Fall 2019 Resources

 

When We See Them: Navigating Micro-Aggression and Racial Difference 

Track: Increasing Our Student-Centered Awareness
Presenters: Anila Duro‎, Brittany Mccullough‎, Betty Taylor-Leacock‎, Felice Shoot & Dr. Veronica Johnson

I am not racist.” “You know how they are.” “I am so impressed by your work.” “I treat all students the same.” “I don’t see color.” “I teach online, I mean they have a little picture.” As faculty we often make such comments that reflect on our own biases towards students of color in particular black students. These microaggressions can impact a students’ willingness and ability to engage in course materials, class discussions and independent research. Often “when we see them” we begin to be over accommodating because their skin color reflects on what we have been taught about our students or simply our perceptions of them. Sometimes we do not know how to act because “when we see them” we see different. While this is an unfortunate reality of our campus (inside the classroom and/or offices), it is just not a John Jay isolated experience, racism is happening locally and nationally. Inspired by the Central Park Five case and film series “When They See Us” a group of diverse faculty decided to have an open and safe dialogue about race.

Attendees will have an opportunity to:

    • Present student anecdotes Identify techniques to provide a safe opportunity for students to interact in the classroom
    • Empower faculty to see color & identify how it may impact student success
    • Develop strategies that will help you as faculty become more aware of your teaching style or student interactions
    • Share your experiences or challenges in recognizing color
    • Get an understanding of oppression and privilege
    • Discuss white privilege
    • Welcome mentoring of students of color
 Click Micro-Aggression Presentation, Implicit Bias, Eight actions to Reduce Racism, Commitment to Combat Racism, FDD Readings & Typical Statements for resources provided by the presenters.

 

Preparing Students to Succeed in Online Courses:  “Are You Ready?” An Online Learning Readiness Experience

Track: Improving Student-Centered Digital Skills
Presenter: Helen Keier 

The “Are You Ready?” online readiness course is designed to prepare students for participating in web enhanced, hybrid, or online courses and in using Blackboard in general. Delivered as a Blackboard course that mirrors many of the tasks students encounter in academic classes, “Are You Ready?” covers a variety of topics, including self-assessment for online learning, basic technology proficiency, using Blackboard, the technology requirements for online learning, netiquette, and services for students at John Jay. In this session we will provide a demonstration of the “Are You Ready” course, discuss how to introduce students to “Are You Ready?,” and discuss ways you can integrate it into your courses.

 Click here for resources provided by the presenter.

 

OER in STEM: A flexible model to update resources

Track: Investing in Student-Centered STEM
Presenters: Lissette Delgado-Cruzata & Nelson Nuñez Rodriguez 

Open educational resources decrease college cost impacting access, retention and student performance. Many instructors in our school have developed free resources for students to use in their courses and these can become OER with minimal modifications. What are the challenges of converting your current assignments and materials to OER? Beyond access to free resources for students, what are the advantages of creating and thinking of these as Open? In this workshop we will define OER, look at assignments or class resources and identify whether they are OER and what it would take to convert them. We will also discuss the impact OER can have in the STEM classroom.

  Click here for resources provided by the presenters.

Supporting Students on Academic Probation in Collaboration with the Academic Advisement Center

Track: Involving Faculty in Student-Centered Mentoring
Presenters: Georgia Grammas‎, Esther Owens‎, Hugo Monroy-Caceres‎, Joanna Madon‎, Alexis Pistone, & Yaritma Cabral

The Academic Advisement Center supports approximately 1,000 students on academic probation each academic year. Students on academic probation are required to complete mandatory advisement with the AAC. Students are also invited to participate in large- group information sessions designed to increase awareness of academic policy and more intimate small group sessions designed to explore the habits and behaviors of successful students.

Through this work, we have learned much from the students themselves about how they view themselves as learners and the particular aspects of college life that present the most significant obstacles. Students have also identified the new skills and habits they attribute to increased academic performance. Over time, we have monitored trends for this population of students to get a stronger sense of who they are, both academically and demographically.

In this session you will:

    • Learn more about the obstacles and triumphs students on academic probation face
    • Familiarize yourself with services provided to students on academic probation by the AAC
    • Identify key strategies to partner with the AAC in supporting students on academic probation as they work towards regaining good academic standing

 

  Click here for resources provided by the presenters.

Research, Originality, and Plagiarism as Matters of “Culture”

Track: Inspiring Student-Centered Scholarship and Creativity
Presenters: Kathleen Collins, Olivera Jokic, & Andjela Kaur

What to do about plagiarism? Presented by an academic librarian and media scholar; a professor of English and Gender Studies; and a scholar of disability who directs education services at a refugee resettlement agency: plagiarism as an excellent teaching opportunity rather than a disappointing or infuriating student transgression that calls for a punitive response! We will discuss how complex research is in idea and practice, especially the notion that students should be doing “original” work without having read or understood any first. From the seeming paradox of expecting originality to result from imitating the writing of others; and the complexity of navigating the information technologies, quantities, and interfaces at the library; to the unspoken assumptions about the the learning process, the panel will discuss how plagiarism can be better understood in the context of the ‘cultural shifts’ students go through: their encounter with the shifting structure of US higher education, new ideas about knowledge sharing, and their experiences of migration, language competence, and multilingualism.

 

 

Faculty Burnout & Recovery-Building Resilience & Reclaiming Your Energy

Track: Sustaining Faculty in Early, Mid, and Post Career
Presenter: C. Gabrielle Salfati

Do you feel exhausted and depleted? Do you feel your work no longer has any meaning? Are you resentful, cynical, and feel stuck? You could be experiencing burnout. Burnout is the mental or physical collapse caused by stress, overwork or doing work that no longer feels connected to your life’s purpose. Over time it causes you to run out of energy, leads to extreme exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. Resilience skills are key to leading a flourishing life and career. Research shows that resilience is a teachable mindset and skill set that few people are taught, but everyone needs. Resilient and adaptable individuals flourish in their work and in their lives, and resilient teams are the secret ingredient of organizations that thrive. Come to this session to learn about burnout and resilience, and how you can build Mental, Emotional and Physical resilience skills that turn obstacles into opportunities. Feel empowered with tools for showing up in the world the way you want to, and reclaiming your energy and your enthusiasm for why you became a professor in the first place!

 

Making Your Syllabus Talk to ALL Students

Track: Increasing Our Student-Centered Awareness
Presenters: Giazú Enciso-Dominguez‎, Jill Grose-Fifer, & Crystal Jackson

Many John Jay students are the first in their family to attend college; the majority are from minoritized groups and so may have difficulty navigating the college environment. The syllabus is one of our first points of contact with our students and if designed carefully, it can help to build trust and foster positive relationships that are likely to increase student success. In this workshop, participants will work collaboratively to critique and improve each other’s syllabi, with the goal of making them more welcoming and student-centered. To facilitate this, students from the Critical Interdisciplinary Studies Research Group will highlight how the syllabus can affect student perceptions of faculty. We will also provide specific examples detailing ways that different faculty have chosen to create student-centered syllabi. These include using innovative syllabus layouts, positive tone to encourage help-seeking behaviors and foster an empathic, inclusive learning environment, and ways to ensure that students can see themselves reflected in the curriculum, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, place of birth, sex/gender, and other identities.

 Click here for resources provided by presenters.

Showcasing Student Research: ePortfolio and the Historical Memory Project Human Rights Collection

Presenters: Daniel Auld & Marcia Esparza

ePortfolio, an AACU High-Impact Practice (https://www.aacu.org/leap/hips), fosters students’ critical digital skills and allows for scaffolding of learning (Light, Chen, & Ittelson, 2012). Through a 2018-19 partnership between the ePortfolio Program and the Historical Memory Project (HMP), three undergraduate and two graduate research interns engaged in qualitative research cataloging HMP Latin American human rights archival material. The interns explored the historical context of the archives, drafted narratives of the material, compared the content to another similar context of their own choosing, and showcased this work on ePortfolio. In this workshop, participants will review the process and product of the interns and engage in an activity to design a course-based, research ePortfolio assignment for their students.

Click here for resources provided by the presenters.

Helping Students Connect with Data: Using R in Learning Introductory Statistical Concepts 

Track: Investing in Student-Centered STEM
Presenter: Leslie Chandrakantha

Introductory statistics concepts are relatively abstract for many students. R programming environment is now widely used in academic research, education and industry. We will demonstrate how to use R to work with data to understand a few basic concepts. We will open text or .csv files and do the following: compute descriptive statistics and create plots, generate random variates from known probability distributions, simulate sampling distributions and understand the central limit theorem, perform the hypothesis testing and compute confidence intervals. Participants will have hands-on experience in learning how R can be used to reinforce their teaching of statistical concepts in the classroom.

 Click Health Data, Workshop One Handouts, FIREDAM & GFCLOCKSDATA, for resources provided by the presenter.

Essential Services for Students: Financial Aid, Single Stop, Accessibility and Counseling

Track: Involving Faculty in Student-Centered Mentoring
Presenters: Michael Scaduto, Nichole Acevedo, Nadia Griffith, & Gerard W. Bryant

John Jay has an array of useful services to support students outside of the classroom. This panel will orient faculty to what they need to know about (1) financial aid and scholarships, (2) emergency funding, the food bank, and Single Stop services, (3) Accessibility Services, and (4) the Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) and Counseling Services. If you want to know  where to point students to get the help they need, attend this session.

 

Mentoring Students in Research & Creative Projects: How to Get Started 

Track: Inspiring Student-Centered Scholarship and Creativity
Presenters: Charles Stone, Nina Rose Fischer‎, Michelle Holder, Angelique Corthals, Sharon Bayantemur & Marien Morales

This panel of John Jay faculty with experience in mentoring to various extents and in various forms will discuss the direct and indirect value of faculty-student mentoring. Facilitated by a John Jay student moderator, panelists will be asked to share insights into their own mentoring approaches; how they came to define their personal mentoring style and environment; and the benefits and challenges associated with their experiences. Reflecting on their individual journeys into the mentoring world, they will impart useful information to help interested faculty get started with the mentoring process. The many direct benefits and tangible outcomes to mentoring students – from the beginning steps to the successful completion of an entire research study or creative project to the eventual professional presentation at a conference or potential co-publication in a peer-reviewed journal – will be highlighted, as well as the intrinsic value of the long-term mentoring relationship itself that makes this process a life-changing experience for all involved.

 

Making Yourself Public: How You Can Work Effectively with the Media

Track: Sustaining Faculty in Early, Mid and Post Career
Presenter: Richard Relkin

Reporters speak a different language and often times have different priorities than academic professionals, but that shouldn’t stop us from having the media tell our stories and sharing our expertise. This workshop will offer the basics on how to work with reporters and help you: 

    • Find the hook to tell your story
    • Understand their deadlines and needs
    • Set the ground rules for your conversation
    • Know what to expect in the final product, and more

Faculty will learn basic facts with limited role play geared towards telling their story in the most appealing way possible.

Faculty will learn how to better handle requests from reporters and how to present themselves and their work in a more appealing way to encourage more and better coverage.

Click here for resources provided by the presenter.

Where We Are and Where We Are Going: Update on Living the Mission

College-wide Discussion 1:15 pm – 2:00 pm

The role of faculty at John Jay is expansive: we are responsible for advancing knowledge through our research, motivating students to excel through our teaching and mentoring, and maintaining the integrity of the college and its operations through shared governance. How are we doing? Surprisingly well!

Deans Anthony Carpi (Research) and Dara Byrne ( Undergraduate Studies) report on the college’s growth in research strength and student retention, graduation, and excellence in a 45-minute open forum.

 

 

Increasing Critical Thinking Skills: Student-Centered Collaborative Learning

Track: Increasing Our Student-Centered Awareness
Presenters: Susannah Crowder‎, Amy Green‎, & Adriana Perez 

Our students bring an incredible and diverse richness of experience with them to college:  how can we tap into that knowledge to deepen their learning, both within and beyond the classroom?  In this workshop, participants will share their own teaching techniques and develop new methods that use collaboration to shape a learning environment in which students both contribute meaningfully and learn from one another.

Click here for resources provided by the presenters.

Reading & Annotating Online: Exploring Manifold for Student-Centered Learning 

Track: Improving Student-Centered Digital Skills
Presenter: Jojo Karlin
In the session, we will present the opportunities for engaged reading and discussion assignments made possible by digital social annotation. Specifically, we will introduce the social annotation features of Manifold, a Mellon-funded digital publishing platform developed by the CUNY Graduate Center, University of Minnesota Press, and Cast Iron Coding. Manifold allows you to create beautiful, dynamic projects that can include text, images, video, embedded resources, and social annotation.
 
Manifold Graduate Fellow Jojo Karlin will present strategies for teaching with social annotation and give several examples of activities for engaging students through annotation of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
 

 

Supporting Student Learning with Predictive Tools: Using R in Regression Analysis 

Track: Investing in Student-Centered STEM
Presenter: Leslie Chandrakantha

Regression Analysis refers to statistical techniques used to estimate the relationship between variables, testing the utility of the models, and predicting future outcomes. Regression methods are the most important predictive tools in the emerging field of Data Science. In this presentation, we consider simple linear regression and multiple regression. We demonstrate how to use the R programming environment in estimating regression parameters, performing inferences, computing residuals and creating various residual plots to assess the model fit. Participants will have hands-on experience in opening text or .csv files and performing the tasks listed above using R.

   Click Health Data, Workshop Two Handouts, FIREDAM & GFCLOCKSDATA, for resources provided by the presenter.

General Education Coordinators: Supporting Faculty to Improve Student Success

Track: Involving Faculty in Student-Centered Mentoring
Presenters: Atiba Rougier, Erin Thompson, Robert Garot, & Wynne Ferdinand

John Jay faculty are committed to student learning and success; how can we ensure that they are equipped to teach our students the critical skills essential for success in their future courses, their majors, and postgraduate success? Over the past two years, the Director of General Education has partnered with several academic departments to pilot General Education Coordinators to create resources and provide a point of contact to help faculty – particularly new instructors – design and teach their course successfully. Come learn more about the work General Education Coordinators have accomplished for Anthropology 101, Art 101, and Sociology 101 – and how the General Education Coordinator project can help your department improve key Gen Ed courses in the future.

 Click here for resources provided by the presenters.

The Climate Crisis: All Sectors Impacted

Track: Inspiring Student-Centered Scholarship and Creativity
Presenters: Paul Bartlett, Mary Ting, Nicholas Preda, & Lizbeth Rossi

The UN just declared there is one climate disaster every week. Extreme weather events of biblical proportions, deforestation, extinctions, refugees and increasing global violence amid dwindling resources are the new normal. Every sector, discipline and community are impacted and as educators we need to be preparing our students. Faculty will be introduced to online resources to enable the inclusion of climate literacy and climate justice into their curriculum. A variety of student-centered teaching methods and activities used by John Jay Environmental Justice Program faculty will be introduced (e.g. role-playing podcasts, case studies, project based guided inquiry, investigating real climate data, etc.). Workshop participants will brainstorm climate events and examples as a group, discuss intersection with disciplines, and create criteria/guidelines for investigation style or story-oriented assignments. Student Environmental Justice alumni will be co-facilitating. Participants are encouraged to bring mobile devices to access online resources.

Click Human Rights Institutions, John Jay Climate Change Priorities and Bartlett-SDG-6-Chapter Proof for resources provided by the presenter.

Make the Connection: The CUNY Voluntary Savings Retirement Plan

Track: Sustaining Faculty in Early, Mid and Post Career
Presenters: Keisha Pottinger-Moore, Stephen Baumeister 

This presentation will cover the essentials of voluntary savings retirement plans with special attention to these discussion topics:

  • Eligibility
  • Creating an investment strategy
  • Learn about the Retirement plan investment advice
  • Managing your TIAA account
  • Suggested next steps