I had the good fortune last Thursday to have a conversation with Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed. I took the opportunity to ask him if my hypothesis in my post Tough Call is correct. That is, can we help our students develop the social-cognitive skills alongside the critical thinking, literacy, numeracy and other skills we expectContinue reading “Mindset”
Category Archives: Student Success
A Remembrance of Books Past
Joe Queenan’s full-throated defense of books in this past Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, “My 6,128 Favorite Books,” set afloat a reverie during my walk to Mario’s. Queenan supplies an urgency to my quest to read more. I don’t want to just read more; I want to read more stuff with which I can connect. Books that moveContinue reading “A Remembrance of Books Past”
HWC Art Student Featured
Bruce Wilson, second-year student focusing in Art at HWC, is featured in a piece highlighting Marwen Alumni. Marwen is an arts education non-profit that administers arts education programs for Chicago students in grades 6-12. Bruce looks great in this video. I had the good fortune to buy one of Bruce’s pieces as part of lastContinue reading “HWC Art Student Featured”
Evaluating Teachers
We will soon distribute our “pulse” survey to staff and faculty. It is our attempt to capture a sense of how people are feeling about the College and to ask for ideas on what we can do better. We are also in the midst of classroom observations for faculty moving through the tenure process asContinue reading “Evaluating Teachers”
StudentsFirst
I noticed chatter in the Lounge about GradesFirst. The arguments are balanced and invite comment (even if some are posted by anonymous cartoon characters). My takeaways from the discussion center on the role of faculty in supporting our students’ success, and the appropriateness of an early alert system to track our students. Before I goContinue reading “StudentsFirst”
Skill, Will and Systems
Last year at the State of the College address, I called on our staff to treat students better. Most of our people treat students very well. Yet I had witnessed or had reports from students about situations and behaviors that did not reflect well on us. I broke the situation down into Skill and Will.Continue reading “Skill, Will and Systems”
Godwin’s Law
Recently, I was discussing the back-and-forth on the blog in response to my post on our 10KSB students with my son. I was interested in responding to Kamran Swanson’s comment about my style of leadership and whether my use of the Tao Te Ching quote was ironic. My son cautioned me by invoking Godwin’s Law. “AsContinue reading “Godwin’s Law”
HWC makes the WHB
HWC gets a big shout-out on the White House Blog of Dr. Jill Biden. The write-up is similar to the links I posted yesterday, but it is neat to see Harold Washington College mentioned under the White House header.
HWC Alum talks to Dr. Jill Biden
When I am not sitting in my office eating bon-bons, or attending District discussions, or standing in the lobby greeting our students, I sometimes get to attend really cool meetings. The most recent event was a roundtable with Second Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden, who among other accomplishments has been involved inContinue reading “HWC Alum talks to Dr. Jill Biden”
Business
Good news for the college. The Mayor announced on MSNBC’s Morning Joe (starting at 4:30 in the clip) that Harold Washington College would be the “professional service school” of City Colleges. He reiterated our position at the 10,000 Small Businesses graduation. Additional coverage is here at the Sun-Times. Yesterday was a good day for HWC. Thirty-sevenContinue reading “Business”
Don's Desk 