POGIL-ing

Westminster is a huge fan of the flipped classroom approach to teaching, and sent a few of us out to Colorado Springs to attend the POGIL Southwest Regional Conference this past week. In addition to three days of discussing classics such as "teamwork", "oral and written communication", "management", "information processing", "critical thinking", "problem solving" and "assessment", I also learned an incredible amount of additional jargon as well. Ridiculous buzzwords aside, however, the conference was actually quite informative and I'm really looking forward to implementing some new ideas into my classroom for this fall! 

Mills College

This past Wednesday, it was publicly announced that Mills has officially declared a state of financial emergency with a reported budget deficit of over $9 million, and has made the decision to terminate the contracts of 11 tenured faculty members, many, if not all, of whom have devoted decades of their lives to the College and, more importantly, to their students. In addition to the tenured faculty, Mills will also be cutting numerous staff, full-time and non-tenure-track (NTT) positions as well, and is furthermore eliminating the entire Philosophy Department and merging many of the remaining departments in hopes of cutting costs. 


While I am now two years removed from Mills and thus am unaffected, professionally, by these decisions, I am nonetheless personally overwhelmed by this news. As a passionate and dedicated educator, it positively kills me to know that Mills will undoubtedly suffer a huge loss in parting with some of their most well-respected and established faculty and staff members, individuals whose contributions throughout campus, within the classroom and impact on the lives of students cannot be equated to their paychecks, however large or small. 


I have the utmost confidence that the Board, current College President and all those in positions of leverage have not taken this decision lightly; I cannot even begin to understand the difficulty with which they must have made their final decisions, and I fully respect the unenviable position in which they too currently find themselves. Given the advanced state of decline in the College, frankly doing absolutely nothing at this point is simply not feasible. This said, however, I am utterly devastated over this proposed "solution", not only because I have dear friends and former colleagues who were selected for termination, but because I know and have personally experienced what a tight-knit and supportive community Mills encompasses. 


The most positive outcome at this point, of course, would presumably be the recovery of financial stability and the avoidance of full closure of the College, but I worry that the negative impacts of these decisions, priceless as they are, cannot be ignored. My broken heart is with you, Mills College.

This Is Why I Teach

Words cannot express how humbled I was by this note. I take an enormous amount of pride in my teaching, and there's nothing more rewarding than knowing that all of my efforts, all of my advance planning and organization, all of my hard work with students and all of my time spent constantly trying to be a better instructor have paid off even in the eyes of one single individual.

Present State of Mind

As of this evening I am completely done with the fall semester! All final exams have been graded and all course letter grades have been submitted. This marks the end of my first full semester here in SLC, which is both a giant relief as well as huge milestone for me. For those of you who know me personally, it comes as no surprise when I admit that this semester started on a rocky note, to say the least. In a tactful nutshell: I was overwhelmed by the workload and frankly underwhelmed by the students and certain of my colleagues. I found myself earning a fraction of the income to which I was accustomed in Oakland, and was struggling to reconcile the fact that I was putting forth what seemed like a superhuman effort only to be rewarded by incompetence, nearly offensively low salaries, ungrateful audiences and unanswered questions. Coming from a workplace in which I felt as though I had become an integral member, it was incredibly challenging to step foot into a new environment where I had no sense of belonging. Fast forward four months, however, and I am immeasurably happy to report that this semester turned out a hell of a lot better than I'd originally anticipated. My respect for my students at both Westminster and SLCC steadily increased throughout the semester, as they ultimately ended up stepping up their games and working their asses off, and I truly believe that, as a whole, I earned their appreciation and respect in return. All of the hard work I put in to both the advance preparation for the semester as well as before each day of class paid off, and while I certainly don't teach for the recognition, it's undoubtedly all together rewarding to know that I was able to help my students as much as possible. Furthermore, I found a handful of colleagues that have proven themselves to be not only wonderfully dedicated teachers, but who have also been incredibly helpful, supportive and encouraging. To those of my colleagues whose hearts just aren't in it - I feel for both you and your students, but I've come to realize that your indifference and lack of competence simply isn't my problem. 

There's not a single day of teaching that goes by without my missing Mills to some degree, and while nothing will ever match, replace nor best the seven years of experience that I had with that school, I am entirely relieved and grateful to now say that I am truly looking forward to my continued work within both the SLCC and Westminster communities. xx