January 2011 Professional Development Program

CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING & LEARNING 

Professional Development Workshop Schedule 

January 4 –14, 2011 

Please contact Brian Gomez, bgomez@sunyrockland.edu or leave a message at 574-4332 to register. 

Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 

Week of January 3, 2011 

Workshop Description 

Tuesday January 4 th 

1. 10 – 11 am 

Room 2102 

Healthcare Issues Essential for Today’s Educators 

In this presentation, we will discuss many health care issues of 

importance to educators. We will review common emergency 

situations that can arise in and around the classroom, and provide 

information on how to handle such emergencies. 

Presenter: Kathleen Hopkins, RN, Instructor of Nursing 

2. 11 – 12 n 

Room 2102 

Selecting and Mentoring a Beacon Conference Paper 

Learn how to have your students' research and writing efforts 

showcased at the annual Beacon Conference. This session will 

describe the conference, outline what makes a "Beacon paper," 

and discuss the role of the faculty mentor should the paper be 

selected for presentation. 

Presenter: Professor Thomas Butler 

3. 2 1:30 – 2:30 pm 

Room 2102 

The Next Classroom Thing: Ning 

Ning is a platform with a polished interface on which one can 

quickly and easily develop a social networking system (SNS), like 

Facebook and MySpace, for public or private use. Ning can take 

teaching to a new level as it encourages student interaction and 

negotiation of meaning through the use of authentic materials. As 

such, it is an invaluable tool for the educator. Because of the 

interactive nature of this medium, students can assist one another 

in understanding what they are learning in and out of class. 

Through the Ning network, the classroom becomes a more 

democratic place in which every student, regardless of their 

scholastic abilities or social status, gets to participate and 

contribute to academic discussions. In fact, many teachers are 

successfully luring students away from Facebook by presenting 

them with a more productive alternative: The classroom Ning. 

Continued 

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Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Recently, Ning has teamed up with Pearson in an exclusive 

sponsorship agreement to make Ning Mini free for eligible North 

American K-12 and Higher-Ed Ning Networks. The workshop will 

demonstrate how to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity 

to develop and use a Ning SNS in the classroom. Troy Fischer, 

director of instructional technology at the Department of 

Education has said: “No longer should students be just absorbers 

of information, but they should be producers and publishers of 

information.” The Ning offers students the opportunity to do just 

that. 

Presenter: Rachel Nove, Adjunct Instructor of Speech 

4. 3 -4 pm 

Room 2102 

Understanding and Recognizing Psychological Disorders in 

Students 

This workshop is designed to assist faculty in recognizing 

psychological disorders in students. As our population is becoming 

increasingly more diversified many students with mild to moderate 

psychological disorders have joined the growing numbers of 

persons seeking a higher education. Such syndromes as Tourette’s, 

Bipolar Disorder, Social Phobia and Substance Dependence, to 

name a few, have been identified. This workshop will also focus on 

strategies for academic success of this varied population. 

Presenter: Patricia Lazar, Professor of Psychology 

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Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Wednesday January 5 th 

5. 10 – 11:30 am 

Room 8175 

PowerPoint Essentials 

This will be a hands-on workshop for PowerPoint beginners. 

Participants will learn to create, edit, and format a slide show as 

well as set up, run, and even print one. Come with an actual 

project in mind so that you can get it started. 

Presenter: Catherine M. Roche, Professor of Business 

6. 1 – 2:30 pm 

Room 8175 

Google Extras (Panel) 

This presentation is a follow up to CETL’s 2009 presentation on 

the same topic. We will discuss updates to Google’s Online 

Productivity Suite, Gmail Labs and Google’s powerful Calendar 

feature. 

Gmail Labs is the center of advanced and experimental Gmail 

features. Thanks to work done in Gmail Labs, we can insert 

images in email, get a reminder if we forget an attachment, and 

get a chance to stop the sending of a message after the Send 

button has been pushed. Find out what Gmail Labs been up to 

recently! 

Google Docs offers word processing, spreadsheet, and multimedia 

applications for free and stores your work in “the cloud” so 

you can access it from any computer. There is no software to 

install or download. Explore the basic features and discover the 

advantages that these online applications can provide for you and 

your students. 

Similarly, Google’s Calendar makes it easy to keep track of your 

appointments from any computer with an Internet connection. 

Add an appointment at work and check on it at home. We’ll look 

at some of the Calendar’s useful features. 

Presenters: Lynn Aaron, Professor of Computer Studies; 

Catherine Davis, Professor of English Skills and ESL; Catherine 

M. Roche, Professor of Business 

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Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Wednesday January 5 th - continued 

7. 2:30 – 3:30 pm 

Room 8175 

Sharing Best Practices in Teaching Online (Roundtable) 

What motivational, pedagogical, and technological strategies are 

working in your online classroom? In this roundtable discussion, 

share your best practices and pick up some tips and ideas from 

your colleagues. 

Facilitator: Catherine M. Roche, Professor of Business 

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Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Thursday January 6 th 

8. 10 – 12 n 

Room 8375 

Excel For Beginners 

This workshop will introduce essential concepts of Excel. We will 

set up a spreadsheet, learn how to do simple calculations and 

create a chart to go with the Excel spreadsheet. 

Presenter: Carol Kaplan-Newmark, Professor of Computer 

Studies 

9. 1 - 2 pm 

CETL 

Room 8322 

Teaching Web-Enhanced Courses: Best Practices (Panel) 

“Web-enhanced” courses are those taught in the classroom but 

with some material online – perhaps a syllabus and contact 

information, perhaps lecture notes, assignments or PowerPoint 

slides. This panel will share how they are web-enhancing their 

courses. 

Presenters: Peter Arvanites, Professor of Mathematics; Jeanette 

Geller, Professor of Cyber Security; Martin Lecker, Professor 

of Business; Donna Peters, Professor of Nursing 

10. 2 -3pm 

CETL 

Room 8322 

Introduction to Google Reader 

Are you overwhelmed by the task of keeping up to date? Do you 

spend time checking many different websites every day? Whether 

it's a scholarly journal, blog, or a newspaper, there's a good chance 

those sites are using an RSS (Real Simple Syndication)Feed. Rather 

than visit your favorite websites individually, learn how to use 

Google Reader to bring you updated information almost 

immediately. By the end of this workshop, you will have set up 

your own RSS feed reader (using Google Reader), subscribed to 

various types of sources, and learned how to use new technologies 

to manage and organize the increasing flow of scholarly 

communication. 

Presenter: Catherine Davis, Professor of English Skills and ESL 

5





Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Sunday January 9 th 

11. 1 - 2 pm 

Online 

The 10 Bad Habits of Online Students and How to Address Them 

Successfully. 

This presentation is designed to gain a better understanding of 

some common habits of online learners. We will review the 10 

most common counterproductive learning habits and discuss how 

to address them in the creation and delivery of online courses. 

Topics include: computer literacy, course orientation, passivity, 

expediency, perfectionism, superficiality, educational criticism, 

competitiveness and more. We’ll also take a closer look at several 

positive strategies to increase online participation and retention. 

Most importantly, you’ll learn how to incorporate these strategies 

successfully. 

Special note: This workshop will take place online on a Sunday 

afternoon when most of you will be at home. If you plan to attend, 

please send a request for a link to the presenter a day before or 

the morning of the workshop. Send the request to 

jsalvado@sunyrockland.edu. The link you receive will place you in 

a virtual classroom with a chat room on the left and a Power Point 

presentation on the right. To participate in the audio portion of 

this presentation, your PC must be equipped with speakers and 

microphone/headphone. 

Presenter: James Salvadon, Professor of Mathematics 

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Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Week of January 10, 2011 

Monday January 10 th 

12. 11 - 12:30 pm 

Room 8170 

Photo Retouching 

Bring your old color or black and white photos. We'll scan them 

and learn how to use tools in Photoshop to retouch your old 

photos. Please bring a CD, DVD or thumb drive to save your photos 

on or photo paper if you wish to print them out. 

There is a limit of 10 participants. 

Presenter: Collette Fournier, Adjunct Instructor of Art 

13. 1 -2:30 pm 

Room 3217 

A Primer on Managing Incivility and Disruptive Behavior in the 

Classroom (Panel) 

We’ve all been confronted with difficult situations in the classroom 

– students whose behavior is disturbing or worse – and wondered 

how to handle them. This panel will discuss best practices in 

managing disruptive student behaviors in the classroom 

environment. Bring your own examples. 

Presenters: 

Dr. James Siegel, Dean of Student Development; 

William Murphy, Director of Security; 

Susan Cortilet, M.S., LMHC, a Life Skills and College Coach; 

Carmen Diaz, Director of Disability Services; 

Dr. Christine Ditrano, BOCES School Psychologist; 

Patricia Lazar, Professor of Psychology 

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Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Tuesday, January 11 th 

14. 9:30 - 11 am 

Room 1119 

Personal Income Tax Preparation 

This workshop will focus on preparing for your next tax filing by 

providing tax background to aid in the understanding of tax rules 

and to become more organized with personal income tax 

preparation. There will be an examination of tax forms such as the 

federal form 1040, and the related schedules used in preparing this 

long form. In addition, other forms such as the estimated tax 

payment forms, the automatic extension to file (form 4868), and 

form 1040X to amend a prior tax form will be discussed. 

Presenter: Josephine Coleman, Professor of Business 

15. 11 am – 12n 

Room 1119 

Introduction to the SmartBoard 

This workshop will provide guidance with the use of a SmartBoard 

in the classroom. This will include "hands-on" use of the 

SmartBoard technology using text book instruction material, 

including writing with SmartBoard tools and retrieving stored 

documents to be used in class instruction. Participants will actually 

partake in the use of aSmartBoard. 

Presenter: Josephine Coleman, Professor of Business 

16. 1 

- 

2 

: 

3 

0 

1-2:30 pm 

CETL 

(Room 8322) 

What Can We Do About the Cost of Textbooks? 

Right here at home and around the country, students have trouble 

with the cost of textbooks. They often end up coming to class 

without one. The Open Textbook movement has developed in 

response. The aim is to provide students with access to free, online 

textbooks. This workshop will explore this movement and 

introduce you to archives of free textbooks some of which you can 

customize to meet your individual needs. 

You’ll also learn about Google Books. Google Books has scanned 

millions of books into digital format, with permissions from the 

authors and publishers. Thus, full texts of these eBooks are already 

available on the Internet. Learn about the information that’s 

available when searching Google Books. It provides full 

bibliographic information, book reviews, pricing information from 

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Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


different stores (for books that are not free), and “Find a Library” 

feature empowered by WorldCat, the world's largest network of 

library content and services. 

Presenters: Lynn Aaron, Professor of Computer Studies; Xi Shi, 

Professor of Library Services 

17. 2:30 – 3 pm 

CETL 

(Room 8322) 

What Happened to the Elmo? 

It’s improved with age. Do you want to show your students 

something from a book, newspaper, or magazine, and perhaps 

magnify a special section – without making handouts or a 

transparency? Discover the wonderful world of the document 

camera and see for yourself first hand all it can do. This will be a 

hands-on workshop. 

Presenter: Philip Biagioli, Coordinator of TV Studio & Media 

Resources 

9





Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Wednesday, January 12 th 

18. 10 – 11 am 

Room 2102 

Navigating the Changes to the Curriculum Committee Forms 

Attendance limited to RCC faculty and staff. 

There have been some interesting new developments to forms 

related to both course proposal and revision, as well as new 

information for program review. This workshop will go over these 

changes and new procedures as well as answer questions related 

to the new forms. Come and see how the new curriculum 

committee forms and procedures can make your academic life 

easier! 

Presenter: Melanie Rie, Professor of Science 

19. 11 – 12 n 

Room 2102 

Radium Girls and Radical Women: Classroom Strategies and 

Resources 

The Triangle Factory Fire. The "radium girls" tragedy. Female-led 

protests on the Lower East Side. This workshop explores some 

pivotal and dramatic moments in the history of working women in 

the New York/New Jersey area in the early 1900s. The focus will be 

on the stories themselves, but classroom resources and strategies 

will also be discussed. 

Presenter: Christina Stern, Instructor of History 

20. 12 – 1 pm 

Room 2102 

I'm Not A Feminist But...(Roundtable) 

Is the notion of feminism a mere “relic” of 1960s and 1970s 

American culture? What is feminism and who gets to define it? Has 

feminism been trivialized, co-opted, and/or vilified? Is a “primer” 

on feminism relevant and, perhaps, necessary for RCC’s young 

women and men? Please join us for a roundtable discussion as we 

grapple with the “meaning” and relevance of feminism on today’s 

college campuses. 

Light refreshments will be available. 

Presenter: Nancy Pietroforte, Professor of Sociology; Christina 

Stern, Instructor of History 

10





Workshop 

Number 

Time & 

Place 


Thursday January 13 th 

21. 2 10 – 11 am 

Room 2102 

Cultivate Curiosity and Engagement With Inquiry-based Writing 

According to Tony Wagner's "Global Achievement Gap:", 

“Curiosity, imagination and other habits of mind [are] for future 

generations, what the ‘Three R’s’ were for previous generations. 

They are the ‘new basic skills’ for work, learning, and citizenship in 

the 21st century.” 

In this workshop, you explore strategies that reinforce critical 

thinking along with a more flexible perspective typical of creative 

thinking. The goal: to give your students--- in any discipline--- 

additional pathways to success in school and the larger world. 

Presenter: Diane Rosen, Adjunct Instructor of English 

22. 11 - 12 n 

Room 2102 

"Writing to Learn" Across the Curriculum 

E.M. Forster famously asked, "How do I know what I think until I 

see what I say?" In this workshop, we will explore how the process 

of writing promotes critical thinking and helps our students to 

refine their ideas about the subject matter of any course. We will 

discuss specific strategies for how to integrate short writing 

assignments into a wide variety of classrooms--from lecture halls to 

science labs--in order to promote student retention of course 

concepts. 

Presenter: Katherine Lynch, Writing Center Director 

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