In this Issue
- General Education
- Hostos Reads
- Teaching Tips
- Teaching Tidbits
- Transition to Remote Learning
- Achievements
CTL Mission
In keeping with Hostos tradition, the Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning with innovative
pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies by fostering interdisciplinary and cross-divisional collaborations. Read More
General Education
General education needs a new name. The bland, catch-all-sounding phrase belies its importance, its vitality, and the vexing, urgent struggles to make sense of the world that are its reason for being. Read More
Hostos Reads
Virtual Hostos Reads!
This Semester we are Hosting a series of Virtual Discussions involving a variety of short reads that are very timely.
Teaching Tips
For decades, several initiatives have been taken by the United States to increase minority students’ interest and persistence toward engineering, to meet the fast growing needs of its STEM workforce. However, recent studies have shown a decrease in STEM graduates among minorities from higher education institutions, which is strongly related to the lack of minority youths’ interest in math and science. Read More
Teaching Tidbits
The Center for Teaching and Learning recognizes the challenges of finding time to research, plan, and execute new ideas. As a result, we created short videos that serve as a resource for tips, reflections, tools and new teaching strategies. The goal is to create an environment where faculty can watch, share and learn new teaching strategies. Read More
The Transition to Remote Scenario Opens a New Era in Higher Education
I am not sure words can do justice to describe Spring 2020, a semester that began as many others but quickly became unrecognizable. During the first week of March, I took two days off work to spend an extended weekend in Iceland, knowing there were some concerns about COVID, but for the most part, everything was business as usual. Read More
Achievements
The Center for Teaching and Learning would like to congratulate the following faculty for these achievements:
In this Issue
CTL Mission
The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning at all levels. The Center seeks to enhance Hostos’ multicultural and multi-lingual learning environments with innovative teaching pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies. The Center supports faculty, staff, and student achievements inside and outside of the classroom and encourages the growth of interdisciplinary and cross-Read More
Teaching Tidbits
Professor Preciado has been working over the last three decades in the Education Department, and he was one of the first faculty to use Blackboard in the Classroom. In this interview, he explains how he uses Blackboard to make an online course more engaging. Read More
Hostos Reads
The 2019-2020 Hostos Reads! selection is Angie Thomas’ thought-provoking novel, The Hate U Give. The novel’s themes of inequality, social justice, and self-identity are sure to start discussions in the classroom and the Hostos community. Pick up a copy or arrange for your class to read the book at the Center for Teaching and Learning (B-418)….. Read More
General Education
Why do I teach? I frequently engage that question. I think, why am I in the classroom? And I’m not referring to the day to day or the charge as an English professor at Hostos Community College to help students write and organize essays, and guide them through learning research skills. Those and other student learning outcomes (SLOs) are clearly stated on my syllabus, and I intimately understand the responsibility … Read More
Experiential Reflection
Family members and/or friends of cancer patients, do everything in their power to help their loved ones who have cancer to become cancer free. I personally lost my nephew, Zion to cancer at the age of only four years. As a matter of fact, Zion’s father my brother-Dr. Kosj Yamoah, has both his MD and PhD degrees in oncology-the study of cancer; and rightly so, he did everything in his power to try to save his son Zion from a rare and fast growing cancer known as Atypical Teratoid Thabdoid Tumor (ATRT). ATRT most often affects children age 3 or younger. After Zion passed on, the organization, Out-Of-Zion Incorp… Read More
Math Day
After my Math Murder Mystery presentation at the 3rd Annual Mathematics Day, students and faculty made some comments to me. The students said that they never saw any math problems presented this way and that they had actually enjoyed doing Math and English in solving the Math Murder Mysteries. The faculty said it was an excellent idea connecting Math and English in a mystery setting. At the presentation, I presented four of my Math Murder Mysteries. I have included the Math Murder Mystery… Read More
In this Issue
- Teaching Tips
- The Sabbatical Experience
- Fellowship
- Hostos Reads
- General Education
- Research
- Research and SoTL
- Teaching Tips II
- Faculty Investigation Group
CTL Mission
The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning at all levels. The Center seeks to enhance Hostos’ multicultural and multi-lingual learning environments with innovative teaching pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies. The Center supports faculty, staff, and student achievements inside and outside of the classroom and encourages the growth of interdisciplinary and cross-Read More
Teaching Tips
One afternoon in the fall of 2018, two faculty members sat down to discuss the cornerstone research assignment for the Foundations of Education course, EDU 101, and the ways students have been navigating that assignment. One was the instructor for multiple sections of the course (Sarah), and the other the library liaison for Early Childhood Education (Linda). That afternoon, what began as a routine check in became revelatory for both of us… Read More
The Sabbatical Experience
Hurricane Maria, the most devastating hurricane in 85 years, struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. Hurricane Maria was categorized as the worst natural disaster on record in Puerto Rico as it caused a catastrophe that triggered a major humanitarian crisis in the island. The death toll in Puerto Rico is believed to be far higher than the official toll of 58. The estimated loss ranges from 1,000 to more than 4,000 lives…. Read More
Fellowship
An essential limitation that writers of digital messages face is that non-verbal cues such as tone of voice, facial expressions, and gestures are not available in digital discourse. People engaged in face-to-face communication draw heavily upon these cues to interpret how what is being said should be interpreted. To compensate for this shortcoming, computer users first began adapting features of the keyboard to convey how their messages should be read. This was when emoticons (emotion icons) came into being as early as the 1980s… Read More
General Education
General Education is an essential foundation of education as a learning process that continues throughout a person’s life. It is an environment and an approach. It encompasses all fields and disciplines. It is the way that math, language, history, science, poetry, and art, to name some examples, affect us everyday, in all parts of our life, from seeing a leaf turn from green to brown (and understanding why it does), to watching day fade into night, to thinking about the vast distance between our sun and a pinpoint twinkle of a star… Read More
Research
This research examines North Korea’s secondary mathematics education alongside social and political prospective. North Korean secondary mathematics textbooks and curricula have been examined and analyzed. Facts and conclusions have been disclosed. However, large fractions of the North Korean mathematics educational system, including its teachers, students, and dynamics of the actual classrooms, still remain unknown, as North Korea maintains its isolation… Read More
Research and SoTL
Back in February, I published an article in Inside Higher Ed called “Advice for the Community College Scholar, ” in which I provided five concrete steps that community-college faculty might take to advance their research agendas while working with a heavy teaching load. Here, I hope to offer some suggestions more specific to junior faculty members at Hostos, all of whom are required to conduct research as part of their advancement toward tenure and eventually promotion to both associate and full professor… Read More
Teaching Tips II
You have your group assignment or assignments set up for the semester. You are all excited about using groups in your class. You know your students will resist because we all know that students hate to work in groups. How many times have you heard that statement? However, you are convinced that your assignments will garner the full support of the students. Okay. So, let’s see some ways that you can prepare the students for group work and make your group assignments successful… Read More
Faculty Investigation Group
Greetings from the Service Learning and Civic Engagement Committee!
Our committee has been hard at work in 2018-2019 and we want to share with the larger Hostos community what we have been working on, where we are headed in 2019-2020, and how the committee and/or coordinator can serve faculty and students… Read More
In this Issue
- Teaching Tips
- The Sabbatical Experience
- Professor and Celebrated Artist Ian Charles Scott
- International Fellowship
- FullBright
- Hostos Reads
- General Education
CTL Mission
The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning at all levels. The Center seeks to enhance Hostos’ multicultural and multi-lingual learning environments with innovative teaching pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies. The Center supports faculty, staff, and student achievements inside and outside of the classroom and encourages the growth of interdisciplinary and cross-Read More
Teaching Tips
Neurodiversity is an approach to learning and disability that posits diverse neurological conditions are the results of normal variations in the human genome, and not inherently pathological Read More
The Sabbatical Experience
Over the last three decades, I have enjoyed working intensively with students to help them achieve their academic goals here at Hostos. Upon my appointment, I knew that research would be expected of me… Read More
Professor and Celebrated Artist Ian Charles Scott
It was not until I was watching the recent ‘heist film’, Oceans Eight, where a group of 8 ladies decide the rob the Metropolitan Museum annual Ball that I realized the significance of getting mentioned in… Read More
International Fellowship
The idea behind the apexart International Fellowship is to break artists out of our comfortable little bubbles of work and expose us to new ideas and cultures. Every fellowship recipient is sent somewhere… Read More
Fullbright
This Fulbright Specialist opportunity in Honduras revealed a faculty community questioning the meaning of assessment of student learning outcomes, classroom management and student engagement… Read More
General Education
The beauty and diverse benefits of studying mathematics is captured in the following excerpt by Prof. Jung Hang Lee, who joined the Mathematics Department at Hostos Community College in… Read More
In this Issue
CTL Mission
The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning at all levels. The Center seeks to enhance Hostos’ multicultural and multi-lingual learning environments with innovative teaching pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies. The Center supports faculty, staff, and student achievements inside and outside of the classroom and encourages the growth of interdisciplinary and cross-Read More
An Introduction to Theories of Learning
Diana Macri, Assistant Professor, Allied Health Sciences
Over the past half century, American higher education has expanded from an elite audience to the mass market. Audience demographics have changed dramatically, and institutions of higher education are recognizing a need for faculty who are not only successful researchers but are also effective educators. Most faculty in institutions of higher education obtain their positions having proven expertise in their respective disciplines. However, they are poorly prepared as educators and benefit greatly from institutional support… Read More
Building Experiential Communities: A Holistic Approach in Education
Amanda Bernal-Carlo, Professor, Natural Sciences
This article is about my own personal experience as an educator. When I finished high school, I was hired as a fifth grade teacher in an elementary school located in one of the most neglected neighborhoods in the capital city of Colombia. On the first day of classes I met 35 students, between 10-16 years of age who came to the school hungry and without even a pen or pencil, unprotected from the cold weather of Bogotá and with little or no enthusiasm to learn. The first priority for these kids was to survive the day…. Read More
A Fulbright Scholar in Slovakia: A Transformative Experience
Yoel Rodríguez, Professor, Natural Sciences
I embarked on my sabbatical leave during the fall of 2016 after earning my tenure in 2014. I had the privilege to receive a 2016 – 2017 U.S. Fulbright Scholar Award to the Slovak Republic. My sabbatical leave together with my Fulbright award provided me firstly with the opportunity to enhance my research spectrum by working with Dr. Magdaléna Májeková at the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology (IEPT) of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) in Bratislava, the Slovak Republic. Dr. Májeková is an expert in biophysics and medicinal chemistry… Read More
Diversity Survey
Nelson Nuñez-Rodríguez, Physical Sciences Coordinator, Natural Sciences
The Center for Teaching and Learning collaborated with the Diversity Fellow Prof. Nelson Nuñez-Rodríguez to develop a faculty survey based on cultural competencies and organize a panel focused on diversity matters during the CTL annal professional development day aka Spa Day. The Office of Academic Affairs Associate Dean Ann Mester; Prof. Hector Soto, Chair, College-wide Senate Affirmative Action Committee; Lauren Gretina, Chief Diversity Officer/Title IX Coordinator; and Prof. Nelson Nuñez-Rodríguez facilitated this panel.… Read More
In this Issue
- Teaching Tips
- Hostos Reads
- Approach to Training
- Celebrations & Accomplishments
- Sabbatical experience
CTL Mission
The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning at all levels. The Center seeks to enhance Hostos’ multicultural and multi-lingual learning environments with innovative teaching pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies. The Center supports faculty, staff, and student achievements inside and outside of the classroom and encourages the growth of interdisciplinary and cross-Read More
Changing the mindset for enhanced pedagogy
Linda Ridley Lecturer Business Academic Department
As a global consultant focusing on change management within organizations, over the past decade I have adapted my thirst for problem solving to the field of education. This provided an exciting trajectory as I transitioned my significant expertise in organizational development into the field of education. In 2015, I won a competition to become a First Time Case Writer with The Case Centre, based at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. Chosen as only one of 18 professors worldwide (just three in the United States), this was an affirmation of my efforts to integrate business practices…Read More
Hostos Reads – Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
For many years, Professor Robert Cohen of the Department of Language and Cognition coordinated the popular and successful book of the semester program. Under his leadership, the Hostos community read and discussed books together in a range of genres and on subjects as diverse as mental illness, scientific inventions and family relationships. Last year, the Center for Teaching and Learning re-launched the book of the semester as a yearlong common read, Hostos Reads: Books in Common, Books in Community with Just Mercy a non-fiction work about theinjustices of the criminal justice system by author and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson…. Read More
Looking for General Education in a New Global Space of Education
Karin Lundberg Associate Professor Language and Cognition Department
When I first sat down to write this piece, Talking Heads’ question involuntarily surfaced: “How did I get here?” And I felt the urge to pursue the line further. What is the “Once in a Lifetime”-song really about? I went on a search and found more than I had expected: “We’re largely unconscious. You know, we operate half-awake, or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else. We haven’t really stopped to ask ourselves, “How did I get here?” (David Byrne, NPR March 27, 2000.) Reflecting on my journey as an educator in a rich, global context where language and communication are at the center of my daily pedagogical “chores”, I walk back and trace the knots that have come to form the intricate web… Read More
Seen The Unseen
Mohammad Sohel Associate Professor Natural Sciences Dept.
I have joined in the Natural Sciences Department in 2007 as an Assistant Professor. Like many of us at Hostos Community College, in addition to our significant teaching loads, service and student mentorship, we are expected to carry on our research and contribute significantly to our professional field through research and publication. My educational background and professional training is in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology which is the study, manipulation and application of extremely small things of matter on an atomic, molecular level that are less than 100 nanometer in size. Do you know- 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch. A human hair… Read More
Variations in an Emergency
Anne Lovering Rounds Assistant Professor English Department
Hostos English Department faculty member Anne Lovering Rounds had her first book, Variations in an Emergency, published at the end of 2016. Praised by literary critics and musicians alike, the work is a collection of poems about the way longing and loss recur. The book’s 32 poems resonate with literary and musical references, and the book is inspired by the structure of Baroque composer J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations for keyboard, in which an aria is the theme for 30 subsequent variations and then returns to end the set. Thus the book opens with a poem called “Aria,” which contains the subjects of the other poems in the collection. When the theme returns at the end of the Goldberg Variations, the experience is one of closure and instability: something… Read More
- In this Issue
CTL Mission: The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning at all levels. The Center seeks to enhance Hostos’ multicultural and multi-lingual learning environments with innovative teaching pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies. The Center supports faculty, staff, and student achievements inside and outside of the classroom and encourages the growth of interdisciplinary and cross-Read More
Brain and Language: Bilingualism: The Neural Basis of Processing More than One Language
Merce Pujol Language and Cognition Department
In the last 20 years, research on neurolinguistics and bilingualism has demonstrated that exposure to two or more languages on a regular basis shapes …Read More
Dietary Guidelines for Latino in the U.S.
Iris Mercado Associate Professor Education Department
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines provides guidance and recommendations to help Americans make healthy choices in the areas of nutrition focused on preventing diet-related chronic diseases. However… Read More
A Change of Scence
David K. Weiser Associate Professor English Department
I am grateful to Professor Greg Marks, Chair of the English Department, for pointing out that I was eligible for a fellowship leave / sabbatical. The idea that I could apply successfully for such an honor had never occurred me. To my surprise though, after more than… Read More
A Spotlight on our Daily Classroom Dynamics: It is time to Help Each Other Infusing Diversity, Plurality and Inclusion in our Classrooms
Nelson Nuñez-Rodríguez Professor Natural Sciences Department
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) aims to support faculty addressing diversity issues in the classroom by creating a professional -development structure focused on this matter. In doing so, the Center has been collaborating with the OAA…Read More
Check out our Spring 2017 Newsletter!
In this Issue
CTL Mission
Slogan: “Creating better teachers to better serve our students.”
Mission:
In keeping with Hostos tradition, the Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning with innovative pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies by fostering interdisciplinary and cross-divisional collaborations.
Read More
“Agnes Beaumont: A Seventeenth-Century Story of Self, Suffering, and Spirituality”
Andrea Fabrizio Deputy Chair of the English Department
Agnes Beaumont was a woman who lived in seventeenth-century England and who is worthy of an introduction to the modern reader. She is not nearly as well-known as Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters, but in the fall of 2015, while on sabbatical, I began to contribute to the case that she is significant in her own right through my scholarship.Beaumont wrote one major text in her life. It was aptly titled, The Narrative of the Persecutions…Read More
Plickers Assessment Tool: For Any Educational Environment
Michael Gosset Physical Education Unit Coordinator
Do you wish you had another means to receive formative feedback from students, increase student participation, and/or track student progress in your classes? You may be familiar with the Clickers response system, the electronic device you put in your hand, but you may not be familiar with Plickers. Plickers response system is similar to the Clickers response system in that a multiple choice (MC) or True/False (TF) question is asked, and the responders select +-an answer, while remaining anonymous to the class. The initiator, or instructor, however, does see individual… Read More
Reflections upon teaching our students (and some tips!)
Kate Wolfe Assistant Professor Behavioral & Social Sciences Dept.
I have been fortunate enough to teach community-college students for the past seventeen years. As I complete my fifth year as an Assistant Professor at Hostos Community College, I would like to share my ideas about teaching and being the best faculty member I can be for our students. I have always been passionate about educating students, not just about psychology, but about being a successful college student and using knowledge gained to navigate life. Every semester I ask myself how I can improve. Here are some of my thoughts on being an effective teacher. Read More
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Many summers ago, I sat next to Magda Vasillov in an NEH Institute designed by the American Social History Project (ASHP); it was a month-long journey of navigating the Web and incorporating the tools of technology in the curriculum. Magda patiently mentored me as we considered the integration of technology in my developmental reading and writing courses and her Arts and Civilization course. 
Hostos Community College Professor Yoel Rodríguez has been granted a prestigious 2016-17 U.S. Fulbright Scholar Award to the Slovak Republic. The Fulbright award along with his sabbatical leave will provide Professor Rodriguez with the opportunity to work at the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. Professor Rodriguez will be collaborating with Dr. Magdalena Majekova, who is an expert in Biophysics and Medicinal Chemistry. Through this partnership, and by bringing his expertise in Computational Molecular Biology, Professor Rodríguez believes that they will be able to make important contributions regarding worldwide human health issues related to cardiovascular and heart disease. He feels truly humbled, honored and excited by this opportunity.
CTL played a fundamental role in hosting The 12th Annual Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE) Conference, “Walk the Talk: Inspiring Action on the Concourse and Beyond,” which was held at Hostos Community College on May 13, 2016. More than 300 participants attended this event. The conference included an opening session, keynote speaker Dr. Jose Antonio Bowen, Fireside Chats, and over 60 presentations. The Fireside Chats provided some insight into the character and resilience of our CUNY community. The positive reviews and comments by attendees reflected the amount of hard work and unity the staff and volunteers had and put into the success of this event!
On May 31, 2016, CTL successfully hosted the sixth annual Professional Development Day (aka CTL SPA DAY). This event was held at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor, New York. This year was the first time that the event was held off campus. SPA DAY with over 60 participants, was a great opportunity to share and learn with each other in an inviting and collegial setting. Additionally, the day included fun activities and lots of networking.
Four think-tank discussions offered participants an opportunity to learn about and discuss student research with faculty, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), online learning, and service learning. Prof. Andrew London started the afternoon with a fun game to break the ice. To finish the day, keynote speaker Prof. Cynthia Jones did a great job of connecting and putting into perspective all of the conversations that happened throughout the day to envision a place for everybody.
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- Approach to Training: How Are You?
- Learning from Our Elders: Students, Senior Citizens, and Service-Learning
- The Box of Surprises: A Simple Tool for Formative Assessment
- An Inquiry Through Race and American Literature
- Teaching with Technology
CTL Mission
The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes excellence in teaching and learning at all levels. The Center seeks to enhance Hostos’ multicultural and multi-lingual learning environments with innovative teaching pedagogies and state-of-the-art technologies. The Center supports faculty, staff, and student achievements inside and outside of the classroom and encourages the growth of interdisciplinary and cross-divisional collaborations and partnerships.
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Learning from Our Elders: Students, Senior Citizens, and Service-Learning
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The Box of Surprises: A Simple Tool for Formative Assessment
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SARAH HOILAND
NELSON NUNEZ-RODRIGUEZ
PEDAGOGICAL TIPSAn Inquiry Through Race and American Literature
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CYNTHIA JONES
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Teaching with Technology: Results from the December 2015 Faculty Survey
SPECIAL THANKSProfessor Jacqueline DiSanto and the Hostos Writing Group College Copy Center: David Floyd Diann Beckett Mercedes Valdez Newsletter Designers:Enmanuel Rosario Lemar Francis Dominique Coston Itzel Ortega |
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Welcome to the inaugural Center for Teaching and Learning Newsletter. Over the last 12 years, the Center has provided hundreds of hours of professional development activities, facilitated conversations, convened subcommittees for innovation, and linked faculty to numerous conferences and external opportunities. Last year, the majority of full-time faculty attended at least one activity, and we are slowly increasing the participation of our adjunct faculty in CTL events. Teaching and learning are dear to my heart and when I first came to the Office of Academic Affairs, I was excited to oversee the Center. The implementation of SPA DAY, the Hostos Teaching Institute, the OAA Teaching Fellowship, and the year of quantitative reasoning are just a few of the ways we have focused on teaching and learning. 
CTL held a successful first Adjunct Faculty Open House on Wednesday, September 16, 2015. More than 50 adjunct faculty attended this event. We really enjoyed meeting all of you!
