21, 2011 Revised 3/25/11
March
WheelerNotes Advising Review Session for Old Timers: Over the
past three years we have increased the training we give
to new faculty related to the very important
responsibility of advising. Several “Old Timers” who
have sat in on the training have remarked how useful
the work planned for new faculty has been for them. So
… with that in mind … we invite all the “Old Timers”
to an advising workshop. We will start with a brief
review of recent changes in advising policy and then do
some “case studies” that should help us remember the
resources we have available in the advising process.
This event is purely voluntary, but we will have tea and
cookies to make attendance more palatable.
• Date: March 23
• Time: 2:00 pm
• Location: Foundation Room
Janssen - Director of Honors Program: We are
pleased to announce that in May Dr. David Janssen will
begin a three year term as Director of the Honors
Program. His service will follow the good work of the
founding director, Dr. Mark Milewicz who oversaw the
birth of the program, the creation of an Honors House,
and a growth to 31 active students. David will continue
Mark’s good work with particular attention to growing
student leadership and defining honors graduation for
baccalaureate students.
BaskinNotes
FYE Conference: Peter Higgins, Ed Whitelock, Ed
Wheeler, and Richard Baskin attended the 30th Annual
Conference on the First-Year Experience in Atlanta,
February 6-7. We heard a number of good
presentations and had useful conversations. The
information garnered from the conference is already
being put to work for the college.
Grade of “Incomplete”: Be aware that if a faculty
member and student agree to an Incomplete grade in a
Vol.Vol.
III, II,
No.No.
8 10
class, the student has two semesters to complete the
required work and have the I removed. Since the
summer term counts as a semester, then a student
receiving an Incomplete this spring must complete the
work and the faculty member must submit a grade
change form by the end of the fall 2011 term. If you
will not be available during the summer session, please
notify your student.
Faculty Development (repeated from December
issue): The Academic Affairs Office is considering
funding a seminar/workshop on our campus that would
focus on some aspect(s) of teaching and learning. We
would search for expert guidance to put together such
an event, but we first need to gauge the level of faculty
interest. If you are interested in the possibility, please
send an email to Richard Baskin that just says “yes” in
the subject line. If you have an idea for a topic, please
explain it in the body of your email.
BursteinNotes
Business majors should complete their area A math
requirement with MATH 1111 or MATH 1113 (not
MATH 1001) as early as possible and should see the
Business/Social Science administrative office if they
have difficulty getting a section.
Business majors can choose between BUSA 1105,
“Introduction to Business” and BUSA 2106,
“Environment of Business.” Either course is open to
students without prerequisites, and many four year
programs prefer BUSA 2106.
Business majors aiming for a specific four year
program should ask their advisor about advisement
sheets tailored to specific institutions’ requirements.
History majors interested in pursuing the B.A. in
history at Gordon College should meet with Dr. Tom
Aiello, coordinator of the program, at their earliest
convenience.
DEANotes is a quasi-monthly publication of Academic Affairs
Social Work majors planning on further work in the
area should be sure to include SOCI 1101 as in their
area F classes.
majors. It is the MNS Chair's humble opinion that if
students do not earn an A or B in either prerequisite they'll be 'eaten alive' in Anatomy & Physiology.
Notes on the Core:
HIST 1121 and HIST 1122 can be taken individually, in
either order or one without the other, as can HIST 2111
and HIST 2112, with one of each required for Area E.
Bottom Line: meet with all your advisees (regardless of
reason's as to why it is inconvenient, etc); unlocking a
student without meeting with them is an 'impeachable'
offense in my book.
PSYC 2103 can be taken without prerequisite but does
not satisfy an Area E requirement.
Cranford Notes
As you are advising students:
ASN students who are interested in applying to the
nursing program for spring 2012 semester will be able
to download the application beginning June 1, 2011.
The deadline for application is July 30.
All information concerning admission to the program is
located at www.gdn.edu . The TEAS test is now being
administered through ATI . You can access this
information as well as information about preparing for
this test at www.atitesting.com .
BSN candidates will begin their course of study in June
2011. Acceptance letters will be mailed during the
week of March 14-18, 2011. All core classes must be
completed by the end of the summer semester.
GahrNotes
Look for new course offerings in Fall 2011 such as
GEOL 1121K (physical geology= 'geology') – the
accompanying lab course is good for non-science
majors in Area D and some science majors Area F.
Area F for Biology has been clarified.
Learning Support is undergoing significant changes this
Fall – you may want to 'dust off' emails from Terry
Betkowski to better understand all of the changes.
ASTR 1010 - prerequisite change to 'eligible for
MATH 1111/1001' – the “OLD” prerequisite required
'completion' of either of the aforementioned Math
courses.
This coming Fall, there are nearly an equal number of
sections of CHEM 1151 and BIOL 1111: in the Fall of
2010, both of these courses were installed as 'new'
prerequisites for BIOL 2210 (Anatomy & Physiology I)
– the purpose is to get students’ study/preparation
techniques 'tuned up' prior to enrolling in BIOL 2210.
Please convey this message to health-care related
MilewiczNotes
Honors Advisement and Honors Classes for Fall 2011
As we look forward to pre-registration and advising
please note that we welcome honors and quality nonhonors students into honors classes. I hope you will
encourage your best advisees to consider honors
courses during the advisement period.
Fall 2011 Honors Courses
Course
Time/Days
Instr
CRN
COLQ
2994H
Honors COLQ
(Chaos Theory)
09:00-09:50 MW
Davies
253
HIST
1122H
Honors
West. Civilization II
11:00-12:15 TR
Aiello
747
PHIL
2010H
Honors
Intro to Philosophy
Weill
670
2:00-3:15
TR
All honors courses fulfill core requirements, just as
their non-honors counterparts do. Additionally, Honors
Colloquia may be taken more than once for credit as
long as the topics for each do not duplicate.
Please also note that students may not self register for
honors courses. They need to contact me
(mmilewicz@gdn.edu) to be placed in those sections.
My door is always open and I welcome your referrals.
Final Spring Honors Application Deadline
•
May 1st , 2011
As the term progresses I hope you will consider
encouraging your best students and advisees to apply to
the Honors Program, as well. We still have some
exciting academic and co-curricular events for honors
students this year. If you or your students wish to
reference our continuing calendar of events, it may be
found at: http://honorsevents.gdn.edu/
All Honors Program requirements, including an
interactive online application, are available at:
http://www.gdn.edu/honors
DEANotes is a quasi-monthly publication of Academic Affairs
O’SullivanNotes
NCATE NEWS. The biggest news for the Division of
Teacher Education is that the NCATE accreditation
visit is finally imminent. The team starts to arrive this
Friday, March 25, and will be on campus until
Wednesday, March 30. The team will be examining the
BSED in Early Childhood/Special Education, and the
secondary teaching programs in Biology and
Mathematics. If you see any bemused visitors on
campus, please offer them a warm Gordon welcome
and also say something suitably upbeat yet modest like,
“Wow, that Education Division Gordon has is the best
thing since sliced bread!”
ADVISING FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD AND
MIDDLE GRADES EDUCATION. As you know,
the Education Division does group advising for our
advisees. Because of spring break and our NCATE
accreditation visit, scheduling of those group advising
sessions had to be earlier than usual, and we have
already completed them. Thanks for getting the word
out to your advisees. During group advising we were
able to account for about 300 Education advisees, and
those of you outside Teacher Education who advise
these students will be receiving notes from your
students saying they came to group advising, and can be
unlocked if you agree with their schedules. That still
leaves about 100 advisees yet to be advised, though,
and those will need to follow the normal one-on-one
appointments with advisors.
ADVISING FOR SECONDARY EDUCATION.
Please remember that Secondary Education majors
must now follow the major of the area they plan to
teach (for example, English teachers follow an English
major). This means that students who plan to become
secondary teachers should change to an advisor in the
major as soon as possible. The longer these students
persist in staying with advisors who advise for teacher
education, the more likely it will be that they take one
or more unnecessary courses.
BACCALAUREATE APPLICATIONS. Please
remind your students and advisees who plan to enter
Gordon’s Early Childhood Education baccalaureate
program next year that the applications for this program
are now available in Russell 104. These applications
were due February 14, 2011, though we will continue to
accept applications while the admissions committee
deliberates. Also, we now have applications available
for students who hope to teach secondary mathematics,
biology, history and English. Secondary programs
have a rolling admission process, so there is no deadline
for these. Students should apply during their
sophomore year, though, if they plan to pursue one of
these baccalaureate degrees with secondary teaching
certification.
RECENT SCHOLARSHIP. Finally, the Education
Division has had several reasons to celebrate faculty
scholarship lately. Education faculty member Dr.
Mike Borders gave a presentation and took part in a
panel at a national conference in Savannah on students
at risk. The topic of his paper was teaching civility in
the special education classroom. And Dr. Sheryl
O’Sullivan gave presentations with several other heads
of education divisions on the beginning of new teacher
education programs in Georgia. These presentations
were made at the National Association of Teacher
Educators conference in Orlando and the American
Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
conference in San Diego.
Teaching Tips From Faculty
Maintaining Standards: If evaluation standards in a
course are appropriate and fit common expectations for
the course, stand by them, consistently and fairly.
Students expect and depend on that consistency, even
when they don’t like it!
New Georgia Encyclopedia: If you haven’t checked
out this resource, which is available through our library
(Electronic Resources), try it out. Great starting point
for nearly all aspects of Georgia, with embedded links
to related topics. Helps students get going on research
projects.
Five simple, but tried and true, techniques for
getting students to focus on a key idea or
information in a lecture:
1. “This is the most important thing I will say to you
today . . . .”
2. Occasional brief periods of silence allow students
taking notes to catch up. The silence also helps
attract the attention of students whose attention is
wandering.
3. When discussing or lecturing on two opposed
arguments, use your physical position in the room
to reinforce content. Move to one side of the room
and explain one argument, then move across the
room to explain the opposing side.
4. Repeat a particularly important idea at least once.
5. Count the causes/reasons: “There were four
reasons that . . . . One, . . . [etc.]” [Yes, this is a
basic technique, but very effective in helping
students who struggle to get key ideas down in
their notes.]
DEANotes is a quasi-monthly publication of Academic Affairs
Dates & Deadlines
July 11
Mar 23
Advisory Workshop
2:00 PM Foundation Room (SC 209)
Georgia History & US Constitution Exam
Mar 23
Graduation Fair 1:00PM – 6 :00 PM
Mar 26
Campus Visit Day 9:30 – 12:30
July 21
Apr 4-22
Early Registration for Continuing Students
July 22
Apr 15-17
Alumni Weekend
July 25
Apr 15
Campus Visit Day 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Apr 25 –
May 26
Apr 28
Open Registration
Choir/Band Concert – Fine Arts Auditorium 7:30 PM
May 2
Last Day of classes
May 3-6
Final Exams
May 12
May 14
NSO – Alumni Memorial Hall
Group Advising & Registration
Graduation
May 25
Bookstore Charges Begin
May 26
Early Registration Pymt Deadline 4 PM
May 30
Memorial Day Holiday
May 31
Open Registration
June 1
First Summer Session & Full Session Classes Begin
June 1 - 2
Drop-Add &
Late Registration 8 AM – 5PM
Payment Deadline for Late Registration & Drop /Add
5 PM
Bookstore Charges End – 6 PM
Faculty Enrollment Verification Deadline 8 AM
Financial Aid Disbursed
Mar 23
June 2
June 8
June 10
July 26
June 22
June 22
Drop/Add and Open/Later Registration (Second Session)
June 23
Bookstore Charges Begin (2nd Session)
June 24
June 27
Midterm for Full Session classes (June 1- July22) &
all evening classes. Withdrawals after June 24 will be
automatic WF except in cases of hardship as documented
& approved by processing a Student Petition.
Final Exams for first Session Classes (June 1 – June 24)
June 28
Second Session Classes begin (June 28 – July 22)
June 29
Final Payment Deadline for 2nd session – 4 PM
July 1
July 4
Faculty Enrollment Verification Deadline 8 AM (Second
Session)
Independence Day Holiday
July 5
Bookstore Charges End 6 PM (Second Session)
July 6
Deadline for Student Petition for Reimbursement to Class
Rolls – 5 PM (Second Session)
Financial Aid Disbursed (Second Session)
June 14
July 7
Final Exams for M,W evening classes (June 1 – July 20)
Second Session Day (June28 – July 22) and
Full Session Day (June 1 – July 21)
Final Exams for all T, R, evening classes (June 2– July
21)
End of Summer Semester
8 AM – 4 PM
Midterm for first session classes (June 1 –June 24).
Withdrawals after June 13 will be automatic WF except in
cases of hardship as documented and approved by
processing a Student Petition.
Deadline for Student Petitions for Reinstatement to Class
Rolls 5 PM
Georgia History & U S Constitution Exam
June 13
July 12
Midterm or Full session classes (June 28- July22) &
all evening classes. Withdrawals after June 24 will be
automatic WF except in cases of hardship as documented
& approved by processing a Student Petition.
NSO
Group Advising & Registration (Fall Semester)
NSO
Group Advising & Registration (Fall Semester)
Last day for Second Session Classes
DEANotes is a quasi-monthly publication of Academic Affairs