Spring 2022 Teaching & Learning Series - The Office of Professional Development in collaboration with Title V-Gateway to Success and Guided ...
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The Office of Professional Development in collaboration with Title V—Gateway to Success and Guided Pathways presents Spring 2022 Teaching & Learning Series
Welcome
Our goal is to provide our ELAC family with
workshops on self-regulated, active, research-
based principles for building inclusive communities
and teaching to increase student learning as well
as developing a first-gen mindset. In addition, T&L
Series workshops consider how information about
who our students are and how they are performing
can be used to ensure their success.
Workshop themes:
• Adapting into a 21st Century Instructor
• Ensuring Equity and Inclusion
• Culturally Responsive Teaching
Our Community of Practice (CoP)
Our CoP offers a forum to discuss and collaborate on best teaching practices. What holds the CoP
together is the passion, commitment, and the collective experience of its members. We welcome
all members of the ELAC community to join our CoP. Because we have a holistic approach to
education, we value the voices and input of all campus constituents and friends.
Tuesdays at 12 - 1:30 pm on March 29, April 26, and May 31
The purpose of our CoP is: The intention of our CoP is:
• to develop the members’ capabilities. • to develop a campus-wide plan to
• to exchange knowledge. create a community of support.
• to build expertise. • to identify professional development needs.
• to offer suggestions for workshops.
• to develop a lab of innovative and student-
centered strategies to ensure student success.
For more information about the Community of Practice,
contact Elena Tinker Diaz: tinkerre@laccd.edu
Workshop Schedule at a Glance
March
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
1 2 3 4 Creating a Liquid
Syllabus
7 8 9 More than Free 10 11
14 15 16 17 18
21 22 23 24 Identities in STEM 25 OER: Part 1
28 29 30 31 Cesar Chavez Day
April
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
1
4 Spring Break 5 6 7 8
11 12 Neurodiversity at 13 14 15
the Equity Table
18 Creating Engaging 19 20 Microaggressions 21 22
and Interactive
Course Materials
25 26 27 28 29 STEM: Appreciating
& Believing in
Our Students
May
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
2 3 4 5 Culture Matters 6
8 10 11 An Equity Toolkit 12 13
for STEM Faculty
16 17 18 19 OER in the STEM 20
Classroom
23 24 25 26 27
30 Memorial Day 31
CoP Meeting
1
Workshops
March
Date & Time Title & Description Presenters
Friday, Creating a Liquid Syllabus with Google Sites Alex Dejean
March 4 Incorporating a learning-centered liquid syllabus to the design of an online
course provides a more immersive learning environment that empowers
12 - 1:30 PM students to achieve their full intellectual capacity. Using a website
creation tool like Google Sites for a liquid syllabus is relatively intuitive and
works well on different technological platforms (phones, tablets, etc.).
Participants will learn the basics of a liquid syllabus and how they can be
used in culturally responsive teaching and learning. Also, participants will
make a copy of a liquid syllabus from a Google Site to adapt for their own
use. Lastly, participants will learn how to publish content to the web and
access embed codes to embed their own liquid syllabus onto Canvas.
Wednesday, More than Free: Open Educational Resources (OER) Customization Cynthia
March 9 to Support Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Orozco
Open educational resources (OER) and open textbooks afford educators the
12 - 1:30 PM ability to provide students with free educational materials. While OER are free
of cost, they are secondly characterized by open licensing, which enables
educators to share, adapt, and customize educational materials more freely.
We do this all the time as educators when we share our course content with
a colleague who might use the existing educational materials as is or who
might make changes to fit the needs of their specific classroom and students.
This open license characteristic of OER enables this kind of customization in a
legally permissible way, and, more importantly, allows for educators to create
highly relevant content for their classes. Participants will learn how to create,
revise, and remix OER to meet the needs of their classroom or support service.
Thursday, Identities in STEM: Overcoming Stereotype Threat Arpi
March 24 and Cultivating “Possible Selves” Festekjian
This workshop will introduce faculty to the psychology of stereotype threat, which
12 - 1:30 PM decreases student retention, success, and completion in our STEM courses. Emily
Depictions of scientists in the media and the classroom, perceived or imposed Haddad
identity-based limitations, and past experiences with stereotypes can limit
or prevent STEM identity formation, especially in students from marginalized
identities. We will explore proven classroom strategies such as “scientist
spotlights” to encourage and cultivate our students’ perception of their “possible
selves” as scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, which increase students’
success in STEM courses and their likelihood of entering STEM career fields.
Friday, OER Part 1: Join the Movement! Maria
March 25 Break free from traditional costly classes in this workshop about Betancourt
open educational resources (OER) and zero textbook cost courses
10 - 11:30 AM (ZTC). Intended for those new to OER, participants will gain a basic Mandy
understanding of OER and ZTC, including definitions of terms, state Concoff
laws, and OER’s impact on students and faculty. Participants also will Kronbeck
have the opportunity to search for discipline-appropriate OER.
Krishana
Hodgson
DeSilva
2
To R.S.V.P or for more information, please visit
https://bit.ly/Teaching-Learning-Series
April
Date & Time Title & Description Presenters
Tuesday, Bringing Neurodiversity to the Equity Table Erika
April 12 Neurodiverse students, which include students with Autism Spectrum Disorder Montenegro
(ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), represent an ever-
12:15 - 1:30 PM growing population, especially for community colleges. It is estimated that of Cynthia
students with ASD who continue on to secondary education in the US, 80% attend Orozco
a community college. Thus, due to our accessibility and open admission process,
we often serve as a necessary gateway to transfer and vocational opportunities
for neurodiverse students, which is why it is imperative to understand the
academic, mental health, and social needs of our students and bring
neurodiversity to our equity discussions. In this workshop, faculty and staff will
learn and engage with various strategies for supporting neurodiverse students
in both the classroom and student services. Additionally, participants will leave
with an understanding of the neurodiversity movement and how it compliments
larger conversations about equity and asset-based approaches to education.
Monday, Creating Engaging and Interactive Course Materials Diler Yuksel
April 18 In the past year, we have all experienced how important it is to create
appealing course materials to motivate students and keep them
12 - 1:30 PM engaged. Whether you are teaching online, hybrid, or face-to-face, your
course materials should be highly responsive to stimulate involvement.
This workshop will help participants create interactive presentations,
and videos as well as other fun content to connect with students.
Wednesday, Microaggressions: How to Recognize, Respond, and Resist Nohelia
April 20 This workshop will help participants identify and distinguish subtle or Canales
explicit manifestations of microaggressions such as implicit or unconscious
12 - 1:30 PM offensive statements, gestures, or other actions. Participants will develop Arpi
tools to respond to these manifestations and learn how to provide the Festekjian
individual and collective supports needed to transform their culture
into one that is more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and collegial. Ran Gust
Friday, Appreciating and Believing in Our Students in the STEM Classroom Nohelia
April 29 This workshop will explore, link, and apply two asset-minded theoretical Canales
frameworks that STEM professionals can use to see dramatic gains in student
10:30 AM - 12 PM persistence and success in STEM. Using Dr. Tara Yosso’s Community Cultural Raymond
Wealth model, this workshop will take an appreciative lens and focus on the Oropeza
extensive strengths- or capital- that students possess and bring into their STEM
journey. In addition, Dr. Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset theory will be discussed as
a way to reframe STEM professionals’ communication and feedback. Recognizing
students’ capital and STEM professionals having a growth mindset about
students’ abilities can unlock students’ potential, especially among students
of color who are traditionally marginalized in STEM fields. The workshop will
include case scenarios to facilitate meaningful interactions and pedagogical
activities that are culturally affirming for traditionally marginalized student
populations, with the goal of increasing their retention and success in STEM.
3
Workshops
May
Date & Time Title & Description Presenters
Thursday, Culture Matters: How to Support Culturally Responsive Teaching Rokeya
May 5 This workshop will examine how to foster culturally sensitive teaching Rahman
and how to understand students through the cultural contexts that they
12 - 1:30 PM bring into the classroom. Since culturally responsive teaching practices
strengthen student-teacher relationships and bridge the cultural and
equity gaps, it is imperative to cultivate this practice in our curriculum
and instruction. Therefore, this workshop will create space to analyze
and reflect on our own teaching methods and identify several effective
strategies to create and support culturally sensitive teaching pedagogy.
Wednesday, An Equity Toolkit for STEM Faculty: Towards a Transformation of Nohelia
May 11 STEM Education via Justice-Centered Science Pedagogy Canales
This workshop empowers participants to explore the historical foundations
12 - 1:30 PM and structures of STEM fields and higher education as a means to interrogate Christine
how these foundations produce and reproduce inequities in STEM. Engaging Sepulveda
in this analysis facilitates participants’ understanding of the broader cultural
and structural manifestations in STEM that continue to sustain systems of
privilege and inequality for advantaged and marginalized groups, respectively.
With this foundation, participants will utilize an inquiry-based equity lens to
understand how current STEM culture and curricula can act as barriers for
historically marginalized communities in educational settings. To counter
these barriers, we will explore pedagogical strategies to re-imagine STEM
curricula and teaching practices from a social justice framework as a
means to increase BIPOC student persistence and success in STEM.
Thursday, Developing and Incorporating Open Educational Emily
May 19 Resources in the STEM Classroom Haddad
During 2020, over 60% of enrolled U.S. college students skipped out on
12 - 1:30 PM purchasing required texts. Enrollment, retention, and, most importantly, Christine
success in our courses are dramatically affected by egregiously high Sepulveda
textbook costs. These high textbook costs have disproportionately affected
the most vulnerable - food and housing insecure - student populations,
making faculty textbook decisions an urgent equity issue. Zero textbook
cost (ZTC) courses, which use open educational resources (OER) or no
textbook at all, decrease the economic burden of attending college and
increase department enrollment. This workshop will discuss the challenges
of incorporating and developing OER materials for STEM courses, both
lectures and labs, and introduce STEM faculty to available OER resources.
4
To R.S.V.P or for more information, please visit
https://bit.ly/Teaching-Learning-Series
5Meet the Speakers
Maria Betancourt
Maria Betancourt has been teaching English as a Subsequent Language (E.S.L.) at ELAC since
2016, and her passion is to motivate and to mentor students to achieve excellence in their future
endeavors. She advocates for students and empowers them to achieve their academic goals by
promoting zero textbook costs (ZTC) and open educational resources (OER). Maria supports her
students outside the academic classroom as well by advising them as their ELAC ESL Club advisor.
Nohelia Canales
Nohelia Canales is an educator-scientist and social justice leader who teaches full-time in ELAC’S
Life Sciences Department. She strives to decolonize science education and create transformative,
affirming learning spaces for students where they recognize their inherent brilliance and capacity
for success in science. She is an NIH/NIGMS MARC Program scholar, earning her B.S. in Biology &
Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University and her M.S. in Tumor Biology at Mayo Clinic Graduate
School. As a biomedical research scientist, Nohelia has studied and presented research in
endocrine physiology & hypertension, the role of cell adhesion molecules, cancer immunology, and
the role of transcription factor NF-B in cancer. Nohelia has received various awards/recognition
including AACR’s Scholar in Cancer Research Award, NIH/NIGMS MARC Pre-Doctoral Fellowship,
MS. Foundation’s Woman of the Year, and selection as one of the Top 21 Young Feminists for the
21st Century in MS. Magazine’s 25th Anniversary issue.
Alex Dejean
Alex Dejean is an instructor in the Los Angeles area with years of experience in teaching at the
community college level. Alex was born and bred in the Los Angeles area. Also, he is proud of being
a product of the public education system, having attended local schools for his K-12 education,
community college, and earning his bachelor’s and master’s from a Cal State University. He is
certified with multiple learning management systems as well as in Google for Education and
Google applications.
Arpi Festekjian
Arpi Festekjian has been a professor of Psychology since 2010 and a Guided Pathways Facilitator
since 2018. As a first-generation college student with a bi-cultural identity, she sees herself in the
students she serves and is committed to their success- both in the classroom and through the
college-wide redesign of Guided Pathways. Arpi strongly believes that a transformational change
in the way we teach and deliver services to students is central to closing equity gaps. Her interests
include Stereotype Threat, Growth Mindset, Community Cultural Wealth, collegiality, and data-
informed decision-making.
6Randall Gust
Randall Gust is a librarian. During his 17-year tenure at ELAC, he co-chaired CAFÉ, EPSC, and an
Accreditation Standard I Committee and served on the DPC and TPPC. With his colleagues in
CAFÉ, he presented Opening Day workshops on collegiality or DEI for the past 5 years and, prior to
the 2020 contract negotiations, he presented CAFÉ’s recommendations for the revision of Article
5 (Non-Discrimination and Workplace Collegiality) to AFT chapter and E-Board meetings. Randall
served as a Contract Action Team (CAT) organizer during spring 2020. He received an MLIS from
UCLA and an M.A. in Philosophy from Northwestern.
Emily Haddad
Emily Haddad is an assistant professor in the Anthropology, Geography, and Geology Department,
teaching Geology and Earth Science. She earned an B.A. in government from Harvard University
and Ph.D. in organic geochemistry and paleoecology from the University of California, Riverside,
where she studied mass extinction and ancient environments. Emily decided she was going to
be a paleontologist when she was 5 years old but was dissuaded from pursuing a STEM degree
as an undergrad, until encouraging professors and family prompted her to return to her original
passion. She is now an advocate for breaking stereotypes in STEM and creating more inclusive
STEM classrooms at ELAC.
Krishana Hodgson-DeSilva
Krishana Hodgson-DeSilva is an associate professor in the ELAC English department. Krishana
is from London, England where she earned bachelor’s in English Literature from Roehampton
University of Surrey. She earned her master’s from Cal State LA. In her teaching, Krishana focuses
on creating an engaging, compassionate, dynamic, and interactive learning environment by
emphasizing student-to-student based learning, “learn by practice,” and technological tools to
address different types of student learning styles and increase retention. Krishana also uses a
variety of multi-media to connect with her students and to humanize her online and face-to-face
classes.
Mandy Kronbeck
Mandy Kronbeck has been teaching English at ELAC since 2010 and is currently co-chair of ELAC’s
OER Taskforce. She believes in helping students in any way she can, including through promoting
growth mindset, culturally responsive teaching and anti-racism, and OER (Open Educational
Resources). Mandy’s other interests and endeavors on campus include online teaching, global
awareness, the International Students Program, and Safe Zone.
7Meet the Speakers
Erika Montenegro
Erika Montenegro is an Outreach and Instruction Librarian at East Los Angeles College with a
background in public libraries and teaching English at community colleges. Her areas of research
and interests are innovative mentorship models, integrating popular, non-traditional sources into
scholarly discourse, collaborating with colleagues across disciplines, and literally running up hills.
Erika is a co-author, along with Librarian Cynthia Orozco, of the upcoming book chapter “A Case
for the Framework in Community College Libraries—Deconstructing and Challenging Scholarly
Discourse and Communication Practices from a Community College Perspective.”
Raymond Oropeza
Raymond Oropeza teaches Anatomy and Physiology at ELAC. He earned his bachelor’s and
master’s in biology at Cal Poly Pomona, where he studied membrane transport proteins using
electrophysiological techniques. He is passionate about STEM teaching and learning techniques
and student-centered learning. Outside the classroom, he works with the Professional Development
Committee to advance professional development opportunities.
Cynthia Orozco
Cynthia Mari Orozco is an Equity and OER librarian at East Los Angeles College. She has been working
on OER initiatives at ELAC since 2016 and currently serves on the Open Education Conference’s
Strategic Planning and Nominating Committees, is a co-lead for the UNESCO Recommendations
on OER Work Group for Creative Commons, and is a participant in the 2021-22 SPARC Open
Education Leadership Program. Her research interests include community college history, critical
openness (open access and open education), open pedagogy, and community college archives.
Cynthia is the author of the book chapter “Informed Open Pedagogy and Information Literacy
Instruction in Student-Authored Open Projects” and a co-author, along with Erika Montenegro,
of the upcoming book chapter “A Case for the Framework in Community College Libraries—
Deconstructing and Challenging Scholarly Discourse and Communication Practices from a
Community College Perspective.”
Rokeya Rahman
Rokeya Rahman is an associate professor in the department of Child, Family, and Education
Studies at ELAC. She has worked closely with children and families for more than fifteen years
as a pre-school teacher, site program supervisor, site director, and instructional coach. Besides
teaching classes, she presents parenting trainings and workshops throughout California for large
and small groups of teachers, students, and conference attendees. Rokeya also is a frequent
facilitator for the ELAC campus community with such workshops as “Creating Classroom
Community,” “Student-Centered Classroom: How to Implement the Student’s Perspective,” “Six
Success Factors,” etc. Additionally, Rokeya offers soft-skills training, child development workshops,
and parenting classes for ELAC students and for the local community. Rokeya earned her A.A.
from LA City College, her B.A. and M.S.S. from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh as well as a master’s
from Cal State Northridge.
8Christine Sepulveda
Christine Sepulveda is an associate professor of Anthropology in ELAC’s Anthropology, Geography,
and Geology Department. She earned an associate degree for transfers at Santa Ana College
and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Anthropology and Certificate in Museum Exhibit Design
& Curation at Cal State Fullerton. Christine has been pursuing a Ph.D. in Anthropology at the
University of Auckland in New Zealand since 2014. As a self-funded Ph.D. candidate, she was
unable to afford a doctoral program in the U.S. As a returning community college and Cal State
student who worked multiple jobs to support her family, Christine struggled to afford the cost of
textbooks; she knows that many students experience this struggle. Christine believes we have the
power to change this situation and the resources to do so.
Diler Yuksel
Diler Yuksel is an enthusiastic ESL/English professor with nine years of experience in designing
instructor-led/self-paced training deliverables, online learning modules, and course materials.
Committed to being a lifelong learner, Diler continually works to improve her own skills, experience
virtual learning/teaching, and stay current with emerging trends. She also is a certified Instructional
Designer who has expertise in tools like Articulate Storyline, Rise, Camtasia, Adobe Captivate,
Augmented Reality, and Microsoft office tools. Diler currently works at Keck School of Medicine of
USC as a full-time Instructional Designer and teaches ESL/ English courses at ELAC as an adjunct.
9Office of Professional Development Open to all faculty & staff
The Office of Professional Development is We are offering trouble-shooting
committed to providing faculty, staff and assistance on the following topics:
administrators opportunities for improvement • Zoom • FLEX Q&A
that enhance and support student learning
• Basic Canvas • Vision Resource
and student success, as well as encourage
• Office 365 Center
innovation and professional growth.
• SIS Portal
To sign up for an appointment, please go to:
For more information:
https://elacpd.appointlet.com
http://bit.ly/ElacProDev
Title V - Gateway to Success
Grant Objectives:
• Improve academic practices and retention.
• Develop new capacities for groups
of faculty and students.
• Develop curriculum to train faculty that
introduces best practices and teaching
strategies, and improves rates of completion.
• Train faculty coaches and peer-to-peer
counselors in coaching methods that will
cultivate a “student” identity among poorly-
prepared, high-need, first-generation students.
ELAC encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. For more
information on workshops and for disability accommodation requests, please contact the Office
of Professional Development at professionaldevelopment@elac.edu.You can also read
