Gravitational Leadership

Successful Teachers Conference For Faculty by Faculty

November 1 – 2, 2001
Owego Treadway Inn and Conference Center
Owego, NY

November 23, 2001 report provided by:
Betsy Grigoriu, Lee Riddell and Monica Thomas
Institute for Community College Development.

Broome Community College hosted the Ninth Successful Teachers Conference (STC) on November 1–2, 2001 at the Treadway Inn and Conference Center in Owego, NY.  One hundred and forty-four participants (presidents, deans, administrators and faculty) from three states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania) came together to share practices and ideas around the theme of “Learner-Centered Innovations”.  

The conference was extremely successful with attendance figures doubled from last year and high ratings from the participants. This was truly a team effort between the STC Planning Committee and the ICCD staff, with Monica leading the way for all of us.

Don Dellow, President, Broome CC, introduced the keynote speaker: Mark Milliron, CEO and President of the League for Innovation in the Community College.  Milliron''s address on, "Reclaiming the Nobility of Teaching," received a standing ovation.  Faculty members felt Milliron''s words captured their many years of community college teaching and motivated and inspired them to keep doing what they are doing – teaching learners.

Administrators from Broome CC and Tompkins Cortland CC showed their support for this faculty development program by attending and participating during some sessions.  Arthur Wilson, Faculty, CU''s Department of Education, presented a session on practitioner reflection and critical analysis of personal theories of teaching.  Graduate students, Nancy Franz and Richard Kiely presented sessions on using teams effectively and service learning, respectively.

The Successful Teachers Conference was promoted at the fall Faculty Community College Council Conference (FCCC) in Cooperstown, New York. A personal invite was also sent to each of the FCCC participants from Betsy Grigoriu of ICCD. ICCD mailed 575 brochures and the teaching centers at BCC, CCC, and TC3 gave out 1200 brochures at their colleges. Also press releases about the conference were sent to the Corning Chronicle, Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin and the NCSPOD newsletter.

Using a variety of presentation styles and formats – workshop, plenary, and small-group sharing sessions – faculty at Cornell University and community colleges within New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania explored topics such as active learning, assessment, online learning, service-learning, communities, and other learner-center innovations.

Presenters:

Domenic Carisetti, Owner/winemaker at Chateau Renaissance Wine Cellars in Hammondsport, NY.

Mark Milliron, President of the League for Innovation in the Community College, Phoenix, AZ.

Diane Allen, English teacher at Broome Community College, NY.

Lisa Hughes, Learning Assistance Center at Broome Community College, NY.

Nancy LeBare, Advising/Counseling at Broome Community College, NY.

Kathleen McKenna, History and Social Science at Broome Community College, NY.

John Pierog, Learning Assistance Center at Broome Community College, NY.

Susie Williams, Writing Center and English Department at Broome Community College, NY.

Michael Kammer, Assistant Professor of English as a second language (ESL) at Atlantic Cape Community College, NJ.

Arthur Wilson, Associate Professor of adult education in the Department of Education at Cornell University, NY.

Richard Kiely, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education at Cornell University, NY.

Donna Nielsen, Professor of nursing at Tompkins Cortland Community College, NY.

Paul Chambers, Professor of philosophy at Broome Community College, NY.

Elinor Mattern, Teaches English as a second language at Atlantic Cape Community College, NJ.

Shir Filler, Teaches English at North Country Community College.

Barbara Kobritz, Instructional services librarian at Tompkins Cortland Community College, NY.

Jeanne Cameron, Associate Professor of sociology at Tompkins Cortland Community College, NY.

Fran Wells, Director of Baron Enterprises at Corning Community College, NY.

Jayne Peaslee, Professor of computer and information science at Corning Community College, NY.

Annette Bell, Associate Professor of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) at Tompkins Cortland Community College, NY.

Nancy Franz, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education at Cornell University, NY.

Susan DePhilippis, Assistant Professor of English as a second language (ESL) at Atlantic Cape Community College, NJ.

Bentzil Kasper, Professor of social sciences at Broome Community College, NY.

The conference began Thursday evening with a presentation by Domenic Carisetti, the owner/winemaker at chateau Renaissance Wine Cellars in Hammondsport, NY.  The name of his presentation was “The Teaching Winery: Integrating Classroom and Field Experience.”  

In addition to the Mark Milliron’s keynote presentation, there were five concurrent sessions that went from 10:00 to 11:15.  Participants got to choose from the following: The Nobility of Teaching: Q&A Session with Mark Milliron, Learning Community for At-Risk Students, Plagiarism-Free Zone, Teaching Adults in Community Colleges: The Practicality of Learning Theory, and Service Learning in Higher Education: Creating a Lerner-Centered Action Plan.

Just before lunch participants were grouped in twelve different disciplines (GIFTS – Gathering Information for Teaching Strategies) to share, in a round table format, favorite teaching tips with colleagues.

The afternoon included two sessions of concurrent presentations.  The first session included: Students’ Responsibility Require Free Will, Using Physical Movement in the Classroom, Getting Information Out of the Library: The Faculty Role in Teaching Research Skills, and Students Empowerment and Accountability through the “Company Concept.”  The last sessions for the day were: Creating and Using Rubrics in Assessment, Using Teams Effectively in the Classroom, The Best of Both: Creating an Online Learning Community within a traditional Face to face (f2f) Course, and Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?

At the closing of the conference participants gathered for a summary of the conference, a lottery of door prizes, and completion of an evaluation of the program.  Seventy-three evaluations (out of 144) were completed. The participants rated the overall conference a 4.4, on a scale from 1 to 5 with 5.0 being the highest.

Kurt Nelson of Media Services at Broome Community College offered his services to videotape the keynote speaker presentation and brief interviews with ten participants of diverse backgrounds and expertise. These clips will be utilized in future marketing strategies to promote ICCD’s programs and services.

Photos were also taken at various times during the conference. These are available online at our website along with program highlights.

• Patricia Yantz, Tompkins Cortland Community College, Dryden, NY
• Alice McNeely, Broome Community College, Binghamton, NY
• Les Rosenbloom, Corning Community College, Corning, NY
• Betsy Grigoriu, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Monica Thomas, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Lee Riddell, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

The STC Advisory Committee and ICCD Staff will meet on December 7, 2001 to begin planning for next year''s conference, which promises to surpass even this year’s triumph.