Posts by kristi
Desirable Difficulty: Making It Hard on Purpose (Sometimes)
This academic year, I’ve been taking courses at Landmark College (VT), a four-year institution that admits only students who are neuro-diverse or students who, at my institution, would have accommodations. The current two-month course on student engagement, self-regulation, and motivation has just begun. The instructors are on staff at the college through its Landmark College…
Read MorePractical Strategies for Supporting the English Language Learner
The first class I ever taught was a developmental English class. I didn’t do a very good job with it. I was a first-semester graduate student in my early 20s, filled with big ideas about philosophy and literary theory, and those topics probably made it into my class inappropriately from time to time. My training—a…
Read MoreKeeping it Real: Readings for Developmental English
On August 19th, a handful of developmental English instructors at SCC sat around a table and talked books. One was Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Another was Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. We discussed possible assignments and topics for class discussion in our developmental classes if…
Read MoreOn Patricia Lear’s “Pomodoro Technique” (With Regards to Francesco Cirillo)
I was confused by what a “Pomodoro,” an Italian word for “tomato,” could possibly have to do with writing. In my third of five residencies at the University of Nebraska Omaha MFA in Writing program, I attended a lecture by Patricia Lear, a fiction mentor and author of Stardust, 7-Eleven, Route 57, A&W, and So Forth. Her…
Read MoreDevelopmental Education Increases Public Safety
The benefits of developmental education are innumerable, but I’d like to add a perhaps underappreciated benefit to that list. Developmental education has the ability to reduce recidivism and increase public safety. Yes, you heard that correctly. Each Friday I get pat-searched, brought through a series of locked steel doors and a razor-wire fence to be…
Read MoreDevelopmental Education and Textbooks
As an instructor of Developmental Reading and Writing classes, I often see students struggle with purchasing their textbooks. Some students purchase them right away, some students purchase them several weeks into the course, and some students don’t purchase them at all. This can pose challenges for both the student and the instructor. The student doesn’t…
Read MoreWorking for the Public Good
I’ve been thinking about the purpose of education recently. For me, education is a public good. It is not a market commodity. It is meant to be one of the primary engines of human development in our society. I understand that this notion is idealistic and problematic, but it’s what gets me to campus every…
Read MoreGeneral Education Goal: Personal Development
General education goals occupy an important place in a community college; however, because of the varied nature of community college programs, working toward a shared vision can be difficult. In the past, we at Western Nebraska community College (WNCC) recognized the importance of a general education goal that emphasized personal development. For us, that goal…
Read MoreLet’s Work Together
An open call across our state: Let’s work together It’s my hope that the Nebraska Developmental Education Consortium (NDEC) becomes a network of professionals who encourage one another to continue to evolve as teachers, researchers, and leaders in our colleges, communities, and state. Hoping won’t make it happen. Money won’t even make it happen. It…
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