Are you a tenured faculty member who would like to use your wisdom and love of teaching to be an awesome Mentor or member of a Tenure and Evaluations Committee for one of our 28 new faculty members?

If so, please let us know!

Complete the form below, or go to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeITh-7sd3WKrjessqUOd7F95Nn39wT2GDaHycuQ3cO1BqQSw/viewform

We are excited to announce that you will have the opportunity to check out some innovative active learning spaces in the NS building during plenary. These spaces are being setup for just 2 days so our faculty can check out the products and provide feedback.

• BKM/Steelcase will be creating three different spaces in the NS Building which demonstrate an active learning ecosystem where Every Space is a Learning Space.
• BKM/Steelcase representatives will be in all three spaces to answer questions and demonstrate the technologies on Thursday from 9am – 8:30pm and Friday from 8am – 4pm.
• The three spaces and the location of each are as follows:
  • An Active Learning Lab (NS-358) – a classroom designed for faculty who want to flip their classroom, engage in project based learning, or focus the majority of class time on group work.
  • Teaching-Learning Pods (NS-147) – outside of classroom “third” space where faculty can meet and work with students and students can congregate to work on group projects, form small study groups or work independently.
  • An Instructional Planning Lab (NS-146)– this space is designed for faculty to practice with the active learning resources that would be available in the Active Learning Labs and Teaching-Learning Pods.  The space allows for faculty to develop lesson plans and strategies for their classes; to congregate to discuss pedagogy and active learning strategies; and to use technologies for online classes.

Please let us know your thoughts regarding your perfect classroom and whether you liked the steelcase learning spaces!

To submit your feedback go to:

http://tinyurl.com/learningspacesfeedback

The PD workshop the “Nuts and Bolts of Teaching at Palomar” is created to help our faculty prepare for a successful semester and have an awesome first day of class and beyond.

Please click here to view the Nuts and Bolts Presentation presentation 

We will be using Padlet to allow you to post your questions and thoughts throughout the workshop.  Here  is the address to our Padlet Wall: https://padlet.com/kfalcone1/NutsBolts

In this workshop we created a syllabus template to help guide you in creating your syllabus and making sure you are including all important.  Please click here to access the electronic version where you can download this and make it your own!

Professional Development Report to the Faculty Senate (click here to print)

PD Workshop: The High Cost of Textbooks: Searching for Alternatives

Webinar: Wednesday March 16th 11:30am-12:30pm

Host: Kelly Falcone, Professional Development Coordinator & Professor Kinesiology & Health, Palomar College

Presenter: April Cunningham,  Librarian & Professor, Palomar College

The cost of textbooks creates a serious barrier to enrollment and success for many students. If you’ve wanted to find alternatives, this workshop might get you started in the right direction. We will discuss the library’s textbook reserve collection. We will also discuss the statewide effort to provide peer review for free eTextbooks in selected disciplines. Currently, this project, called California Open Online Library for Education, has completed reviews of free eTextbooks in introductory courses in the following disciplines: accounting, biology, business, chemistry, child development, statistics, microeconomics, public speaking, sociology, and US history to 1877. Forty more courses will be included in the next phase. Attend this workshop to share your techniques for reducing the burden of textbook costs and get new ideas for how to tackle this challenge.

• At 11:30am on March 16th go to the following link to watch and participate in the Google Hangout On Air:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cgp3c4g4ceilhr4mcm04csr502c
• Here is a link to the YouTube page where you can watch live, however if you are viewing on the YouTube page you will not be able to ask questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVOV52t7Ud8

POST SHOW UPDATE:

April provided us with some great sites for free textbooks!  I already looked looked through them and found FREE Health textbooks I could use in my Health class!  Take a look and see if there are some Open Educational Resources you may be able to use:

• http://www.cool4ed.org/reviews.html
• https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/
• https://www.openstaxcollege.org/books

Here is the link to April’s Presentation:

• https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NwAKFuUlWCg-pW43QEPNHD-zY3D3EswrWRjpaHGMahU/edit#slide=id.p

Here’s the video:

Are you interested in presenting a workshop online??? 

Please send me an email and me can schedule a date and time that works for you! kfalcone@palomar.edu

Please reply to this post if you have any additional questions, comments, or thoughts!

Spring plenary took place on Thursday January 14th.  We had a full house in the Student Union for the general session and I know many of the workshops were standing room only.  Here is the presentation from the general session.  The session stared with updates from Interim President Adrian Gonzales, Interim VP for Instruction Dan Sourbeer, and Acting VP for Student Services Brian Stockert.  Updates were followed by an interactive discussion on understanding who are students are and what we can do in the classroom to help them succeed.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1__W2_p5bvjTSWxELfqwM2EftjfpSNZzaCyIN-UWjE1o/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

If you have questions or comments please feel free to comment to this post!

Today, January 7th from 5-7pm,  is the first PD workshop of 2016!  We are starting off the year with a special workshop facilitated by a panel of Palomar Administrators.  This workshop will provide an overview of the basic mechanics of instructor responsibilities, including information about your class syllabus, class rosters, important dates, grading, Instructional and Counseling support services, and more.

• Click here for the Nuts & Bolts workshop flyer
• Click here for the Nuts and Bolts Spring 2016 presentation

If you have any additional questions, suggestions, or comments please feel free to respond below!

Thank you to Jenny Fererro and Laurel Anderson for being our first workshop presenters to be recorded!  And a special thank you to 3CMedia for doing a great job recording this session. This session was recorded on Friday November 6th, from 12-2pm.

Workshop Description:

This workshop will cover tips and techniques for optimal success in applying and interviewing for full-time faculty positions. Although not a guarantee of a job offer, we will share tips for improving your application presentation and using effective interview techniques that hiring committees appreciate

To watch the recording please go to: https://www.3cmediasolutions.org/f/82b75ae529c504b92ac68395d613fe6011a4e91a?i=0

“Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges: College personnel everywhere are struggling with students’ increased neediness.”

In this article, Peter Gray Ph.D  states, “We have raised a generation of young people who have not been given the opportunity to learn how to solve their own problems.They have not been given the opportunity to get into trouble and find their own way out, to experience failure and realize they can survive it, to be called bad names by others and learn how to respond without adult intervention. So now, here’s what we have: Young people,18 years and older, going to college still unable or unwilling to take responsibility for themselves, still feeling that if a problem arises they need an adult to solve it.”

How does this impact our college and our classrooms?  What strategies can we as a college use to help our students who may not have the skills they need to be successful?