C3-2-1 Newsletter #17

Hello, Faculty Community! 

***You are receiving this newsletter because you are a faculty member at MiraCosta College. I, Sean Davis, am the coordinator of our C3 Teaching and Learning Center***

Lots of local workshops being offered to help us out. People are amazing, right? We just keep going. Pretty remarkable.

3 resources related to teaching and learning, 2 online tips and tricks, and 1 question for reflection

Looking for archived resources, tips/tricks, and questions?

Revisit the past editions of the C3-2-1 Newsletter here. 

Want to share? 

If you have some resources, tips/tricks, and questions to share, please contribute to the newsletter using this C3-2-1 Form.

C321 Newsletter

(3) Resources

  1. NCHEA’s Tri Equity: Allies in Action Conference
    The North County Higher Education Alliance (NCHEA) has been a powerful collaboration between Cal State San Marcos, Palomar, and MiraCosta for many years. Our very own Dr. Rachel Hastings, aka “Doc,” is the current NCHEA director. Along with other MiraCostans, Doc has been promoting this conference for the past few weeks, and I, for one, am looking forward to this event.

    Here is a description from NCHEA:

    This collaborative conference is designed for students, faculty, staff, administrators and community members. Our live events feature expert race and equity practitioners who offer engaging and effective ways to enter and exit these critical conversations. Attendees can expect that each symposium and training will directly acknowledge and address the ways our bodies create culture and communicate difference across our multiple identities.  

    As a tri-campus consortium serving North County, collaboration is central to our mission of supporting students through the transfer process. We have woven into our programming opportunities to network with members of our sister campuses with a click of the button. Attendees can meet and greet one another with ease, connecting with individuals to discover how to they might be able to work together on a future collaboration grant. 

    Tri Equity will run on Thursday, February 11, 2021 from 3:30pm – 8:30pm PST and is free to NCHEA community members. Register here
  2. Black History Month 2021 Events 
    Many MiraCostans are invested in preserving and amplifying efforts to elevate the educational and resource-based events during Black History Month. Please visit our Student Equity Page to learn more about the fantastic offerings still to come in February. February matters. Black History matters. The tireless work of our colleagues, students, and community partners matter. 
  3.  DEI Resources For Faculty

    Our college president, Dr. Sunny Cooke sent out an email last week with a link to our Resources for Faculty page on the MiraCosta website. I am impressed with the collection of documents, campus-based professional learning opportunities, and external support resources. Dr. Cooke also let us know that there is much more to come – 

    This summer, MiraCosta College joined the University of Southern CA- Race and Equity Center’s Racial Equity Leadership Alliance under the leadership of Dr. Shaun Harper. Each month we have been able to send a team of five people to focused topic sessions where MiraCostans can learn and bring back ideas, concepts, and resources to share more broadly at our college.

    The Center will develop a portal to house materials from all the monthly sessions. The portal will also include a library of downloadable racial equity assets (readings, case studies, videos, etc.). In addition, MiraCosta employees will be able to form virtual groups with colleagues who serve in similar roles at other community colleges across our state. We will be able to pose questions; collaboratively solve problems of practice; and share effective racial equity strategies, policies, and resources with each other in these groups. This portal will be open to all employees at our college (full-time and part-time).  The portal is scheduled to be completed by May 2021.

(2) Online Tips and Tricks

  1.  Pronto – A dynamic and engaging tool for effectively communicating with students 
    This one does A LOT – you can chat with students, create groups, send out announcements, use live video, and much more. One feature I really appreciate – message translation. Users can send messages in their preferred language, and Pronto automatically translates messages into the recipient’s preferred language. Now that exemplifies equity. 
  2.  Canvas update – The New Research Content Editor
    You have probably noticed that this essential Canvas tool has changed. Some of the changes are minor but navigating an update always comes with challenges. Our instructional technologist, Karen Turpin, helps us navigate the changes and provides an overview worth watching – Using Canvas’s NEW Rich Content Editor. 

(1) Question

Are we teaching students that they need to do something to have something in order to be something? Or are we teaching them how to be something so they can do something and then have something? 

Stay joyful,

Sean Davis
Joyful Teacher in Residence 
Coordinator, C3 Teaching and Learning Center