouble with ambiguity, vagueness and trying to move towards an idea that is complex. What do you do to address this? * Plagiarism continues to be an issue. What do you do to deal with this? Does anyone use Turnitin? How? Does it work? What is your experience with it? * What can we do to give our students more field experiences (in all disciplines)? What are the issues? Time, resources, opportunities? What might the College do to make more opportunities for students to have internships or field experiences? For example, getting a van is difficult. The next teaching breakfast will be Oct. 7 at 8 am in Morris Hall 103. Craig Bielert will join us to discuss freshmen retention. Mr. James B. Greenberg Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center Milne Library SUNY College at Oneonta Oneonta, New York 13820 email: [log in to unmask] phone: 607-436-2701 fax: 607-436-3081 IM: oneontatltc "Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"