 |
SDD20: Community in the Classroom: Strengthening Student-Faculty Relationships
Hours: 1.5
Building community within the classroom results in deeper learning, increased accountability, higher metacognitive processing, and greater personal satisfaction for both students and faculty. ACC's strength lies in its inclusivity and diversity. How can we maximize the value of diverse learning communities? By taking creative risks, faculty can deliberately build the academically beneficial bonds that create classroom communities in which students themselves feel safe risking more personal involvement in their education and are actively engaged in learning from one another. We will present the logic of this approach as well as techniques, assignments, and approaches we have evolved to incite bonding and guide community.
A participant walks away with:
We expect disciplinary cross-pollination and new, trans-disciplinary tools for classroom community to emerge.
Presenter(s):
Anaka Rivera is a professor of Political Science and teaches at the Austin Community College (ACC) in Austin, Texas. She earned her B.A. at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. As a McNair Scholar she attended Texas A&M University, College Station to work on her doctorate. When her husband returned from his deployment in Iraq, she left Texas A&M and they moved to Austin, Texas where her calling as a college educator was solidified. She has for the last four years also served as the government department's first and only Instructional Associate where she tutors students across the college. At ACC she was elected President of her faculty association and was the first Latina to serve a 1500 member faculty. She was also elected to serve as Vice-President of Faculty for the local ACC chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. In addition to her higher education experience, she has also been a member of Lambda Theta Nu Sorority, Inc. (501c3) helping to establish the first chapter in Texas. She has guided and led this community service driven organization having been elected as an alumnae advisor, Director of Academics, Vice Chair, and now as National Chair. Her service extends to the community in which she lives, currently serving as a President of her Homeowners Association. She resides in South Austin with her husband and son and their two rescue pups.
----
Dr. Jessamine Dana is a professor of both Cultural Anthropology and Student Development and teaches at the Austin Community College (ACC) in Austin, Texas. She holds a doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology and a masters in Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography from the University of Oxford, England. Her dissertation fieldwork was about a multi-faith pilgrimage site in Nepal, near the Tibetan border. She is the founder and director of the Woman and the Owl Foundation, a 501c(3) that supports women spiritual leaders of all faiths and backgrounds through community and education. Dr. Dana is also a writer, artist, and playwright. She lives in mainly in Austin, Texas, except when it is too hot, then she lives in West Sussex, England. |
|
