The community college at which I teach is designated a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), which means that at least 25% of our students are Hispanic. Many of our students are first-generation college students making it imperative that we provide a curriculum that affords them an opportunity to explore their cultures as well as examples of people from their communities who have been successful in their professional pursuits. Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to October 15th, is a great time to review our courses and extracurricular offerings to ensure that we are meeting the needs of these valued members of our academic communities.   This past summer our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council reached out to the Rhode Island Latino Arts (RILA), a statewide cultural institution, to connect with a Dominican-American filmmaker. Alberto Genao grew up only five miles from our campus in one of the communities from which many of our students graduate high school. He visited campus last week to share his work in documentary and narrative filmmaking, as well as his efforts to document the Dominican and Colombian communities in our state.   Students had an overwhelmingly positive response to Genao’s visit and his message encouraging them to network in both their home communities and the collegiate environment. Having a professional filmmaker show students music videos he has made with performers in the Caribbean was motivating and inspiring, allowing them to see the possibilities that exist beyond the boundaries of their neighborhoods and the success of a man with a shared socio-economic background. Many of the students in the room during Genao’s talk could identify directly with his upbringing and the familial and cultural challenges he faced as he pursued a non-traditional career path.    Anyone in the Macmillan Community looking for an engaging speaker to connect with students during Hispanic Heritage Month, is encouraged to reach out to state cultural organizations such as RILA who can introduce students to speakers with whom they can directly identify. Just as we want students to see themselves reflected in a diverse teaching faculty, community members’ participation on our college campuses can present valuable role models for our students as they navigate the challenges of higher education. ... View more

New for Spring 2024: Access the "best of Bedford" and American History with over 120 titles including survey texts, primary source modules, writing guides, Bedford Series books, and much more--all at an extremely affordable price! ... View more

Historian and professor Vaughn Scribner explains Achieve in his own words and why it's changed his classroom for the better. ... View more

We’ve had the good fortune this calendar year of welcoming two new faculty to our department, both of whom are newly-minted PhDs. Having fresh f aces to interact with has added energy to our department while also making us all a bit more aware of how important it is to “check in” on one another.    As we met in our opening-day department meeting I reflected on my first faculty meeting as an assistant professor on the tenure track in 2007. Diversity in hiring has been a priority of my community college for some time now. On that day in 2007, however, I was one of only two female faculty in a department of 15. Sixteen years later our department of 18 full-time faculty includes seven women and six people of color. We are the most diverse department on campus and our students notice. Increasingly they see themselves reflected in their teachers and that is meaningful. So many of our students are first-generation college students and seeing a diverse faculty provides them with examples of who they could become. They look to us as examples for their professional careers and to share with us the challenges they are facing as students and human beings.    I sent texts to our new faculty members a few days into the school year just to “check in”: how is it so far? What challenges are you facing? One commented that they were having trouble asking for assistance from our wonderfully helpful administrative assistant because in their head they were “still a graduate student.” We chatted about this transition from student to faculty, which gave me an opportunity to think about my own experiences so many years ago.   As we start this new semester, check in on your colleagues – young and old, new and seasoned. Yesterday one of our younger faculty members stopped by my office to ask how my semester is going. The “ask” gave me an opportunity to vent about a frustrating interaction with a student and I felt noticeably lighter when the conversation ended.    So this year, as always, whether it’s online in the Macmillan Community or in our brick and mortar offices, we as faculty can be amazing allies and support for each other. Keep your doors open and remember to keep checking in. ... View more

This week I had the opportunity to participate in New Student Welcome Day at my college. Beyond helping them to learn the ins and outs of the campus, the students were introduced to the college’s Pathways program and had the opportunity to eat lunch with a faculty member who teaches within their chosen academic path.    Participation in such a program by faculty is always voluntary at my community college. For me, New Student Days are an important way to help forge a personal connection to the physical space of the college while also being introduced to the intellectual shift that needs to take place as they become college students. While the idea behind the lunch was to provide students an opportunity to talk about possible career paths available to them with specific majors, the best part of the experience for me was listening to the general concerns that the student expressed.    I participated in this week’s event as a “history professor” but in reality what the students needed was a safe space in which to ask what they deemed “stupid questions.” This realization occurred about five minutes into my lunch group’s discussion when a student interrupted my talk about academic majors to ask what the difference is between calling an instructor “Professor” versus “Mr. or Mrs.” What followed was a series of “This is a dumb question but ….”    I was reminded during that one-hour discussion that many of my students are first-generation college attendees. Unlike myself, they did not grow up hearing their parents tell stories about college experiences. They likely do not keep one of their father’s college textbooks on their bookshelves like I do – a relic of my father’s life as a young man but also evidence of my family’s history of higher education. I don’t remember ever wondering why college-level teachers are called “professors” … but I do have memories of my father describing a particularly difficult professor at the institution we both attended.    As much as I tried to talk about career paths, what the students wanted was to discuss the basics: schedule, calendar, textbooks, bookstore, and general interaction with faculty. In other words, they could not yet envision career paths because they need to get over this first hurdle of experiencing the environment of college.   As we prepare for the first days of the new semester, let's try to hold some extra space and empathy in our hearts for those young people who are very likely to soar academically, but only after they stumble the first few weeks in an environment that is entirely foreign to them. Recognize that what feels so natural to those of us who teach, may feel cumbersome and riddled with anxiety to a person who has no previous connection to higher education. In other words, while our expertise may lie in an academic area, many young people need us more simply to be their bridge to that space that is unknown and uncomfortable. Best wishes for the new academic year!  ... View more

Even after teaching college students for twenty-plus years, I'm still searching every summer for tips and tricks to make the upcoming year's courses more meaningful for both myself and my students. This summer I was fortunate to participate in an assessment workshop at my college to evaluate our student learning outcomes (SLOs). Faculty from nearly every academic department worked in small mixed-discipline groups to consider necessary changes to our SLOs and discuss implementation of changes during the upcoming academic year. At the conclusion of the workshop each group shared observations for their assigned SLO in a seminar-wide discussion.    The strongest take-away for me from this workshop was the importance of helping students to understand the “why” in my assignments. From the simple (“why are we reading these textbook chapters?”) to the more complex (“why can’t we use unvetted web sites in our history research projects?”) it was demonstrated to me time and again as I listened to the challenges colleagues face in their classrooms that we as faculty need our students to buy-in to our assignments. They must see the value in completing the work as a component of their personal success rather than simply checking a box.    I’ve blogged before about the challenge of convincing students to engage with  assigned readings. Reality is that if students believe they can complete a course without reading the text, they will do so. My students are assigned various types of quizzes (Summative Chapter or Learning Curve) available with Achieve to prepare for class. While I can’t be certain that they have read every word of the chapter, I can generally see from their quiz grade whether the student has engaged even minimally with the material before coming to class. Having those quizzes combine to equal one exam grade gives some weight to the reading as well and undoubtedly increased the quality of class participation and discussion.   While many Macmillan Community members may already be familiar with the so-called TILT framework for creating course assignments, I am sharing the link this week because until this summer’s faculty seminar, TILT was a foreign concept to me. A research project originally begun at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, TILT provides a framework for transparency in student assignments. The web site linked in this blog provides an explanation of the framework as well as opportunities for faculty to participate in on-going research studies of student assignments. In our faculty seminar we shared assignments from previous semesters and made suggestions to each other, using the TILT concepts, for how our goals for SLOs could be better conveyed to students through our instructions. The experience was incredibly valuable! As you prepare for the semester ahead, TILT is just one more resource to consider adding to your academic tool box.   Tips for the new school year? Please share!   ... View more

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

On this day in academic history...   98 years ago today, the nation was gripped by the landmark court case history would remember as the “Scopes Monkey Trial.” The case pertained to the prosecution of John Scopes, a young science teacher in Tennessee who had taught evolution–a subject which had recently been deemed unlawful to broach– to his students. Nearly a century after the dust from the case settled, the issues surrounding it such as separation of church and state, hegemonic forces dictating the parameters of education, and the pitfalls of engaging with media spectacle all continue to polarize modern society. The best protections against these recurring issues were–and remain to be–the temperance to resist sensationalization, which often obscures and muddies facts, and the drive to educate oneself. We’d like to help there –  at your leisure, check out our Bedford Series book on the Scopes Monkey Trial to learn more! Like its predecessor cousin in English, the Bedford Bookshelf for American History allows instructors to assign a variety of titles (over 100 Bedford history titles for an amazingly low price!) This includes: our 3 major U.S. history franchises in volume splits, primary source readers, Bedford Series in History & Culture (60+ volumes), Bedford history tutorials, 2 full research and writing guides including Rampolla and Benjamin Mix and match content (chapters, readings) to create a personalized collection for students. This simple solution gives instructors choice while providing students with access to affordable, quality learning materials. If you’re interested in piloting this offer for Fall 2023, please see this flyer & fill out this form!  ... 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

Today we'd like to highlight the appearance of Ellen Carol Dubois--the illustrious co-author of "Through Women's Eyes"--on the Against the Grain podcast. Her riveting episode dissects the tumultuous, multigenerational journey towards achieving women's suffrage. Dubois analyzes the setback-laden movement's roots, various revivals, and divisions with her typical nuance and aplomb. The episode, "The 75 Year Struggle for Women's Enfranchisement," is available at the following link: https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-april-4-2023/  Have a listen and comment below your thoughts on the episode, and what you learned about the decades long journey towards women's enfranchisement.  ... 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