If you’re anything like me and love summer movies, you might be excited for the upcoming release of “Barbie” (Warner Bros). And while I’m not going to claim there is any historical value in seeing the film, I do think that the mere existence of the film is a great opportunity for conversations with students about a variety of topics: the history of children’s toys, the history of childhood, as well as personal reflection and even nostalgia.   The character “Barbie” is no doubt iconic in American life. Since the 1950s millions of children worldwide have dressed their dolls, imagined life in their “Dream Houses,” and zoomed their Barbies in pink cars on playroom floors. The public debate about the image projected by Barbie has also been ever-present: a blonde haired, blue-eyed woman sculpted with an unrealistically “ideal” body. Over the years, Mattel has sought to mitigate Barbie’s image problem by creating new Barbies that are more diverse and seek to inspire girls, in particular, to believe that any dream is a possibility.    I’ve been reflecting on Barbie, and toys in general, as a potential topic for US history classes this week as marketing ramps up for the film’s release. As crazy as this claim may sound, I do not remember ever owning a Barbie. My mother assures me that this was not the case and that for a time as a child I was just as immersed in Barbie’s imaginary world as the rest of my cohort of 1970s-born American girls.   While I certainly don’t expect to remember everything from my personal history, I do have strong memories of my favorite childhood possession: a two-sided chalkboard. For a time as a child I remember my father writing very short stories (two or three sentences) on the board after I went to sleep at night so I could read them in the morning. My father was a history teacher then and I remember visiting his classroom and him letting me write on the board at the front of the room. I also vividly recall that later I lined up my stuffed animals in a classroom formation on my bedroom floor to teach them “lessons.”    My own children are grown (enough) that I can make connections between their professional goals and their childhood passions. My oldest, who was never without a colored pencil and a drawing pad, is now an illustrator. My youngest, who wrote stories for us that he “bound” with multiple rows of staples, is studying film and writing. When I reflect on these memories with my children and share the historical evidence of their youthful work, I’m reminded of how often our college students forget subjects/areas of interest that they were passionate about once they arrive in college. The focus on career/income goals often completely takes over any discussion of their actual interests.   So, back to “Barbie” … what if we ask our students to think about the toys that brought them joy as children and imagine a way in which they could find that same joy as they pursue career choices? An in-class assignment might include students conducting research on their favorite childhood toys – they might, like me, have to ask the adults who raised them for some insight. A student who loved Barbies or GI Joes, or Matchbox Cars, for example, could engage in the history of their chosen product, its controversies and evolution over time. Ultimately, however, we as teachers could ask them to think about how that toy provoked joy and what they are/could be doing in their lives today to find that same spark. Questions will be raised about their personal childhood histories while also considering some of the popular culture of the eras in which they were raised.   As a graduate student I took a seminar called “History of Childhood.” This experience was the first time I had ever considered the extent to which young people’s lives have changed dramatically over the course of history. The topic made me more conscious about including children’s experiences in my general US History classes – and recognizing those experiences as historically valid and meaningful.   So let's toy (sorry) with this question: has anyone out there in the Macmillan Community included a study of toys/childhood in their survey history courses? Please share. ... View more

My summer term students were taking their final exam for US History I today when the Supreme Court announced the ruling that effectively ends affirmative action in college admissions. I can’t help but wonder about the long-term impact of the decision for community college students like mine, many of whom come from disadvantaged school districts where most residents are non-white. The two years of free community college provided to new high school graduates by the state in which I teach is only a small step towards closing the enormous economic gaps that exist in our socio-economic hierarchy. The reality is that nearly all well-paying jobs require a four-year degree nowadays. Every May as I watch students walk across the stage in jubilation as they receive their hard-earned associates degrees, I can’t help but think about all the academic and economic challenges that still lie ahead.   How, then, do we talk about the SCOTUS decision to our students of color? I long ago embraced the ideology of “teaching the truth.” Students in my classes reckon with the horrible realities of our history and the ways in which racial discrimination and notions of white supremacy have shaped all of our national institutions. I emphasize to my students that we study subjects like chattel slavery, the destruction of indigenous communities, and the internment of Japanese-Americans so that we can remind ourselves that the so-called “playing field” of American life has never been even. People of color in the United States have historically struggled against discrimination and oppression, and many have achieved incredible successes in spite of historically-present roadblocks. Rather than feeling defeated by those struggles, my students are often buoyed by the resilience of individuals and groups. These stories provide the students with a foundation from which to better understand the nation in which they live and, I hope, to recognize our nation is still a work in progress.   Now, however, my students face a new obstacle as they seek to transfer to four-year colleges. Race can no longer be considered in admissions, in spite of the fact that it is truly a factor in every aspect of American life and has been since the beginning of settlement in Jamestown, New Amsterdam, and Plymouth. I’m struggling with how to talk to students about this monumental decision. Many wonder how it will impact them individually. Will colleges that today are vowing to continue to strive for diverse student bodies be able to legally achieve their goals? Or will the hands of admissions committees be tied by the ruling? Anyone who has worked in a community college understands that it is simply impossible to ignore the harsh realities of growing up in non-white communities in America today, where educational opportunities for even our youngest children are not equal to those available in predominantly white neighborhoods. How do we keep students from being deterred by this ruling from pursuing their academic dreams? I feel fortunate to have two months to mull over the implications of this monumental decision before my students return to the classroom.   Conversation welcome. ... View more

In previous blogs I’ve mentioned that I use inclusive access in all of my on-campus and online classes. Some faculty are not familiar with this practice and have asked me to share some observations of this (relatively) new academic tool. Contained in this blog are my personal views with the caveat that some colleges/faculty have not adopted inclusive access for a number of reasons. My intent is not to debate the practice but to share the overwhelmingly positive experience I’ve had using inclusive access during the last three academic years.     Prior to the Pandemic our college had a traditional bookstore with both physical books and access codes available for students to purchase. As someone who has long used a publisher-based learning management system in conjunction with the one that my college provides to all students, I found the first couple weeks of class challenging. Students would need to purchase an access code and then connect to the publisher’s materials to get started with our course assignments. Although theoretically this task should be rather simple, it was unnecessarily difficult for a number  of reasons. The main stumbling point for my students was the use of financial aid at the bookstore. Many students did not adequately understand the financial aid process as it relates to book purchases and as a result missed key deadlines for getting course materials. These same students then missed assignments at the start of the semester.    In addition, some students struggled with the use of access codes. Again, we might see this as a non-issue in the 21st-century student’s life but the reality was something different. I had students lose codes, mis-type codes, choose the wrong text to which to match their code … all simple errors that resulted in a delay in the start of their participation in the course.   For me, the single greatest asset of inclusive access is having the course materials already loaded into our college’s learning management system on day one. My students, in fact, do not need to visit the bookstore for any of our course materials. Example: for US History I and II I use The American Promise with Achieve. I work with my Macmillan sales representative about two weeks before the start of classes to make the relevant connections (I’ll discuss these in a future blog) and when my students log in to our LMS they are already connected to needed materials. For those classes that meet in person I am able to show the students at our first meeting exactly where everything is. For online classes I provide an instructional video to show them where/how to find what they need.   This summer I am teaching a six week intensive US History I. Our IT department provided my students with laptops for our first meeting and they were able to immediately get working with course materials. No trip to the bookstore. No financial aid questions. The cost of the course materials is billed directly to the students with their tuition, which means no additional financial aid concerns/deadlines. Having no delay between the start of class and access to course materials meant that the very first week of class my students were able to read two chapters in the eBook and complete course assignments for both. This instant access has been extremely valuable this summer as we strive to complete an entire semester in six weeks.   I’d love to hear from those of you who have not yet tried inclusive access: what are your concerns? And those who have used it, what are your experiences? Please share. ... View more

This week I’m transitioning my US History I class from LaunchPad to Achieve   Summer session begins on Tuesday so I’m quickly educating myself on the differences between LaunchPad and Achieve, in preparation for working with students in the classroom. This week’s blog will share some of the materials I plan to use as we start Summer Session. I’ll follow up later in the month to share how things are going so far!    First things first: I use The American Promise (9th edition) for both sections of my US history survey classes. Summer Session One at my college is six weeks long. We meet in person twice per week for three hours and ten minutes each meeting.   I don't expect the transition from LaunchPad to Achieve to be an issue for the students as many of them are in my classroom for the first time and are not wedded to the LaunchPad system as I am! Nonetheless, to help us all with the technology I’ve requested a cart of laptops from our IT Department for our class meeting times so that each student will be able to complete these first assignments in our physical class space, getting help when necessary. This is something I hope to continue doing with future semester students – taking some of the “lecture” out of class time and replacing it with students completing work on their own or with a partner in class. This, I hope, will provide those who need additional support an opportunity to ask questions while we are sharing physical space.    Since our first meeting will be 3 hours long with the students not yet having access to their textbooks or any assignments beforehand, I plan to utilize two Achieve tools on the first day to help the students get to know the software and me to get to know the students.   Here are two short videos sharing the resources I will use on the first day of class: the Achieve Orientation Quiz and the Intro Survey. Bear with me as this is the first time I've added video to my blogs!     I'm excited to read the student surveys after our first meeting and hopeful that they will help guide me in the kinds of assignments I use with students during the semester.  Stay tuned!       ... View more

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on a previous blog to share their use of Discussion Boards in online and on-campus classes. I particularly loved the suggestions for using the tool as an ungraded community center for online classes. The suggestions I received made me rethink how I will use the board in my summer and fall classes. Please continue to share your perspectives: Talk to Me About Discussion Board    This week I’m struggling with the challenge of the disappearing student. It’s the last week of classes and attendance is dwindling. While this is not atypical in my experience, this semester the problem seems particularly distressing. The students who are no longer coming to class are some of the stronger ones academically. These are students who did well on the midterm exam and consistently turned in assignments … until two weeks ago when everything seemed to stop.   Our college uses a retention tool called Starfish, which has been fabulous for keeping track of attendance and “flagging” students who are having academic or personal difficulties. I’ve been able to successfully connect several students to academic support this semester by referring them to our college Success Center through Starfish and the students seem to appreciate the ease at which they can schedule appointments with me through the same tool.   As a last ditch effort, this week I sent emails to students in which I pleaded with them to finish the course in which they have been doing so well. While I know full well that the students need to take ownership of their education, I truly hate to see any student give up so close to the end. I found myself offering extensions, extra help … anything to get the students across the proverbial finish line.   As the COVID-19 Pandemic is coming to an end I’m wondering if this student fatigue is fallout from the months and months of online learning many of my current first year college students experienced in high school. Some, for example, have complained that returning to in-person classes has reintroduced social pressures that were eased during the Pandemic.  Or, perhaps the argument for a quarter system (versus our current two-semester academic year) has some validity with the mindset of today’s students.    Thoughts? Suggestions?    ... View more

There is a photograph I keep on my desk of my oldest son when he was in kindergarten. We were attending an event at his school called “Bingo for Books” and he was excited about his winnings. The picture documents his five-year old self in a state of pure bliss: a juice box and Clifford the Big Red Dog spread in front of him on a cafeteria table. As a young mom of two boys, I had no idea at the moment that picture was taken how significant reading would be as a cornerstone of my children’s education.    Years later when I joined the faculty of a community college I realized very quickly what I should have already known: not everyone’s experience with books and reading mirrored that of my family. Teaching at a college where the threshold for taking a class is minimal (the equivalent of a high school diploma) I am reminded constantly how important reading is to our academic pursuits, no matter the field of study. The use of technology in classes, for example, has not reduced the amount of reading our students must do – while they might not hold many paper books in their hands nowadays, they are still regularly engaged in reading materials. And, for many of my students, this task is difficult.   Recently I’ve been integrating more primary source discussions into my US History II class meetings. In previous semesters I would assign the documents as part of their homework assignments. I was finding, however, that very few students were coming to class prepared to discuss. Even those who read the textbook chapter, for example, would express to me that they had struggled with the primary sources. This semester I have been regularly bringing to class paper copies of the sources and then breaking the students up into small groups. I provide them with two or three questions that focus on identifying the audience, argument, and significance of each document. Witnessing with my own eyes the students’ process as they grapple with material has been very informative. I’ve been able to watch them reading silently and listen to their conversations about the sources before I lead them in a full-class discussion based on what their groups have identified as the significance of each document.    In some ways the casual conversations I have overhead have been most informative: many of my students do not read anything beyond what is assigned to them for classes and they express to each other how difficult reading academic materials is for them. This knowledge has inspired me to increase the amount of in-class reading time for future classes. And, to encourage students to take advantage of the reading support initiatives available at our college. While I will continue to employ the group work, I am brainstorming other ways that silent reading time can be incorporated into my class meetings. Suggestions welcome!  ... View more

Teaching at a community college in a “blue” state I have been fortunate to be part of a positive and affirming response to diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) initiatives, which have ramped up significantly since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Prior to the Pandemic our college had a growing Gender Equity Initiative, which has now been merged into our larger DEI projects. As we have been constantly brainstorming how best to engage our college community in DEI conversations, we decided to start this calendar year with a simple program: a film and discussion.   For anyone seeking to expand DEI initiatives at their college I strongly recommend reaching out to existing institutions in your geographic area for collaborative efforts. In the case of my college, we reinvigorated a pre-Pandemic partnership with the largest historical society in our area to share resources. We recently held our first joint event: the showing of Warrior Women With Lupita Nyong'o, a Smithsonian Institution-produced documentary that examines the history of the women portrayed by the Marvel “Black Panther” films. Many historical societies have relationships with the Smithsonian that enable the sharing of film resources for public history events. We hoped that by choosing a documentary connected closely with a successful feature film franchise we would attract students to a DEI event without even having to explain our true mission: to explore and discuss issues of race, history and identity.   We were thrilled with the response! Our college marketing department advertised our free event to students, faculty and staff, while the historical society publicized the event to their members through email and social media. The result was that on a gloomy Thursday evening just before the start of Spring Break we had fifty people in a small auditorium on our campus to watch the film and share in discussion. It’s not an overstatement to say that our discussion was better than even we had imagined it could be. A breakdown of the audience told us that we had approximately 15 students joined by numerous staff and faculty, as well as several members of the general public who had come as a result of the historical society’s publicity efforts.    The best part: not a single person left the room before the discussion ended. We had two faculty (English and History) lead the post-film discussion alongside a staff member who is also a student at the college. The audience required almost no prompting for discussion – we were treated to nearly thirty minutes of people sharing observations on the history of western Africa and the female warriors studied by the film, in addition to the telling of personal anecdotes about individual audience members’ cultures and heritage.   Response to our event has prompted us to plan a series of DEI-related films with the historical society in hopes of continuing conversations on campus and in our community. By partnering our institutions, we are able to benefit from shared resources such as their access to films and our public viewing space. Several students told me after the film that they felt a deeper connection to both the college and the community at large after participating in such a deep discussion with strangers about their personal connections to race and identity. What I personally learned from this experience is that DEI initiatives do not need to reinvent the wheel to be meaningful.  ... View more

Watch this short video and see how Achieve's built-in map quizzing tool can benefit your history course Achieve is a fully mobile, accessible, flexible system to help you deploy and manage all your tools for pre-class learning, in-class engagement, and post-class assessment—(and integrate it within your LMS if preferred), while gathering insights on student comprehension and engagement—all in a single simple and powerful interface.   ... View more

One of the challenges of teaching at a community college is that faculty are sometimes called upon to teach outside of our areas of expertise.    Case in point: my graduate studies focused on US social history and foreign policy. When I was hired in 2007 the United States was deeply engaged in the war in Afghanistan. Our large population of student-veterans sought to contextualize their understanding of experiences in the Middle East by signing up for a course I taught called “America’s Experience in Vietnam.” Over the years since, contemporary students' interests pivoted towards domestic politics, leading enrollment in the Vietnam course to decline and the number of students wanting to take Black History to increase exponentially. Being one of only two full-time Americanists at my college meant that I needed to put myself back into student mode. I read and studied as much as I could to prepare myself to offer one section of Black History to supplement the existing offerings by my colleague. And then, just like that, he retired and handed me the reins to the course. I now teach two sections of Black History every semester and can honestly say I learn something new with every iteration of the course.   Now in my sixteenth year at a community college I find myself facing a new preparation: Modern Latin America. Many, many years ago as a graduate student I studied Latin America as a field to supplement my work in US diplomatic history. As our community college’s population sees a steady increase in the number of students with familial origins in Latin American nations, the college seeks ways to respond to the needs of these students as they navigate their education. Many students are the first in their families to attend college and while they are native to the United States, their family histories lie in nations about which the students know very little. Hence, our efforts to diversify the curriculum now include a course in Modern Latin America.    So, I’m headed back to student mode to review content that I studied in graduate school and while this task is somewhat daunting, it’s also quite invigorating. Learning (or re-learning) material for a new class is a great way to prevent oneself from falling into an intellectual rut. For those of us with heavy teaching loads it’s easy to find ourselves lecturing from memory. There are topics that I truly believe I could cover in my sleep … and this acknowledgement worries me. The last thing I want to do is bore my 8:30am students into a morning nap because of a lack of enthusiasm on my part. By volunteering to teach Modern Latin America I am not only forging a new connection with students whose heritage is not widely addressed in our current curriculum, but I’m forcing my brain out of its comfort zone.    This experience, however, is not without some major trepidation. If I’m being completely honest, my greatest fear is proper pronunciation of terms and names. Many of my students will be native Spanish and Portuguese speakers. I cringe when I think of what my Boston accent will sound like mispronouncing terminology that is central to the course content. I will be relying heavily on friends in the Foreign Language Department to help me prepare for lectures and discussion. I intend to call upon the students’ good natures for mercy in this area as well – the first day of class will include an acknowledgement of my language-related short-comings in hopes that they will forgive my choppy pronunciations. I’m hopeful that the Spanish I studied in my earlier years as a student will start to come back to me the more familiar I become with material. Wish me luck!  ... View more

It feels as though every few weeks we educators in the United States are forced to reckon with an atrociously violent incident that is not only upsetting on a human level, but also has historical precedent with which we have to grapple as we seek some kind of meaningful discourse with our students.    This week I’m struggling with how best to address questions about the Tyre Nichols’s case. It’s fair to say that most of us have officially tired of the “thoughts and prayers” response to the seemingly never-ending horrors of gun violence, police brutality, and inadequate care for the mentally ill. We feel increasingly helpless as we have no concrete solutions to offer as we discuss these topics with our students. Do we focus the discussion on race? On police brutality? On the reality of how indistinguishable the two topics have become in the 21st century?   This most recent tragedy comes as educators in some parts of the country are being forced to mold their curriculums to the whims of politicians with no background in education, history, or any other content-area in which they seek to impose their political viewpoints. This week the College Board announced changes to its Advanced Placement African American Studies curriculum (see New York Times, 1 February 2023) seemingly in response to politicians in states where so-called “conservative” voices are working to erode the progress that has been made educating young people on race, gender, economics and history over the last thirty or so years. I write "so-called conservatives" because I personally do not believe that the delivery of historical content in a classroom needs to be either liberal or conservative. Historians share with all human beings the dilemma of personal bias. The best historians seek to find the truth in the evidence and help their students to uncover meaning and context.   It’s easy for me to deliver an inclusive curriculum in “blue” New England while colleagues in other parts of the country are increasingly being censored. I can’t help but feel, however, that we as a profession need to collectively do more.    What, then, is that “more”? What do our colleagues need from us in these curriculum content-battleground states?    I would love to hear from educators facing politically motivated content restrictions to their teaching. How are you addressing such issues with your students? What resources can we in other states offer to support you through these enormous challenges? Please share. ... View more

As the semester and calendar year draw to an end it’s a good time to reflect on the obstacles faced this academic year thus far and our hopes for the spring semester.    I’ll start with some not-so-fun observations: students are still struggling to reacclimate to in-person learning. In online educational forums there has been a lot of discussion about “learning loss.” For my community college students, the biggest disconnect has been deadlines, as in they don’t want them! During the pandemic pivot to all online learning our college faculty loosened deadlines and increased flexibility to account for student access to WiFi and other technology-related issues. Now that we are back on campus, I find myself having to explain to students why I need deadlines to help both them and me and stay on track throughout the semester. Recently I had to explain that it would be impossible for me – and a disservice to my students – to grade every assignment in the last week before final grades are due. I can’t remember ever having such a conversation in the pre-pandemic days. “Learning loss” in my experience has been less about content and more about the obligations of the student-teacher relationship: deadlines, expectations of regular attendance, and the encouragement of student note taking have required more of my attention than ever before.    On a positive note, however, the students that showed up this fall were especially engaged. In my US History I sections, for example, I had many eager learners who forged connections between what we were discussing in class and what is happening in the nation as a whole. The topic of post-Civil War Reconstruction, for example, was never better received than this semester as students recognized that there is a direct connection between the forms of racism and segregation that grew in the wake of abolition and the systemic problems we face as a nation today. Driven by student interest this semester I spent twice as much time examining Reconstruction as I did the Civil War, which is usually the topic of greatest interest in this course. Students engaged in discussion about the shortcomings of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the reactionary politics of white southerners as black men assumed leadership positions in the early stages of Reconstruction. They imagined how our society might have been different without the terror campaigns of the KKK and the exponential growth of white citizens councils in the former Confederate States. And, they offered ideas about what federal authorities might have done differently to prevent the restoration of white supremacist state governments. As the semester was ending, I found myself researching additional Reconstruction-related materials to share with future classes … more to come in a future blog.   In the coming year I would love to hear more from the Macmillan Community about both the successes and challenges faced in our history classrooms. Are there topics that you would like to discuss with fellow faculty? Books that you’ve found particularly meaningful either to read with students or to use for course preparation? If so, please share! ... View more

Yesterday, with only three weeks of classes left before finals, a student asked me for help in another class. My “Do you need help?” – directed at the history research project we were working on – prompted him to unload the stress he was feeling about an asynchronous online science course for which he had never purchased the textbook because of a problem with his financial aid. My heart sank. I knew there was likely nothing that this student could do to salvage his grade in the course. When our class ended, we walked to the Advising Center to find someone who could provide appropriate advice. A short time later the student appeared at my office to say thank you. “I don’t ask for help,” he told me, “Because it feels as though I’m bothering people.”   I do not think this student is alone in his fear of asking for help. I belong to a Facebook group for parents of first-year students at the college that my son attends and there are regularly posts asking how to find tutors and advisors or where to locate electronic forms for add/drop. All of these, it goes without saying, are parents posting on behalf of their children. Perhaps they are being stereotypical “helicopter” parents, or maybe they are responding to the stress their children are emitting as they seek to navigate college, like my student, without asking the right people for help.   I’ve recently come to the rather cynical conclusion that if a student cannot find a quick answer on the College’s web site, they stop looking. In my experience since our post-pandemic (if that’s a thing) return to mostly in-person classes I see lots of staff throughout campus eagerly waiting to help students, and few students actively seeking out that help that they need. Case in point: Enrollment. Right now, we have several advisors stationed at a kiosk in the main part of our campus to assist students with spring course selection. And yet yesterday I overheard two students in my class complaining that they have no idea what to take or how to finalize their spring enrollment. Somewhere there is a communication disconnect.   Perhaps a side-effect of the pandemic is an over-reliance on the internet when a conversation between two humans could quickly and effectively address questions. In the case of my student, for example, he told me that he “could not find” his professor’s office hours listed online so he assumed she did not offer any. We talked through other steps he could have taken: review the syllabus, check the course learning management system for general information, and, of course, write an email to the professor.    This experience emphasized to me how important it is to have direct communication with our students, even if we never meet in person. A weekly email to asynchronous online students, for example, can be a simple way to subconsciously remind them how to contact their instructor. Last night I double-checked my own learning management system pages to make sure that students can find me easily if they are stressed. A page with key links – tutoring/writing center, library, mental health resources, etc – should also be a standard component of any online course materials.    What is your post-pandemic experience with student-teacher communication? Have you found any particularly helpful, low-stress ways to keep your students in regular contact? Please share. ... View more

This week I had the privilege of being peer evaluated. Although I’m a tenured professor my college requires faculty to continue to follow an evaluation schedule after promotion. Every three years I complete a formal self-evaluation in addition to having a written evaluation by my department chair, and a classroom visit by a colleague. Students evaluate my courses nearly every semester.   While some faculty bristle at the idea of peer evaluation, our department has embraced it as a practice over the last ten years. We voted to include peer evaluation as part of our process because we initially saw it as valuable to new faculty as they adjusted to our institution. It’s not uncommon for faculty to join our department fresh from graduate school. Having a colleague review a new teacher’s syllabi and observe their classroom practices can be illuminating to both parties. The same has proven to be true for our long-serving faculty.    In my case the colleague evaluating me has been at the college for only three years and teaches in a different discipline (political science). Prior to her visit I shared with her the syllabus and discussed the experiences I’ve had with the students in this course. In this course I’ve struggled with enrollment being low – a widespread challenge at our college as we have returned from the all-remote delivery of the pandemic. This particular course was not offered on campus prior to COVID and likely will return to being an online-only offering in the future. As a result, this semester’s delivery has often been experimental.   I spent a few minutes in the class meeting prior to my colleague’s visit preparing the students for us to have an observer. I decided to include them in the planning process for the observation and asked the students for feedback about what form of content delivery had been most successful so far in the course. Together we settled on a plan for how the class would proceed that day and decided that we should ask my evaluator to come prepared to be part of class discussion. While I did not want to burden my colleague with extra work, I provided her with copies of the assigned readings.   After more than twenty years of college-level teaching I nonetheless found myself nervous when my colleague arrived to observe. Rather than have her sit in the back like a stranger, I introduced her to my students and asked them to introduce themselves and their research topics – the class being small allowed for this to happen quickly. Since peer evaluation in our department is viewed as collegial and intentionally not intimidating, the nervous tension quickly evaporated. My colleague blended easily into our class discussion as a participant-observer.   Peer evaluation offers even seasoned faculty the opportunity to evaluate what happens in their classroom day to day. Engaging the students in planning for the visit provided me with the chance to learn what they think is working (or not) long before formal student evaluations are available at semester’s end.    What are your experiences with peer evaluation? Tips for making it less stressful and more rewarding? Please share.  ... View more

As a historian I know almost nothing about the British monarchy except what I need to get me through teaching the first weeks of colonial America. I haven’t taught Western Civ in many, many years and somehow I completely avoided British history throughout my own undergraduate education. My increased interest in the monarchy in recent years, admittedly, is founded entirely on the hours I have invested in the Netflix series “The Crown.” When the Queen passed away in September, it took me a moment to remind myself that the deceased was not Olivia Coleman, the brilliant actor upon whom my sympathetic view of Queen Elizabeth II’s life has been built, but instead a woman I knew very little about – a figurehead whose life has been serialized.   Historically based (largely fictitious) dramas have an enormous influence over the television-watching and movie-going population and how they view historical events. When “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” came out in 2019 I remember my students being stunned during our casual conversation that Quentin Tarantino had ended the movie with a fictionalized version of a real-life murder. Some felt betrayed by the way history was “changed” for the movie. I reminded them that movies are meant for entertainment and that history as narrative – when it tells the truth – often offers no comfort or enjoyment.      Somber images of the Queen’s funeral broadcast world-wide depicted family members in mourning and residents of the far-reaching British Empire offering public condolences. World leaders expressed gratitude for her lifetime of service. In those moments – seemingly made for television – we forget that the Queen as a symbol represents years of British colonial and imperial policies that have been damaging to the societies and economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. And for that, I feel a bit guilty over the hours I’ve invested in the entertainment value of the fictional version of Queen Elizabeth II versus time spent studying the true history of her reign. If I knew more about British policies in India, for example, would the serialization of the Queen’s life – with all the dramatic flair of a soap opera – truly be so entertaining?  Probably not.   As much as I love both movies and television, I wonder if the creative minds behind such entertainment need for us as society to remain somewhat ignorant of history so that we will “enjoy” the stories. Don’t get me wrong: I do not believe that there is a giant conspiracy to keep us in the dark about history to sell movie tickets. I do, however, think there is a balance that must be struck between entertainment and the sharing of factual knowledge. Maybe the responsibility for that balance rests solely on me as historian and consumer. Thoughts?  ... View more

Recently my Macmillan Community colleague Symphonie asked members to share insights into how they deal with the “noise” present in our students’ lives. How do we, as educators, get through to our students in spite of all the distractions they are juggling?   I’ve been thinking a lot about Symphonie’s question as I’ve struggled to get my students off to a strong start in the new school year. For the first time since March 2020 I am teaching the majority of my students in person, and they do seem generally distracted. Just this week I wondered to a colleague whether we as a society have lost the ability to function as members of a group as a result of the long period of near isolation many of us experienced during the recent pandemic. During a recent class meeting, for example, a student put in earbuds and started watching a video on their cell phone as a classmate explained the central points of the homework reading. As class ended, I reminded the distracted student about my “no phones in class” policy. The response was shocking: the student felt it was fine to turn their attention elsewhere because a classmate was speaking and not me, the professor.    Later that same day I broke a class up into small groups for discussion. I was bewildered to watch as students sat with their backs towards one another for group work. It was not until I made a general announcement that members should sit facing each other that some of the students repositioned themselves so they could see and hear their classmates. I jokingly asked how they intended to do group work with their backs to one another. No response.   Now that we are back on campus en masse, therefore, we as faculty need to make a concerted effort to get students to engage with each other. A colleague in Student Affairs lamented recently that getting students to attend informational meetings for clubs and activities has never been more difficult.    To answer Symphonie’s question, I don’t think there is one simple way to cut through the noise but I do believe we have to be direct with our students and tell them what we are trying to accomplish. Yesterday, for example, as my students struggled to get started with their group work I took a moment to tell them how meaningful I believe it is that we are back in a shared learning space. Rather than me lecturing for the entire class I want them to make eye contact, to listen to each other’s voices, and to experience the value of learning collectively. I asked them to introduce their group mates to the rest of the class and to make an effort to know something about each other before they began to dissect our primary sources.    I’m happy to report that the students responded in an overwhelmingly positive manner to my plea for interaction. Taking that moment to remind them of the value of a learning community truly seemed to make a difference.    Please share your ideas here or with your fellow Macmillan Community members under Symphonie's blog linked in my first paragraph. ... View more