We have tallied the enrollment requests for the Faculty Learning Communities and there are four still standing. These four FLC will move forward and meet throughout the Academic Year 2011-12. At the end of the year, each of the four FLC will present their results at an expo event. If you are interested in becoming a member of one of the four FLC, contact a staff member of CT+LE immediately. We will also be holding training for the facilitators and co-facilitators very soon. The four FLC for 2011-12 are: Active Research and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: FLC focused on the research, scholarship and discovery about teaching and learning (topic-based); Creating an Online Course of Substance: FLC focused on the design of online or hybrid classes that utilize technology at or above 50% of the class time. Exploration of pedagogy and curriculum designed for this teaching forum including active learning methods. Participants will work on their targeted courses as part of a community of scholars (tb); High School to College Transition: FLC focused on the first year experience, specifically how to assist students making the transition from a “standardized test” culture to one that values critical thinking, empirical/quantitative methods, communication skills, team work, and personal and social responsibility. Some emphasis will be placed on introducing active learning methods to incoming freshmen (tb); Sustainability Across the Curriculum: FLC focused on infusing sustainability issues into an existing course or designing a new course or curriculum to focus on those issues. Participants will work on their targeted courses as part of a community of scholars. This program could be designed to expand the inventory of classes at LU that focus on sustainability as a lens through which students will examine and act upon our shared world systems, including but not limited to energy, environment, food systems, economic justice, and globalization (tb). Have you registered for one of Dr. Linda Nilson's three workshops yet? She will visit LU on September 27 and 28. Sad to see that the average SAT scores have dropped again. The reading score for the high school class of 2011 fell three points to 497, the lowest on record, according to a report by the College Board, which administers the exams.The average writing score dropped two points, to 489, and the math score was down one point, to 514. Each of the three SAT sections is scored from 200 to 800, with 2,400 the highest possible combined score. This year’s combined average was 1,500, down from 1,506 last year. Research shows that student's scores in reading and writing are intimately linked with the size of their vocabulary. It prompted us to add a new feature to the CT+LE blog. We will attempt to broaden the vocabulary of LU by using unique or rarely used words and encourage you to use them in your classes. If it sends someone to a dictionary, even better. Here is today's word used in a sentence. Let us know what you think. The excessive amount of dross in the quad today was very unsettling.