Answering Y:  Addressing the Campus Behavioral Challenges of Generation Y Students

Engaging with today’s students, many of which are from Generation Y, present a spectrum of new challenges and opportunities.  Specifically, student behavior is a changing landscape that instructors and staff alike need to be aware of.  Please join the Foothill College’s Dean of Student Affairs and Activities, Dr. Sean Bogle, in an engaging discussion and workshop-formatted presentation on behavioral management for today’s college students.  In this presentation, you will be presented with current data and techniques on managing your student interactions.  You will also work through case studies that provide learning opportunities that will be applicable to your instructional or work style.  

Presenter:  Sean Bogle, Dean of Student Affairs & Activities, and Neha Arora, Biology Instructor

The Antiracism of Anti-Intimidation:  Culturally Relevant Teaching in Mathematics

Participants will identify and examine intimidating aspects of mathematics curriculum and anthrogogy (the teaching of people, not specifically children) that often serve to reinforce persistent, identifiable, race-based achievement differences. This session will place mathematical intimidation in historical context as a systemic gatekeeping and race-filtering device, and illuminate these systemic effects graphically utilizing student success data from Foothill math classes. Participants are invited to experience anti-intimidation by exploring quantitative ideas in race-conscious contexts, and to view anti-intimidation as part of a broader curricular and anthrogogic critique within the principles of culturally relevant teaching.

Presenter: Patrick Morriss, Mathematics Instructor

Engaging Students and Making Classrooms Inclusive:  21 Strategies to Structure Classroom Interactions and Promote Student Success 

Teaching diverse populations of students requires instructors to construct learning environments that are inclusive and equitable. Research in psychology and other disciplines suggests that how students personally experience learning environments strongly influences engagement, motivation, sense of belonging, and, perhaps most importantly, conceptual learning. In this interactive workshop, participants will begin by participating in a simulation of a classroom activity as the basis for discussing how different students may experience the same classroom environment differently from one another. Individual participants will then have the opportunity to self-assess their current awareness and use of 21 common equitable teaching strategies that require minimal skill or preparation to implement. Finally, participants will identify those strategies that could be immediately implemented in their classrooms, laboratories, group meetings, or other professional settings to promote fairness and increase access to learning for all students.

Presenter: Jeff Schinske, Biology Instructor

Using Meeting Norms to Foster Inclusive and Effective Meetings

Have you ever been in a meeting where it seemed like committee members were all using different rules of engagement? This can result in lopsided discussions, anger, or ineffective use of time. Attend this workshop to learn how committees can use norms to provide clear guidance on expectations for meetings, resulting in more inclusive, respectful, and effective meetings. We'll discuss how norms can be identified by committee members through a collaborative process, and then practice using them in various potential scenarios.

Presenter:  Carolyn Holcroft, Faculty Professional Development Coordinator

Family Engagement Institute – A Community Approach to Advancing Equity

The Family Engagement Institute (FEI) provides opportunities that promote college going aspirations for underrepresented students and families to ensure equitable and inclusive communities. As a cradle-to-career, grant funded, student success initiative at Foothill College, FEI has been a leader in responding, developing and delivering affordable and accessible programs that elevate the voice of our diverse community, since 2010. FEI’s position within an open access community college is unique and supports a multigenerational pathway to college. FEI facilitates the engagement of students, families, educators and communities in a shared effort to work together in meaningful ways that impact the success of the first generation experience. Workshop participants will examine how urgency leads to opportunity through: a reflective exercise based on Dr. Tara Yosso’s theoretical framework of Community Cultural Wealth that shifts perspectives from viewing Communities of Color through a deficit lens to an asset-based lens; learning from students and their families firsthand about the multigenerational college-going experience; and rethinking how collective impact leads to innovative solutions.

FEI Presenters/ Facilitators:  Pauline Brown, Supervisor; Betsy Nikolchev, Executive Director; Carlos Pacheco Miranda, Foothill Student and Program Assistant; Carmen Ponce, Director Early Learning Programs; and Student Panel Guests

Critical Pedagogy:  Student Success Through Intellectual Empowerment in the Classroom

This interactive workshop begins with the concept of Critical Pedagogy, developed by Brazilian Educator Paulo Freire. Presenters will share ways that they integrate Freirean techniques into their classrooms to help students come to understand themselves as agents of their own educations, ready to learn  and make knowledge work them in developing meaningful life paths. Participants will be invited to develop a critical pedagogy aspect of their own class. This is an approach that can be used in any discipline.

Presenters: Cynthia Kaufman, Director, Vasconcellos Institute for Democracy in Action; Sal Breiter, Humanities Instructor; Brian Malone, English Instructor; and Valerie Greene, Environmental Studies Instructor 

Equity Frameworks:  Social Justice Art and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in the Classroom

How can art, music, and poetry create a more inclusive classroom? What do words like cipher, remix, and crunk have to do with equity? In this workshop, we will share strategies to engage students from target populations by drawing on art forms that speak to some of their struggles. Many of our students face challenges such as poverty, gentrification, fear of deportation, and other forms of institutionalized inequality. They also find solace in various forms of art and music. By incorporating art that resonates with our students, we can engage those who might otherwise have felt excluded from the classroom. Through guided activities and discussions, presenters will share practices for incorporating culturally relevant curriculum into the classroom. For any participants who are not faculty, we will also highlight strategies for empowering students to bring their knowledge and expertise to the wider campus community.

Presenters: Chesa Caparas, Language Arts and Intercultural Studies Instructor; Erick Aragon, Office of Outreach, Men of Color Community; and Tony Santa Ana, Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education

Creating a Welcoming Environment:  A Conversation Café

First impressions are an important part of human interactions and that includes office environments, as well as personal interaction. There are many elements that come together to make an environment feel welcoming: physical space, atmosphere, attitude, and inclusion. In our work with the Six Student Success Factors, Classified Professionals identified that we want to help our students, and others who use our services, feel welcome, safe and comfortable. Join us as we, together, identify the elements of a Welcoming Environment and create ideas on how we can accomplish that on our campuses.

Presenter: Mary Kay Englen, Senior Program Coordinator

Immigration Stories – Listening to Learn

Stories are essential in our discourse on equity. What are the concealed stories of immigrants? How do they differ from the dominant narrative about immigration? Stories are powerful reminders of the disparities and challenges that immigrants face in addition to the contributions they make to society. They also help us understand issues and feelings in a white-dominated society and reframe issues and discussions in equity and social justice. Join us in hearing multiple stories on immigration from your colleagues who are immigrants or grew up in an immigrant family.

Hosted by Foothill Asian Pacific American Network members Elaine Kuo, Debbie Lee and Teresa Ong

Presenters:  Susie Huerta, English Instructor; Elaine Kuo, College Researcher; David Marasco, Physics Instructor; and Angelica Esquivel Moreno, Program Coordinator II

The Human Library:  District Edition

“What’s Your Story?” This is the question we asked students, faculty, staff, and community members for the last three spring quarters at Foothill College, in order to create a “library” of individuals willing to share their stories with the campus. In this two-hour session, you will ask yourselves and other members of your district community the same question, as you seek to learn the real stories that make up the lives of the individuals we work with and pass by every day. Based on the philosophy of the international organization, our Human Library is designed to break through stereotypes, establish connections, and deepen our appreciation for each other, so we can break silos and build our campus and district communities. We will practice developing our own stories, creating meaningful questions, and engaging in active listening: all critical components of an equity mindset. We will also use the Story Corps app on our phones to record, post and tag some of these dialogues as part of our online presence: #IAmFoothill, #IAmDeAnza, or #IAmFHDA. We want to broadcast our stories to our larger community to let them know what it means to be part of this amazing district.

Presenters: Allison Herman, English Instructor, and Scott Lankford, English Instructor