Byron Korus Wins Best Poster Award

Byron Korus, Ed.D., CEC., CCE., AAC at Hamline University won the best poster award based on blind peer review at the first FELC Summit for his poster entitled "Team-Based Learning Principles: Improving Learning Using a Collaborative Inter-Active Learning Strategy

Byron started teaching culinary art at the Art Institutes International Minnesota in 1998 where teaching became a new passion. Korus attended St Mary’s University receiving a M.A. and continued on for his doctorate, from Hamline University in St. Paul Minnesota. Byron’s dissertation focus is how team-based learning enhances knowledge building in a culinary environment. On his way to earning his Ed.D. he has a great deal of industry experience such as being an executive chef for many large hotels, restaurant and entertainment complexes; serving as the food and beverage director for "Mississippi Live", and; working as a sales manager for Kraft Food Service. Chef Korus is a certified culinary educator and a certified executive chef, and was inducted into the Academy of Chefs in 2001.

The abstract of his poster was: Team-based learning (TBL) is pedagogy for teachers who are ready to use an active team strategy in their classrooms. After discussing this poster, participants will recognize what TBL is, and why learning teams advance knowledge building beyond simple learning. Participants will identify the key principles of TBL, and the structure of class activities. The poster will present the changing roles of instructors and students and its effect on knowledge building.

Congratulations, Byron, from all of us at FELC!

Great Search Engine for Educators

I wanted to call your attention to the POD Network's Google Custom Search Engine, accessed from the main page of the POD website (http://www.podnetwork.org/search.htm#faculty). It is a great way for educators to get good information on different topics that concern teaching and learning. The best part about the search engine is that it taps into faculty development centers from around the US and Canada. Indeed there are 718 Web sites in the search tool, covering all members of POD. Seventy of those Web sites are for GTA programs and can be searched as a sub-group on the results page (after doing an initial search, look at the top for GTA as well as for other specialized searches.)

So give it a try. Go the URL and type in search words such as "lecture" or "group discussion" or "cooperative learning" or "assessment" and you will find lots of quality information on those topics as well as others for which you are interested.

By the way, I highly recommend joining the POD Network or attending one of its conferences in your lifetime; it is worth it to hang out with those who have dedicated their day to developing the quality of teaching and learning at their respective campuses.

Nickles Wins FELC Ultimate Teaching Competition 2009

The first annual FELC Summit included an Ultimate Teaching Competition, Bobby Flay style, on Saturday afternoon. There were three finalists who competed for the honor of Ultimate Teacher. The winner was decided upon by a panel of judges and those who watched the competition who were given an evaluation form to select the winner. The winning competitor recieved a plaque that had a whisk affixed to it with an inscription that read, "Ultimate Teaching Competition Winner 2009"

This year's winner was Jane A. Nickles, MBA, CSW, CFBE, who has been a wine educator and chef instructor at the Texas Culinary Academy for over ten years. "Miss Jane,"as her students call her, is also the author of “WineSpeak 101,” regular wine columnist for Eat and Drink Austin Magazine, and wine writer for the website "The Texas Wine and Food Gourmet." In December of 2007 Jane was honored by being named the Career Education Corporation “Educator of the Year”, from a field of over 90 colleges and 6,000 faculty members. She calls this award her “proudest moment.” For further information, contact Miss Jane at jnickles@tca.edu.

Jane was an energetic presenter who taught those in attendance a great deal about wine in the short time given to all competitors. She also engaged the judges in the learning which gave her high marks.

We will be having the competition again at the 2010 FELC Summit and will put the call out for competitors. To quote Bobby, we ask you, "Are you ready for a throw down?" You will have your chance in 2010 to win the coveted whisk plaque!

"How the Test Was Won!"

Now and again I like to post something to the blog that is just plain fun and completely different from everything else that is posted.

I learned about this on a listserv I belong to and it is the latest Simpson's episode in which Bart is informed that he and a select group of students have received perfect scores on a practice test for the upcoming Vice President’s "No Child Left Alone" Assessment Test. The person who sent this described it as..."In order to try to get the scores better, they send the potential low-scorers on a "field trip" on the day of the exam. Of course things go wrong, but the important thing is that the students end up acquiring a lot of "academic" knowledge from having to use it in everyday situations. My favorite was the conservation of angular momentum. Brilliant!"
http://www.hulu.com/watch/60126/the-simpsons-how-the-test-was-won#s-p1-so-i0

Although it is a "comedy sitcom cartoon" I often wonder how much truth there is in it concerning the way teachers are being required to teach kids in K-12 education which ultimately impacts (not in a good way) those of us in culinary arts and hospitality education when the freshman class is sitting in our classrooms and kitchens for the first time. Naturally there are some small commercial breaks in the video and it is adult humor but enjoy it all the same! Heck, the decisions made by the principal at the end may bring a smile to your face :)

The other reason for sending this along is the quality of the video and the technology it took to make it available; it makes me wonder if I am watching the end of television as we know it.

Michael Wray Wins Best Proposal Award

We are pleased to announce that Michael L. Wray, Associate Professor, Director of Restaurant Management, Metropolitan State College of Denver, earned the Best Proposal Award. The photo captures the award being given to Michael Wray (on the right) by Dr. Mick La Lopa, Executive Director of Hospitality Education.

The award was given to the person who had the highest rating based on the double-blind review given to all those that submitted a refereed proposal submission, regardless of whether submitting a poster, stand-up presentation, panel, or workshop.

The title and abstract of his proposal is:

Lessons Learned from Experiential Learning: The Beer and Spirits Course

"In this session, participants review lessons learned from a faculty member that implemented experiential learning in the development of a Beer and Spirits Course. The lessons include; involving of stakeholders in course design and resources, creating hands-on activities that engage students, and fostering industry connections. Participants reflect upon experiential activities in their own settings by reviewing the lessons learned, seeing pictures and video from the course activities and tasting the beer made by the students."

If you know Michael, send him your regards at: wraym@mscd.edu