The response to the faculty development workshops given by Dr. Bob Noyd this past Wednesday has been loud and clear and all positive. Throughout the day, we had eighty of LU's passionate and committed faculty and administrators attend the three sessions. The discussion in the sessions was terrific. We hope that ongoing discussion continues to add value. remember to check the blog frequently as we will post Dr. Noyd's PowerPoint presentations very soon. One of the reoccurring themes of the sessions was the idea of class alignment. Very frequently we are sending mixed messages to our students by emphasizing certain things in the classroom but asking them about completely unrelated things on tests or during assessment. A great resource that explains this and other very useful things for the classroom teacher is an article by David A. Whetten. He notes that teachers should specify what they expect their students to learn in a course or, more specifically, how they expect their students will be changed by this learning experience and what they should be able to do upon completion. One of the goals Bob Noyd had for the day was to move faculty up the ladder based on G. S. Akerlind's growth and development chart. Akerlind's research proposes that from an education development perspective, a vital consideration in teaching development is an academics’ understanding of what teaching and developing as a teacher can mean under varying circumstances. Special thanks to Christy Swanson, Rezvan Khoshlessan and Adam Easterling for their assistance with the workshops. We will have specific information about Dr. Rebecca Cox's visit on April 15 posted very soon.