For two years before joining the faculty at BMCC, I taught college courses in six medium- and maximum-security prisons through the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (NJ-STEP) consortium of Rutgers University-Newark. I hope that some of the lessons I learned may help those teaching at BMCC.
Integrating visual arts, music, dance and theater into my early childhood teacher education curriculum at BMCC has provided my students with opportunities to discover and create, to deeply notice and question, to expand imagination and construct meaning through authentic and collaborative learning experiences.
I believe we all have a growth mindset in at least one area of our lives, and we just need to be reminded of that mindset so we can apply it to other areas. From the first day, I make many small changes in my classroom to help promote growth mindset and help my students see themselves as capable.
Zines — self-published, small circulation booklets or magazines — engage students in creative activism, teach about history, enable learners to produce their own resources, and build community in the classroom.
If we want students to believe in themselves and in BMCC, and if we want students to believe that the assigned coursework is important, we must first create a learning community. My experience has taught me that this community should resemble a (happy) family: we don’t always agree with one another, but we know that our voice matters, that it will be heard.
Double Portrait, the upcoming exhibit at BMCC's Shirley Fiterman Art Center, is designed to open a conversation not only about issues in contemporary art, but also about such topics as identity, women’s studies, and subjectivity and the self. We invite you and your students to contribute to this cultural conversation.
My teaching experience at BMCC—and previously, at Fordham University—has proven that performance-based assignments help students connect with material that might on first blush seem difficult, foreign, and strange.
In a previous blog post, I shared a brief overview of mindfulness for faculty. In this post, I share suggestions about how to make your class mindful – practically speaking.
Open pedagogy refers to a style of learner-centered teaching that “opens up” the creation of knowledge to include students. Learn about how BMCC faculty have engaged their students in open pedagogy during Open Teaching Week, April 1 - 7.
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