During the Spring Semester, students completed courses at various colleges around the Bay area, including the Peralta Campuses (Laney, Merritt, and Berkeley Community Colleges), San Francisco State University, and Cal State University East Bay. Courses studied include Precalculus, Statistics, Spanish, World Music, Anthropology, and Modern World History since 1500.
Throughout the Spring Semester students updated their Student Education Plans, prepared portfolios, completed research papers, and mapped-out study plans for their finals week. Stephanie Scholer, Academic Coordinator, had the opportunity to collaborate with students and counselors to discuss accommodations, and also reviewed requirements for an Associate of Arts degree, Associate of Sciences degree, and Certificates of Achievement and Proficiency. Several students will be completing degrees and certificates in the fall of 2017 or Spring of 2018.
An interesting topic several students have explored during academic coaching sessions at CIP Berkeley has been, when it is helpful to download digital sources and create a printed course reader versus read articles online. Why? Now that many professors upload curriculum on Blackboard, Moodle, or iLearn, students must make decisions about how they will annotate text. Should they use pencils or highlighters on printed copy, or learn to use digital tools like dual-color highlighting and note tools. Another fascinating aspect of working with our students in a large community college system is to see the variety of textbooks and articles assigned in different English 1A classes. For example, while one professor chose The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now, by Dr. Meg Jay, another professor chose far more “classic” literature from authors associated with the Harlem Renaissance and the Woman’s Suffrage movement.
