READING GROUP: What the Best College Teachers Do: Meeting 1
Meeting 1:
During this meeting we discussed the following topics from the Introduction and Chapter 1
Introduction & Chapter 1 Defining the Best
What the best college teachers do?
Introduction & Chapter 1: Defining the Best
Pg2 What did Lynn do to have great influence on his students. Jeannette Norton to win every reward for teaching granted by the school.
Ann Woolworth in theater has also won numerous awards.
Defining excellence students indicated that the teacher has reached them, they wanted more.
P11 think on our own that’s always a goal for me it’s more important than learning the course material.
P15
1.Know their subjects well
2.Begin with learning objectives
3. Expect more from their students than just the learning objectives of the course.
4. Create a challenging but supportive learning environment, feedback to students.
5. Treat students well, and trust them
6 They check themselves
Good teaching can be learned is inspirational. If you’re here in this reading group then you probably have some characteristics of the best teachers.
Chapter 1
1 Knowledge is constructed not received. Students use existing mental models (paradigm )to build knowledge. Need to develop new mental models.
2. Mental models change slowly. Want Deep learning help students see their mistakes.
3, Questions are crucial get students to ask their own questions
4. For Students -Caring is crucial gave students control, offered nonjudgmental feedback, stressed opportunity to improve, encouraging.
Cooperation, collaboration, comprehensive exams give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate comprehension. Talk about promises of the course not requirements. Invite rather than command. Describe the big questions why should they care. Keep larger questions in forefront.
Ie. Why study accounting? Why is it important to a student?
READING GROUP: WHAT THE BEST COLLEGE TEACHERS DO MEETING 3
CHAPTER 3 : HOW DO THEY PREPARE TO TEACH
P50 1.big question for course and smaller questions leading to it
for example. Look at financial stm. and not feel intimidated.
A. Complete a fin. form
Make investments decisions
Use info to make business decisions, shall ask for. Raise, is this a good place to work. Should I sell this product or service, how much should I charge to make a profit?
2. Reasoning abilities develop to think like an accountant
3. What mental models do students bring with them? How do students define expense, profit, bills debt?
4. What do students need to know to answer important questions
P52 key info or concepts should be clarified to provide foundations so they can continue to build understanding.
5. How to provide explanations for students who will have difficulty clarify concepts
6. How will I help students grapple with conflicts in the discipline, conflicting truths or new findings?
7. How do I find out what students already know and what they expect? Survey student interest and adapt course to pique those interests.
8. How will I help students learn to learn, and assess their learning.
9. How will I informally determine their learning and provide feedback before “test” safe environment, individual feedback, group feedback
10. How will I communicate with students in a way to keep them interested and thinking? Visual. Written, etc.
11.how will I spell out the standards used to assess student work?
12. How will I help students understand the nature of their progress and quality of their learning?
13. How to create a safe environment in which students try, fail, receive feedback and try again?
Chapter 4 Expectations for students
- Every one of you can learn the curriculum if you do the work required.
There are no shortcuts there are daily assignments due every day that we meet if you want to succeed you must complete them. - High standards and faith that students could meet those standards.
Students need to see value in assignments. “What you bring to class is yourself & desire to participate.
Promising syllabus: questions course will answer-ask students what do they want from course
The Power of Habit Session 3 -5/22/19
During this final meeting of the reading group we wrapped up our discussion of the book. We focused again on chapter 4 and chapter 5. Chapter 5 discusses the role of will power and self control in success. According to the book ” Willpower is the most important keystone habit for individual success. In the last chapter you learned that keystone habits have the power to change other habits. The best way to strengthen willpower is to make it into a habit. The opening story talks about how Starbucks helped employees develop self control habits so that good decisions become automatic. When employees are faced with difficult customers or problems at work they resort to their routines. We talked about the famous“marshmallow study” conducted in the 1960s that measured children’s self control as preschoolers.
During the group we discussed the socratic method and expectations of students being prepared for class. We discussed the need to provide students with clear expectations of what grade they can earn in the class We talked again about how helping students develop good study habits is the key to academic success. We discussed how important good self control is to managing a student’s academic career. Sadly many of us agree that our students do not come to KBCC with good self control habits, they are easily distracted and may start out strong but often they fall off course as the semester progresses. One of the topics discussed was helping students understand the purpose of attending college and getting students to interact and participate in the classroom so they can stay involved and engaged for the entire semester.
The Power of Habit Session 2 Spring 2019
The second meeting of the Power of Habit reading group was held on 4/17/19 from 11:30-12:30 p.m
During this session we mostly focused on Chapter 4 Keystone Habits, or the Ballad of Paul O’Neill. This chapter discusses the idea that keystone habits are habits are more powerful than others. These are known as keystone habits and they have the power to change how other habits work. Making a change in a keystone habit (“going for a run before work”) can start a chain reaction that over time transforms other patterns. Chapter 4 begins with a discussion of Paul O’Neill the CEO of Alcola Corporation. When he was first appointed CEO he was able to improve productivity by focusing on the keystone habit of safety in the workplace. Keystone habits are important for our students. If we can get our students to change keystone habits, how they prepare for class, then they may be able to transform their patterns of learning in all their classes. Most of us agree that our students are not prepared for class and for learning. They have not developed good keystone learning habits in high school and therefore they continue in the same failing patterns in college.
We also discussed how challenging it can be to get new programs started at KBCC. The difficulty of changing routines seems to be a challenge not only for students in the classroom but for Instructors working at the College.
The Power of Habit Spring 2019 Session 1
The Book The Power of Habit was begun in fall 2018. There was a great interest in the book and attendees agreed to continue the discussion in the spring. Due to time schedules it was difficult to find common times to meet so attendance was not as high as it was during the fall meetings.
The first session was held on 4/3 from 11:30-12:30 p.m.
After a brief introduction by attendees we talked about our goals for our semester goals for students. Chapter 3 focuses on changing habits. The golden rule of habit change says that to change a habit, it is important to keep the cue and the reward the same, while inserting a new routine into the habit loop. We talked about how we can use these rules to get our students to develop good learning habits. Discussions included how we could positivity frame expectations to students on the syllabus and during class meeting to encourage learning. And to encourage the development of good learning habits. We talked about the techniques of positive behavior therapy and how that approach may be used to help students.
