News

CollegeNow Hosts Professional Development Conference

December 2011

As part of its ongoing commitment to expanding higher education opportunities for area high school students and teachers, TC3 CollegeNow hosts an annual preofessional development conference on the Tompkins Cortland Community College Ccampus in Dryden. This past August over 100 teachers from over 25 school districts attended.

"Our goal is not just to facilitate those relationships between our CollegeNow high school teachers and TC3 faculty, but also to give both a chance to share learning ideas and engage in some real forward-thinking professional development," said Karl Madeo, director of TC3 CollegeNow. "We're encouraging creative teaching practices, from using a Wii for Physics concept development to learning French by studying literature."

And whether the topic is "Organic Chemistry and Tie Dyeing" or "Integrating Local Issues into the Environmental Studies Curriculum" secondary education teachers get a chance to work with the College's exceptional teaching faculty and exchange new ideas for bridging the high school and college learning experiences. Concurrent sessions are held throughout the day and focus on specific subject areas, including accounting, biology, chemistry, environmental studies, math, Spanish, business, economics, English and more.

Each session is led by TC3 faculty and gives attending teachers a chance to learn about best practices, participate in model exercises, and engage in a dialogue with TC3 faculty.

General topic sessions are also offered throughout the day. In 2011, these sessions included an introduction to the TC3 library and tutorial services, as well as an examination of TC3's philosophy of "strengths-based" education. Other sessions focused on social media and college success. The 2011 conference also featured a keynote speech by Chris Sperry of Ithaca College's Project Look Sharp, who offered tips on engaging students in a media-saturated environment.

Professional development and collaboration is a focus of CollegeNow's ongoing growth; look for more information about upcoming CollegeNow professional development conferences in the near future.

Educators Honored

TC3 CollegeNow also honored a number of local educators at its 2011 professional development conference.

Michelle Walker of Marathon — CollegeNow Recognition Award

Linda Bruno of Dryden — Distinguished Concurrent Enrollment Teacher

Wendy Buchberg of TST BOCES — Distinguished Concurrent Enrollment Teacher

Karen Murray of Trumansburg — Distinguished Tech Prep Teacher

Gina Gammage-Sikora of TC3 — Distinguished Faculty Liaison