News
Successful Teaching Conference Expected to Draw its Biggest Crowd
More Faculty Presenting and Attending Conference Workshops
By Sherrie Negrea
Institute for Community College Development
Fall 2009
The Successful Teaching Conference (STC) in Corning is expected to attract a record crowd, with at least 150 faculty members from two- and four-year colleges planning to converge on the Radisson Hotel from Oct. 22 to 23.
The annual conference typically draws between 110 and 120 faculty members from Broome Community College, Corning Community College, and Tompkins Cortland Community College, the three schools that have co-sponsored the event since 1995. But this year, Onondaga Community College has joined the conference's planning team and faculty members from four-year schools throughout the state and beyond have registered to attend.
Drawing at left: Elaine Corwin, Professor of Health and Wellness at Corning Community College, tapped the talents of artist Sherry Foley in creating PowerPoint images to capture the spirit of her presentation, “Tiny, Terrific Tips for Teaching and Training.”
Organizers say the increased attendance reflects the value of the conference and its proximity to the sponsoring colleges. In addition, as enrollment at community colleges has risen across the state, newer faculty members want to learn teaching techniques from their colleagues.
"This conference is very much a strong value and it's local and close by, which makes it attractive to institutions where travel money is becoming increasingly difficult to set aside," said Deborah Irwin, a professor in the English, Reading and Communications Department at Onondaga Community College and an STC planning committee member.
Besides the four colleges and the Institute for Community College Development (ICCD), another organization that helped organize this year's conference is the State University of New York Center for Professional Development (SUNY CPD), in Syracuse. Because it serves all the colleges and universities in the SUNY system, the center has helped attract faculty from throughout the state, including more than a dozen from four-year state schools.
Photo at left: Sims Man will guest star in “Using a Nursing Simulator in a College Classroom,” to be presented by English Professor Michael Hricik of Westmoreland County Community College.
"The most valuable thing about this conference is the cross-pollination of ideas from the community colleges and the four-year colleges," said Lisa Raposo, assistant director of the CPD. "Having all the different campuses interact and share their best practices at this conference will be beneficial to having students transfer along the pipeline."
The conference opens at 7 p.m. on Thursday with a wine reception. Melissa Bekelja Wanzer, a professor of communication studies at Canisius College, will give the keynote presentation, "Turning Pain into Pleasure: The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Benefits of Humor," at 9 a.m. on Friday.
While registration for the conference is up, so is the number of faculty presenting workshops and breakout sessions at the conference. Thirty-four presenters will offer workshops on topics ranging from using international online learning communities to engaging millennial students.
Because so many proposals were submitted to the conference, a new interactive session for faculty to demonstrate their teaching techniques was added to the program, said Jayne Peaslee (pictured at left), director of professional development at Corning Community College and a STC planning committee member. Six simultaneous presentations will be made at the afternoon session called Sharing, on techniques such as engaging students in online courses and using active learning in biology lectures.
Drew Waters, an assistant professor of music recording technology at California State University at Monterey Bay, is travelling to Corning to co-present a workshop on facilitating effective communication among students, faculty and administrators in online courses. A former adjunct professor at SUNY Plattsburgh, Waters will lead the session with his former colleague, William Pfaff, an assistant music professor at Plattsburgh.
"I think we are all in the same boat," Waters said. "It's just that I happen to teach at a four-year program rather than a two-year program. The main thing is that teaching students and learning from faculty — it's all the same."
While class sizes may be smaller at two-year colleges, the issue of engaging students applies to faculty at four-year colleges as well. "It's about good, engaging teaching," said Irwin. "I think no matter what size classroom that you're in, there are things that you can get from a conference focused on that."
One change in this year's conference is a new method of paying the registration fees. Through a program offered by the CPD, 35 faculty used "points" accrued from their colleges' membership in the SUNY center to pay their registration fees.
Beginning next spring, a second annual Successful Teaching Conference will be held in the Mid-Hudson Valley area, sponsored by Columbia-Greene, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester community colleges. A planning committee has already been formed, and its members will attend the conference in Corning to learn more about the event as they begin working with ICCD to plan their own STC.
Next year's Successful Teaching Conference for the four community colleges in Central New York will be held on Oct. 21 and 22 in Syracuse.
To register for the conference in Corning, please visit ICCD's Web site at http://www.iccd.cornell.edu/iccd/.
Sherrie Negrea is a writer with the Institute for Community College Development. She can be reached at ICCD@cornell.edu.
