OD Corner: Professional Development Day A Success

"If this building could talk ... it's very happy right now." - Matt Meyer looking out on the crowd of 400 A-B Tech employees and students gathered for Professional Development Day.

During the afternoon of Sept. 19, A-B Tech employees and students were fed, entertained, educated about invitational education, and fed again. The Quality Enhancement Retreat generated a lot of excitement about the broad issue that the college selected for our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). Our issue, "developing strategies for student success through invitational education," is directly related to our mission statement, supports student learning, and contributes to institutional quality. Although we started and ended on a festive note, most of the afternoon was devoted to the serious business of examining five components of our college environment. Using an "appreciative inquiry" approach, we looked at what we are doing right. Appreciative inquiry is different from problem solving in the following ways:

Appreciative inquiry is an appreciation and valuing the best of what is. Problem solving is a "felt need" identification of the problem. Appreciative inquiry envisions "what might be", while problem solving makes an analysis of causes. When you perform an appreciative inquiry, you dialogue "what should be", and you make an analysis of possible solutions with problem solving. And finally, you innovate "what will be" with appreciative inquiry, while action planning is the course taken for problem solving.

David Arledge, Mann Hunter, Lewis Lightner, Lucia Carter, Joe Haney and Matthew Fender participate in an "appreciative inquiry" discussion during Professional Development Day.

Invitational Education is a blueprint for what instructors, administrators, and staff can do to enrich the physical and psychological environments of our campuses and encourage the development of the people who work and learn there.

Invitational Education Foundations/Assumptions:

• People are able, valuable, and responsible and should be treated accordingly. (How we behave personally and professionally among ourselves and with others is determined by whether we accept this assumption.)
• Education should be a collaborative, cooperative activity.
• The curricula we devise, the policies we establish, the programs we sponsor, and the physical environments we create are all anchored in assumptions regarding individuals and their potential.
• People possess untapped potential in all areas of human endeavor.
• Human potential can best be realized by places, policies, and processes that are specifically designed to invite development, and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others, personally and professionally.

Invitational Education encompasses:

• People: teachers, students, counselors/advisors, librarians, office personnel, plant operations personnel, professional/technical staff, administrators, Board members, retirees, alumni, and volunteers
• Places: classrooms, offices, hallways, commons, restrooms, playing fields, gymnasiums, lawns, library
• Policies: rules, codes, regulations, procedures
• Programs: curricular and extracurricular, including the spirit in which the programs are conducted
• Processes: mechanisms for implementing our policies and programs, i.e. how we orient new students, how we fill vacancies, how we determine the feasibility of a potential program, etc.

SACS guidelines require us to engage our entire college community in a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the effectiveness of the learning environment to support student learning and to accomplish A-B Tech's mission. As part of this process, we must analyze our strengths, challenges, and opportunities as they pertain to the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

The Quality Enhancement Retreat reflects only the first step in this process. The focus of the retreat was to look at our strengths in an invitational environment. We hope that you felt welcome and that the place and our people, policies, programs, and processes provided a good example of what "invitational" means. In the upcoming months, the Quality Enhancement Team will facilitate continued education about Invitational Education, gather baseline data, and help us to get ready to identify our challenges and opportunities in order to create a meaningful QEP. So, stay tuned!

Carol Rovello, Director of Employee and Organization Development

October Activities

• 1st Using the Intranet
• 2nd Second Reader Training
• 3rd E-Mail Management
• 3rd International Student Welcome
• 4th Guiding Advisory Committees - new
• 7th Second Reader Training
• 10th GroupWise Time Management
• 16th Performance Management: Next Steps
• 17th GroupWise File Management
• 17th On-Campus Shiatsu Massage (contact Holly McCurry)
• 18th Using Graphics Effectively
• 23rd Stress Management
• 24th Using the Intranet
• 25th Performance Management: Next Steps
• 29th Introduction to PowerPoint
• 30th On-Campus Chair or Table Massage (register with Holly McCurry)

To be scheduled:

• Accommodating Different Learners (for part-time instructors)
• Green Campus Visit
• Blackboard Basics for On-Line Teaching

For more details, see the on-line OD Calendar or contact Carol at ext. 178

High School Visitation Day Helps Students Plan For Future

Over 500 area high school students witnessed a mock gunshot wound crime scene, piped chocolate on cookies, and toured programs and departments at A-B Tech's High School Visitation Day.

The gym is filled with interactive department presentations and area high school students, milling about, enjoying each other's company and learning more about A-B Tech's programs at High School Visitation Day.

At the phlebotomy table is Adjunct Instructor Robin Mallernee, dressed in ghoulish attire with a sign draped around her neck that reads, "I want your blood, your brains and your future." She said High School Visitation Day is an opportunity to educate the students on programs offered at A-B Tech.

"One high school student thought phlebotomy was where you cut off somebody's head. He asked me, 'How long is that class?' I told him, 'One semester.'" She laughs and adds, "It's good that they are seeing the college and finding out this information." President K. Ray Bailey said his phone was even ringing on Saturday with positive feedback from parents whose high-schoolers visited the campus and were surprised by the wide range of programs offered. One student e-mailed him to let him know that she now feels more comfortable with going to college and she knows what she really wants to do with her life.

Kama Johnson, 17, said she already knows she wants to attend A-B Tech and become a registered nurse. "I know I want to go to A-B Tech. I took a tour this morning and they showed us about courses and helped us get more information."

Amber Garren, 17, said she had planned on attending A-B Tech's nursing program, like her aunt, until she entered the gym and saw other programs that interested her as well. "This day has opened my options more."

Both Johnson and Garren are students at the Career Education Center in Asheville. Return to top

Two New Employees Join A-B Tech

Alaysia Black joins A-B Tech as the Director of Recruitment and Student Activities in the Student Services Division. She is a graduate of Western Carolina University with a B.S. in Sociology and a Masters in Public Affairs.

Pam Kirby has been hired full-time as an Instructor in Early Childhood. She has a B.S. from Radford University in Radford, Va., and a M.A.Ed from Western Carolina University. She was previously an adjunct instructor at A-B Tech after teaching in the school and preschool system for many years. Return to top

Craggy Correctional Correction: From the September issue of Tech Talk, Craggy Correctional Center's English instructor is Chrystal Cook, and the Psychology instructor is Margaret Taylor. Return to top

Tech Talk is published for employees of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College by the College Relations Division.

Executive Editor: Mona Cornwell
Managing Editor: Jodi Ford

Send submissions to Mona Cornwell, director of communications, at mcornwell@abtech.edu. Publication of the next issue is scheduled Nov 1. The deadline for submissions is Oct. 18. This edition of Tech Talk was produced September 2002. Equal Opportunity Educational Institution.