CUNY Academic Commons

I have been teaching with CUNY for more than 20 years, and during this journey, I received extensive professional development training coupled with a strong teacher education background (from a flagship institution) enabling me to utilize knowledge and tools from understanding by design, writing as a process, applied linguistics, bilingual…[Read more]

I constantly revise my assignments to include current issues at the national and international levels and to create projects that students can complete individually and in groups to gather information, analyze data, and create advocacy plans for improving living conditions for children and families in their community. Through these activities the…[Read more]

At the start of a course, I use an icebreaker to have the students list 10 things about themselves that they would like to share to get someone to know who they are. Next, I give them 15-20 minutes to go around the room introducing themselves and sharing any items on their lists to as many classmates as possible while also jotting down some notes…[Read more]

I create projects that encourage students to make connections between what they are learning in my courses and what they can do in response to issues they are dealing with in their own lives, family, and community. Additionally, I design my assignments in ways that enable students to synthesize and reflect on their competencies and experiences in…[Read more]

The true purpose and value of higher education are contingent upon what the learner decides/intends (disposition) to do with the knowledge, skills, and experience they possess, including shaping and taking control of their own lives.

Society cannot function without education of some kind (formal or informal), Life itself is an educative process-as John Dewey would put it. The purpose of higher education is to increase human potential for transforming the world into a better and safer place for all. General education courses help students to expand their horizons by providing…[Read more]

I have found it quite helpful to create experiential learning opportunities for my students and allow them to revise their assignments to boost their grades. They usually respond positively when I create assignments that challenge them to connect what we are learning in class to developing strategies for addressing specific issues in their…[Read more]

Growing up, I was fortunate to have many people within and outside of my family who believed in me and encouraged me to keep trying my best no matter what difficulties I was facing. Their belief in me boosted my confidence.  As a result, I became encouraging of others, and the more I encouraged my students and my colleagues I received a lot more…[Read more]

I like the idea of envisioning the learner as “someone who has not yet” learned a skill but will acquire it through time and effort. This view of teaching/learning couples optimism coupled with work.

Cultivating a growth mindset and teaching with intentionality enable educators to challenge themselves to learn new skills, use multimodality in their teaching, and value student efforts and learning outcomes as processes rather than products.

I found the teacher candidate visual resource quite useful for engaging students to explore many important topics and issues related to learning new technologies. They are good tools for sharing important information and discussing complex issues. I also appreciated the translanguaging phenomenon in Michelle Ortiz’s poem, “Algorithms that…[Read more]

I find the Equitable CITE Pedagogy frameworks quite relevant, timely, and useful in addressing inequities in our education system in general and particularly necessary for ensuring access to equal education for all children. What’s more, these frameworks can be applied to addressing equity issues in community development initiatives (i.e.,…[Read more]

Hello Everyone,

I gladly share my remix activity with you. It was a worthwhile experience for me to complete this module. In my remix activity, I chose 3 mindset cards and slightly adjusted the texts of some of the protocols to create the attached presentation and share my reflection on the activity. I found the mindset cards, the reading, and…[Read more]

Hello! I’m Jean Plaisir, a faculty member in the Teacher Education Department at Borough of Manhattan Community College. I ended up keeping in my hand the following rationale cards:

22: Teachers can better understand their learners and the contexts for their learning if they understand learners’ digital lives.

27: It is important for teachers to…[Read more]