Sunday, September 30, 2012

Dance idea involving moving ideas/ideals

Really wish I could have been more in tune with this group  that appears to have a strong concept for moving dance to the mainstream political discussion.

  Dance performance in Hartsville promotes voting
SCNow
They were participants in the Urban Bush Women and the Coker College dance program's "Are We Democracy?” event Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012.


Saturday, September 15, 2012

Volleyball getting a lot of home court advantge


The Cobra Volleyball team came back from being down 2-0 to tie the match at 2-2 on Friday night at the Cobra gym. The team was evenly matched with Queens and they used some strong support from the home fans to dig deeper for the comeback. The Royals held it together for the win but the Cobra women had to enjoy that vocal support they were getting from the stands, particularly the group of Coker lacrosse players who were impressed with the effort the girls were giving throughout the match.  It was fun to experience.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Opportunities to get it the second time available

One of the opportunities that students do have on the Coker College campus is access to tutoring. Sometimes you just don't get it the first time and need some extra help. The first Sunday on campus I was really surprised by the large number of students I saw leaving a math tutoring class. The tutor was really happy because the students came when they would get the most from the offering -- at the beginning of the semester when they need to ensure they have the foundation to go forward.

Last night Robin Richardson, who is our Student Support Services for the campus, shared the tutoring schedule with the faculty in case we have students asking. This felt like a good place for me to store that schedule -- students do sometimes forget and they do appreciate it when someone can tell them when Math tutoring is or where they might meet with the Chinese tutor:


From Robin Richardson:

In an effort to centralize more of our academic supports, all tutoring now takes place in the library. You will see that LITC228, the Faculty Research Room, has been volunteered for this purpose. Please know that I understand what a valuable resource this space is for faculty; however, the same features that make it useful for you—a large space with a variety of seating and working options that’s close to reference materials and technology—make it an ideal tutoring lab as well. Hopefully we will be able to share this space in a manner that serves all needs. With this in mind, below is a general tutoring schedule for LITC228 (specifics are in the attachments) to help with your plans to use this space:


Monday
4:00 – 10:00
Spanish, math, IT assistance
Tuesday through Thursday,
IT assistance will relocate to the LITC lobby, near the computer banks, to make the FRR available for class events

Tuesday
11:00 – 12:30
Chinese

4:00 – 7:00
Math, IT assistance

Wednesday
3:30 – 7:00
Chinese, math, IT assistance

Thursday
3:00 – 7:00
Chinese, math, IT assistance

TIP -- The best time for tutoring is immediately after you do not get it the first time. Getting help when the broken link is on your mind helps ensure you only have one broken link at a time that requires fixing.  (That is what I have been telling students in hopes they will get the maximum from the tutoring -- waiting until November is waiting too long.

Cobra Women Top Ranked Team






The Cobra women had a great game on Tuesday afternoon and topped regionally ranked Clayton State 3-1. The story of the game, produced by one of Coker's graduate assistants, follows.  In addition, the Coker women's golf team had one of their best finishes in their young history coming in third in a tourney in Anderson, SC.


September 11, 2012


HARTSVILLE, S.C. – The Coker women's soccer team captured the first win of the season after defeating No. 7 regionally ranked Clayton State 3-1 on Tuesday (Sept. 11). 
The Cobras wasted little time, scoring quickly and swiftly in the first half.  Katie Copper set a perfectly directed cross to the streaking Jalynn Fort, who navigated a head shot around Laker goal keeper Laoise O'Driscoll.  With not even 15 minutes off the game clock the Cobras struck and took a 1-0 lead.
Not only did this date mark a day of remembrance for America, but it also marked a special game for sophomore Kelley Godbout.  The forward from Mathews, N.C. had two goals on three shots for the Cobras.  The first goal for Goudbout came in the 50th minute of the second half, when she took a cross from Fortt and headed it into the back of the Laker net.  Her second goal came in the 77th minute when she blasted a shot to hit nylon in the corner of the net, and set the Cobras up with a comfortable 3-0 lead.
The Coker defense was relentless for the entire 90-minutes of the game.  Goalkeeper Lizz Morris had 11 saves, and only let one through out-of-23 Laker shots.
Coker will looking to start a win streak as they hit the road for the next three competitions.  The first of the three comes on Thursday (Sept. 13) as they travel to face Newberry College.  That game is set to kick-off at 4 p.m.
McDonalds Player of the game: Kelley Godbout

Following is a story about the Cobra's golf team:

September 11, 2012


ANDERSON, S.C. -- It was a record setting day for the Coker women's golf team, as they finished third in competition, and shot a team total of 651 after a two-day tournament. 
Coker women's golf set a new team record on the first day of the event after they shot a team total of 330.  However, the Cobras were not satisfied.  The team finished strong in the second round shooting 321 and setting a new Coker women's golf record for tournament play.
Krista Thorpe shot a 78 (+6) for the Cobras, which was the best individual score on the day as well as her career.  Right behind Thorpe was Sara Allen and Taylor Demby, who shot scores of 80 (+8) and 81 (+9).  Completing the pentagon for the Coker team was Mallory Thompkins who shot an 82 (+10) and Jessi Mackenzie who shot a 90.  Thompkins and Thorpe sunk three birdies for the Cobras, while Demby and Allen contributed 2 birdies and 18 pars each.
The next competition for the Cobras will come on September 29 when they participate at the Lady Bearcat Invitational in Hilton Head Island, S.C.
 













Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Starting with the end in mind

Teaching a class in Coker College 101 this semester. It is a class whose objective is to help new students get off on the right track in their college lives.

Deanne Frye of the Coker Career Services center gives Coker 101 students the overview of services they can take advantage to get a jump start on life after four years in college.


 SERENDIPITY
We got very lucky for our first class as Devin Jennings, a May grad, was on campus and she agreed to come in and talk with the new Coker students about her college career and her life after Coker. She is a busy person and was a busy person as a student. I know her observations hit home with at least a couple of students in the class. Devin spent a busy summer dancing in Los Angeles and in Richmond and she is now heading for NYC for more dance study with the Joffrey Ballet.  The students heard from one like them what it takes to succeed. Devin's thoughts are helping them start with the end in mind. Again, thank you Devin.

 
CAREER CENTER
Keeping with the theme of starting with the end in mind, Deanne Frye of the Coker College Career Center is talking with my group today about the assessments and tools that her department has to help students find their focus. I have not doubt they are going to both enjoy and learn from this presentation. This past summer I read a book, "The Unemployed Grad and What Parents Can Do about it", which is about helping students connect their thinking to the work place they will be entering in four years. A basic premise of the author's message was that students NEED to know and USE the career center. After today the students will have a solid ideas about the services offered. (Way back when I took some of the assessments provided by the career center at SUNY Cortland. The assessment said I should look toward a job in public relations. Turned out to be a place I spent a great deal of my work life.)

College is about a lot more than the first real-world job, but that is often a good place to begin the focus on you might use your next four years -- if you are a first-year college student.  Thank you Deanne!

Monday, September 3, 2012

I enjoyed the interview assignment in Mass Communication

"Interview an older person, maybe a parent and most especially a grandparent, if you can," was the basic assignment. The subject of the interview was to be the changes in mass media the interviewee had noticed over the years and also what that person thought of these changes.

PEDAGOGICAL VIEW
From a pedagogical view, this was one of my attempts to take the spotlight from the class instructor and put some of the learning on the class. One of my reasons for enjoying the assignment was that the pedagogy worked in this case. Most of the students got into the assignment and they came in with lots of material on the changes in mass media over the years.

Certainly, I could have lectured on these changes from my point of view. I am older. I have seen a lot of decades of change in mass communication. I might have even kept them awake with my recitation of the first Rome, NY - Healy Avenue phone number I remember 3-0-1-7-J. That was the party line in our house before we got the 7-0-4-8 phone number for the private line -- meaning others in the neighborhood could not pick up the phone and listen in on the conversation. (Note, you could not keep your same numbers as technology or service providers changed.)  And, while I might have kept them awake, I think they got a lot more out of hearing these experiences from their grand parents and maybe even a parent or friend.  Those interviewed did have some keen memories and interesting ideas.

Further, this way of approaching a quick bit of media history also helped us focus again on culture, a major part of this course. One interviewee, for example, talked of the importance of radio weather in Iceland and then we heard from a S. C. farmer who also mentioned the key role weather news from the radio played in their early years of farming. And, we got to hear of growing up in a small village of Mexico as well as a life in a big city in the North.

LOTS OF KEY LEARNING HAPPENED
A major reason I enjoyed the assignment was that it is a great introduction to the history of specific mediums that we will be getting into. For example, the idea of only one or three television channels was mentioned in several interviews. The idea that people actually wrote each other REAL letters was also a common theme.

HUMAN CONNECTION
I am hoping that the students also remember one of the refrains that came from many of the papers. The regret in the words of the interviewees that in the old days they interacted face to face a lot more than they see or feel happening today. One of our BIG questions as we continue exploring mass communication and media over the next several months will be this question of connection and the question of how you get people engaged.

I got to read all the papers and enjoyed the approaches the interviewers and interviewees took with this assignment. (We used small groups so everyone's paper got read but we only used about six of the papers in the full class.) I will be hoping that seeing and feeling the connection with their own past will give them a feeling of the significance of studying the history of the media so they will be better prepared to mange the future of the media.

Should be a really interesting semester because the students are deeply involved!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Cobra women opened Sept. 2 vs Young Harris

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The Coker College Women's Soccer team under second-year coach Dan Muns opened the home season on Sunday morning with a 4-2 loss to the Young Harris.

The Cobras are a young team that is coming together. They lost their opening last Thursday 1-nil to Valdosta. These two close openers are showing a much improved squad from last year.  The heat on the field this day was intense yet the Cobras came back aggressively in the second half to make a strong contest.

This is the Labor Day holiday and there were not quite as many students in the stands but the bleachers were pretty full of parents and friends from both teams -- enjoying some soccer on this long weekend.