Faculty Mentoring Guide

Mentoring has long been known to be a factor that could make or break the success of new faculty. A reference that may be of use to administrators (to help assist in establishing a mentoring program) and new faculty (to see the kind of mentoring that could be available) was brought to my attention today from Bonnie Mullinix on POD listserv.

The source is Mutual Mentoring, which was prepared at UMASS by Mary Deane Sorcinelli and Jung H. Yun. As indicated in the publication, the contents "includes an overview of mentoring in academia; an introduction to network-based mentoring; guidelines for protégés and mentors; suggestions for department chairs; and examples of individual, departmental, and interdisciplinary mentoring partnerships."

The guide is available at: http://www.umass.edu/ofd/mentoring/Mutual%20Mentoring%20Guide%20Final%2011_20.pdf.

As someone who headed up the Faculty Mentoring Network at Purdue, I highly recommend taking the time to review the resource to benefit new faculty.

Critical Thinking

I ran across the Critical Thinking Community website which is an organization that "aims to improve education in colleges, universities and primary through secondary schools via present publications, conferences, workshops on professional development programs, emphasizing instructional strategies, Socratic questioning, critical reading and writing, higher order thinking, assessment, research, quality enhancement, and competency standards."

The home page can be fround by visiting: http://www.criticalthinking.org/index.cfm

One of the links made it quite clear that "thinking is not driven by answers but by questions." So check out their recommendations to cultivate critical thinking with your students by visiting: http://www.criticalthinking.org/articles/thinking-some-purpose.cfm.

There are lots of other great resources on thinking across the website and worth a visit.

Great Video on Student Motivation

The recommended video today has to do with teaching presented by career analyst Dan Pink who examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward.

Check out the video, you may get ideas on motivating your students: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

Innovations in Education

I have previewed the Internet TV show launced by Teaching, Learning + Technology (TLT) at Stony Brook University called "Innovations in Education." It features Stony Brook faculty and staff using innovative approaches and best practices in teaching, and applications of educational technology that have had a positive effect on student learning. Interviews are 15-30 minutes long and focus primarily on faculty members. Video and pictures of the application of the innovation or best practice are included in each show where possible. The interviews are intended to provide a balanced look at both the benefits and challanges of adopting a particular approach to teaching and learning and should be useful to faculty and faculty developers at any campus.

To watch the shows you only need to go to the following URL and click on the episode on the left-hand column. To view the episode you selected you need to scroll down to "Watch the Show" and pick your preferred media tool. I found the Quicktime stream to be the best at quickly downloading and viewing: https://tlt.stonybrook.edu/FacultyServices/FacDev/TVShow/

Please feel free to forward this information to anyone, anywhere, who might benefit from this project. Comments, suggestions and feedback on the utility of this approach and the show's content would be appreciated by Graham Graham Glynn Ph.D. Assistant Provost & Executive Director, Teaching, Learning and Technology S-1464 Melville Library Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY 11794-3350 Voice: (631) 632-2775 Fax: (631) 632-2567 E-mail: Graham.Glynn@StonyBrook.edu https://tlt.stonybrook.edu

Take a Stand

Here is a great tip used by Bunny Clemes in a Liberal Arts College at ABS School of Maritime Policy and Management Cal Maritime, which is part of California State System to get students engaged in the learning. Here is what she does to get students to react to controversial topics and have a dialogue with each other:

"One of my favorite techniques is to post various sheets of paper and make students stand by them. The original technique is called "Take a Stand." The instructor calls out a controversial general statement, such as, "Foie Gras should be on the menu." Students must stand by one of these signs: "AGREE, DISAGREE, STRONGLY AGREE, STRONGLY DISAGREE." The instructor calls on students and asks them to explain their point of view. Other rules are as follows: wait to be recognized, don't make long speeches, and don't do ping-pong exchanges back and forth; involve everyone. Afterward students write anonymous completion sentences to "I learned that," "I was surprised that," and "I was pleased/displeased that." Students pass the papers around, and then the instructor calls on each person to read the student's paper that has been passed to him.

This could be an excellent technique to get the class talking about the course materials. Give it a try and let us know how it works out for our learning community.

Green Restaurant Association New Website

For those of you "greenies" out there and those of you who will convert out of necessity the Green Restaurant Association has revamped its website. The URL for the new site is: http://www.dinegreen.com/. The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) is "a national non-profit organization, provides services in research, consulting, education, marketing and community organizing. The GRA utilizes a collaborative strategy that involves restaurants, manufacturers, vendors, grassroots organizations, government, media, and restaurant customers. The GRA's model provides a convenient way for all sectors of the restaurant industry, which represents 10% of the U.S. economy, to become more environmentally sustainable. "

The aspect of the site that I like the most is the tab for certification standards. If click on it there are the key categories and actions that can be taken to make a foodservice operation more sustainable with respect to: water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable furnishings and building materials, sustainable food, energy, disposables, and chemical pollution reduction. These can be viewed at: http://www.dinegreen.com/restaurants/standards.asp

I use this resource when teaching the module in my intro class on sustainability to give the kids a good resource to use in their career to make their future operation sustainable. I hope you find it useful, too!

Creepy Treehouse

I just learned a new term today and it has to do with faculty using Facebook for purposes other than social networking, which is the purpose of the tool. Some faculty, in their attempt to embrace the new technology and be in sync with the students are putting their course on Facebook, which sounds like it might be okay. Wrong! In order for the students to access the course they have to "friend you" which amounts to a complete violation of their privacy because the faculty member now has access to the student's personal matters (those that have not been blocked to certain users that is) because they are "friends." The term for this is "creepy treehouse!" and defined as a "place built by scheming adults to lure in kids."

So please be advised that there are plenty of ways to embrace the new technology being used by students today but do not do in Facebook.

If wanting to learn more about the term "creepy treehouse" just type it into Google. After that you should find yourself not going down that path.

Here are some I found:
http://acrlog.org/2008/05/17/creepy-treehouse/
http://flexknowlogy.learningfield.org/2008/04/09/defining-creepy-tree-house/
http://www.bibliotechweb.com/archives/2008/05/21/creepy-treehouse/

Deming's 14 Points

Dr. Deming's legacy lives on in the Japanese hotel car companies that dominate today. Although his 14 points were initially applied to the manufacture of cars our students should know that if they do the following 14 things they have a fighting chance of running a successful business in good times and quite possibly bad ones, too. Of course, it will also make them stand out from far too many restaurant and hotel companies that want to do things as cheaply as possible under the guise of "customer service!"

1. Create a constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service.

2. Adopt the new philosophy.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.

4. End the practice of awarding business based on the pricetag alone (reminds me of the old Dutch saying, "cheap is expensive).

5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service.

6. Institute training on the job.

7. Institute leadership.

8. Drive out fear.

9. Break down barriers between departments (case in point, when will we end the back of the house versus front of the house mentality?)

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force.

11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force and numerical goals for management (which is tough do naturally when your hospitality business is a revenue stream for owners/operators).

12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship (especially when the term "McJob" resides in the Webster dictionary to define our industry).

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.

14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

Imagine how much we could improve the quality of guest services if we could do even half of them!

Green Campus Initiatives

Am now back from vacation and rested and ready to take on the new semester. I hope those reading the blog are ready to do the same.

If looking for ideas on making your campus more green visit the website below from those on the cutting edge. This link came courtesty of http://www.treehugger.com/

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/08/10-of-the-greenest-colleges-in-the-us.php?page=1

If you happen to be at one of the campus profiled it would be great to hear from you, too!

Family Vacation II

Well, just one more family vacation stands between me and the 38,000 students who will descend upon Purdue to settle in for the fall semester. A most favorite time of the year around here that includes the smell of brats in the air on Saturday morning tailgate parties ahead of Boilermaker home games.

The blog will continue to be updated each weekday upon my return on August 17th. In the meantime check out "Extra! Extra!" ...." for today's news and views important to culinary arts and hospitality educators that is updated every day, seven days a week.

It is also time to put on your thinking cap and come up with what you would like to propose for the FELC Summit February 2010. Details are available and will continue to be added to our website under Annual Summit tab at http://www.fooded.org/. We are going to be looking for educators to submit refereeed and non-refereed proposals to do workshops, roundtables, poster sessions, and standup presentations around the topic of culinary and hospitality math. We all seem to find that students struggle with classes or assignments that have to do with math so looking for all you great educators out there who have learned to crack the math code so students acquire this absolutely critical skill.

New Learning Communities Journal

Since FELC has the words "learning community" in it to emphasize us all working together to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at culinary arts and hospitality programs we wanted to announce the publication of the first issue of the Learning Communities Journal, a peer-reviewed journal published by and for faculty, faculty developers, and administrators at universities and two- and four-year colleges to share research about, experiences with, and student and faculty learning through learning communities. The Journal provides a scholarly, written forum for discussion about all areas affecting faculty and student learning communities, and gives community participants the opportunity to share proven, innovative strategies and thoughtful, inspirational insights. Visit http://celt.muohio.edu/lcj/ to see the titles and abstracts of the first issue.

The Journal is published two times per year, with the second issue to appear in Fall 2009. Both print and online subscriptions are available.

To subscribe, go to http://celt.muohio.edu/lcj/order.php or contact Matthew Evins, Subscription Manager, at (513) 529-9266 or evinsmj@muohio.edu

To see the Call for Manuscripts and submit a manuscript, contact Gregg Wentzell, Managing Editor, at (513) 529-9265 or wentzegw@muohio.edu. Or you may visit the following URL: http://celt.muohio.edu/lcj/submission.php or

It Must End!

I love the hospitality industry but detest many of its practices when it comes to menuing. Fooling the customer for the sake of profit is unethical in my book. Take for example a recent expose in Nutrition Action, which is published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Yes, that very same publication that far too many in foodservice decry as evil -- mostly because it sheds a light on far too many decieve the consumer in their menuing (which is why I am all for restaurants being required to report the calories for each dish on their menu) to grow not only their bottom line but that of the consumer's waist line.

To give an example of how we decieve the American public and in turn making our contribution to the obesity and diabetes rates in this country by offering up tasty menu items, take the following quiz. Below are listed various tasty menu items for chain restaurants. See if you can guess which are under 1,000 calories:
a. Chili's Big Mouth Bites (their version of the Slider)
b. Olive Garden's Tour of Italy (lasagna, chicken parm, fettucini alfredo)
c. Cheesecake Factory Fried Macaroni & Cheese
d. Red Lobster Ultimate Fondue
e. Uno Mega-Sized Deep Dish Sundae
f. Cheesecake Factory Chicken and Biscuits
g. Applebee's Quesadilla Burger

You may have guessed that each of these starters, entrees, and desserts were well over 1,000 calories. So now see how good you are and estimate the calories for each item above.

I am going to guess that you had no clue that the items had the following calories:
a = 1,580 calories, b = 1,450 calories, c = 1,570 calories, d = 1,490 calories, e = 2,800 calories!, f=1,760 calories, g = 1,400 calories.

The bottom line of today's blog post is that we have got to educate our students that many of the practices of our beloved industry have got to change and that they can be the change agents. We have also got to work with our industry to show them how menu items can be full of flavor without all the fat, salt, and refined sugars! It starts with you, the educated person, to make it a habit of reading publications like Nutrition Action and then sharing the bad news with students and asking them what they think could be done to preserve the profits of a business while serving tasty food one might not find necessarily at home.