Real change from student input and Professional Development offerings

In an Introduction to Sociology assignment to find examples of symbolic interactionism, one student commented on the ubiquitous pink from a baby shower recently attended.  The discussion transitioned to the history of pink and blue as gendered colors as well as additional examples from today's world.  Another student raised her hand and said "like on the webpage right behind you."  Behind me on the overhead projector was the Talon login page and a picture of boys wearing Kirkwood blue and girls in pink.

To model the personal change projects for the last fifth of the semester, I decided to e-mail several folks at Kirkwood to see if there were alternative pictures.  After sharing the choices with my students and finding it difficult to find images that were truly representative of the diversity of the student body, another student said "why not use the Kirkwood eagle."  Brilliant idea.  Marketing came up with a new login page featuring the eagle, which fits nicely with both 'Eaglenet' and 'Talon' and still allows for pictures of representative students, activities, and campus facilities on the regular Kirkwood.edu homepage.

Lovely.

Also lovely was approval for Marti from The Tapestry to speak to faculty and staff during professional development days in November.  We are excited by the possibility of greater faculty involvement (from across the trades, music department, etc.) as well as student volunteerism.

Last 'lovely' from today was a student in LGBT Studies who said, following a set of questions about gender roles, "my head is spinning...is it supposed to be."  Yes.  Yes, it is.  :)

Connections with the community and future service to the college from The Tapestry

Marti from The Tapestry time and furniture bank has been kind enough to speak to four of my classes about community and the mission of The Tapestry.  We met during my professional development year and spoke about possible collaboration.

Phase one is to have her present to my students.

Phase two will hopefully be student participation (possibly as a part of their individual change projects) with The Tapestry.

Phase three is a hopeful presentation by Marti to the greater Kirkwood faculty and staff about involvement with the non-profit.

"Look Up"

Assignments to engender mindfulness and assess feelings have yielded promising results thus far.  Students have been choosing their own current event topics, apply concepts from the text, and then sharing with the class.  Sharing activities largely occupy class time with time spent researching, interviewing, experiencing, etc. done before class.  As they ponder how to 'do something' to improve the situations they are researching, thoughtful responses evolve.

In assignments focusing on mental health (depression) and several on technology, students identified that it would be best to try spending less time with technology.  Instead, many sincerely suggested just smiling at each other in the halls and starting a conversation!  Another shared an excellent video on the importance of "Look[ing] Up" from your phone.

These revelations may be important for the future of Kirkwood as well.  One student shared in class that her friend decided to go to Clarke University in Dubuque rather than Kirkwood after noticing that no one at Kirkwood talked to each other in the halls because they were all too busy on their cell phones.  Indeed, when I left that class, not one student in any group was speaking: they were all busy with their thumbs.  I counted no less than 60 students, all of which were occupied with technology rather than each other.

Students stated that it was 'scary' to consider putting down their phones in favor of having real conversations, but I hope they try it anyway.  I will be encouraging many to do so as part of their individual change projects near the end of the semester

So far this year in teaching, learning, presenting, and publishing

Seems like it's been a busy first two weeks of teaching.  Before I forget, I want to make note of the following forthcoming items for my Kirkwood Goal reporting as well as updating my c.v.:

1) I'll be presenting again for Constitution Day on September 17, 2015 about animal and land rights.  I'll be discussing a few of the 'personhood' arguments associated with recent court cases, but mostly trying to raise awareness of the implications of our behaviors.

2) I'll be participating in Iowa City Free Lunch Project board meetings as a member this fall and for the next two years.  I look forward to seeing how Kirkwood faculty, staff, and students can both serve and raise awareness (or even donations) for this program).  It's possible donations could come via Table to Table and contributions made of excess food from the Iowa City Kirkwood Campus.

3) Our article, "Does Racial Isolation in School Lead to Long-Term Disadvantages? Labor-Market Consequences of High School Racial Composition" (Gamoran, Collares, Barfels) will be published in the January 2016 issue of The American Journal of Sociology.

4) After week 2, I am very pleased with how invested students have been sharing the articles and videos they are finding to apply sociological concepts.  People have been mindful and paused to note the working conditions in China associated with the latest and greatest technology as well as the eventual problem of recycling said discarded technology.  The ownership is empowering and the peer sharing is evoking much more attentiveness.  Last but not least, students are asking questions about how they can change their lives and the world around them.  As such, future assignments will continue to include reflective components where students can contact businesses, etc., to explain why they will or will not support certain products or manufacturing standards, etc.

5) I've also signed up for the 8th Annual Sustainability Conference in Dubuque October 6-7.  I'm very excited as there are many presentations regarding the latest in eco-smart urban planning as well as a tour of efforts to restore the Catfish Creek Watershed given damage from industrial agriculture.  I look forward to bringing back much to share with students and staff.  I'm also pleased that most of the examples are regional, which makes the solar/biofuel, etc., presentations that much more relevant and accessible on campus as well.