New Registration System is LIVE this Weekend

Our new online registration system is going live even as I write this. Anyone going to our website http://noncredit.cocc.edu and now sign up for classes. Everything is handled online including payment and students get an immediate email reciept once they register and pay.

This is a much improved system and may take some getting used to. It offers us opportunities we didn't have with the other system especially the email reciept. We used to have to mail these to students.

It also lets you know right away if you are in the class or on the wait list.

When you have time go check it out. You will also notice the new website and the easier navigation it offers.

Let us know what you think.

Asian/Pacific Island Festival

Join the COCC fun and have a cultural experience at the Asian/Pacific Island Festival on April 9, 2011. The event will feature food booths, demonstrations, and activities for the children. Admission is FREE!

Click here for more info.

See you there this Saturday, April 9, 2011, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. in the Campus Center.

Readjusting in Class

On March 30th, Dean Dad on BlogU of "Inside Higher Ed" wrote the following about interviewing instructors that we should all consider.

"One of my favorite interview questions is 'tell us about a time you realized that something you were doing wasn’t working. What kind of adjustment did you make?' I’ve seen candidates trip over this, since in a few cases, it apparently never occurred to them that they had made mistakes. I don’t believe in perfect people; I’m looking for people who are capable of self-correction. That necessarily involves a certain degree of self-awareness. Sadly, self-awareness is not evenly distributed across the population."

What experiences have you had? Have you readjusted in the midst of a class?
I had an instructor sharing with me that he asked his computer class to click on a certain button and got asked the question by several students, "Which button do I press?" He had to back up and introduce several class members to the mouse.

What have been your experiences? Share them with us.

Rules for Using Humor in the Classroom

Following are some rules about using humor in the classroom from eHow.com.
The full article will be found by clicking here

1.Know your audience. Middle school students, highschoolers and even 19-year-old college students do not have the same sense of humor as their teachers and professors. Think about what they will find amusing and keep an ear open to what kind of jokes, cracks, remarks and anecdotes show up in your students' conversations.

2.Use humor at appropriate times.This means finding the right balance of instruction and joking. Don't let your whole class become an hour long comedy routine. Use humor to keep your students alert and engaged, not as a way to gain popularity. Also, using humor appropriately in the classroom means watching out for inappropriate material. Steer clear of off-color jokes and be sensitive to the cultural backgrounds of all of your students.

3.Encourage humor among your students. Let them know that it is OK to cut loose and joke around occasionally. The benefits of a happy, smiling classroom outweigh the time lost on humorous tangents. Group projects are a great place for them to use humor, as long as they cover the assigned material as well.

4.Don't try too hard to jazz up the material you are teaching. Sometimes, things like geometry and physics are going to bore students. This is OK. Don't try to compensate by delivering the material in a humorous package, like a funny song. Use humor to create a positive classroom environment, but don't let it obscure the material when it's time to really teach.

5.Don't exclude anyone. Stay away from "in jokes" between you and a few students. The whole class should feel included in the humor, not just a few popular, outgoing students or the class clowns.

Labels: encouragement, humor

Connect with Us Through Facebook

Community learning has a fan page on Facebook and we are seeking fans from our instructors. I encourage all of you to join us and add your comments and content to our page. This is just another way for you to keep in touch with us and to hear what we are up to as well.

The address is: http://www.facebook.com/COCCCommunityLearning

See you on Facebook!
Labels: Facebook, fans, keep in touch

Using Humor Effectively

This is an exerpt from an article at Education Blog Romow, on teaching youth that has some good points for teaching adults. For as I always say, an adult is just a kid in a bigger, older body. To read the full article go here: http://www.romow.com/education-blog/using-humor-effectively-as-a-teacher/

"Another key to humor being effective as a teacher is to make sure it is not at the expense of other students. If you can only get a laugh while making a student look bad, then you should not be trying. Humor should always be easy for the students to laugh at. If you are being laughed at, you are succeeding. This means they are listening, and that is a good thing. Do not be afraid to be the butt of the joke. Your students will love you for it."

When Experience is Not the Best Teacher

More from the LERN article, "Your Experience in Teaching."

•Listen to your inner voice about how you might teach. Try some of what at first sounds outrageous - you’ll likely be surprised at how successful a seemingly outrageous idea turns out to be.

•Take a risk. You’ll feel better; your students will enjoy it. Don’t worry that no one has tried the teaching approach you have in mind before, or you can’t find any research about it. Try it anyway. Your idea just might set a new direction for teaching adults.

•Most of the time don’t share your new idea about teaching with a fellow teacher until you’ve tried it with your students. You’ll too often hear, “Stay with what you know, it’s safer.”

•Watch what other people do — techniques speakers use to engage an audience, strategies discussion leaders employ to involve people and so on. Borrow the ideas and try them out in your classrooms.

•Accept failure as a stepping stone to success. Unless you fail occasionally, you aren’t trying anything new.
Experience can be a wonderful and important teacher, particularly if we learn how to reflect on and understand what we have experienced. But experience can also be a block to change because it imprints in our minds particular ways of doing things. As teachers of adults, we must learn to recognize when experience is a good and proper teacher, and when it blocks our learning.

When Experience Is Not the Best Teacher

From the article, "Your Experience in Teaching" on the LERN website, comes some things to ponder.

Many of us have long subscribed to the slogan, “Experience is the best teacher.” We tell younger people that as they gain experience, they will build on what they learn. This is true, to a point. But can
experience also be a deterrent to change, a block to our learning or a barrier to new approaches and new ideas? The answer is yes, in too many situations.

For many of us, our experience can prevent us from looking at things in new ways. Likewise, our students: as much as we prize their experiences and try to incorporate them into our teaching, their experiences often prevent them from seeing things in new ways, from learning new perspectives, from truly learning in a profound way.

What can we do about this? How can we put in our own experience, as well as help our students see a new perspective?

•Develop a skeptical, constantly questioning attitude of your experience. Ask, “Do I want to do this again, in the same way?”

•Figure out ways of making the usual, unusual, the ordinary, extraordinary.
When things are horizontal, make them vertical. When they are squares, make them circles. Ask, “What is the opposite of this?” Or, “What are five ways of teaching this topic that I haven’t tried before?”

Instructor Professional Education Workshop

As a Community Learning instructor, we know you are a lifelong learner just like your students. We are pleased to provide occasional learning opportunities to build your teaching tool kit.

Dealing with Varying Abilities in Your Class
As an instructor in the adult learning environment, it can be rewarding and challenging to facilitate learning in a room full of students with varying levels of knowledge and experience. Join us for a two-hour facilitated discussion to brainstorm new ways to work with varying abilities in your classes. You'll come away with new and creative ideas to bridge the gap and include everyone in the learning process.

When: Monday, February 28, 2011 6-8 pm
Where: Boyle Ed Center 151
Preregistration is required - space is limited. Please register by 2/22.

Register by phone (541) 383-7270 or send us an email and let us know you'll be attending.

New Year and Time is Short

Welcome to 2011! Our enrollment has taken a jump as people are looking for ways to fulfill their resolutions through a class or simply want to continue learning.
This first post of the year is a reminder that we programmers are in a very tight scheduling timeframe. We are now planning for Spring and Summer term. If you have ideas for new classes you need to contact us right away. If we contact you, please respond as soon as you can.
We hope you all have a great year!