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If you’d like to get in the laid back spirit, play this video while reading this post. The video is 4 hours long, so read slowly.
https://youtu.be/FTgoJ–hBlQ
Engaging Teaching
Peer to Peer Assessment
Did you find yourself thinking this morning, “What is the deal with peer to peer assessment?” If so, read on. We want to pose an either/or question for you to ponder. There are no right or wrong answers, except that one of the choices will be right for you, and the other will be dead wrong. Here are two choices to think about when having students assess each other’s work:
- Do nothing. This way you may get to enjoy the hilarity of entertaining dynamic duos like Chandler & Joey, Walter & Jesse , or Jerry & George. These relationships are entertaining, usually because of miscommunication and lack of mastery-oriented feedback skills.
- Choose the boring option and teach your students a little bit about mastery-oriented feedback. This way students are able to functionally critique each other’s work, depriving the world of some joyful entertainment.
If you choose to go with boring option number two, try printing out this handy handout with tips for Mastery-Oriented Feedback for you and your students to use.
Learning Technology
This time of the school year is so busy, it almost paralyzes you. To get past the feeling of overwhelm, you need to distract yourself in order to get ALL of the work done. Believe us, we know. 🙂
So to procrastinate a little more, I found a 7 Ways to… article, but then quickly decided to check out games that you might like to try, instead.
The crackling fire at the top of the post reminded me of a childhood favourite story game, “in a dark room.” In this game, you build on the suspense of the story until it culminates in a lame ending, a funny ending, or a super scary ending!
The online version of this story is also called “in a dark room,” and you can check it out here.
Your reward for checking it out is another “7 ways… ” link, but this time it’s about how games engage the brain.
Policies & Procedures
This week’s very special procedure spans multiple systems and multiple departments. It is also in regard to something your students (hopefully) hold quite near and dear to their hearts: Spoiler alert, it’s FINAL GRADES!
Grades for courses ending December 16th must reach their final destination by high noon on Tuesday, December 20th. These final grades go through a process akin to a prisoner transfer. They need to be closely supervised on their trip from one system to another. Grades will travel from D2L, which is the Learning Design & Support Team’s jurisdiction, all the way over to Faculty Centre, which is in the Registrar’s wheelhouse. This is where grades become official.
On that note, please watch out for an important email on Monday, December 5th from Shelley Rowan with the subject Final Grade Collection for Fall 2016. This email will provide instructions on how to complete the transfer.
**Another important note, and don’t ask what it means because no one really knows what it is or why it has to happen, but you may need to clear your cache for Faculty Centre to be happy with you and let you do your job.**
Services for Students
In breaking news, the Fleming Student Administrative Council provides a whole whack of services for students. It might even be described as their raison d’être. Feast your eyes on their website to read all about it. Let’s let them tell you about something they are super stoked about:
https://youtu.be/U2NUlzf34RA
College Departments
This week, for the “Roaring Fire” edition of the Hub, we held a pretty laid-back College Department of the Week competition. Inspired by the mastiff featured below, we held the Most Laid Back Competition. Competitors were encouraged to take their time or not even compete really at all.
We were actually so laid back ourselves that we didn’t really watch anyone compete or even make a scoring rubric. We just straight up awarded the award to Human Resources. Congratulations, HR! You deserved it. Here is what HR would like to say to you with their Hub space:
Hurray! Another way to find out what is happening at Fleming! There is so much going on for faculty and staff at the College that keeping track of where and when it is all happening can be tricky – especially if you missed the email. You may have just overheard some hot gossip about something coming up as you walked down the hall and want to know more. You can take matters into your own hands now, and check the Upcoming Events widget on the staff tab of the Portal which is brought to you by the HR department!
Said widget is on the main page when you log in to mycampus.flemingcollege.ca. Look down and to the left when you get there.
Professional Development
Your suggested professional development for this week is to take it easy when you can.
Chatter
Last week, we asked you to vote on content for the Open Textbook Faculty Development Project. There are 19 options and we want to narrow it down to 10 or 12. You can go and do one vote per day until the semester is over, if you’re into the whole laid back vibe we have going here. We’re keeping the survey open for a while to collect more responses. If you get the chance, please go and cast your votes. Stay tuned for more info about other exciting student-created open textbook projects now in the works at Fleming. If you’re interested in knowing more, please let us know.
More Information
Looking for more information? Visit the LDS Team website, give us a call at extension 1216, follow us on Twitter @FlemingLDS or send us an email: LDSTeam@flemingcollege.ca!