Motivating Student to Learn will be the discussion topic for the Faculty Development session on Thursday, January 12 from 1:00 to 2:00 SU-104E. Every Thursday afternoon of the Fall and Spring week of accountability, Faculty Development hosts an open discussion. This Spring we will explore what faculty do in the classroom that hurts the learning process and more importantly share ideas on the challenge of how do you get your student's motivated to learn. Join us.

Several of our new Residential Faculty (Click on a picture below to see its larger version.)

Meet new residential faculty Laura Avila

Laura Avila is from Hebbronville, TX, a small town located 150 miles directly south of San Antonio. She has her BA in Biology and Chemistry from St. Mary's University and her MA in Nutrition from Texas A & M University- Kingsvile. She accepted a full time residential faculty position in 2001 at Glendale Community College. In 2007 she moved back to Texas. She returned to her same position at GCC in the 2011 fall semester.

Laura has served as Food and Nutrition Occupational Program Director and Evening Supervisor, Curriculum Design Facilitator, and Faculty Senate. She is married and has two beautiful daughters, Elena Isabel and Maya Olivia.

Meet new residential faculty Joshua Whitney

Joshua was born and raised in Glendale, AZ about a half mile from GCC's main campus. He went to high school at Moon Valley and attended Arizona State for my undergraduate education where he double majored in physics and mathematics. After ASU, he went to Orange County, CA for graduate school at UC Irvine. He studied mathematics for M.S. and Ph.D. and in particular he specialized in algebraic geometry. More specifically, he worked with toric varieties and error correcting codes for my dissertation.

Joshua has had more hobbies over the past decade than he can recount, but most recently he has been pretty obsessed with welding, wood finishing, furniture design, and effective design in general. Recently his brother had a son and Joshua is excited to be a new uncle as well!

Meet new residential faculty Lori Collins Walk

Lori Walk grew up with three brothers and lived in Texas, North Carolina, and Washington before her Marine pilot father and R.N. mother settled the family in Arizona. She always wanted to teach, and her degrees from the U of A include a major in Spanish, a minor in English, and a Master’s in reading.

Lori’s professional career has consisted of K – 12 administrator roles at all levels and community college instructor positions at Cochise, Arizona Western, Paradise Valley, and Scottsdale. She has been adjunct here at GCC since 2003. She’s excited to be a full-time Gaucho, and she’s looking forward to partnering with others in learning communities, service learning, and writing across the curriculum.

The year long new residential faculty orientation program continues each month with our group meeting and on-line discussions in Blackboard. The December FYRE meeting was at GC North and included a tour of the campus by Dean Chuck Jeffery. Also, President Kovola stopped in to talk with the new faculty about their first semester. Afterwards, the group had a pot luck social that included friends and families.

The next FYRE meeting is Thursday, January 12th at 8:00 in the Library.

A.T.O.M.S.

    ATOMS - Acronyms Terms and Other Maricopa Stuff    
If you have been puzzled by the alphabet soup of acronyms that you hear and have wondered what a few of them might stand for, then A.T.O.M.S. is for you.

Try A.T.O.M.S. out at http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/facdev/atoms/

(A.T.O.M.S. was created by and is maintained by GCC Faculty Development).