VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 10- In this second of a two-part series about the Career Switchers program at Virginia’s Community Colleges, Mead Craun talks about her experience in the Career Switchers program. She’ll become a middle school teacher with a one-year license in July, after beginning the program at Germanna Community College in January.
Click on the audio icon at the top to hear the podcast. Or, click on the podcast title to download and listen on your own computer.
VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 9 - The first of a two-part series about the Career Switchers program at Virginia’s Community Colleges highlights Wylie Schwieder, who is enrolled in the Career Switchers program through Germanna Community College. He expects the switch to teaching to become “one of the most rewarding things he will do” with his life. Click on the audio icon at the top to hear the podcast. Or, click on the podcast title to download and listen on your own computer.
In a New York Times article, Mr. Jeff Seaman, survey director for the Sloan Consortium, a nonprofit group that studies trends in online learning, said the biggest growth in online teaching has been at two-year colleges and that “public colleges are at the forefront.”
Distance learning has come a long way. Virginia’s Community Colleges has seen the number of students taking distance learning classes increase 14.5 percent bewteen 2006 and 2007. We are ahead of the curve compared to the most recent national data,
“Nearly 3.5 million students were taking online courses in the fall of 2006, up nearly 10 percent from the previous year,” said Mr. Seaman.
What does this mean for our colleges? For starters, new job opportunities for online teachers! Online teachers host virtual classes, virtual office hours and streamline video that remote students can view online. Read the full article.
The State Board for Community Colleges follows a tradition today by holding their bimonthly board meeting in beautiful and historic Abingon, Virginia. Each March, the Chairman of the State Board hosts the meeting in his own home town. This year’s Chairman is Mark R. Graham of Abingdon, director in the law firm of Boucher, Hutton & Graham and a graduate of Emory & Henry College and the University of Richmond School of Law.
Mr. Graham served on the Virginia Highlands board before the State Board, and was an adjunct faculty member at VHCC, so he has first-hand knowledge of the opportunities Virginia’s Community Colleges provide.
Tomorrow’s business meeting will be held at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center beginning at 9 a.m., which is located on the Virginia Highlands Community College campus.
VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 8 - Aspiring economist and honors student Steve Agarwal of NVCC’s Alexandria Campus talks about how small classes and top notch instructors add up to a high quality education at Virginia’s Community Colleges.
Tune in for the eighth in a series of podcasts featuring Voices from Virginia’s Community Colleges. Click on the audio icon at the top to hear the podcast. Or, click on the podcast title to download and listen on your own computer.
The General Assembly adjourned Thursday night just after 11 p.m. after approving a two-year, $77 million spending plan, just a few days after its scheduled adjournment date. You can find details of the final conference report here (HB29 for current year; HB30 for 2008-2010 biennium).
But the bond package including construction projects for Virginia’s colleges and universities was not part of the final agreement — the two previous bond bills were left to die, and new proposals were submitted in a special session which started yesterday but is continued to April 23, 2008 — also the new date of the reconvened session. The new bills are SB5001 and HB5001. Conferees were appointed to work out the differences in the bills after each house approved its own version, amended the version of the other house and then rejected the changes. Conferees who will be working on the bond bills include:
The April 23 date for the reconvened session represents a one week delay over the original schedule. Left up in the air is when — and whether — a potential reconvened session might take place on the transportation issue.
You know that frustration you get when you buy something only to bring it home and find it has no directions for assembly or usage, or even better, it has those text-free hieroglyphic instructions with random arrows suggesting a twist here and a snap there? Good taste requires me not to mention the colorful words that such “helpful” directions can inspire.
But imagine if someone came to you, worked with you to get it working right and even checked back with you awhile later to ensure there were no lingering problems - how wonderful would that be?
After their training is complete, the Expeditionary Forces, in teams of five to ten trainers, travel to their host countries to assess the foreign troops’ skills, develop training programs, and, after weeks of mentoring, return for periodic refreshers and progress reports.
They function as trainers and as ambassadors. Representing the United States to other countries, they deliver cultural as well as technical lessons.
Today’s geopolitical challenges are numerous and complex. It’s hard to say what implication this partnership carries in the way of global peace and stability. After all, we are so far talking only about a handful of people to complete the training course. But it’s telling that when the U.S. Navy needed high-quality workforce training skills and the ability to teach them to others, they came knocking on the door of a Virginia Community College.
The Associated Press reports that an accord was reached shortly after noon today by the General Assembly’s budget conferees on the FY 08 “caboose” budget bill and the 2008-2010 biennial budget bill.
Yesterday, Speaker of the House Bill Howell issued a press release announcing that he was pleased with the progress that the conferees were making, and his strong interest in having them finish up their work this week.
A procedural resolution was adopted by the House and Senate on March 11, readjusting the budget and General Assembly deadlines, after it was clear that the General Assembly had been brought back in to Richmond on March 11 without a budget bill to consider. The resolution changed the budget deadline to midnight, March 12 and the end of the General Assembly to Thursday, March 13. The reconvened or “veto” session has been delayed a week, from April 16 to April 23.
Both Houses are slated to vote on the budget bills late tomorrow afternoon.
VaHigherEd Podcast: Episode 7 - Hear how a NASA co-op program with Thomas Nelson Community College is launching careers in the flight industry. Jeff Kraus talks to student Stephen Jennings about his experiences with community college as he trains for a NASA career.
Tune in for the seventh in a series of podcasts featuring Voices from Virginia’s Community Colleges. Click on the audio icon at the top to hear the podcast. Or, click on the podcast title to download and listen on your own computer.
Congratulations to the bass fishing team from Central Virginia Community College that beat teams from across the nation - including the favored Virginia Tech - to win the inaugural Smith Mountain Lake Invitational Bass Tournament over the past weekend.
According to the news report from WDBJ7, the CVCC team hauled in quite the catch:
Twenty-three teams from across the US [were] competing to take the top spot from the Hokies. Today’s winners were from Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg. The five fish weighed in at a little more than 19 pounds. Boats departed from Bridge Water Marina at seven this morning. Teams had til three-o’clock to catch their bass.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself here but it’s worth pointing out that Central Virginia Community College has never lost a football game to Virginia Tech either…
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