Classroom Strategies

The link below accesses a self-explanatory list of approaches that faculty may employ to improve rapport with their students and to help build a sense of community in their classrooms.

21 Classroom Techniques to Promote Student Persistence

Early Alert

Below are two versions of a new form that will allow faculty to quickly and easily alert administration of students who they deem to be at risk of failing to successfully complete the semester.  Currently, this form is being used as a pilot with all submissions being channeled through the retention coordinator who will then forward the concerns on to the appropriate parties manually as needed.  Accordingly, when submitting this form, please be sure to note whether you have (a) already contacted support personnel to address your student's particular needs or (b) would like us to do so on your behalf.

The first link accesses an on-line version of the form that you can complete and submit directly from your Internet browser.  To do so, however, you will need to access it on a computer on which you have an actual e-mail account established (i.e. Outlook, Outlook Express, GroupWise , not simply webmail access (i.e. GroupWise WebAccess). If you do not have access to such a situation, you can download the PDF version provided below. Once you've done this you can either (1) type the required information into the fields provided and print out the form OR (2) print out a blank version of the form and fill in the fields by hand.  Either way, once have you completed the hard copy version, please forward it to me c/o HFCC's English Division.

Early Alert (On-Line Version)

Early Alert (Downloadable PDF)

Learning Communities

Learning communities offer an innovative method for building a sense of connectedness among students - particularly at commuter institutions like HFCC.  A learning community is formed when two or more faculty link their courses by requiring students to enroll in their classes as co-requisites.

Students benefit both from increased opportunities to establish relationships with their classmates and from seeing the connections between disciplines that faculty can make apparent by coordinating their educational objectives.  Tremendously successful learning communities have been achieved when linking reading and writing classes; however, research has shown that linking subjects as seemingly disparate as writing and math can achieve marvelous outcomes.

The form provided below offers a handy means for officially getting a learning community into the "books" (i.e. the semester schedule).  Please avail yourself of this resource if you plan to create a learning community with a colleague or two.  Finally, if you think you might be interested in creating a learning community but you would like more information or would like to locate a fellow instructor with which to do so, please feel free to contact me at the phone number or e-mail address listed above.

Learning_Community_Application