I spent two days at a Wisconsin Technical College System curriculum conference last week. To be honest, I would rather be in my assigned classroom working with students, but on occasion it is important to mingle with fellow BE, ELL, and Literacy instructors. Since this was my introduction to state level meetings as a faculty member, I stayed a little in the background, trying to match faces with colleges, and sort out jargon that comes with the position.
The NRS (National Reporting System) seemed a little clearer to me after hearing from the Washington, D.C. speaker who manages the system from the Department of Education. In the past, the NRS had just been a list of requirements from the "feds". You report student outcomes, and employment, and progression not only because it's a good idea to quantify what you are doing, but because it was required by the "feds". After the Wednesday session, and over a beer at a reception Wednesday night, I had a chance to meet one of the feds and place a face to the system. A few moments of face-to-face discussion is more productive than a stream of impersonal emails.
Since you are the new person, you are often the one going up to people saying, "Hi, I'm Doug from Green Bay." I met colleagues from the northern-most regions of the state in Superior, to Racine and Kenosha instructors. Madison Area Technical College faculty peppered the sessions, since the four-story downtown campus is across the street from the Concourse Hotel where the spring meeting was held. And, I met faculty who are from neighboring districts from Moraine Park Technical College in Fond du Lac, Fox Valley Tech in Appleton, and Northcentral Tech in Wausau.
I still need to type out notes for my team members in Green Bay who were not able to attend, and I was recruited to take minutes at a final afternoon session about BE Writing classes. Followup to a conference like this is important -- otherwise why attend at all? So, you might see a little more about the conference in future posts.
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