Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Academic Integrity and Diverse Learners, SC318

Academic integrity is a complex issue. Students’ attitudes regarding academic integrity are likely very different than those of their instructors. Cultural and socioeconomic factors can also influence how academic integrity is defined and valued. As faculty, it is our responsibility to look deeper into the reasons why students violate academic integrity policies. By considering how students might interpret academic integrity, we can shift our focus from how to penalize those who commit academic integrity violations to how to best educate them by preventing violations from happening. In this session, we will facilitate a discussion about how academic integrity might be interpreted differently by our diverse students and how instructors can promote a culture of integrity. We will also provide information on the upcoming college-wide survey from the International Center for Academic Integrity and how the survey results will help inform revisions to college policies and practices related to academic integrity.

Craig Kolins, Stephanie Yorba

Are We Reaching Encore Learners? If Not, Is It Their Fault or Ours? MTH127

This interactive session addresses the challenges faced by older learners returning to PCC after decades away from formal educational settings. Encore Learners are following their passions for lifelong learning. Encore Earners are seeking meaningful employment. As both groups return to the classroom with their current, older learning abilities, they are too often confronted with a steep learning curve. Many of these students never gain traction that first term or even that first course, drop out and do not return. Research reveals that these older students have different learning capabilities than when they were younger: Not better or worse, but just different. Incoming older students need to know this fact and adjust their learning styles to take advantage of the surprising benefits of having a mature mind. Faculty who understand the facts will be able to adjust instruction strategies to recognizing these facts about aging minds.

Roger Anunsen, Jan Abushakrah, Michael Faber, Annette Lansing

Disability Accommodations: What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do, SC316

This session will provide a full understanding of how Disability Accommodations work within a higher education setting. As well, participants will develop strategies and tools for handling difficult student situations. Lastly, after attending, participants will feel comfortable utilizing Accessible Ed & Disability Resources as a resource and support in maximizing educational potential for all students. This session will provide interactive discussion and small group work that can benefit anyone working in a higher education environment.

Jennifer Margolis, Phyllis Petteys

Engaging Students and Building Community in the Online Environment, SC322

Teaching online presents its own barriers to reaching a diverse set of learners. Fostering connections with students and engaging them with the course content and learning activities are essential for promoting retention and completion. Strategies and tools used for engaging a diverse group of learners with different learning styles and building collaborative connections among students are different in the online environment. Attendees will come away with new strategies and tools they can use in the online environment to effectively foster community and more effectively engage a diverse population of students in the learning process. This session will engage the audience through rapid-fire “lightening-round” style sharing.

Amy Clubb, Marc Goodman, Bryan Hull, Matt Stockton, Heidi Sickert

Make Your Own Meaning: Students As Content Creators and Curators Through Open Pedagogy and Digital Tools, MTH126

Join us for a session exploring open pedagogy and digital humanities, two approaches that engage students in the creation and curation of their own class content. Open pedagogy takes advantage of open, flexibly copyrighted materials to engage students as content creators and curators and to educate them about information and knowledge generation. Digital humanities is a collection of practices, tools, and approaches that allow us to access, analyze, and produce information in new ways. It empowers students and gives voices to communities traditionally silenced by mainstream media. By helping students more deeply understand how knowledge is produced, DH is a social justice practice. After participating in the workshop, instructors will be able to:

• Describe open pedagogy and how it can help diverse students learn more effectively.
• Approach using open pedagogy to design new assignments.
• Describe how digital humanities can support student success.
• Approach using digital tools to revise or design assignments.

Jen Klaudinyi, Caroline LeGuin, Laura Sanders

The Generational Divide: The Solution Is Quite Simple if You Are Willing to Shift Your Personal Paradigm, MTH130

Every generation has positive contributions to make. When we take the time to be compassionate and understand different perspectives, our work lives are more fulfilling and our classroom culture becomes stronger. Don’t sit by and let the years divide in the face of generational diversity! You can encourage your students to come together and build on the talents and successful habits of all generations.

Cole Chatterton

Want to Learn More about LGBTQIA? Gender Identity and All its Complexity! MTH125

Participants will gain a greater understanding of gender and gender identity, and be able to apply this knowledge in responding more effectively to student needs and creating more inclusive environments. Topics will include:

• LGBTQIA terminology and its usage, pulling apart sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex
• Conceptions of gender: The Gender Binary System, cultural gender norms and how each of us are influenced and restricted by them, gender spectrums and more inclusive ways of thinking about gender
• LGBTQ risk factors and applying an intersectional lens

Emily Squires, Engagement and Education Specialist, New Avenues for Youth, Cynthia Golledge, Sara Robertson

Addressing the Needs of Men of Color at Portland Community College, MTH130

The Minority Male Community College Collaborative (M2C3), at San Diego State University, launched the National Consortium on College Men of Color (NCCMC) in Spring 2015. This consortium serves as a platform for community colleges that are interested in sharing their efforts and learning about new strategies for enhancing the success of men of color. Recently, Portland Community College (PCC) has become a partner in this national consortium, as an outcome of an intentional and ongoing effort among the PCC Multicultural Centers to address this concern. The Men of Color Leadership Program, the African-American Men’s Scholars Program, and the Brother-to-Brother Initiative are three (3) such efforts of the Multicultural Centers to provide strategies and interventions to support the retention, completion, and transfer of male students of color. As a result, these programs have initiated an ongoing college-wide discussion about the success of men of color at PCC.

Phillip Christian, General C. Johnson, Clifford C. Meeks

Assessment and Diversity: Using a Professional Learning Community to Face Stereotype Threat, MTH 127

This session will highlight some of the important ways Professional Learning Communities support the ongoing learning and enhanced problem solving skills needed by professional educators called to meet our
responsibilities to diverse learners. In this session, the participants will come away with:

• An introduction to the meaning, background and history of Professional Learning Communities
• A general understanding of the purpose of Professional Learning Community protocols
• An introduction to some research on stereotype threat and its impact on classroom assessments
• Experience with the use of a PLC protocol to enhance respectful and productive conversation among professionals

Hannah Love, Jessica Johnson

Are you up for The Challenge? Step out of the classroom and into the community! MTH126

What does it take to engage the diverse students in your classroom? Could it be stepping outside? Community-Based Learning/Service-Learning is a powerful tool that creates meaningful and purposeful connections between class content and students’ lives. Before your students go out into the community, it is essential to identify organizations that will be partners in the learning experience. Definitely not an easy task! Are you up for the challenge? In this interactive workshop, utilize the tools and resources provided to go outside and explore potential partnerships with diverse community organizations. (Please be prepared for walking a short distance outside)

Hannah Cherry, Elizabeth Cole, Lisa George, Laura Sanders, Diane Shingledecker

AT 101: Demystifying Access Technologies, SC316

Today, technology is required for any college student. But for many students with disabilities, technology gives equal access to their educational setting. This session will introduce software and hardware that can reduce barriers to learning and working. Examples for note taking, magnification, text to speech and speech recognition will be provided along with resources to learn more. Faculty and staff can see first-hand the technology their students may be using for writing, note taking and reading materials in alternate formats. The session will include an overview and stations where participants can interact with the technology.

Angel Chesimet, Erik Ferguson, Phyllis Petteys

First-Generation Students in the College Classroom: Addressing the Persistence Gap, SC318

First-generation students face unique challenges as members of a college-classroom community. From initial college navigation to identification of classroom expectations, first-generation students often find themselves feeling disconnected and discouraged. This program will address helpful techniques and information about how to support first-generation students as they transition into the culture of the college classroom. This research-based workshop will include: (a) Q and A with panel of first-generation students (from Future Connect Scholarship Program), (b) data and theory about first-generation students, and (c) useful instructional activities aimed to support first-generation students.

Brittany Brown, Will Butler-Paisley, Jennie Cha, Becca Parker, Mike Pichay, Tara Porchia

Whitewashed, Unmasking the World of Whiteness Screening and Discussion, SC322

This session will screen and discuss the documentary Whitewashed, Unmasking the World of Whiteness. After viewing the film we will have a brief discussion of the film and its implication relative to addressing racism and racial exclusion. Participants should leave the session with a better grasp of the historical and social construction of white racial identity; the workings of white racial privilege; and the differences between prejudice, discrimination, racism(s), and white supremacy.

Mark Patrick George

Building Community by Addressing Microaggressions, MTH126

Instructors are used to building community in their classrooms, but what if there was something that could help you build community not only in your classroom but on campus as well? Our students of color face microaggressions on a daily basis; when these students are also ESOL students, due to language development, they may take nicer sounding microaggressions (“Your English is so good”) at face value, or they may realize that something is not quite right, but are not sure how to respond. This workshop will explore the definition of microaggressions, tools to recognize microaggressions (and how to avoid doing them yourself), and how to interrupt microaggressions. Workshop participants will come away feeling more empowered to recognize and address microaggressions that threaten to diminish the strong and supportive classroom and campus community we all appreciate.

Laura Horani, Rut Martinez-Alicea

Disability Cultural Competency: Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice, SC316

This session will provide context for understanding disability not as a medical problem but as a socially constructed phenomenon. The session will cover disability history, civil rights legislation,disability culture, the concept of ableism and more.

Ruth McKenna, Jennifer Gosset

Engaging the Group Learner: Collaborative Classroom Structures That Work, MTH127

This interactive workshop will focus on interesting perspectives and approaches for organizing and utilizing small-group student teams within Community College courses. Select insights, methods and techniques for effectively designing and leveraging student team structures will be presented, along with the resulting impacts upon student engagement and active learning within our diverse classroom settings. Implications and effects upon important aspects such as access, inclusion and completion will be considered and discussed. Attendees will share individual experiences and ideas relating to the workshop topics, and explore ways in which a group structured classroom may benefit their own classroom instruction.

Thomas M. Songer

Establishing A Community Within A Diverse Classroom, SC318

The workshop will consist of dialogue and exercises that will engage participants in community building activities within classroom settings. We will examine several tools that strengthen classroom communities as well as examine factors that destroy classroom communities including; microaggressions, self-segregating beliefs, and destructive language & terminology. The intent of this workshop is to promote and offer strategies on community building within the classroom, as well as bring and/or, further awareness on factors that can destroy classroom communities.

Saud Badri, Airriana Jasper, Juan Mariscal

Interrupting Oppressive Language: How to Engage in Constructive Dialogue, MTH125

This workshop teaches you the what/when/how process of engaging in thoughtful and constructive dialogue about difficult topics and/or oppressive language. In the workshop, I introduce some information about microaggressions, conflict resolution and empathy-building. Then I present different scenarios in which microaggressions and/or oppressive language was not interrupted. Next, I present the scenarios using new skills/techniques that show how you can effectively interrupt oppressive language in the future. These techniques are useful in defusing hostility and enable meaningful engagement. Are there situations you would like help in finding alternative responses to how you acted/did not act previously? Bring them for us to workshop together. We will breakout into groups to practice the scenarios and have a closing session as whole to share our ideas and new solutions.

Ann Su

Religious Belief and Non-belief in the Classroom: Practical and Pedagogical Concerns, MTH130

This session is relevant to instructors from any discipline and can be applied to students from any part of the continuum of religious belief. Faculty are often unaware that their assumptions, examples, language and/or behaviors can create barriers to learning for students of various backgrounds. We will review issues, responses, and practices that facilitate student learning, recognizing the diverse experiences and beliefs which students bring to the classroom. Faculty will have an opportunity to raise questions and to discuss their own experiences.

Martha Bailey

Learning that Lasts: Cognition, Memory and Learning, SC322

Our role as educators is to offer information to enhance our student’s knowledge and well-being. But if that information is not retained, it hasn’t fulfilled the sense of obligation it was meant to provide. This session will dive deeper into the dynamics of how our memory works and provide “take away” methods to improve retention and recall from all your students on Monday morning and beyond. Insights from the field of neuropsychology and Information Processing Theory will be made into meaningful techniques to help you develop learning that lasts.

Monica Schneider-Anthony