Computational thinking is a framework that students can utilize to solve complex problems and apply across disciplines and in many types of settings, even ones far removed from computer science. The BMCC Technology Learning Community is offering a paid summer/fall professional development opportunity to help faculty implement computational thinking in their classrooms.
WakandaCon was a manifesto that ideas could truly come to life. The event provided a space for students to come together as a community to view Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and discuss themes such as coloniality, grief/anger, and gender.
If I have five minutes to talk about one element of my teaching at BMCC, then digital storytelling works both in terms of format and as the subject matter. My goal is ultimately for students to use first-person narrative to support research, and hopefully to create work that they can use for applications and other academic and professional endeavors beyond our classroom.
In celebration of Open Teaching Week, this week's blog post consists of a series of video tours of BMCC classes taught on Blackboard and the Openlab. Learn how your colleagues are engaging students and creating community online in both in-person and asychronous classes.
Looking back now on five years of using SI leaders, I know I will never go back. Why? Grades are up, and so is retention, but I would really never go back to being that solo teacher in the front of the classroom. I prefer the noisy, happy, imperfect collaboration of working with SI Leaders who are closer in age and experience, and digital footprint to my students.
Care and joy should be at the center of all people’s lives regardless of their work. This need is especially significant for academics, like so many others who work with the demands of unpaid labor and have few boundaries between work life and personal life. “Slow scholarship” produces the nurturing spaces that all academics deserve and is a model worthy of our collective action.
Discord is a community-based platform that can be used to encourage organic interactions amongst students in a virtual environment. This post discusses how Discord can foster an online community, whether you’re teaching online or in-person.
There has been so much work in our college lately addressing anti-racist pedagogy and culturally sustaining pedagogy that I thought it would be fruitful to go to the mother of the movement. But I also didn’t want to read her by myself. I know my colleagues and wanted to read with all of you. So along with the library, CETLS and the Race, Equity and Inclusion Coordinating Committee, we started the bell hooks Book Club.
The overlapping crises of public health and police brutality prompted me to think about trauma-informed pedagogy as a way to both grieve the losses and celebrate resilience. The collaborative project, “From Pandemic to Protest: We Remember,” was designed to provide students with an opportunity to reflect on the events of 2020-2021, using digital tools to commemorate the experiences of their communities during the Covid-19 pandemic and the racial-justice protests.
