Rocky, Rambo, Indiana Jones, and Jaws all had four sequels. The 4x4x16: Year 4 will be coming to a blog near you soon, and it will definitely be better than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. As in years past, those that would like to participate in...
4 x 4 x 16 Challenge Articles
Reading Your Colleagues: The 4×4 Challenge
We have just wrapped up our third annual 4x4x16 Writing Challenge. We invited instructors at NMC to create 4 new pieces of writing for 4 straight weeks. Each piece of writing was to be approximately 16 sentences in length and focused on teaching and learning. That...
Will Reading Ever Be the Same?
I was listenting to the podcast "Note to Self" the other day. I really like to download a whole bunch of different podcasts and listen while driving. So much so that I actually look forward to long car trips now. Anyway, enough about me... This episode was titled...
The WRC: Providing Instructor Support
Last week I presented to a biology class about their final project. I provided a lovely handout (if I do say so myself) that outlined the different sections of their project and how to best create their content. But there was one glaring issue: a typo. Of course I...
Kon-Tiki Kind of Times
This weekend I watched the movie Kon-Tiki with my family. Having never read it, I found the whole thing new, and wonderfully so. Thor Heyerdahl and his bride, Liv, are beginning their marriage on Fatu Hiva, near the Polynesian Islands. The question...
My Extra Credit Assignment: StoryCorps’ Great Thanksgiving Listen
Today in my ENG 99 class, I introduced an extra credit assignment for over the Thanksgiving weekend. The assignment is for students to download the StoryCorps app and record an interview this weekend with someone special in their lives. Then, they can join thousands...
Paperless Grading
Moodle attendance feature. I do not use the attendance feature to take attendance, I use it to grade my students’ Prepare Activities. In Moodle, the instructor can set up the attendance feature however she wants. I have it set up with a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 scale. I set...
The Students I’m Thankful For
I’m thankful for the students who are on-time and have all their work done, every time, because I can depend on them to help move a discussion along. I’m thankful for the students who are late and don’t have their work done, because at least they are making the effort...
Stoking the Pipeline
There are certain disciplines I have encountered on my life journey that have proved invaluable in framing challenges far outside the scope of their fields. Economics was one, with its emphasis on modeling interconnected systems using statistics and calculus in an...