Each of us—faculty, staff or student—is on a personal learning journey.
Our journeys vary. Students make the journey from high school or work through their years at SOU to graduation and beyond. Faculty and staff are on a journey to develop personally and professionally through scholarship or service. And the University is on a journey to better understand the needs of our students—present and future. The Instructional Institute offers an opportunity to explore the nature of each of these learning journeys and how one learning community weaves them together.
This event was held Thursday, September 21 and Friday, September 22. Thursday sessions (9:30-3:30) initiates our exploration of these learning journeys with an opening keynote presentation, two-hour featured workshops, and one-hour topical conversations. On Friday (8:30-2:30), we highlighted the interwoven nature of curricular and co-curricular activities in our work beginning with a faculty breakfast prior to Convocation co-sponsored by New Student Orientation Programs and the Center for Instructional Support. Following Convocation, we were joined for a plenary session focused on discovering how proficiency-based, personalized learning is shaping our new generation of students. Afternoon sessions included an assortment of one-hour discussions on a variety of topics related to teaching and learning at SOU.
SOU Board of Trustees member Danny Santos has the experience and perspective to address the student, staff and institutional learning journeys described above. A native of Brawley, California, Danny was a transfer student from Imperial Valley Community College in southern California and the first in his family to graduate from college. He has made the journey from high school to graduation from SOU to completion of a juris doctorate from Willamette University. He has worked in Jackson County and at the state level as an administrator of K-12 Migrant Education programs, as well as in higher education as a college administrator at Willamette Law. He has pursued his own personal civic engagement and professional development as a member of the American Leadership Fellows program. He has the further distinction of serving as a member of the University's Board of Trustees and as a result, he is actively engaged in the institution's journey towards better serving our students and region.
Trustee Santos' strong statewide policy background serving four Oregon governors as legal counsel and policy advisor enables him to interpret SOU's issues within a broader higher education context. Having overseen student services in his higher ed career, he has an appreciation for the need to weave together curricular and co-curricular learning experiences. Finally, he has a long history of working with a growing yet still under-represented population of potential students—Oregon’s Hispanic youth—calling on his own experiences to help them on their learning journeys.
Celebrate your return to campus with breakfast co-sponsored by New Student Orientation and the Center for Instructional Support. Join us in the Schneider Art Museum Courtyard prior to heading off to...
Convocation enables us to welcome new students and to acknowledge the beginning of their journey in the SOU learning community. This formal ceremony also provides an opportunity for faculty and staff to gather and celebrate the incoming class and the start of another school year.
All faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in the Convocation ceremony as part of the celebratory gantlet that will welcome our incoming class. Don your academic regalia or SOU apparel—early birds will have the chance to snag an SOU: I'm Home t-shirt. Everyone at SOU assists, supports, and encourages students to reach their goals. Make your helpful intentions manifest by welcoming these students as they set out on their new learning journey.
Dr. Jon Bullock, Executive Director, Redmond Proficiency Academy
This year’s high school seniors will be next year’s first-year students, and serving them well depends on understanding their experiences and needs. Important questions we've been exploring include: What new pedagogies have students encountered in K-12? Given their prior educational experiences, what expectations will our new students have?
An emerging K-12 learning model—proficiency-based, personalized learning—supports a new equation for learning that flips the conventional time/learning equation. Traditionally, that equation holds time constant while learning varies (e..g., at the end of this two-week unit, we move on regardless of what students have actually mastered). The new model focuses instead on holding the learning constant while the time required to learn varies.
Dr. Bullock will describe the application of this new model at the Redmond Proficiency Academy where he is the Executive Director. The Academy, a tuition-free charter school for students in grades 6-12 from all over Central Oregon, offers students flexible schedules, personalized academic timelines, and classes that fit their needs and their goals. Dr. Bullock will share evidence of how the model improves student success and ownership of their own learning.
Dr. Bullock’s own personal academic journey took him from his small lumber mill hometown of Roseburg, Oregon, to a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies at Oregon State University, to a Master of Arts in Secondary Education and Teaching from Willamette University to a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Oregon. His personal philosophy resonates with the learning community theme of the Institute: “I believe in creating learning environments in which all members—students, staff, parents and the community—are given unique opportunities to achieve high standards and become lifelong learners.”
This session will be followed by break-out sections to explore possible implications of the proficiency-based, personalized learning model for curriculum, course design and instructional strategies at SOU.