Renton Technical College
Office of Instructional Improvement
December 2004
Volume 3 No. 5
Create Your Own Clip Art
Noreen Light from the Emergency Dispatch Program suggests this great site for designing your own cartoons
from pre-drawn components.http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/index.html There is some interest in
a workshop on doing quick drawing to enliven a white board or flip chart. Anyone out there with that awesome
talent? Let us know at Instructional Improvement and we’ll set something up: instructimprove@rtc.ctc.edu
What’s your Stress Style?
Are you a Drifter, a Speed Freak, or perhaps a Loner when it comes to handling stress?
According to Richard Earle, PhD., there are actually six Stress Types. This site will help
you and your students identify a personal stress type along with a personalized prescription
for handling stress – not a one-size-fits-all plan – to keeping stress in a healthy place energizing your lifestyle, not draining it. Check out “Discovering your stress type”
http://stress.about.com/cs/inthenews/a/ucstresstypes.htm
Webliography of Teaching and Learning sites
Paul Baeder of the Major Appliance Repair Program adds this site to our arsenal of resources.
http://www.teacheroz.com/teachers.htm It has a wealth of topics and also direct links to more teaching sites than
you ever believe existed. Lots to explore here, whether you are looking for learning activities, rubrics or crosswords
and other games.
Flash cards Taken to a Whole New Dimension
If you recommend flashcards to your students to acquire specialized vocabulary, you may find an
electronic stack of flashcards on this site to help your students drill. There are stacks on this site for
everything from massage therapy to pharmacology, GPS to effective teams, nursing to anatomy.
http://studystack.com
A New Twist to Online Assignments
The Department of Chemistry at the University of Washington uses WebAssign (an internet-based learning tool)
to generate homework problems and track student progress. A randomizing feature will change the variables in
problems so that all students may be completing the same homework, only using different data—so there might be
as many “right answers” as students in the class—putting the focus on how the problem is solved. The approach
offers other significant advantages, including immediate feedback to students.
http://www.artsci.washington.edu/innovate/details.asp?ID=5
Choosing Colors for PowerPoint Slide Shows
Do you know what feelings are evoked by using certain colors as backgrounds for PowerPoint presentations? Want
to make your PowerPoint shows more effective? Choose the right background. We discovered our white Faculty
Focus background reflects: Purity, reverence, cleanliness and simplicity.
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/articles/choosing_colors_for_slides.htm
While We’re on the Subject of Color
Here’s a site that explains the meaning of color and demonstrates what can be done in
screen design. Even if you are not teaching this and are just looking for a relaxing
experience or just to be wowed by the power of color to affect your mood, click on this for
a restorative experience.
http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com
Changing Places
Several instructors have been exchanging classes to teach from their expertise. Jim Coan’s students from the Land
Surveying/Field Survey Technician Program have been working with Mike Biell on Computer-Aided Design
(CAD). At the same time, Mike’s Drafting Program students have been working with Jim to get exposure on Land
Development Desktop. This is a great way to enrich the curriculum. Let us know if we can help with matchmaking. www.instructimprove@rtc.ctc.edu
National Technical Honor Society
Rich Brownell of the Major Appliance and Refrigeration Program is planning the launch of our RTC
National Technical Honor Society chapter. Students qualify by their grade point average and must be
nominated by an instructor. Besides the recognition, members receive three free letters of reference from
the national organization to use when applying for employment. If you think this would be a good
incentive in your program contact Rich rbrownell@rtc.ctc.edu
Disability Services Grant Update
As part of the Universal Design for Learning theme of this project, we are promoting the use
of Assistive Technology for all students, not just those with diagnosed disabilities! The grant
has purchased a top-notch program called TextHelp Read&Write which reads text to
students and is also an excellent writing tool. It has an extensive dictionary, thesaurus,
homophone checker, and word prediction. It even has a talking calculator—great for
students with English, vision or math concerns. It “floats” over the top of Word or other
applications and is extremely user-friendly. Students can catch on to it with little instruction.
This is a great over-all tool for helping students with reading or writing. And best of all, it’s
free to your classroom! (You do have to have headsets.) The grant provides free training to you and your students
on this technology if you are interested. For more information, contact Cathy Jenner at x5639 or at
cjenner@rtc.ctc.edu
Does the Classroom Environment Really Affect Learning and Retention?
An argument over tile vs. carpet in a classroom let a community college to experiment with the redesign of a
classroom, with surprising results.http://www.league.org/leaguetlc/express/inn0410.html
New Titles from your friendly RTC Library:
Community College
Assessment edited by
Trudy W. Banta.
Call Number: 378.166
COMMUNI 2004a
Overview of Career and
Technical Education
by John L. Scott,
Michelle SarkeesWircenski
Call Number: 370.113
SCOTT 2004
Charting Your Course:
How to Prepare to
Teach More Effectively
Rubrics: A Handbook
for Construction and
Use edited by Germaine
Core Indicators of
Effectiveness for
Community Colleges
Differentiated Instructional Strategies in
Practice: Training,
Implementation, and
Supervision
College Deans:
Leading From Within
Differentiated
Instructional
Strategies: One Size
Doesn't Fit All
by Richard Prégent.
Call Number: 378.125
PREGENT 2000
by Gayle H. Gregory
Call Number: 371.394
GREGORY 2003
Taggart ... [et al.]
Call Number: 371.33
RUBRICS 2001h
by Mimi Wolverton
andWalter H. Gmelch
Call Number: 378.111
WOLVERT 2002
by Richard Alfred ... [et
al.] Call Number: 378.052
CORE-IN 1999e
by Gayle H. Gregory,
Carolyn Chapman.
Call Number: 371.394
GREGORY 2002
Quotable: "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher
demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” William A. Ward~
For more information regarding the articles in the Faculty Focus or to give input or suggestions of things you would like to
see incorporated into this newsletter please contact the Office of Instructional Improvement
The mission of the Office of Instructional Improvement is to advance educational strategies, seek to improve the quality of
learning environments, and support RTC staff as they prepare a diverse student population for work.