Greetings from CETL!
We are getting into the home stretch for the fall semester here at the university. I am sure all of you are starting to feel the pressure of getting everything completed, tests written and grades organized. At the same time, the Center has had a busy time with a couple of new initiatives.
The first initiative is the development of a pool of "faculty fellows." As you may recall, we asked for self-nominations from all faculty who felt they use active learning effectively in the classroom and would be interesting in sharing their activities with other faculty. We now have a total of 24 faculty who have been interviewed. We will next be visiting their classrooms to see them using active learning techniques in the various disciplines. These same faculty will be presenting their ideas at an all day conference being set-up now for February 19, 2004. Get this date on your calendar.
We have a nationally known keynoter along with our own faculty who will provide an innovative and exciting program for the day. The title of the conference is "Talking About Teaching and Active Learning." For those interested in looking at improving lecture and finding significant ways to reach our students this is a not to be missed conference and he will be held on our own campus. More details will follow.
Finally, there is a great opportunity coming up for all faculty on February 27, 2004. The second "Realizing Student Potential" conference will be held in the Twin Cities. They are currently looking for proposals that fit this theme. Although you must register there is no cost for attending (includes a free lunch). Besides presentations from MnSCU faculty from around the state there will be meetings of discipline areas also. Get this one on your calendar now. If you are interested in submitting a proposal go to the CTL website which can be done through our CETL website. You can also register from the CTL website.
Our new faculty member featured in this newsletter is Nanette Johnson-Curiskis from the Speech Communications department. Nanette has actually taught at MSU for a few years before becoming a full-time hire this year. Her husband is Janis and she has a 17 year-old daughter, Erika who will attend MSU next year.
She has two cats. Nanette has already taught 15 different classes over the past 5 years. She has degrees from MSU, the College of St. Thomas and Capella University.
Her favorite movie is "Being There" featuring Peter Sellers. He favorite book is "Catching up on the John Sanford Prey series."
The most unique things about Nanette is that she completed her Ph.D. completed online and was awarded the "2003 Dissertation of the Year" Award from the International Listening Association. Congratulations Nan!
