Flex Days at LBCC

My college had "Flex Days" yesterday. Billed as faculty professional development, it was pretty traditional department meetings this time (dealing with the latest classroom challenges and program developments, etc.). And for my colleagues in History and Political Science, this was the first time we've met together to discuss our move into the new building.

My department chairman expressed his sense of finally working in a truly professional workplace, one designed for what we do specifically -- he said it really felt like being at a college. I've felt that way too, especially when I get to look out over Carson Street everyday to view the college green and the main campus building.

But our college is facing a lot of challenges, and the information discussed here is in the public realm. Most important of these is the budget crisis that's hitting the community colleges hard. There are discussions of LBCC's budget picture here, here, and here. Not reported is the college trustees' contract proposal for a 4.615 percent salary reduction across the board. We had a long discussion on this during the department meeting. Not only will contract negotiations be pretty intense (with the possiblity of some kind of union job action), but it's going to be a big year in district board elections as well. (Our college's executive administration is bloated and generously compensated, so while I have a problem with public unions, etc., it's hard to even sustain talk of a salary rollback for faculty when administrative growth -- and growth in executive compensation relative to faculty -- has been dramatic.

The second challenge clearly was on the issue of classroom management, and especially technology in the classroom. I've always struggled a bit with our student demographic in fostering a learning environment really conducive to academic excellence. And to this day, I'm still amazed at the absence of a culture of learning among young people today. Now though, things have reached a critical mass. Whereas in earlier years I often felt as a lonely voice in the wilderness on standards of classroom decorum, now I'm hearing all kinds of stories. There's been a noticeable change over the last year, really, and it coincides perfectly with the invasion of cellular technology in the classroom. I recall the turning point being about 2003 or so, when most everyone had a phone and many students were distracted. But in the 6 or 7 years since, it seems that the prohibitive norms limiting student use during class have completely broken down. Perhaps its an addiction for a lot of kids, but texting is out of control, and in addition to phones, there are all kinds of music/MP3 devices being deployed, as well as laptops. The progressive members of the department, and one in particular who've I've discussed here previously, could not give a satisfactory response to the question of managing those students who completely tune out teaching in favor of surfing the web, checking Facebook, and playing cumputerized poker. These students are often faring the worst academically, but progressives want a free-flowing classroom driven by the much-idolized spontaneous "teachable moment." So what if a couple of students use the technology to blow off participation and learning? At least they've been empowered with the right to fail!

Anyway, I've mentioned earlier that I did not distribute the syllabus on the first day of classes. Instead I used that time to set the tone for the semester. It's worked fairly well so far, but during last week's exams too many students failed to either get to class on time for the exams or to have brought the necessary test-taking materials with them. Things that seem so basic and logical to the well-organized individual are generally foreign to so many students today, and not all of them young kids fresh out of high school. I'll be making some more adjustments to classroom procedures as the semester develops.

Anyway, I feel good that I'm not leaving anything to chance. Last semester was something of a disaster in a couple of my classrooms, in terms of keeping kids on task. I've found a good niche this year, and one of students today even asked me where I bought my Doc Martens!

It's all about finding that happy medium, yo!