Gratitude

2011 has been nothing short of amazing. The entire year was booked with work by October 2010 and I spent the year dividing my time between two contracts, one for instructional design and the other for instructional coaching and training.


The instructional design contract was for Oregon Child Development Coalition and involved working with their subject matter experts to redesign their preservice training from soup to nuts, or more exactly from safety and transportation to Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support and best classroom practices for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. What an amazing group of professionals: dedicated, passionate, smart, and soooo easy to work with, an instructional designer's dream come true. Together we produced 35 two-hour face-to-face training modules and two workbook style self-studies.

The second contract was with the amazing Project DEGree, a program of the equally impressive Gateway to College National Network. Here is where all the traveling came in…five colleges, six trips each, two days each trip. One of the five was in my own backyard, Portland Community College but the others were all over the place…Durham Technical Community College, San Antonio College, Owens Community College and Phoenix College.

Over the last year, or more accurately 18 months, I have worked with the faculty teams at each of these colleges to design integrated curriculum across developmental reading, writing, math and college success for learning communities of first generation, academically underprepared college students. Even with the paradigm shifting movement from working autonomously in one's own classroom to working with faculty from other disciplines to co-create student assignments that are project-based, cut across shared curricular trouble spots, relevant, with real-life application in areas that young adults care about, these faculty teams overcame obstacles, fears, institutional roadblocks and sometimes impossible timelines to make magic happen.

These faculty created combined syllabi, organized public presentations of their students' work, met weekly to discuss student progress within the learning community, gave up long-time practices to have shared classroom policies, and knew more about their students' personal lives than they ever had previously. It wasn't smooth and it wasn't perfect but they persevered out of their professionalism, dedication, passion for student learning, and commitment to equal access to higher ed for all students. I count myself most blessed to have had the opportunity to come alongside these amazing faculty and life-long learners in their journey to implement best practices for the benefit of marginalized and the least-likely of college students.

As this year winds to a close I reflect with wonder and gratitude at the opportunities I enjoyed, the friendships I made, the colleagues I partnered with, and the products and processes that we co-created. It is with gratitude that I honor and thank these amazing professionals from Oregon Child Development Coalition, Durham Technical Community College, Owens Community College, Phoenix College and San Antonio College for their courage, passion and commitment to equal access to life-long learning for anyone who desires it. Thank you.