Making Meaning in Gen Ed via Thematic Pathways
We are continuing to work on The Four Tools of Clusters at Plymouth State University. Thematic pathways in the General Education program is the tool that is the most challenging…
January Movies
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ☆☆☆☆ I enjoyed this movie a lot. It's not particularly nuanced but the resolution of the various story lines opened up in the previous…
End of Year Report
The end of the calendar year marks the end of our first year (of three) of funding from the Davis Educational Foundation. Our project, called Implementing Cluster Pedagogy in the…
New OER for Creating Games
I just created a new OER called Creating Games. I have been teaching a course called Creating Games since 2008. It fulfills a Creative Thought requirement in our General Education program and…
December Movies
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood☆☆☆☆☆ I was a bit skeptical as this movie started because it's about the journalist's awakening and I wasn't sure I was going to like…
Adventures in Ungrading
I have been moving away from traditional grading schemes for a while. In teaching the INCAP course in Spring 2019 and Tackling a Wicked Problem in Fall 2019, I have…
Evolution of the End of Semester Showcase of Student Engagement
One of the main goals of the Integrated Cluster Learning Model is to provide students with opportunity to practice talking about their work and their learning with authentic audiences. For…
November Movies
Fleabag ☆☆☆☆☆ Broadcast of a National Theater Live event (so a movie of a live play). I liked the television series that is based on this one woman show. But…
Climate Change Class Web Site Debut
Students in my section of Tackling a Wicked Problem have been doing research about climate change claims. We have begun to publish their research on our class web site as…
October Movies
The Current War My goal is always to see one movie a week. I often don't meet that goal. In October, I saw only one movie for the entire month.…
Spring 2020 Cluster Experiences
Plymouth State University will continue to offer students the opportunity to participate in cluster experiences in the Spring 2020 semester. Recall that cluster learning is what happens when faculty members…
September Movies
Peanut Butter Falcon ☆☆☆☆ I liked this movie more than I expected to. From the previews, I thought it might be overly sappy. It wasn't. Until the end. The only…
Understanding the Habits of Mind
A major goal of our Tackling a Wicked Problem class is to introduce students to our General Education program's Habits of Mind, which are the learning outcomes of the program. Understanding…
Climate Change Projects
My students in Tackling a Wicked Problem engaged in their first project on Friday of last week when they participated in the Climate Strike. They decided that instead of coming…
Climate Change One Pager Assignment
My section of the Tackling a Wicked Problem course is focused on climate change. I gave the students the following list of phrases and challenged them to explain the ways…
August Movies
The Farewell ☆☆☆☆ Great movie based on actual events. Awkwafina plays Billi, a Chinese American woman in her 30s whose grandmother back in China has just been diagnosed with stage…
Cluster Learning, Community, and Change
With more than 70 of my colleagues, I have spent a significant portion of my summer participating in the Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community (CPLC). Although the community will continue to…
One Pagers–First Attempts
Pat Cantor recently posted about a tool she is going to use in her Tackling a Wicked Problem class this fall: one pagers. I'm intrigued and intimidated by the idea…
INCAP Report
This is part of the report that I am planning to submit to the General Education Committee at PSU next week reflecting on our experiences with our potential new Integrated…
July Movies
I only saw two movies in the entire month of July! Lucky they were both great! Yesterday ☆☆☆☆☆ I smiled through this whole movie. Surprisingly sweet with great music. At…
