SHOUT OUT AWARDS

Professor Marianna Grigoras of the Michigan campus earns a SHOUT OUT award for her commitment to critical thinking.  Marianna developed an assignment for her History 210 which took students off-campus, into local museums, finding primary sources for their Analytical History papers.  A fine example of using outside resources inside the classroom.

Michelle Balee, ADP adjunct in Lisle earns a SHOUT OUT for her outstanding contributions to Lisle and Northwood as a whole! She is now one of two Prior Learning Evaluators and is doing a terrific job. Her positive attitude, innovative ideas, and teaching methods result in outstanding course evaluations every quarter.

Jack Allday of the Texas campus earns a SHOUT OUT.  He is appreciated by colleagues for his involvement at faculty meetings, good cheer and positive attitude, responsiveness to faculty and their interests (i.e. sends Howard Borck articles and film announcements), collaboration (i.e. with Lea Holland on utilizing marketing research analysis in his classes), generosity ( i.e. the weekly bagels on Monday in the faculty lounge), and his mentoring (known to never be too busy to help or provide a sounding board). Jack's reputation with students is stellar in terms of interesting classes and assignments, active student involvement and participation, wonderful films to stimulate their minds (i.e. Run Lola Run for creativity in advertising) and fairness.

A SHOUT OUT to Linda A. Mohr of the Florida campus.  Linda A. Mohr's book Tatianna--Tales and Teachings of My Feline Friend has received seven awards including Reader Literary Award, National Indie Excellence Finalist Award and National Best Books Finalist Award.  She received the Merial Human-Animal Bond Award at the Cat Writers' Conference in November of 2008. She was also quoted in the Los Angeles Times in the fall.

*Send Shout Out nominations to your respective faculty development director by the last day of each month.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Januray 16, 2009:  Midland Faculty Training for the clickers (Turning Point) 8:00a-4:00p

January 17, 2009:  UC Workshop at the Lansing Program Center, 9:00a-12:00p

February 7, 2009:  UC Workshop at the Flint Program Center, 9:00a-12:00p

March 21, 2009:  Integrated Course Design Workshop led by Dr. Stewart Ross of Dee Fink & Associates at the Midland campus, 8:30a-4:00p

April 25, 2009:  UC Workshop at the Troy Program Center 9:00am-12:00pm

May 9, 2009:  UC Workshop at the Lisle Program Center 9:00am-12:00pm

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Check out the instructor Blackboard organization, LEAF Pile.  Once in Blackboard, click on “my orgs”.  Scroll all the way to the bottom where you’ll see LEAF Pile.  Visit frequently for tips, announcements, and archived issues of New LEAF.  

CONTRIBUTIONS & SUGGESTIONS

The Faculty Development Team wants to hear from you.  Contact us with contributions and suggestions:

Howard Borck, TX
Cathy Bush, DeVos
Justin Harmon, FL
Jennifer Luzar, ADP
Stacy Romanchuk, MI

POWERPOINT: Icing on the Cake

By Jennifer Luzar, ADP Director of Faculty Development

Each term in my public speaking classes, I teach speakers how to create a Power Point slide show which will engage, not disengage, the audience.  I stress these basic rules:

• If possible, use pictures instead of words; and, avoid  dorky clipart.
• If you must include text, use bullet points with key words or phrases.
• Have no more than 6 vertical lines on a slide (that’s 6 bullet points).
• Balance content on the page, vertically and horizontally.
• Aim for consistency with backgrounds, fonts, animations.
• Realize that your slide show is icing on the cake (YOU are the cake); your slides should not make sense without you because they are a special effect.

Students always ask this question:  Why don’t our professors follow these rules?  When I dig a little deeper, I hear the same complaint over and over:  Students do not like, nor do they gain from, content heavy slides which instructors read.  So, if you are using textbook created slide shows, modify them to follow the rules.  And, if you are tempted to read your slides, remember that students will gain far more from your extemporaneous  explanations and stories; after all, they can read the slides by themselves. 

To see sample slides which follow the top ten slide rules, click here:  http://garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html

To watch a three minute video of comedian Don McMillan analyzing the pitfalls of Power Point, click here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagxPlVqrtM

In the spirit of teaching and learning, let’s make a new year’s resolution to follow the rules when creating or modifying slide shows and to avoid reading slides.  That’ll be the icing on the cake!

IN YOUR WORDS: POWERPOINT - GREAT BENEFITS FOR LITTLE EFFORT

By Julie Goldman, ADP Adjunct Instructor of Accounting, Finance and Management

I’m a visual learner. Thus, I draw a lot of pictures on the board and most importantly, I use PowerPoint (.ppt) to enhance my lectures.

PowerPoint is so easy to use and load onto Blackboard (BB). You can also save your .ppt presentation using “Cute PDF Writer” (free) and save at least 50% of the disk space. This puts your slide shows in .pdf format, which is okay since students don’t usually need your lectures in writeable format.

Don’t have time to do a .ppt lecture? I sometimes use the lectures provided in the Teacher’s Manual but always adjust them. It helps me with my lesson planning and ensures I am covering the proper information in the chapter per the Northwood Course Outcomes.  Then, I load them onto BB and use in class for my visual learners. My Finance students like to copy the .ppt slides and bring them to class for note-taking. Learning can be fun with just a little change in how we do things. As your very wise grandmother probably said, “Variety is the Spice of Life.” Try PowerPoint. I think you will find the benefits worth the effort.