A Culture of Hope

By Cheney Luttich I arrived home late last night feeling heavy. My husband greeted me at the door, took my bags, and served me dinner while I sprawled out on the sofa, exhausted. After asking me how my day went, I told him midterm conferences were a wrap. He looked at me knowingly because he…

Read More

Trauma-Informed Teaching

By Shelley Stoltenberg If you attended the Nebraska Developmental Education Consortium Conference this fall, you heard my presentation during lunch. Thank you to all who visited with me after the presentation and expressed your interest in this topic. Let’s keep the conversation going by reviewing some of the highlights here. Trauma-Informed Teaching is about working…

Read More

The Importance of Creating Peer Networks in Developmental Education

By Dr. Carolee Ritter A quick virtual show of hands—how many of you, when you were young, aspired to be teachers when you grew up? How many of you aspired to teach students who are underprepared or struggle academically? How many aspired to teach struggling or underprepared students at a community college? The developmental educator,…

Read More

Classroom Community: A Glimpse Into One of My Favorite Spaces

By Kate Leonard-Barr Think of your list of favorites. A brief, but not exhaustive, list of my favorites would include good coffee (that’s on yours too, isn’t it?!), hydrangeas, quirky music, hiking and skiing, creating just about anything – you get the idea. I also feel fortunate that teaching and learning remain steadfastly on my…

Read More

Priming the Brain with Anticipation Guides in IRW Practice

By Lois Todd-Meyer These are a few thoughts I wanted to share after reading the article The Fall, and Rise, of Reading: Students often don’t complete assigned reading. Professors are finding ways to solve that puzzle, by Steven Johnson. My sense is that pre-teaching is becoming more important in helping to establish an authentic purpose in the minds…

Read More

Communities of Practice: A Room for Ourselves

Graphic illustration by Nitya Wakhlu, produced at the Experience Engagement conference in October 2015. A reflection of NADE 2019 by contributor Phip Ross When we started our shift to a dynamic* sequence of developmental English pedagogy and structure in 2014, I started using the phrase community of practice (CoP) during our meetings. While my use…

Read More

We’re More Alike Than You Know

by Kristi Leibhart I’ve been teaching developmental or foundational English classes in both reading and writing at NPCC for the past five years and it just occurred to me: I, too, was once a developmental student. Yes, I’m qualified to teach these students. They are in good hands. I’m well-qualified. I spent my entire life…

Read More

Creating Authentic Bonds Between Speaker and Listener by Mary Birdsall

Recently I read an article that discussed how to ask better questions, particularly when establishing relationships. The author, Lila MacLellan, cited research by Harvard professors Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie John that emphasized the importance of asking follow-up questions. I gave this a try today as I met my first two classes of our summer…

Read More

Teachers as Writers: Earned Expertise

by Phip Ross I get the honor of talking with teachers about their practice fairly regularly. I could say it’s part of my job, but it’s really not how I think of the work. The way each of us go about cracking that nut which is effective practice is pretty fascinating and every classroom context…

Read More

What’s New at NDEC?

As our 2018 conference approaches, there are several exciting changes to take note of. First, our website has a new look! Take a moment to peruse the site and soak up the new aesthetics. We hope you’ll find the update more visually appealing and easy to navigate. When you visit the site, you’ll see there…

Read More