Frank Rotondo That is awesome, Frank! I appreciate your response and providing examples of how your experiences in running companies and manufacturing have really provided students a realistic learning experience! I think it's great that you can take the text and adapt it to what you know to be more accurate and really hone in on the important concepts and understandings. 

Thank you for responding,

Greg

Hi, my name is Dr. Donna Steckal.

I am a licensed psychologist in AZ and have been in private practice 20 + years. I am teaching Ethics for the Graduate psychology department.

Some of the ethical dilemmas that are provided for students to explore really require experience to resolve adequately and the students are perhaps taking this as their second graduate course.

Therefore, when I respond in the forums, it is typical for me to share my experience (strength and hope) as a professional in the field, while also providing specific and relevant APA standards and principles from the Ethics Code for educational review and practice identifying same.

Best regards and thanks for reading!

Donna Steckal That is great, Dr. Steckal! Thank you for sharing. I think it provides students some real life examples and they seem to appreciate it. I have received feedback from students about how they've learned from my experience.

Thank you,

Greg

I am Dr. Gerry Polesky and I teach a variety of Business courses and as a Behavioral Psychologist I teach different Psychology classes.  After a career in corporate life in Manufacturing, Finance, Utilities and the Aircraft fields I try to bring my students to the real world.  I want them to know exactly what they should look forward to, what experiences they will encounter and what skills they should develop to encounter the real world after graduation.

Gerry Polesky That sounds great, Dr. Polesky! Can you share some example of some skills they may need along the way?

Thank you,

Greg

Hi, I'm Dr. Demetrice Smith-Mutegi! I am an adjunct for COE and I'm currently teaching assessment courses for pre-service teachers. I've spent 16+ years in education and find that sharing my experiences can add seamlessly to the course. It's also pretty interesting to share stories from my "first-year", too. 

Demetrice Smith-Mutegi Hello Dr. Smith-Mutegi, That's great that you add your experiences seamlessly! Are you adding your experiences in the discussions, assignment feedback, or both? When sharing your experiences, how do you do it?

Thank you for your response!

Greg

Greg Finkbonner Thanks for the follow-up! I typically make connections to my experience in the discussion forum, 1:1 consultations with students, and in small group (optional) Zoom sessions. The consultation sessions are where I find it's easier to relate my experience to their own personal challenges in the classroom, as well as relevant coursework. 

Demetrice Smith-Mutegi Great! Thank you for your response!

Hello All, I am Dr. Michael Sollitto, an adjunct for COE. I have been at GCU for about 7 years.   As a current Superintendent of Schools and an educator for over 25 years, my experiences allow for a real world perspective on discussion posts and assignments.  Often times, students in the class look at the prompts from a teacher's point of view rather than from an administrator's perspective.  My experiences have allowed me to provide the big picture to the many scenarios that are covered in class.  This is a paradigm shift for many students.  Typically, they are classroom teachers that have limited experience with the issues that principals or district administrators face every day.  By relating some of my experiences, students can get a glimpse of the issues that are outside the classroom but still impact teaching and learning significantly. 

Mike Sollitto Hello Dr. Sollitto, 

That's great that you can share about issues outside of the classroom! I bet you have some rich discussions in your class and can add great ideas from your perspective! Do you have a good example you can share with us?

Thank you for your response,

Greg

Greg Finkbonner - Thank you for the feedback. 

One recent example has to do with self care and reflection.  The class discussion prompt was about the importance of making time for yourself.  I relayed one way that I do this is to put aside 15 minutes several times per week to do nothing but "balcony think".  This means that I take the time to step back and try to see the big picture around the issues with which I am dealing.  The key to keeping this consistent is to schedule these times formally, in your calendar and to not miss any sessions. 

Thank you for sharing the concept of 'balcony time' with your colleagues, Dr. Sollitto. It can be challenging to step back from issues far enough to restore a broader perspective and your exercise sounds like a good way to achieve the psychological distance required. 

Best wishes, 

Peggy Dupey 

Hi there! I am Lisa Duryee, Online Full Time Faculty with CCOB and I primarily teach Organizational Behavior and Management. In the online classroom, an increased effort is needed to engage with students both from an academic perspective as well as providing an opportunity to share what concepts look like in real life.  I do this by responding to individual students in the discussion forums with the subject line changed to "For everyone- ___" with a tidbit about what the post will be about. In some, I share my personal work experience and tie it to course concepts, then pose questions encouraging students to share their own perspective and insight as well. As instructors, sharing our experiences helps us to "be real" to students and build immediacy within the classroom. 

Additionally, the End of Course survey (EOCS) for each class includes the following verbiage: "My instructor effectively related her/his expertise in the subject matter area."  As professionals and educators, it is our duty to meet the expectations set for us; at the end of each course I want my students to "strongly agree" that I did my best to do just that. 

Thank you for the discussion!

Lisa Duryee Hi Lisa,

I love that idea of changing the subject line to direct students attention to a response for everyone! I am going to start using that!

Thank you for sharing about how you add your personal work experience,

Greg

Thank you for sharing in our first week about job experiences and how you can use this for adding to discussions by sharing your experience. There were several great comments provided.

In this second week, the question is: how do workshops and conferences help add to the discussion and feedback? Can you provide some specific examples?

Hello! I'm Cindi Calhoun, and a theatre adjunct in CoFAP. I've worked as a high school theatre educator, I write for a theatre website (and I'm the education director of the website), and I work in community theatre on a regular basis (at least I did, until a year ago!). The cohorts in theatre at GCU are very tight-knit, so we are able to have great discussions about the discipline and how their college experience will prepare them (or not) for theatre outside the university. 

Most of my real-world examples are based in the things we don't often consider in the arts right away: budgeting, whether it is money, time, or self-care. 12+ hour days are common, and sometimes when I can tell the class is stressed from projects, I ask them to simply do a deep, cleansing breath to let go of their tension, just for a little while. Even simple exercises like that one can help demonstrate how to manage themselves (for lack of a better word) as they prepare for their next assignment at GCU and beyond.

Cynthia Calhoun That's great, Cindi, how shared your real-world experience with your classes! I like how you can tell when they are feeling stressed and then how to manage it. I just took a workshop last week about mindfulness and managing the emotional brain. It was helpful in that it helps to take deep breaths and take time to just be with your thoughts without any distractions. 

Since I have been working from home, I will take webinars from time to time and I look for ideas to add to discussions in my classes that I teach.

Thank you for your response!

Greg

Has anyone attended a workshop lately? If so, how did it help your knowledge as an instructor?

Thank you,

Greg

Greg Finkbonner I haven't attended any workshops lately, but I am looking forward to attending a few conferences this Spring. Could you provide an example of what is meant by using workshops in discussions? 

Demetrice Smith-Mutegi Hello Demetrice,

Yes, I certainly can provide some examples. I attended a workshop recently on cultural diversity and in my class that I teach on Operational Resource Management, I was able to share in the discussions about being more culturally aware. This particular course is for Student Affairs Departments within a college or university and a student affairs professional must be open and accepting of all cultures because of the diverse student population. 

In another example, I am always interested in learning about leadership and I also teach a course in the College of Education on school administration. When I learn more about the latest and greatest in leadership, I am eager to share with my students in those courses on professional development, school culture, and other related areas. 

Is this helpful? Thank you for asking,

Greg

Greg Finkbonner Thank you! Your response is very helpful. I have not attended a workshop or conference that is applicable, but I have reviewed a recording from a COE webinar. The webinar discussed the lesson planning template that students are required to use at GCU. I thought the video was very informative and provided it as a supplement to my course by embedding it in my discussion board as CAT during the lesson planning week. 

Demetrice Smith-Mutegi Great idea, Demetrice! Using video's in a CAT can be very effective and can generate a lot of discussion.

Thank you for sharing, 

Greg

Greg Finkbonner 

It has been a while since I've attended any workshops. When I was teaching high school, I was a mentor teacher and had the opportunity to do some great conferences and sessions -- one of my favorites was Cognitive Coaching. It is a process of active listening to help others work through decision-making, problem-solving, etc. Highly recommend it for anyone interested in this process!

Ironically, I've often been the one organizing and leading workshops, often for other teachers and based around pedagogy -- the art of teaching. Creating and leading these sessions has been a great reminder of working backwards, keeping the end goals in mind and scaffolding the process/knowledge/application so that all pieces work towards that goal. I think modeling that process as an instructor is helpful for students when it comes to goal-setting -- being able to picture the desired end result, and plan on how we're going to get there.

Cynthia Calhoun Hi Cynthia,

I have always thought that when leading a workshop or professional development, I feel like I am leaning as well because of the preparation I put into it. Not only that, but when practicing and going over my presentation, I become more versed in it and can talk with ease about my subject. 

Great thoughts, Cynthia! Thank you for sharing, 

Greg

Gerry Polesky Hi Dr. Polesky, I am glad to hear you make it a point to attend as many workshops or conferences you can! Have you found any material or things you have learned that you can apply to your discussions? If so, how did it work out?

Thank you,

Greg

Gerry Polesky Thank you so much for sharing, Dr. Polesky! That is exactly what we, at the Faculty Advisory Board, need to consider! I will share the importance of digital and virtual literacy in the classroom as a focus for future workshops and or discussion boards at our next meeting.

Thank you,

Greg

Dear Colleagues,

For our third week of bringing outside experiences into discussions, we will be talking about Social Media and how this can be useful for additional and current information to enrich discussions. Social media, in my opinion, is this nebulous entity that is every changing and updating itself constantly. Being on Twitter recently, I follow just a few of my favorite teams or individuals and can get the latest news and updates daily. It can be a great way to stay informed. Sometimes after my team loses though, I have a hard time reading the comments, so I choose not to.

What are your thoughts about social media? In what ways can it be used in your discussions or feedback?

Thank you,

Greg

Greg Finkbonner, I've always been skeptical about including my students on my social media. But, I do like the resources that I find on social media. I am in several professional and interest groups. The biggest step that I've taken is sharing the groups with my students. For instance, some students were interested in created Bitmoji classrooms for their students/future students to engage students learning at home. I shared the Bitmoji Teachers Facebook group with them to help with integration ideas. 

Demetrice Smith-Mutegi Thank you for your response, Demetrice! I agree that you can find several resources on social media. I will need to check into the Bitmoji Teacher Facebook.

Thank you,

Dr. Finkbonner

Greg Finkbonner 

Oy, social media. When I taught high school theatre, I used a Facebook group as a communication tool with my students and their parents. I could post updates, rehearsal schedules, resources, etc.

At GCU, I haven't really used it outside of the Remind messaging app. The theatre students/faculty have a Facebook group that I'm a member of, but it's more informational (especially for shows) than classroom-oriented. 

I do think social media is a great tool for communication (my Twitter is where I follow lots of news stories and current events), but I'm also fairly private and rarely post. I am connected via Facebook with many students (past and present), and they have messaged me there (sometimes, it's faster and more direct than Loudcloud!).

At some point, I'll have to check out this TikTok thing ... I'll have my 13-year-old daughter show it to me. 

I like to stay connected with students using Social Media after the GCU class is over (on LinkedIn) or after my K-12 students graduate (on Facebook). It is beneficial to stay in touch with former GCU students because they are going into the Education field and we can swap ideas as peers. It is beneficial to stay in touch with my K-12 students, some of whom are in their 30's now, because they give me contacts in a number of different fields that I can bring into the classroom to show how what we are learning could relate to what they will find in the real world, no matter what field they are thinking of going into...or in many cases in any field because they don't know what field they want to go into. 

Brian Stevens Thank you, Brian, for your response! I think that is a great idea for staying connected with past students! Approximately how many students have you stayed in contact with and how many classes have you taught? I am curious to know because if I consider doing that, I want to know the time commitment and not wanting to get in over my head.

Thank you,

Greg

Greg Finkbonner I have taught about a dozen classes at GCU, but I have only recently started suggesting that students find me on LinkedIn after class, and only a few students do so. I expect it will be similar to my former K-12 students on Facebook, where we usually don't say much unless it's someone's birthday or something special, so I don't think time will be an issue. Occasionally, someone will ask me for a letter of recommendation, for example, or I might ask if my middle school students could run an engineering idea past someone who is an engineer now. 

Brian Stevens OK, thanks for sharing, Brian! I have had students ask me for a reference before. Your response does help as I consider opening up to my students.

Thank you,

Greg

Colleagues,

This is the final week of the discussions for this month in bringing outside experiences into discussions and when providing student feedback, sponsored by the Faculty Advisory Board. 

This week we'll be discussing Academic Background and Scholarly Research as ways to increase teaching and learning for students. The discussion question is, how does your academic background and/or scholarly research increase teaching and learning for students? 

Thank you,

Greg

I feel fortunate to have had a varied career in education. I taught high school, then went to grad school (MA & PhD) and was a TA (no grad school loans!), then went back to teaching high school for 10 years. In the high school teaching environment, I think I was something of an anomaly--most teachers stick with their discipline. I ended up being a humanities/social sciences elective teacher, and while my cert. is in English and Theatre, I also taught Art History, Psychology/Sociology, Choir ... I'm pretty sure there's something else in there. How wonderful to be able to be so academically curious and pursue so many things! I also did PD programs such as the AZk12 Master Teacher and preliminary National Board Cert.

All that said, I think this variety has been such a benefit to my classes. When I discuss theatre history, my art history background informs topics such as architecture and scenic design. My music experience helps when I direct or we discuss the text of musicals. Psychology is a natural fit when we discuss character analysis. Something I really hope this does--more than anything--is to encourage my students to be academically curious as well, to show them that they don't have to be pigeon-holed into one artistic or academic area, that disciplines don't exist in a vacuum, and that knowledge for the sake of knowledge is fun. 

Cynthia Calhoun Thank you, Cynthia, for your response! Being academically curious is a great attribute!

Take care,

Greg

Greg Finkbonner Thanks for this question. My background is STEM education and I teach education courses, some of them with a STEM focus. Therefore, whenever possible, I like to integrate scholarly articles into my courses. I have not found an opportunity to include research that I've produced, but I have found other research that I've used in literature reviews, etc. worthy of sharing with students. I have an article pending that has come out of work that I've done with students on the 5E model. I look forward to sharing that with them soon. 

Ultimately, I think that scholarly research has the potential to elevate the learning experience for students, by providing evidence-based practices and reputable sources. 

Demetrice Smith-Mutegi Thank you, Demetrice, for your response! I am like you in that I have not produced any scholarly research yet, but I would like to. I do like to research other topics and share with my class, depending on the question or what they have stated in their response.

Take care, 

Greg

Hi Cynthia, or rather, Dr. Calhoun,

I feel very fortunate as well when pursuing my MA and Ed.D. I had some great opportunities to pay for my degrees along the way. There are examples where I use the work I studied on leadership to apply to the courses I teach in Educational Administration. 

I think that is great that you can share your background knowledge with your class and find the integrating the different academics can make learning enjoyable! Do you also find areas in research that you have shared with your class?

Thank you for your response,

Greg

Greg Finkbonner Most of my subject area (theatre history and dramatic literature) is based in research--I'm constantly suggesting books, writers, and articles to check out. When it comes to any publications, my publishing has been for StageAgent, whether research on theatre practitioners, history, diversity, etc. While my audience there is targeted towards high schools, I think it is still foundational for any theatre study. (Unfortunately, GCU is not subscribed to StageAgent, so our students can't see the site itself, as it is subscription-based for schools.)

I think the most important area of research is to teach students that it is about being intellectually curious--they need to read! (Which, of course, is quite the challenge to get them to do sometimes!) But I always remind them: If you want to be successful in any area of theatre, you need to read. Scripts, reviews, dramaturgy, practices, theory, history ... the list goes on! I'm sure it's the same in pretty much any subject area. 

Cynthia Calhoun That is neat that you are able to publish your work in StageAgent! I subscribe to Academia.edu. I have yet to publish an article, but it is something I have wanted to do. There is also our own Journal of Instructional Research found a the Center of Innovation of Research and Teaching where articles can be submitted. 

Being intellectually curious, as you have stated, is a very good for students to learn. I also think teaching them perseverance is a great strategy to use.

Thank you,

Greg 

Thank you for the opportunity to be involved in this discussion. 

Since I facilitate courses with graduate students most of them are working, or have at least worked in the past. So, with that in mind I use the DQ and participation forum to move theories or principles of human resource management (HRM) toward the consideration of how we might (or do) practice HRM. Some of these things include:

• I give examples from my own HRM experience, good things that have happened as well as things that didn’t go as planned.
• With graduate students, since I am probably not the only one with applicable working knowledge in this area, I ask the students to consider the DQ/participation forum a place where they can teach their peers (including me) something about the topic as it applies to their own workplace experience. Students are encouraged to tell the group how the HRM topic each week is managed in their workplace; what policies/processes might be involved as they pertain to specific workplace scenario(s) they have been involved with. Examples might include where this topic has been managed well or manager poorly. If managed poorly, I prompt the class for sources of research in this area that indicate and support how the situation might have been handled differently.
• I also provide participation opportunities for students in the forum based on ‘what would you do’ scenarios. The scenarios are based on typical issues someone working in the field of HRM would face. What would you do scenarios need to be supported by a specific workplace example or by at least one supportive reference.

I have also just come across the MEAL paragraph writing technique in the on-demand workshop Encouraging Strong Writing Across Disciplines, that I am going to now give to students in order to help them write more succinctly about their own experiences.

I teach in the College of Education.  By day, I am an elementary principal.  I love to share experiences with my student teachers.  They get an inside look at methods, curriculum and strategies, whether good or bad.  I can ask them "what would you do" questions.  I can show them, in the field, lesson plans, curriculum maps, textbooks, tech resources and more.  I think the students enjoy the sharing.  I have even shared with my faculty some ideas these future teachers shared.  Love it!

Maureen DeGrose Hi Maureen, Thank you for responding! That's great that your student teachers love to share. How has the Pandemic had an impact on your school?

Greg