Hello!
I'm a little bit late with episode three of Honors Matters, but I am here!
I have an Honors event this week about which I'm quite excited and I wanted to share it with you and invite you to pass along any thoughts you might have.
On Friday, I will be travelling to Syracuse to join a group of SUNY Honors Directors and Deans to network and share ideas. We will get together for a social dinner on Friday evening and will continue our conversations at an all day meeting on Saturday. Agenda items so far include:
Best practices - I'm really looking forward to this part. This where I will get to share some of what we've been doing at FLCC as well as hear what other campuses are doing. I hope to bring home lots of ideas that we can implement.
Honors contracts - I'm curious about what other campuses do. We don't have a lot of contracts here, but I imagine that this number might increase as more and more students hear about Honors as a whole. This is especially important for students in tight programs or for students who arrived late to Honors and are hoping to complete a certificate or diploma in an abridged amount of time.
Enhance connections - this is an important one. I get asked a lot of questions about what Honors can do for a student in terms of transfer and I think these are really important conversations to have. I am curious as to what four-year institutions are looking for and how we can work together to make Honors part of a transfer student's experiences in a positive way.
Honors visibility - Honors Deans and Directors across SUNY are interested in great links to the chancellor's office - especially in light of the change in leadership at that level. These are important conversations to have as a whole and may even result in some kind of liaison between Honors at the campus level and SUNY central.
Assessment rubrics - this might not sound very interesting for students, but it should! We are working very hard behind the scenes to align Honors with the learning framework of the whole college and shaping our learning outcomes to match work being done at the college on a larger level. With that, comes the need to assess and create evidence that shows we are doing all the things we want to do. The timing of this agenda item is perfect for us - as several classes are piloting the new learning outcomes and other documents this very semester!
The fun of all of this is that it really shows that we are trying to practice some of the core tenants of Honors in our very own practice. It's all about making connections, reflecting on what we are doing, and expanding learning outside the classroom. I look forward to sharing what I learn with you in a future blog.
STAY CURIOUS!
-T
"Honors administrators and faculty consider students to be
the leaders of the future in their disciplines of choice and strive to give
them the tools to be responsible, ethical citizens”
AnnMarie Guzy in “Honors
Composition: Humanity Beyond the Humanities”
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