Posted on No Comments on Great Example for Classroom Use

Great Example for Classroom Use

I just say this post on a blog that I’m following and wanted to share it with you:  Steve Jobs on Communicating Your Core Values

The reasons why I’ve re-posted it here through the link above are:

  1. It is about a key figure in our current economy/society discussing a major brand which our students can identify with.
  2. It speaks to the fundamental importance of core values which can provide an interesting discussion.
  3. In the last sections of the article the author turns to a discussion of message and presentation, which is relevant for marketing/branding discussions.

One way I might use this in class is to either print out copies of the article or have prepared a QR code of the link to put on the screen so students can easily look it up on their mobile devices (How to easily create QR codes).  Divide the class into groups of 3-4 and assign each group to analyze the article.  Assign one group to focus on the core values and cross relevance to their lives/occupations.  Assign another group to focus on the manner of presenting the message and discuss how Job’s approach in delivering the message contributed to the Brand, potential effects for the company and then cross relevance to their own companies and their message. You can duplicate these groups if you have more students.  Then bring the class back together to debrief each topic: the core values, and the message. Remember if you don’t debrief the time spent in these groups and add your observations it is not as effective.

I’m sure you can think of other ways to use this article – please respond to this post with your ideas so others can benefit.

Blessings,

Rick

Posted on 2 Comments on New Dean in Atlanta & Leadership

New Dean in Atlanta & Leadership

by Dr. Kotina Hall

As the new Dean of Faculty at Belhaven Atlanta, I have found it necessary to review critical leadership practices to not only provide a renewed sense of direction, but to excite critical directives that produce sound results to ignite extraordinary possibilities. I have found Kouzes and Posner’s (1995) Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership to be the catalyst to do just that.

Kouzes and Posner introduce Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership which have proven life changing:  Inspiring a Shared Vision, Challenging the Process, Encouraging the Heart, Enabling Others to Act, and Modeling the Way. Many have tried to choose the practice they deem most viable to the success of the organization.  Consequently, I believe one cannot survive without the other. Each practice is unique in that it serves as a connector to the other and further yields results of trust, integrity, moral aptitude, a “can do” attitude, and empowerment. However, none of which is more important than the other.  Rather, each compliments as a necessity to the other for effective leadership to occur.

Effective leadership is a buzz phrase that should not be taken lightly. While everyone has the ability to lead, not everyone approaches the responsibility with purposed commitment. That commitment is usually the difference between being a good leader and being a great leader. What is the differentiator between the two? The deciding factor is understanding that our positions often equip us with breaking lives or changing lives. It is my continued goal to exercise the latter both in and outside of the University.

“The empirical literature in leadership has shown that transformational leadership is where leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality” (Burns, 1978, p. 20).  As leaders, we know it is not always an easy task to exercise each practice. Some days we just will not feel like it. It is during these times that it becomes necessary to do so anyway. Such days prove to be our discipleship test. In doing so, let us model the way of Paul and Silas, and pray anyway. Even in prison, they praised. It is necessary to understand that we are blessed to be a blessing to others.

The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership are cyclic in that they are transferable to academic, personal and professional lives. Therefore, we are afforded countless opportunities to master the practices in order to effortlessly and purposely execute them. I implore each of us to continue to focus on the totality of these practices in efforts to foster life changing growth as leaders and to gain a “level of commitment, engagement, and satisfaction of those that follow.” It will not always be easy, but our walk is not designed to be.

Posted on No Comments on Beware of Becoming Stale

Beware of Becoming Stale

Stale when applied to food means: “no longer fresh and pleasant to eat; hard, musty, or dry.”(Source)  When applied to Instructors it might mean “no longer current in subject content, pedagogy outdated or out-of-sync with audience, boring, irrelevant, etc.”  This is an ever present possibility for all of us in an age when everything seems to be moving at high speed.  We all know of the need to stay relevant, both in our subject and in our delivery, the question is, “Do you have a strategy to make sure you aren’t (or haven’t become) STALE?”

Let me recommend one piece of my strategy which I use that help you in this regard.  It can apply to your teaching subject but also may cross apply to any area of your life, even your spiritual life.  I set up a free account at Bloglovin‘.   Once my account was set up I added several blogs (from the icon of a person in the top right corner select Edit Blogs You Follow) from sources which align with my interests, such as:

Bloglovin’ additionally makes it easy to search for other blogs which may interest you.  Once you have set it up, you will simply get an email each day with the posts that have been made to the blogs on your list.  Typically my email only includes two or at most three links since most bloggers don’t post daily.  Then I can choose to click on the link and read the post, or ignore it.  Easy as that.

Of course, this shouldn’t be the only way your are developing yourself, but hopefully you will find this a useful addition to your development strategy.

Posted on 3 Comments on The NEW (and Improved) Blazenet

The NEW (and Improved) Blazenet

By now many of you have had to interact with the new Blazenet and I thought I would take a few minutes in this post and give a short tour of the more important, relatively speaking, aspects of Blazenet for Faculty.

First, Blazenet is no longer the repository for Faculty Modules of the curriculum used in either our on-site or online courses.  These modules can now be found in a Faculty Module Library in Canvas.  The student modules are also no longer available on Blazenet and can be found on the Canvas course-site.  This is a big improvement regarding keeping the modules lined up with each other and with the Canvas build-out for the course.  You should automatically enrolled in the Faculty Module Library if you are scheduled to teach a course but if for some reason you don’t have access or can’t find it, contact your Dean.

Second, recording attendance in Blazenet is both the same AND different. Before attendance can be posted the first time the course has to have the gradebook set-up.  There are help videos for this which I will mention later in this post.  Once the grade book is set up, posting attendance is relatively siattendancemple: from the home page, click on “Self-Service” drop down and choose the options which gets you to “Faculty Information.”  From there click on either Class Roster or Grading and select the appropriate course.  Click on the link for Grade book and it should take you to a screen with information like in the picture on the left.  Click on Attendance and the appropriate date to record attendance.  Note that dates only show up as they arrive on the calendar.

Third, you can email one or more students from the same place you mark attendance.  Instead of clicking on Attendance choose the “Send E-Mail to Students” link.  This is helpful for keeping all communication with a student in a tracked repository in case there are any questions that arise later, e.g. grading.

Fourth, this is also where you will come to post your final grades for the course so you can be paid.

Fifth, from the menu select Faculty Homepage and you will find helpful Quick Links and, more importantly, How-To videos under the FAQ section.  Simply click on the appropriate question to discover short tutorials which answer the question.

Sixth, from the menu select Faculty Resources/Adult and Graduate to be taken to a page with a variety of resources designed to assist you.  QuickLinks, FAQs, contact information for the respective Deans, and Forms & Documents which includes the most recent Adult Studies Faculty Handbook September 2016.

If there is more information you would like to see available on Blazenet, be sure to let me know at rupchurch@belhaven.edu.