Sunday, November 18, 2012

Block Scheduling and Movember

Block Scheduling
A big thank you to all the Faculty and Staff who came to one of the Block Scheduling forums last week.  Forums were held Thursday on main campus and at CTC.  On Friday one was held at CCW.  Quite a bit of feedback was received and once it's compiled will be sent out to the college.  In brief there is support for the concept but concerns about maintaining MW options for 5 credit classes. 

As I have stated before the purpose for exploring the block schedule is to provide consistent start times to make scheduling easier for students and to gain room efficiencies allowing for the potential development of adjunct office space, testing center and tutoring space. 

There is still one more forum taking place Monday, Nov 19th at 2:00 in GHL 213 Ellis Dunn room. Please come if you are able.  If you can't attend feel free to email me your feedback.   The next step is for Instructional Council to review the feedback and make a determination about whether to proceed this January or look at a pilot option and continue to explore the possibility. 

Class Visits
I had the pleasure of attending Malcolm McKay's Econ 101 and Murali Krishna's Math 095 classes recently.  I appreciate the opportunity to visit classes because I get to see faculty and I always learn something new.  I want to commend Mr. McKay for his excellent use of Pink Floyd's song, Money while students were examining currency from the several countries and the civil war.  During his lecture on currency I also learned the Wizard of Oz may have been written as a critique of the 19th century monetary system.  New information to me! 

Friday was the quarterly Instructional staff meeting.  You may not know that nearly 100 instructional staff are working to make sure we have support for faculty, library, tutoring and other services.  If you get a chance please thank a staff member for all they do to keep instruction running.

Movember
Several of you have commented on the growth appearing on my upper lip in the last couple of weeks.  Some have said it's not "a great look for me" and was I planning to keep it long.  One person even said it made me look kind of creepy.  Yikes!  Rest assured it's for a good cause and I will only be growing it until the end of the month.  It's for prostate cancer awareness and the intent is for men to grow mustaches during "Movember" to raise money.  If you would like to know more or are inclined to support the cause you can find out more here.

Product DetailsOn Friday, I was at CCW talking with some of the Nursing faculty when I was asked if I was growing the stache for Movember.  I learned that Nursing Faculty,  Laurie Brown is the President of the Mt. Hood Chapter of the Oncology Nursing Society.  Thank you Laurie for the very educational Illustrated Guide to Cancer book.

As the quarter is coming to a close in a few weeks I want to wish you best wishes during the upcoming break.  I hope you get to spend time with family and friends as well as getting a much needed break.

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