Tagging on to my Macmillan Community colleague’s post “Recommendations for Black History Month” I’d like to share two web sites that I find particularly pertinent for educators in all disciplines as we continue to watch state legislatures and local school boards mercilessly target history education. No matter our politics, as educators we have a responsibility to our students to encourage critical thinking about both current events and historical topics. Here are two additional links for those who are seeking ideas, discussion, and resources. Both of these sites go beyond the scope of Black History Month to maintain up to date information year round:   Teaching History with Integrity – part of the American Historical Association’s multi-faceted efforts to counter-balance efforts against teaching all aspects of our national history. The site includes videos featuring historians describing the challenges educators are currently facing and why we as a society need to be honest with students even when the narrative is uncomfortable.   The Zinn Education Project provides lesson plans on topics not commonly found in textbooks, including this month’s focus on environmental racism. If you’re looking for resources to supplement discussions on race, gender, climate justice, imperialism and many other areas, this website is regularly updated and full of ideas for expanding conversation in your classrooms.   Other suggestions, please share!  ... View more

What was it really like to travel as a Black American during the era of Jim Crow laws and segregation? Award-winning journalist Alvin Hall and social justice trainer Janée Woods Weber hit the road to find out on Driving the Green Book, a living history podcast from Macmillan Podcasts. Over the course of 12 days and 2,021 miles, the two drove from Detroit to New Orleans collecting personal stories from Black Americans who used the historic Negro Motorist Green Book travel guide to navigate trips safely and with dignity, patronize Black-owned businesses, and come together in the face of institutionalized racism. Driving the Green Book sheds light on what has (and hasn't) changed for Black travelers since segregation and honors the stories of those who lived through the era, supported and uplifted each other, and fought for equality.  Listeners can also gain a deeper appreciation of the historic, but often forgotten, locations that helped Black Americans to travel safely across the United States with Driving the Green Book's custom Apple Maps Guide. They can also enjoy a playlist on Apple Music highlighting the songs that came out of the era, many of which were written in response to the injustices faced by Black Americans all over the country.  Educators can use the podcast and additional resources as supplemental tools in a variety of history courses to explain how the Negro Motorist Green Book was a seminal publication in the ongoing fight for racial and social justice. ... View more

Just before Valentine's Day, 1965, the Supremes released the breakaway-hit "Stop! In the Name of Love" after recording it a month prior. The song skyrocketed on the charts hitting Number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100 and was also a Top 10 hit in the U.K. The Supremes consisted of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard. Both the artists and the song's notoriety is often associated with the famous "traffic cop" dance style where the ladies sang the chorus and made the "stop" sign gesture with their hands in tune with the music. The Supremes went on to become one of Motown's leading female groups. ... View more

Over the past year many publications have explored the COVID 19 pandemic-related “gaps” that educators are seeing in elementary school-aged children who missed out on important opportunities for social and emotional growth as part of in-person classes. As we move forward in the post-COVID era, here are some (unscientific) observations of what I have witnessed with my students during 2023. I’m sharing my experiences in hopes of inspiring us all to think about what we can do with future classes to close the social/emotional gaps among the 18+ year-olds that we teach at America’s colleges:   Students feel overwhelmed. Many students feel alone in their educational journeys in spite of available safety nets and support systems.   Example: my students can meet with an advisor in person or complete the advising process on their own by following carefully written directions and utilizing a virtual assistant. After the enrollment period for 2024 opened I asked one of my classes if anyone was taking the second half of the US history survey with me during the spring semester. Silence. Then I asked if anyone had met with their advisor or utilized the advising app. Fewer than a handful of hands were raised in a class of 20-plus students. When I expressed concern about how many were unprepared for the course selection process a student shared that she was completely overwhelmed by the process. Several students nodded in agreement. Later that day a student from the class stopped by my office to discuss her concern that she is in the wrong major.   Students are isolating themselves from their peers. On any given day, walk into a college-level lecture and the majority of students will be scrolling their social feeds or texting with people who are not in the same room. Especially at commuter-colleges but no doubt also at places with active dorm cultures, students often make little to no effort to get to know their classmates unless we engage them in that practice.    It has been reaffirmed for me this year numerous times that student resistance to even general conversation with peers in an academic setting is evidence of how much they need that interaction. Case in point: my US history students in a medium-size lecture hall. After splitting them randomly into groups to begin discussion, many sat with their backs to their group members until I told them to face one another for their discussion.   Students are in desperate need of all kinds of support. No doubt there is nothing surprising to anyone about this observation, and the reality is that college-aged students have historically struggled with stress, anxiety and depression in addition to academic challenges. The COVID-19 Pandemic only exacerbated a problem that already existed. Encouraging students to take advantage of on-campus counseling support is critical, but I would further suggest that bringing academic support measures into the classroom from the first day of school can help alleviate some of the stress before it builds to a breaking point. I’m excited to be part of a pilot program at my college in which we will embed a peer tutor into my US history classes. I look forward to writing more about this experience in future blogs.   What challenges are you anticipating as we begin a new calendar year? How can we, the Macmillan Community, best support our colleagues through these and other challenges? Please share by commenting below or email me at suzannekmccormack@gmail.com   Happy New Year!    ... View more

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a Macmillan webinar titled “Working with Divided Student Attention: Engaging Learners in A World Full of Distractions.” Professor Christin Monroe (Landmark College) and I shared some of our experiences working with diverse student populations in our respective fields, chemistry and history. We heard from lots of faculty participants from all over the country during the webinar who asked questions and shared experiences from their own classrooms. Most helpful for me was our discussion of what it means to be “distracted” and how to tell if a student truly is not paying attention. As we seek a better understanding of how the brain works and how much information we can process at one time, these kinds of conversations are critical for faculty seeking to make the most of the in-person time they have with students.    I’m happy to share a recording of the webinar below and welcome the opportunity to continue this conversation in a future blog. Comments are welcome through the comment box below or to me via email at suzannekmccormack@gmail.com   Working With Divided Student Attention: Engaging Learners In A World Full of Distractions (macmillanlearning.com) ... View more

This week's Quick Watch provides a demonstration of the Primary Source assignments available in Achieve, which are some of my favorite items to use for discussion and low-stakes quizzing. Questions? Please ask!    ... View more

As Professor Scribner notes, it's not always easy to have historians explore new digital features! However, LearningCurve adaptive quizzing provides improved results for students without extra stress. Listen as he discusses the most popular digital asset combination to get students to come to class prepared and having done the reading: Learning Curve adaptive quizzing + eBook within Achieve! ... View more

Over the past year I have transitioned all of my US history courses to either Achieve or Achieve Read & Practice. This week I've created a short (5 minute) video to show how easy it is to get started creating a course. In subsequent posts I will share some of my favorite Achieve-based content to use in history courses.   ... 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

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

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

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

Using Digital Tools to Encourage Human Connection With online homework, hybrid classrooms, and virtual lessons it can be a challenge to feel connected to your students. But technology doesn't have to divide you! Join this webinar to hear from history professor, Suzanne McCormack, and a panel of faculty advocates, on how to use digital tools to better connect with students REGISTER FOR SESSION NOW! ... 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