With exactly 15 days until the Spring semester begins, now is the perfect time to take a look at your course offerings. Faculty who plan to try new ideas would be wise to take a closer look at their planned learning experiences. If you have three big ideas that you want to be sure your students are able to understand, integrate and synthesize into their broader knowledge base, now is the time to try a new teaching method that promotes active learning. Having your students take a personal stake in their education not only reduces the stress on you but helps them to grow as a life-long learner. Creating smart and creative citizens for the future benefits all of us. You can find many ideas on this blog but here are a few quick ideas to start the new year. Kathleen Cushman offers a number of suggestions in her book Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery (LB 1031.4 C87). She suggests that you remind your students that people who are seen as experts have worked hard to receive this acknowledgement. She also notes that "experts ask good questions, are curious, and want to know." They typically ask "what would happen if or why did that happen?" Cushman says that experts break problems into parts, rely on evidence, look for patterns, and consider other perspectives. Interestingly, she also found that most experts collaborate and welcome critique. Here is another idea offered by Skip Downing in his book On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life which we plan to use in the University Success Seminar (USS LMAR 1101) in the Fall 2012 semester. Have you ever used a concept map to make notes? If not, you should try it and encourage your students to do the same. It promotes a different type of learning and really illustrates the connection between ideas and topics. Dr. Robert Leamnson has an interesting article in The National Teaching and Learning Forum that is a free download. It is a primer on learning and might be a good handout on day one of your classes this spring. Leamnson says, "a fundamental idea that you will encounter over and again, is that learning is not something that just happens to you, it is something that you do to yourself. You cannot be 'given' learning, nor can you be forced to do it. The most brilliant and inspired teacher cannot 'cause' you to learn. Only you can do that." The call for proposal deadline for the Scholarship of Teaching and Engagement Conference to be held on March 22 and 23, 2012 at Utah Valley University in Orem has been extended to January 15, 2012. All proposals will be peer reviewed and decisions will be made by January 2012. The theme for the 2012 Scholarship of Teaching and Engagement (SoTE) Conference is “Reaching New Heights through Engagement”. When faculty are primarily concerned with student learning and teaching methods are grounded in scholarly evaluation of what works and what does not, learning becomes a revitalized process for all involved, a celebration. They are looking for you to share your experiences and data about how to improve teaching, student learning, and community engagement. All disciplines are welcome.