2006 was a busy year for Pacific Crest. Between consulting, workshops and institutes, we've been very busy…putting in tens of thousands of airplane miles and untold mileage on those rental cars. Our new website came online, and new editions of the Faculty Guidebook and Foundations of Chemistry were released. The Best Sex Book Ever became a reality.

Pacific Crest facilitated 27 institutes, a banner year for us! We held two Learning to Learn camps and inaugurated a first-ever Chairperson’s Institute in Washington, D.C.

Five Regional Professional development centers came on board, making it easier than ever for faculty to attend professional development events.  We thank Hinds Community College, Brevard Community College, University of the District of Columbia, the Northwest Center, and Kettering University for taking a strong stand in their commitment to faculty development.

Online book purchases….a working database….online registrations for institutes…workshops, conferences, and long consulting days in addition to our institutes….New facilitators came on board with very positive results…  2006 was a very busy year for Pacific Crest.

And we’re looking forward to 2007!  Here’s a quick peek at things to come.

Dedicated process educators will be meeting in Cocoa Beach, Florida on January 6^th and 7^th or Madison, Wisconsin in February (now that’s dedication!). 

Both groups also plan to meet later this coming year at a research meeting on July 14^th in Washington, D.C. These very focused educators assist the Process Education movement through educational research, the development of a variety of publications (especially the Faculty Guidebook), the facilitation of faculty development events, and dedicated support for a community of practice.

We call them the Academy of Process Educators, but they are the lifeblood of the Process Education Movement and held in the very highest regard by Pacific Crest.

We applaud Baker College – Flint for rewarding student success with free housing, and hope this trend spreads to other colleges.
 

“Our new housing scholarship program is a reward for academic excellence,” said Julianne T. Princinsky, Ed.D., Baker College of Flint President. “Because many of our students are from at-risk populations, we are hopeful that this new program will be an extra incentive for students to complete their higher education. With free housing or discounted housing, these students will have one less thing to worry about, and will be better able to concentrate on their studies.”

Beginning fall quarter, Baker College of Flint will offer free housing to residence hall students who maintain a 3.5 grade point average (GPA) or above, a 50 percent discount on housing for students maintaining a 3.0 to 3.49 GPA, and a 25 percent discount on housing for students maintaining a 2.7 to 2.99 GPA.

https://www.baker.edu/departments/admissions/pressreleases/flint/GPAFreeHousing.cfm

2007 Regional Professional Development Centers

Three new Regional Professional Development Centers are scheduled to come on board in 2007. 

Calling all Process Educators
 

Join us at our annual conference for Process Educators in Washington D.C. on July 12th and 13^th, if you’re interested in advancing Process Education and learning more about its principles and practices. You’ll receive the knowledge and support you need to help you improve your individual skills as an educator, while collaborating with other educators interested in transforming educational practices. This is an open conference so please plan to attend!

We’re also looking forward to the results of a national study sponsored by the Washington Center on the nature and quality of student learning in learning communities.

Learning communities have demonstrated promising results in student retention, academic achievement, and student satisfaction. in a number of different areas, including freshmen engineering, living/learning communities, developmental educations, entering students, etc.  Pedagogy and assessment approaches used within these learning communities will be studied at 27 institutions in an effort to strengthen the national learning community movement by developing collaborative assessment practices that focus on the characteristics on student learning made possible by these communities.

Read more about the justification of this study at:

 http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/resources/upload/Pages_from_ImpactLC.pdf

And in our publishing future…

a new, expanded Foundations of Learning text incorporating the course design outline for Hinds’ Essential College Skills class and input from our nine-member Foundations of Learning Advisory Board.  We will also be releasing a Microeconomics textbook by Bill Dawes from Stony Brook and the Instructor’s Guide for Foundations of Chemistry by Dave Hanson.

We wish each and every one of our readers a happy
and peaceful holiday season and a very blessed and
productive New Year. And that’s a wrap!