Summer is the time for a change of pace. Along with summer school teaching assignments and trips to both exotic and prosaic vacation spots, North Harris faculty members used the summer for a variety of professional development opportunities.
Some faculty members attended seminars and workshops. Melanie Hilburn, Marketing and Management, prepared for one of her fall classes. Prof. Hilburn attended a two-day workshop, “Crucial Conversations,” at the Marriott Airport. The workshop, presented by VitalSmarts, shared ideas on preparing for high-stakes situations, transforming anger and hurt feeling into dialogue and becoming persuasive, not abrasive. Hilburn will use the book Crucial Conversations with her MRKG 1311 class.
Karen Russom, Accounting, attended two seminars over the summer, both of which she describes as “exciting and stimulating.” The first was a seminar for Teachers of Accounting in Two Year Colleges which met in Indianapolis. The second opportunity was the Accounting Expo presented by the Texas Society for CPAs at the Reliant Center. Prof. Russom used this meeting to complete ethics training for her CPA license. According to Prof. Russom, “[I] did my required ethics for the license and got to hear Mattress Mac talk about his life. He talks fast. Another guy talked about being in jail for fraud. He used to be a CPA. I guess that’s why we have to have so much ethics.”
Glenda Smith and Don Stanley, Psychology, attended the “Teaching for a Change” conference in Park City, Utah from June 18-20. The conference theme was “A Celebration of Teaching.” Keynote speakers were Dr Steve Mittelstet, president of Richland College and Stephan Brookfield, author and professor. Prof. Stanley says
“The conference consisted of hands on experience with a focus on how to directly involve students in the learning process. A wide variety of topics were covered including how to integrate music, drama, and simple toys into the learning experience, regardless of the subject matter being taught. . . . It was a nice opportunity to widen our teaching skills, network and redevelop out enthusiasm for teaching in the classroom.” More information on this annual conference is available at http://www.teachingforachange.com/
While some professors attended seminars and conferences, others were presenting them. Alice Savage, ESL, gave a presentation on writing at the Broward County teachers’ in-service in West Palm Beach, FL. Prof Savage also presented a workshop, sponsored by Oxford University Press, at Indian River Community College in Fort Pierce, FL. “The Indian River workshop gave me the opportunity to find out more about how programs are run in other places… It made me wish that we could do more organized faculty ‘learning’ visits.”
Still others kept working but on different projects and in different places. Prof. Jim Good, History, co-authored, with Jim Garrison, professor of philosophy of education at Virginia Tech, two papers, described by Good as “esoteric… written to specialist in our little niche”. The first paper “Traces of Hegelian Bildung in Dewey’s Philosophy” will be published in a book, Dewey and Continental Philosophy, edited by Paul Fairfield of Queen’s University, Ontario. Professors Good and Garrison will present second paper “Dewey, Hegel, and Causation” at the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy in Lansing, MI, in March 2008. A longer version of this paper will be submitted to the journal The Owl of Minerva.
Wei Li, DS/English, kept grading over the summer. Prof. Li spent ten days in Daytona Beach, FL scoring English papers for AP. According to Professor Li, scorers worked hard from 8:30 until 4:30 every day but the time had light moments as well. “One time a colleague found a dollar bill in the essay book he was scoring.” Prof Li does not say if the discovery affected the essay’s score.
