We had a great time at 2019 Lancaster Learns conference at the Lancaster College of Heath Sciences. Eleven Penn State York faculty attended and we had a wonderful day.
Julie Smith from Webster University was the keynote speaker and shared her expertise on the importance of media literacy. This was followed by four rounds of concurrent sessions and a nice lunch!
We pooled our experiences and came up with this list of ideas that we gleaned from the conference that could be used to incorporate into your classes:
Joan Smeltzer (Mathematics):
Hard Conversations with Struggling Students
Leslie Gates – Millersville University
Students’ undesirable behaviors, disrespect, and poor decisions are theirs, yet as their teacher, these behaviors somehow become inextricably mine, too. The purpose of this session is to present strategies for both professionalism and self-care while engaging students in conversations about their struggles in (and perhaps outside of) class.
Without a doubt, the first session on “difficult conversations with struggling students” resonated with me. Most of my students are struggling ones. It is so easy to lump them altogether, and become frustrated. I need to be more mindful in my conversations with these students, and that session gave me time to not only think about this during the session but for the remainder of the weekend!
Nicole Muscanell (Psychology):
(1) Mind Mapping: More Than Pretty Chaos
Valerie Olson, PT, PhD and Amy Humphrey, PT, DPT, OCS, MTC – Messiah College
Mind mapping is a constructivist approach where students integrate new information within their existing framework. It consists of visual representations of various sub-topics and ideas in different colors with diagrams, radiating around a central topic. Although it looks like “pretty chaos”, mind mapping promotes learning, critical thinking and problem solving.
Nicole will use this in her Psych 100 class to help students process content
(2) Formative Assessment: Identifying and Supporting Student Success in Information Literacy Processes
Melinda Burchard, Ph.D. , Sarah Myers, M.S.L.S. – Messiah College
Have you ever tried promoting deeper skills in information literacy? Participants in this session will learn about revision of instruction and an assignment using formative assessment, and learning outcomes by the students. They will then practice rating sample videos and brainstorming applications to their own teaching of information literacy skills.
In Nicole’s classes, students will capture their screen and narrate a video — doing a literature search in PSYCinfo. They would explain what they are searching for, why they choose certain key words and qualifiers, how they decide which articles seem relevant.
Judy Owen (Biology):
In her virology class, students are going to interview non-experts in the community about their understanding of important course concepts.
Suzanne Shaffer (College Reading):
Student Collaboration in OneNote
Kristen Buchanan, MA, Selena Mallios, MS, LAT, CSCS – Pennsylvania College of Health
Sciences
To collaborate in an online environment that complies with the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act, both an English and a Science faculty chose OneNote as their tool over
their existing Learning Management System. This program allows students to work
asynchronously and allows the instructors to view all student work.
The “course” feature in OneNote allows for building student journals as well as collaboration between members of a class. I am going to explore the use of learning journals with my students in the fall in an attempt to increase the retention and transfer of learning.
Walter Arnold (Geology & Physics):
[My goal will be to] empower students in our digital age by using low-cost, highly engaging activities for STEM laboratory courses with Arduino (a design and modeling based approach).
