Gaining deeper insight into the world of teaching

My name is Danielle Cook. I’m a surgical technologist instructor at Moraine Park Technical College, and was fortunate to be one of the eight faculty members selected to participate in the first Moraine Park Teaching Fellowship program this academic year. Faculty from different campuses and program were selected to share their teaching experiences, research various teaching methods and techniques, develop our understanding of how students learn, participate in peer evaluation, and research a question related to our own teaching.

I have gained so much knowledge through the research and discussions we had that I have been able to incorporate into my classroom.  Working with faculty from various programs has not only given me insight into their world but also showed that, no matter what area you teach in, we all have similar experiences and challenges.

On Friday, May 12th myself and the other program participants will be presenting our projects at the MPTC Teaching Fellowship Celebration at the Fond du Lac Cafeteria from 11:30-1:00.My project is based on the question if students’ Skill Performance Assessment Tasks (PAT’s) scores have improved since changing the course format from Face-to-Face to blended.

I chose one program course that I teach every fall and compared the Skill PAT’s scores from the last two years the course was taught face-to-face (2013, 2014) and the first two years it was taught blended (2015, 2016).  This course has the most skill-based assessments and I was surprised by the results.  If you would like to know the results and learn more about the Teaching Fellowship program, please attend the celebration on May 12th!

Please consider applying to participate in this program for the next academic year; you will not regret it!

For more information on Moraine Park, visit morainepark.edu.