Our first Lunch & Learn is planned for Wednesday, September 8. The door to the private dining room in the LU Dining Hall will open at 11:45 a.m. Lunch is available for purchase from the Dining Hall and the conversation will begin at 12:00 noon. I would encourage you to read the advance material so that you can fully participate in the conversation. Pithers and Soden provide a nice overview of critical thinking in education in their article from 2007. Diane Halpern has written several books on the topic, two of which are available in the Gray Library holdings (Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking and Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking). Stephen Norris has a good article in Educational Leadership from 2003. In addition, Facione and Facione have written an informative article about critical thinking in the nursing education area from 1996. We are asking that you RSVP for this event by Friday, September 3 at 4:00 p.m. to tpourciau@lamar.edu. Hope we can fill the room so that the discussion will be lively and informative.

One of my favorite quotes concerning higher education comes from Cai Yuanpei, former Chancellor of Beijing University, who said, "A university is purely an institution of knowledge, not a place to develop one's qualifications or to put one's knowledge up for sale. A scholar should be interested in study and, what's more, cultivate moral qualities as a person of learning." There is an interesting op-ed piece on the opposite end of the civility in class argument. This one, by Billie Hara, is written from the student's perspective and focuses on the professional behavior of faculty. Another good read in preparation for the workshop on September 16 that will address this very topic. A few folks have asked about starting a blog and I tell them "if I can do it..." However, I wanted to mention another resource available for folks who are looking to build using an open source platform. Take a look at Omeka. I specifically encourage you to contribute to the Hurricane Memory Data Base which focuses on Katrina and Rita. If you have not added your memories to this project or accessed the material, I encourage you to do so very soon.

Welcome to the fall semester fellow Cardinals. Read an interesting article about Jeremy Short, who is a professor of management at Texas Tech University. He uses a graphic novel in his class instead of a regular textbook. The kicker is, he also co-wrote the novel with two co-authors. Having taken a similar management course as an undergrad pursuing a degree in economics, I anxiously took a look at the "new" textbook and found it fascinating and a great example of engaged teaching. Let me know what you think. We wanted to wish the ACES Fellows good luck as they either continue (co-hort 1) or begin (co-hort 2) to implement active and collaborative teaching methods into their classes this fall. One of the more fascinating activities we engaged in during the co-hort 2 training session involved the creation of teaching philosophies. As professionals involved in the business of teaching, we all have a philosophy, but the training activity focused on writing it down, fleshing it out and sharing it with our colleagues. This process serves to solidify a clear, concise account of your teaching approach, methods, and expertise. It is the best starting point as you begin to design your course. Goodyear and Allchin provide a nice overview of the benefits of a well developed teaching philosophy.

Happy to report that we had over 70 folks for the 2010 version of the Faculty Professional Development Symposium. We did do video and it will be up soon so check out the Center's website. I want to thank the wonderful presenters that included LU's finest (in alpha order): Kathy Fraccastoro, Melissa Hudler, Johnny Jarrell, Tom Matthews, Brenda Nichols, Sherri Shoefstall, James Slaydon, Randy Smith, Henry Venta, and Steffi Yearwood. Special thanks to Olivia Macon and Robyn Hesse for pre- and post-opps. We also appreciate Mark Asteris and his staff for providing media services and the College of Business for allowing us use of the facilities. Hope to see many more of you either at the Center or at the next event.

There is a very interesting article in the Chronicle today entitled Teachers Without Technology Strike Back. I usually enjoy the material in the Chronicle but the comments in the discussion section usually validate my time much more. This article certainly created an interesting debate. Speaking of debate, I was at the College of Fine Arts and Communication on Tuesday and heard Dr. Mary Evelyn Collins announce that the Communication courses that teach public speaking are filling up quickly. There is a terrific article by Ruth Kennedy that reports results from an experiment using in-class debate as a teaching tool. The students in the course believed that participating in and observing in-class debate greatly enhanced their knowledge of the issues surrounding the debate topics covered. Debate is a fantastic active and collaborative learning method and is highly effective for helping students enhance their critical thinking skills. Hope to see you at the Faculty Professional Development Symposium tomorrow.

Met with Karen Nichols today to finalize plans for the new Resource Satellite for the Center to be located at the Library. You should be receiving an email about the upcoming Faculty Professional Development Symposium. You can view the agenda to make your selections for the event this Friday. There is a session or two that will interest everyone and I hope to see ya'll in Galloway starting at 8:45 a.m.

Just returned from the Fall Convocation where President Jimmy Simmons noted an article written by Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post. In a nutshell, the article is talking about higher education and the value of what you are required to learn as a student. The main point is forget Harvard, think Lamar! LU is one of only 16 universities that received a grade of "A" on the What Will They Learn evaluation. It is also interesting to note that the state of Texas had five schools on that top list (over 30 percent). CTLE will be hosting our kickoff event on Friday. Our website continues to evolve so remember to bookmark and visit it often for updates and new resources. By the way, the picture on the right is a male rose-breasted Grosbeak cardinal. While not the usual LU cardinal, they have been sighted on High Island.

One of the most frequent questions we continue to hear in the faculty development field is "How can I get tenure?" My good friend, Dr. Michelle Masse , is co-editor of a fascinating book (Over Ten Million Served: Gendered Service in Language and Literature Workplaces) that was recently released. The book discusses the idea of "faculty service" and how it should be evaluated in a tenure packet. It reminded me of Ernest Boyer's beautiful work on the scholarship of engagement. I would encourage you to read both. Tomorrow is such an exciting day for many of our Cardinals. Commencement exercises will occur at 9:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Congratulations to the graduates! I encourage you to go and make a difference in a world that is sorely looking for leadership. By the way, did you hear that the National Federation of the Blind gave Blackboard its top accessibility certification? Blackboard is the first learning-management company to earn the certification and the preferred learning-management system at LU.

Held the first training for the new cohort of ACES Fellows yesterday. This is a solid group building on the stellar faculty in the first cohort. You can view the entire list of Fellows. Not only are they a good source of information about the program but you should be advising your students to sign up for their sections this coming Fall Semester at LU. One of the interesting conversations we had yesterday was about teaching philosophies. I encourage you to perform a teaching-style audit at least once a year. Titus and Gremler have written a nice article describing an effective process that you can use. They believe, and I concur, that "educators must regularly engage in thoughtful self-examinations of their instructional beliefs and behaviors, because real growth comes only when educators carefully question and challenge their instructional beliefs and behaviors." There was an interesting article concerning poorly designed websites for colleges and universities. Designing an attractive website that is current and informative is very difficult but the good news is we are producing terrific graduates at LU that can help. The Art Department offers programs in electronic media and graphic design. Judging from the national conversation as well as the comments on the article, there is a great need for folks who are interested in pursuing this as a career.

Finalized the agenda for the upcoming Faculty Professional Development Symposium being held on August 20. I think that we are providing a nice mix of topics that will stir the conversation during the Fall 2010 semester at LU. Visited with Dan Apple (who was invited to visit LU by Dean Brenda Nichols) of the Learning to Learn program, about possibly creating a POGIL Center here. If you have not seen the podcasts of Ben Zander and the art of possibility, I encourage you to do so. He is very inspirational.

Center for Teaching and Learning Enhancement is coming together nicely. Goal is to build a center of excellence for all of the faculty and students at LU. We will use this blog to let you know of the progress. We also want to ignite a conversation on the scholarship of teaching and learning, specific to LU but we will also talk on broader terms when it is appropriate. Take a look at our website. We have also launched a revised website for one of the cornerstone programs, ACES. We are also conducting our first Needs Assessment Survey and have received over 110 responses but we are not satisfied yet. Faculty at LU can access the survey and share their views. Didn't want to close without talking about the return of football to LU after a 20 year absence. I am sure the Cardinals will show their pride. Go Big Red!