Sustainable Agriculture and Education

Today is website Monday.  I wanted to share the website for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) since so many of us are moving in the direction of teaching local, sustainable, seasonal, flavorful, thoughtful food sourcing and ultimately serving in foodservice outlets, no matter if they are a street cart or resort hotel.

To meet this new reality we have partnered with the Agriculture department to create a student garden at Purdue. They will teach us how to grow the greatest food and we will teach them how to turn that harvest into the greatest meals.  We have a student callout today now that we have cleared the land Purdue gave us and planted some tomatoes, peppers, beans, and eggplant to get the ball rolling.
One of the resources available to us and others is the Sustainable Agiculture and Education website establihed in 1988 to help advance farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound, and good for communities through a nationwide research and education grants program.  I found the tabs for project reports and events very useful.  For example, I simply typed in the word "tomato" to search in the project reports tab and a bunch of great reports on that fruit came up to read and review.  Spend some time clicking around or share with students by visiting: http://www.sare.org/

Desire to Teach

The following question was posted on the POD listserv, ""I am interested in a tool to assess a person's "desire to teach." I am looking for a tool to give pharmacy preceptors to assess their desire to teach and precept students/residents."

The following response came from Rebecca Clemente, Department of Education, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, at North Central College, Naperville, IL.

In teacher education we interpret the "desire to teach" as having the appropriate dispositions to teach. In teacher education we are required to evaluate these and find ways to develop these in our students.

Here are some resources (in and out of teacher education) that may allow the faculty member to think through what is valued in your university's cultural context and specifically to teaching the pharmacy curriculum.

When we hire in teacher education part of the day is set aside so that the candidate teaches a lesson that can be observed by department faculty and students (we use a rubric to capture our impressions of this teaching).

Rebecca, then including the following links.  I reviewed them and they are a great read.  So see what you think and let me know your thoughts if you like.

Determining Dispositions to Teach: A Hiring Strategy
http://www.naesp.org/resources/2/Principal/2006/S-Op51.pdf

National Network for the Study of Educator Dispositions
http://coehs.nku.edu/educatordispositions/resources.php

Academics' Educational Beliefs and Teaching Practices
http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20030228.152452/

Validating teaching competencies for faculty members in higher education: A national study using the Delphi method
http://www.springerlink.com/content/k63p61p545547527/

Day 3 of New Semester

Today is the third day of the new semester.  I am tired and I do not know why.  Perhaps it was the energy I expended in my small honors class or case study we did in human resource management.  Perhaps it is the let down from the adrenaline rush of starting the new semester and now getting into the swing of things.  Whatever the reason, I am tired.

It is also sobering to find out where the students are at in their life?  I asked in my honors class who has read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I read (and loved) during vacation.  I got back blank stares.  Not only had they not read it they did not know what the hell I was talking about.  I told them the story of the three novels and how popular they are and the sad passing of the author before the books hit it big.  That did not move the needle on the "I am now more interested in perhaps reading that book" meter.  Pressing them a bit further, it turns out that they do not really read books....or magazines....or newspapers.  Indeed the two books they will read and then write reflection papers in my honors class might be the only two books they will read -- not including text books -- this year!

What am I trying to say?  The world I live in at 55 years old is not even remotely close to the one that the 18, 19, 20, or 21 year-old kid is living in.  I love to read books and read lots of them.  They do not since information has always been at the finger tips to type away on the keyboard and not turn a page.  It means I am always going to have to do all I can to reach each new class of students so I can connect the students to the learning.  No doubt the basic things we are teaching them in culinary arts and hospitality will not change all that much but the way in which I perform teaching for learning has to constantly change and the reason we need our learning community to help each other make the transition.

I hope your new semester or term is going well.  If it is or is not please share by responding to this post or sending me a short story that I can post in response to today's blog post.

Do You Teach the Spirit of Hospitality?!

How many of you out there feel like a pinball?  I am teaching 5 classes this fall on top of being the associate department head and the first week always feels like getting the spruce goose off the ground, if there are those of you old enough to remember that event of long ago.  Make no mistake, however, as I am not complaining.  I love it!  I love teaching and I love the students!  They are my raison d'etre!

The one thing I have learned is that first impressions mean alot in teaching.  There is research that I read long ago that indicated the impresssion student's form of a professor in the first 10 minutes of the first class will be a lasting one and not likely to change.  So I enter each first class with high energy, enthusiasm and a profound interest in what I am going to be teaching the students and commitment to their learning.

Take today for example.  One of the ways I do energize students on the first day is in my introductory class with 200 students.  I teach them the words to the fight song by singing it.  I think school spirit and the spirit of hospitality are in the same family so I take on the demeanor of a southern Baptist preacher and get kids to stand up in class and sing the fight song like there is no tomorrow!  I start by yelling, "Do I feel school spirit moving in the room this morning?!  Some tentatively say back, "Yes!"  I then yell louder, "I said, do I feel school spirit moving in the classroom this bright sunny morning!"  The majority of students are now on board, yelling back "Yes, you do!"  I then ask for an "Amen!"  The kids yell back, "Amen!"  Then we put the words to the fight song on the screen and start singing.  You should see those 200 kids yelling out the fight song at that time.  The energy and the enthusiasm is awesome!  And that is how they leave the first day of my introductory hospitality and tourism class with 200 kids in it.  Think they are excited about our next class as a result? 

So talk to me, my brothers and sisters!  What are you doing to get your students jacked up to learn?!  Let me know, or send a video clip, to share with those in our learning community.

Now, let me have an Amen!!!!

Teaching Journals of Interest

As promised, Monday's blog post will be dedicated to websites of interest.  Because our cohort faculty learning community has to do with enhancing our teaching for learning toolkit I wanted to call your attention to a list of teaching journal that have been made available through the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Kennesaw State University.  Check the links out at: http://www.kennesaw.edu/cetl/resources/journals.html

Some of the journals are available for free, some may be in your library, and some have articles that can be acquired through inter-library loans, etc.  Hopefully some of the tools and techniques being used by others to be better teachers may inspire FELC members to see whether or not they work in our discipline.  Then those efforts can be shared at the annual summit.