Our Global Skills Experience - Reflections

From Michelle Zollars:

From January 5-8, in warm and sunny Phoenix, Arizona, I, along with 25 other developmental educators from around the country and leaders from Knowledge for the Public Interest, the League for Innovation in the Community College, and LaGuardia Community College, met to begin a two-year project entitled Global Skills for College Completion. During my four days at the beautiful Arizona Biltmore Resort, my colleagues and I began to develop promising innovations in pedagogy that will increase the success rates for developmental students.

As I was waiting for a taxi at the Phoenix Airport, the porter asked why I was in Phoenix. I went on to explain that it was for a conference. He smiled and told me to make sure I sneak out of a couple of sessions and enjoy the beautiful Phoenix weather. I simply nodded yet thought to myself, "I sure hope so." The next four days of "Camp Innovation" were so rigorous and packed with activities, meetings, interviews, etc., that I simply had to live vicariously through my husband and daughter, who availed themselves of the horseback riding, hot air ballooning, and sunbathing.

Now that I am back home, the hard work begins. Each participant has an e-portfolio which will be used to document classroom activities, assessment, and reflection. My sincere desire is that through the sharing of these 26 faculty members, I will happen upon ideas and innovations from which all of us here at PHCC can benefit. For example, here is a link to a colleague's webpage that explains how he uses the video softward Jing to provide feedback to his students. If you are unfamiliar with Jing (another popular one is Camtasia), these are software programs that allow teachers to video their comments for students.

Here's the link: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rsunahar/

As I come across other ideas worth sharing, I'll pass them along.


From Bronte Miller:

Michelle and I had an amazing experience at Camp Innovation, the retreat that launched our participation in the Global Skills for College Completion project. Phoenix was warm and beautiful and our accommodations were spectacular, but the amenities weren’t the reason for our amazing experience.

The Global Skills for College Completion project has brought together some of the most inspiring, dedicated, and energetic educators we’ve ever met. We found kindred spirits there, folks who respect and value students, who consider developmental education to be a sacred trust, and who believe that with focused effort, this project will transform basic skills education.

At Camp Innovation, Michelle and I began learning about the project, its goals, the research, our roles, and how we would be supported. We came away from the retreat both excited and overwhelmed by the project’s scope. But mostly, we came away believing in the possibility that thousands more students will realize their full potential as a result of the work we do here.

As we begin to document our work and collect “shreds of evidence” of student success, we recognize more than ever how fortunate we are to work at PHCC, an institution that supports, encourages, and leads best practices in education.