Moonlight
I see a lot of movies and I don't usually write much about them. But the movie I saw last weekend, Moonlight, has really stuck with me and I hope…
Clustering Gen Ed
The General Education Committee and the cluster guides have been meeting once a week since the start of the semester to talk about potential changes to the General Education program. The…
Bennington College’s experiment with short-term, pop-up courses
Two parts of this idea that I really like are 1. that these courses engage students with what is currently going on in the world, and 2. that these courses…
Continued Cluster Communication
Last week was a busy one for me as a cluster guide. One topic that wove through most of the conversations had to do with internal communication about what's going…
Clusters and Curriculum
Conversations about various aspects of cluster implementation are continuing. Since I last wrote about my personal activities regarding clusters, I have been involved in three conversations that have given me…
This Week in Clusters
A lot of people gave me feedback on my last blog post. Those conversations have been really helpful for me in understanding how design thinking could help us in our…
Design Thinking and the Curriculum Planning Guide
If you've read any of my previous blog posts, you know that I am working with a group of faculty to modify Plymouth State University's First Year Seminar (FYS). We've…
Cluster Progress
One of the (many) difficulties with keeping the campus up to date about what's going on with clusters is that we (the guides) are doing a lot of work but we…
Cluster General Education
I apologize for my silence for the last several weeks. The start of the semester was a particularly busy time with multiple days dedicated to chair responsibilities and University Day…
Crowd Sourcing the Analysis of Character Gestures
I haven't had a chance to work on my Freaks and Geeks project for a couple of weeks because of the pre-semester festivities on campus. But today my writing colleagues…
Cluster Glossary
The cluster guides have been working hard all summer to come to some common understandings about the cluster initiative. In particular, we have created a sort of glossary so that…
Today’s Rabbit Hole
Today's library work session started with a conversation with Ann McClellan about the chapter that she's currently working on for her Sherlock book. She's working on a chapter about gender…
Arts and Technologies
It feels as though every week in cluster development is busy but this past one (and a half) has been so busy that it's been difficult to find time to…
Verisimilitude
It has been a busy couple of weeks in Lake Clusterbeborn (apologies to Garrison Keillor and Lake Woebegone). I'm working on a couple of posts about some decisions that the…
This Week in Clusters
It was a busy week in cluster development. The guides met Wednesday for eight hours to continue our discussions about definitions and success measures for the upcoming year and begin…
Some Things Never Change
I'm working with a graduate student who is writing a dissertation about the gamification of professional development activities for teachers. We met yesterday to talk about the status of her…
Cluster Experience Goals
One of the most difficult things about being involved as a guide in the cluster initiative is that there is no blueprint for how to get from where we are…
Temptations in the Library
I worked on my Freaks and Geeks project again today. I find it really challenging each time I sit down to read what I've written during previous work sessions because…
Another Day in the Library
Today's session in the library was less productive for me than some of my other sessions have been. There were more people in our group attending and there was a…
Ten Months In
Last August, our new president, Don Birx, spoke to eager Plymouth State University employees about his vision for the campus to be reorganized around strategic clusters and open labs. Even…
