The Learning Center Newsletter 

Monthly publication - March 2000 Issue

Sponsored by AccuTrack

http://www.accutrack.org

IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE:

New Publication

The CRLA Monograph, Starting Up A Learning Assistance Center: Conversations with CRLA Members Who  Have Been There and Done That, will be available soon from H & H Publishing.

Edited by Frank Christ (University of Arizona), Karen Smith (Rutgers University), and Rick Sheets (Paradise Valley Community College), the monograph includes conversations with Elaine Burns (Skyline Community College), Frank Christ (University of Arizona), Gwyn Enright (City College of San Diego), David Gerkin (Paradise Valley Community College), Gene Kerstiens (formerly El Camino College), Georgine Materniak (University of Pittsburgh), Martha Maxwell (formerly University of Maryland and UC Berkeley), Reed Mencke (University of Arizona), Sylvia Mioduski (University of Arizona), Michael O'Hear (Purdue University), Karen Smith (Rutgers University), Rick Sheets (Paradise Valley Community College), and Frank Torres (Cal Poly University Pomona).

These CRLA members, all experienced learning assistance center directors, look at such learning center topics as professionalism, faculty and administrator concerns, programs for special populations, management tools, student assessment, program evaluation, staffing and staff training, , technology, and program and services standards.

An extensive bibliography of over 100 references for further reading are included in the monograph.

[Frank Christ, University of Arizona]

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Internet Resource of the Month

WCENTER, Open Forum for Writing Centers Professionals

WCENTER is a listserv (e-mail discussion list) for people interested in writing center theory and practice.  The listserv was established in April of 1991 when Lady Falls Brown asked Fred Kemp to create it in Spring 1991.  Dr. Brown has been the listowner and administrator.  In April 1994 Dr. Brown received the Outstanding Service Award from the National Writing Centers Association for her work with WCENTER.

The mission of WCENTER is to provide a virtual space where writing center practitioners, administrators, and consultants can share information about writing center work.  Discussions include administrative issues, data collection, tutor training, professional development, and other issues of interest to Writing Centers professionals.

To join WCENTER or to browse its archives, visit the following site:

http://lyris.acs.ttu.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=wcenter&text_mode=0&lang=english

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Person of the Month

Dr. Karen G. Smith, Director of the Learning Resource Centers at Rutgers

Dr. Smith has a long and outstanding involvement with learning centers.  It started in 1975 when she designed, developed and directed the Center for Learning Assistance at New Mexico State University.  In 1988 she designed and directed the Educational Resource Center for Tulane University.  And in 1992, she designed and initiated the LRCs at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.  Today, Karen supervises six LRCs on 3 campuses.  These LRCs provide services to over 15,000 students each year.  Karen also supports two websites, one for the LRCs (http://lrc.rutgers.edu) and one for all academic support programs (http://pass.rutgers.edu).

In addition to designing learning centers for her colleges, Karen served as a consultant on the design and development of other learning centers including Arizona State University, Boston College, the Naval Academy, and SUNY-Binghamton.

As part of her commitment to professional development, Dr. Smith served as the past president of CRLA, was Chair of the Past Officers Council, has served as the CRLA Archivist since 1986, and participated with the organization in many other functions and roles.  In March, Karen will be honored at the NADE conference in Biloxi and inducted as one of twelve founding Fellows in Learning Assistance and Developmental Education.

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Publication of the Month 

The Learning Assistance Review

The Learning Assistance Review is a publication of the National College Learning Center Association (NCLCA).  The journal seeks to expand and disseminate knowledge about learning centers and to foster communication among learning center professionals.  Readership includes learning center administrators, teaching staff, faculty, and tutors, as well as other faculty and administrators across the curriculum who are interested in improving the learning skills of postsecondary students.  The journal publishes scholarly articles and reviews that address issues of interest to a broad range of learning center professionals.  These include articles about program design and evaluation, classroom-based research, the application of theory and research to practice, innovative teaching strategies, and student assessment.

The journal is a benefit of membership in NCLCA.  Membership is $40.00:  A check and application including name, institution, address, phone, fax, and email address can be sent to:

Heather Newburg, Membership Secretary

Lake Superior State University

650 W. Easterday Avenue

Sault Sainte Marie, MI 49783-1699

You can also email Heather by clicking here. 

[Nancy Bornstein, Alverno College]

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March Conferences

2000 National NADE Conference

“Meeting the Challenges and Serving as a Beacon for the 21st Century"

March 15-19, 2000 in Biloxi, Mississippi.

 Each year NADE offers a national conference that attracts over 1,400 educators from across the U.S. In addition to nationally-known plenary speakers, nearly 200 concurrent sessions provide a comprehensive treatment of developmental education issues. These conferences are open to anyone.  This year’s conference will be March 15-19 in Biloxi, Mississippi.  For detailed information visit the conference web site at:

        http://www.umkc.edu/cad/nade/conferen/biloxi.htm

or e-mail:

        conference@nade.net

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The Twenty-third Annual Symposium on Developmental Education

New York College Learning Skills Association (NYCLSA)

March 26-28, 2000

Ellenville, New York

This year’s symposium will focus on what teaching strategies, learning assistance models, and professional leadership will be needed for the new century.  Keynote speakers include Dr. Hunter Boylan, Director of the National Center for Developmental Education and Dr. Susan Clark-Thayer, editor of the NADE self-evaluation guides.  For more information visit the conference site at:

        http://www.rit.edu/~jwsldc/NYCLSA/conf/index.html

or contact the conference chairperson, Jane Neuburger at (315) 655-7206 or E-mail:

        jneuburger@cazcollege.edu

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Windows Tips of the Month

Finding files

Ever created a document and forgot it's name or misfiled it?  Instead of going through your folders one by one trying to find it, use the Windows Find tool.  You can start this up from Windows Explorer menu: (Tools - Find - Files or Folders...), or use a much quicker keyboard shortcut: <Windows key> and F (The <Windows key> is the key with the Windows logo between the <Alt> and <Ctrl> keys).  Keep this key down while you hit the key with the letter "F".  This will bring up the Find box:

If you know the name of the file, you can type it in the "Named" text box, otherwise, leave this empty.  If you know the drive where you saved the file, use the "Look in" pull down menu to select it.  Otherwise, select "All local hard drives".  If you know the folder, you can click on "Browse" to select it.  Make sure you check the "Include subfolders" check box to search all the folders in the drive or directory you select.

If you don't know the name of the file, you might end up getting all the files in the drive or directory you selected (not too helpful).  But wait, there are many more options to help you narrow down your search.  Click on the "Date" tab, and you will get another page of options:

If you remember when you created the file, modified it, or even just accessed it, you can click on the "Find all files" option button, then use the pull down menu to select one of the options: Modified, Created, or Last accessed.  Next select the approximate time period either by entering the start and end dates, or by selecting something like "during the previous" x months.

Pretty neat!  But still if you don't know the name, you might get too many files.  Use the last page "Advanced" to narrow it down even further:

Most likely you know what type of file you are looking for.  You can use the pull down menu on this page to select the file type.  The other boxes are for entering the file size, which in most case you will not know.  

When you have entered all the options, click on "Find Now", and Windows will go hunting for your file.  The results will be listed for you:

To launch this file, you can double click on it.  You can even go to the folder containing the file with the Windows Explorer by selecting "File - Open Containing Folder" from the menu.  Other options allow you to print the file directly or to send it to your floppy drive or fax.

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Starting programs Automatically

If you use one application often (your email program, your word processor, etc.) you might want to have Windows start it up for you every time you start your computer.  You can do this by adding a short cut to his program to your Windows "StartUp" folder.  Here are the steps for doing this as they appear in Windows help:

Now every time you start windows this program will automatically start with it.

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Removing Programs from the StartUp folder

Ok, so what if you want to prevent a program from starting every time you start windows?  Here is how to do it.

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Starting Windows without the applications in the StartUp folder

Did you know can by pass the launching of ALL the applications in the StartUp folder on a one-time-only basis.  This might be handy if you want don't want to wait for the application in the StartUp to be launched, or if you are troubleshooting a Windows start-up problem and you want to eliminate some of the variables.  When you start the boot process, wait until you see the Windows logo on the screen, then press and hold the Shift key until Windows finishes loading. The Startup apps will not load.

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On the Lighter Side

Let's face it -- English is a crazy language!

There's no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted.  But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?  If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?  One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese?  One index, two indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through the annals of history but not a single annal?  If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preacher praught?  If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?  If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.  In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?  Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?  Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?  How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike?  How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

How you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent?  Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love?

Have you ever run into someone who was dis-combobulated, grunted, ruly or peccable?  And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all).

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it!

[Author unknown]

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Quotes

"Whether you think you can or think you can't -- you're right."
Henry Ford

A committee is group of people who "keep minutes and waste hours."
Milton Berle, comedian

"People have one thing in common: They are all different."
Robert Zend

"Knowledge is power"
Francis Bacon

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Confucius

"Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody"
Ben Franklin

"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions" 
Naguib Mahfouz

 "The art of reading is to skip judiciously."
P.G. Hamerton.

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Submitting your article will make you more famous and will help your fellow administrators worldwide!  E-mail your submissions to:

        newsletter@attendance-tracking.com

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Feedback

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About the Authors

This newsletter is produced by Mon Nasser from Engineerica Systems, Inc.  My thanks to all those who contributed to this issue: Frank Christ, Karen G. Smith, Nancy Bornstein, and Lady Falls Brown.

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Last Month Issue

The February issue of the The Learning Center Newsletter featured:

To read the February issue, click here.

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Last Modified: January 13, 2004 10:22:39 AM