The Cluster Initiative at PSU
For the past five years, Plymouth State University has been working on the Integrated Cluster Initiative, the vision of President Donald Birx. Our ideas of this initiative have evolved but…
Teaching Philosophies
In June, a group of Plymouth State University faculty members, including me, participated in "a month-long emergent exploration about the intentional design of teaching and learning," called Design Forward. At…
The MDA Framework and Teaching
I've been thinking a lot about instructional design lately because I'm participating in Design Forward, "a month-long emergent exploration of the intentional design of teaching and learning" created by Martha…
What Can I Salvage?
I don't think anyone would disagree that this has been a challenging year. As part of the work of the Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community at Plymouth State University, my colleague…
Biographies of Creative Women
I wrote in my previous post about one of the main things I've been focused on during the pandemic. But since the pandemic started, I also have been listening to…
Cancer: A Timeline
I was diagnosed with cancer in September of last year. I decided to record the timeline of my treatment progression, mostly so I can remember it. But I thought…
Thinking about Educational Cooperatives
One of the many biographies of women artists that I listened to on my daily walks this year was Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon. Lange was…
Raspberry Pi Christmas Project
Like a lot of people, I am spending this Christmas/New Year holiday by myself because of COVID-19. It really hasn't been a bad thing but I did want to plan…
Design for Collaboration
Every Fall I teach a class called Tackling a Wicked Problem (TWP) for first year students at Plymouth State University. A major goal of this class is for students to…
Data Analytics and the Science of Learning
Now that this shortened, very challenging Fall 2020 semester is over, I have started thinking about January followed by the Spring 2021 semester. As I posted back in October, we…
Data Analytics Learning Community
I was excited to send this email to my colleagues today. I am looking forward to participating in this learning community: It is my pleasure to announce that Plymouth State…
The Dispossessed
I'm reading Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed and am fascinated by the portrait of the three societies in the novel. An interesting side note is that my copy of the…
September 2020 Movies
Love Guaranteed ☆☆☆ Completely predictable, innocuous romantic comedy. Pleasant but not deep. Just what we needed on the Saturday evening when we were watching it. On Netflix with Ann, Pat,…
Online Asynchronous Collaboration: Mid-Semester Reflection
As is typical in the Fall semesters, I am teaching a section of our first year, project-based course Tackling a Wicked Problem. Back before we knew the extent of the…
August 2020 Movies
Y Tu Mama Tambien ☆☆☆ I saw this movie when it came out in 2001 and really liked it. I remembered some key details but clearly forgot others. I think…
July 2020 Movies
Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga ☆☆☆ Typically uneven Will Ferrell movie. Rachel McAdams and Dan Stevens were fantastically fun and there was a lot to smile about. Ferrell was…
Developing Habits of Mind
The latest assignment for the Tackling a Wicked Problem/Integrated Capstone track of Plymouth State University's Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community asks us to: Write (and share if you feel comfortable doing…
Indie Web Camp West 2020 Project Update
I attended the virtual IndieWebCamp West meeting this weekend. Yesterday, I listened to people talk about their web sites and how they did what they did on them. It…
June 2020 Movies
Becoming ☆☆☆☆☆ A Netflix original documentary following Michelle Obama on her book tour for her autobiography Becoming. I enjoyed the book and the documentary covers some of the same material.…
Values and Cluster Learning
For the second summer in a row, I'm participating in a faculty learning community at Plymouth State University focused on our cluster learning model. One of the exercises we engaged…
