• Professional Development Seminars 2012-13: Overview

  • 2012-13 Professional Development Seminars Banner 

    Looking for information about Community 2.0 Spring/Fall 2013 Seminar? Visit the Descriptions and Dates pages for more information, or go to the application form. Applications are due by December 21st, 2012.

    The LaGuardia Center for Teaching and Learning offers a wide range of programs to LaGuardia faculty and staff, seeking to build collaboration and reflective practice and support student success. For 2012-13, the Center will coordinate a diverse set of professional development seminars for LaGuardia's full-time and part-time faculty from Academic Affairs and Adult and Continuing Education, and has now begun offering programs for Student Affairs staff as well.

    We are pleased to announce the list of seminar participants who applied to and were accepted into the currently available 2012-13 seminars. Thank you to President Mellow, Vice President Katopes, and Dean Arcario for their support of the Center, and to all faculty and staff leaders and participants.

    The Art of Advising

    How do we guide students’ educational growth and change? What roles can faculty play in advisement? How might faculty and staff collaborate? Working with first generation college students, how can we help them envision and build new identities as learners and emerging professionals?

    LaGuardia’s strategic initiative to help more students graduate and succeed offers new opportunities to meet students’ needs through advising approaches. As the College seeks to enhance students’ experiences online, a consideration of digital tools for advising and transfer planning is warranted. To these ends, we are pleased to offer a seminar series that provides ways faculty and staff can go beyond the common perception of advising as "course selection" and examine factors critical to how the Council on the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education defines advising as "helping students develop meaningful educational plans."

    2012-13 Participants
    Taryn Anderson - Humanities
    Rosalia Barnett - Business and Technology
    Seurette Bazelais - Cooperative Education
    Mimi Blaber - CUNY Language Immersion Program
    Bojana Blagojevic - Social Science
    Fay Butler - Student Affairs
    Nartey Emmanuel - Humanities
    Hector Fernandez -Business and Technology
    Alcira Forero-Pena - Social Science
    Andrea Francis - Business and Technology
    Sean Galvin - Social Science and Liberty Partnership
    Hicania Gomez - ASAP
    Marianne Kaukianen - College Discovery
    Lisa Leff - Business and Technology
    Teresa Licari - Health Sciences

    Sandy Mao - Student Affairs
    Eman Mosharafa - Humanities
    Cindy Pierce - Health Sciences
    Suzanne Rosenberg - Health Sciences
    Jianna Schroeder - Counseling
    Shivani Subrayan - College Discovery
    Paul West - Math, Engineering, and Computer Science

    Leaders
    Raj Bhika - Business and Technology
    Clarence Chan - Health Sciences
    Mercedes Del Rosario - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Danielle Insalaco-Egan - Educational Planning and Testing
    Bernetta Parson - Transfer Services



    Strengthening Core Learning: Competencies, Integration and Student Success

    How do we help LaGuardia students become expert learners? What do they need to know? What competencies are important? And how can we help students more effectively use their skills and knowledge as they move from one class to the next?

    LaGuardia's Core Competencies – from Reading and Writing to Critical Thinking and Quantitative Literacy – have been identified by faculty as crucial to student academic success. These competencies have guided curriculum development in General Education and our majors, informed effective faculty seminars such as Writing in the Disciplines, and shaped our increasingly meaningful assessment process.

    The Strengthening Core Learning seminar will help faculty integrate combinations of key competencies into their courses. It will build on the proven practices and design of LaGuardia's Writing in the Disciplines program to help faculty incorporate writing into their courses and adapt it to disciplinary needs. And at the same time, through readings, discussions, and activities focused on developing low-, middle- and high-stakes assignments, it will help faculty use the writing process to deepen learning and help students build and integrate other competencies.

    2012-13 Participants
    Rajendra Bhika - Business and Technology
    Timothy Coogan - Social Science
    Yasser Hassebo - Math, Engineering, and Computing
    Mabel Gonzalez - Education and Language Acquisition
    Jacqueline Jones - English
    Demetrios Kapetanakos - English
    Vincent Keeton - Social Science
    Charles Keyes - Library
    Michael Kiliviris - Humanities
    Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin - Math, Engineering, and Computing
    Michele Philogene - Business and Technology
    Marina Nechayeva - Math, Engineering, and Computing
    Mariajose Romero - Education and Language Acquisition
    Noam Scheindlin - English
    Joni Schwartz - Humanities
    David Styler - English
    Shaunee Wallace - Humanities
    Lukourgos Vasileiou - English
    Svetoslav Zahariev - Math, Engineering, and Computing

    Leaders
    Yelana Baishanski - Math, Engineering, and Computing
    Evelyn Burg - Communication Skills
    John Chaffee - Humanities
    Karen Miller - Social Science
    Ros Orgel - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Michelle Pacht - English
    Justin Rogers-Cooper - English
    Chris Schmidt - English
    Phyllis Van Slyck - English



    Cultivating and Expanding Hybrid/Online Teaching and Learning

    As LaGuardia continues to expand its offering of hybrid/online classes, faculty are actively exploring the distinction between hybrid/online teaching and teaching in a traditional classroom. What logistical and pedagogical issues do we need to consider when transitioning from a face-to-face to a hybrid (partially online, partially face-to-face) or fully online environment? Which tools can help us engage students in their learning? How might ePortfolio fit into an online course? How will our assessment of student learning be different? These questions and more are explored in two interlocking seminar components:

    • Introduction to Hybrid/Online Teaching and Learning
    • Developing Advanced Practices and Mentoring Faculty in the Hybrid/Online Classroom

    Participants are expected to teach a hybrid class in Spring, 2013. To provide faculty new to hybrid or online learning environments with an authentic experience of being learners in a hybrid environment, some sessions will take place online and others face to face.

    2012-13 Participants: Advanced Practice
    Richard Brown - Humanities
    Deborah Harrell - Business and Technology
    Nozomi Kato - Humanities

    2012-13 Participants: Introduction
    Minerva Ahumada - Humanities
    Ian Alberts - Natural Science
    Vera Albrecht - Humanities
    Michelle Amos - Communication Skills
    Prabha Betne - Math, Engineering, and Computing
    Vanessa Bing - Social Science
    Steven Cosares - Math, Engineering, and Computing
    Marina Dedlovskaya - Math, Engineering, and Computing
    Nancy DeLaTorre - Business and Technology
    Nelson Diaz - Health Sciences
    Erika Heppner - Humanities
    Hana Masters - Education and Language Acquisition
    Andrea Morgan-Eason - Health Sciences
    Michelle Payne - Social Science
    Stacy Perry - Business and Technology
    Kimberly Ramirez - English
    David Seiple - Humanities
    Melinda Thomsen - CUNY Language Immersion Program
    Gene Yao - Math, Engineering, and Computing

    Leaders
    Josephine Corso - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Steve Ovadia - Library
    Santo Trapani - Business and Technology



    Faculty Scholars Publication Workshop

    A year-long faculty development seminar designed to assist LaGuardia faculty in their scholarly writing projects publication, the Workshop seeks to help faculty scholars complete current academic writing projects and place them in external, peer-reviewed journals. LaGuardia faculty scholars from various disciplines—ranging from Accounting to Humanities, from Mathematics to English, from Library to Cooperative Education—came together to read, critique, and support one another’s writing within their respective fields. Participants have benefited from the support of the Carnegie Seminar, In Transit and the Faculty Workshop on Scholarship and Publication; they have revised and submitted work subsequently published in peer-reviewed journals.

    2012-13 Participants
    Leslie Aarons - Humanities
    Rosalia Barnett - Business and Technology
    Evelyn Burg - Communication Skills
    Natalya Fazylova - Health Sciences
    Stafford Gregoire - English
    Maria Hart - Social Science
    Noel Holton - English
    Jacqueline Jones - English
    William Kurzyna - Communication Skills
    Christine Marks - English
    Sreca Perunovic - Social Science
    Luis Zambrano - Natural Science

    Leaders
    Nancy Berke - English
    Michele Piso - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Charity Scribner - English



    Connected Learning

    Connected Learning faculty learn about the pedagogical applications of ePortfolio by doing: the seminar invites faculty to construct their own professional ePortfolios for documenting and reflecting upon their ongoing course revision, modeling a classroom environment in which everyone shares with and learns from one another. Specific areas of emphasis include using ePortfolio to help students overcome fragmentation in their learning; actively and meaningfully connect with faculty, peers, and external audiences; integrate their diverse learning experiences, both inside and outside of the classroom; and, envision and plan their educational futures, including graduation and transfer.

    2012-13 Participants
    Ruhma Choudhury - Education and Language Acquisition
    Ceasar Colon - Health Sciences
    Abdou Drame- Math, Engineering, and Computing
    Emma Holly - Cooperative Education
    Dustin Hovda
    Elizabeth Hurley
    Nicole Lytle - Business and Technology
    Yves Ngabonziza - Education and Language Acquisition
    Lisa O'Donnell- Health Sciences
    Eric Rock - Business and Technology
    Stefanie Sertich - Humanities
    Naomi Stubbs - English
    Arlene Spinner - Health Sciences
    Rebekah Johnson - Education and Language Acquisition

    Leaders
    Craig Kasprzak - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Ellen Quish - Adult Learning Center
    Kimberly Ramirez - English



    Teaching the City: Rethinking Urban Studies At LaGuardia

    LaGuardia was one of the first community colleges in the nation with an Urban Studies requirement for all students. What does that mean for us now? What does it mean in different disciplines and majors? How do we teach our Urban Studies courses? What makes them “urban?” What can we do, across the college, to help students connect knowledge of the city with disciplinary skills and understanding?

    LaGuardia’s Urban Studies Program has designed this seminar to offer faculty college-wide an opportunity to consider these questions as they rethink and redesign their Urban Studies courses. In dialogue with other professors, and from a cross-disciplinary perspective, faculty will investigate ways to use New York City as a teaching and learning lab.

    The Teaching the City Seminar offers an opportunity for faculty to come together to discuss the dynamics of experiential and reflective learning through both past teaching experiences and key texts in the field. We will share our different approaches to Urban Studies, as well as various ways of incorporating writing and field trips into our syllabi and assignments, and learn about research methods.

    2012-13 Participants
    Eric Cimino - Social Science
    Monika Ekiert - Education and Language Acquisition
    Nicole Lytle - Business and Technology
    Claudia Moreno Pisan - English
    Burcin Ogrenir - Education and Language Acquisition
    Holly Porter-Morgan - Natural Sciences
    Justin Rogers-Cooper - English
    George Walters - Social Science

    Leaders
    Kristen Gallagher - English
    Ros Orgel - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Karen Miller - Social Science



    ePortfolio Mini-Grants

    Academic departments and programs college-wide are moving forward with two distinct but closely-connected efforts: integrating ePortfolio across their curricula, and deepening their work through the Periodic Program Review (PPR) process. To support programs’ work in these areas, the Center for Teaching and Learning is offering mini-grants of up to $7,500 for the 2012-13 academic year. These grants can be used to support program or department–led efforts, including faculty development and curriculum integration processes, addressing the following initiatives:

    • Programmatic implementation of LaGuardia’s ePortfolio system, supporting integration across the program’s curriculum and instruction, maximizing benefits for students and faculty; and
    • Advancing the program’s work related to the PPR process and alignment with the Program Assessment Grids, such as refining assignments and pedagogies that help faculty build students’ Core Competencies.

    In both areas, programs and departments will actively address strategic college priorities such as overcoming fragmentation and helping students plan towards graduation and transfer.

    2012-13 Participants: Advanced Practice
    Mabel Gonzalez - Modern Languages and Literatures Program, Education and Language Acquisition
    Edward Goodman - Accounting Program, Business and Technology
    Yasser Hassebo - Environment and Earth Systems Eingineering Program, Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Yves Ngabonziza - Engineering Program, Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Preethi Radhakrishnan - Natural Science
    James Richardson - New Media Technology Program, Humanities
    Mariajose Romero - Education Program, Education and Language Acquisition

    Leaders
    Mercedes Del Rosario - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Bret Eynon - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Ros Orgel - Center for Teaching and Learning


    Seminars Not Currently Accepting Applications


    Carnegie Seminar on Teaching and Learning

    (Please note: The next application period is Spring 2013) The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) is generally defined as the rigorous and systematic study of student learning, publicly shared, open to peer review and critique, and committed to collective knowledge-building. The Carnegie Seminar commits itself to these principles and to LaGuardia’s vision of an integrated culture of evidence-based teaching and learning. As the nation reflects on problems facing our schools, the values and missions of community colleges are more visible and pivotal than ever in the educational and intellectual life of our country. LaGuardia’s Carnegie Seminar provides faculty the opportunity to cultivate habits of pedagogical research that result in transformed and shared understanding of student experiences in our classrooms and beyond.

    2011-13 Participants
    Dennis Aguirre - Natural Science
    Maria Entezari - Natural Science
    Phillip Gimber - Health Sciences
    Reem Jaafar - Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Kathy Karsten - Health Sciences
    Mangala Kothari - Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Zahidur Rahman - Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Ivan Osiris Rivera-Torres - Natural Sciences
    Helen Rozelman - Health Sciences
    Karim Sharif - Natural Science
    Dong Wook Won - Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Boris Zakharov - Natural Science

    Leaders
    Dionne Miller - Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Michele Piso - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Patricia Sokolski - Communication Skills



    New Faculty Colloquium

    The College recognizes its responsibility to support new teachers as they enter LaGuardia's teaching community and to share with them LaGuardia's tradition of caring and innovative teaching. LaGuardia is aware of a specific need to develop reflective teachers who are responsive to the vocational goals, the academic skills, and the diverse cultural, social and linguistic backgrounds of our students.

    Through a carefully-structured program of professional development, the Colloquium focuses on issues of pedagogy and classroom practice, emphasizing sharing among instructors and student-centered classrooms. It introduces new faculty to a range of teaching issues and helps them as they develop effective strategies for LaGuardia classrooms.

    The colloquium also provides new faculty with an overview of LaGuardia's key faculty development programs, such as learning communities, inquiry learning, teaching-with-technology initiatives, diversity projects, and the literacy-building-across-the-curricula programs.

    2011-12 Participants
    Nader Goubram - Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Kamrul Huda - Health Sciences
    Vincent Keeton - Social Science
    Kwang Hyum Kim - Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Elizabeth Krams - Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Nicole Lytle - Business and Technology
    Philippe Mercier - Natural Science
    Burcin Ogrenir - Education and Language Acquisition
    Holly Porter-Morgan - Natural Sciences
    Jason Ramirez - Humanities
    Catherine Reid - Health Sciences
    Ian Alberts - Natural Science
    Joan Schwartz - Humanities
    Stefanie Sertich - Humanities
    Shaunee Wallace - Humanities
     

    Leaders
    Sree Ande- Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science
    Josephine Corso - Center for Teaching and Learning
    Ana Maria Hernandez - Education and Language Acquisition