Creating TV, Movie, and Broadway Parodies to Hook Students on New Topics. When you teach a topic, how do you segue into the next topic? Do students sit on the edges of their seats in anticipation of your introduction to that topic? Do you need a hook to grab their attention?

Drawing on students’ multiple intelligences, even emotional intelligence, and individual learning styles, you can create a humorous visual image of a verbal or quantitative concept by performing a parody of television programs, feature films, or Broadway shows. You can activate students’ prior knowledge of these cultural elements in their world to generate motivation, interest, and attention to learn new information. Basic topic concepts can be brought to life with simple demonstrations that will be deeply embedded in students’ memories.

This session surveys participants’ experiences with these three sources, presents pertinent theories and research evidence for the technique, and describes a six-step process for creating a parody. A few parodies are illustrated, after which participants have the opportunity in small groups to develop their own parody and then perform it during the workshop. Now is your chance to become a star! This topic is available as a 1–1.5 hour workshop.

Determining Your Purpose in an Academic Career. Whether you are a graduate student thinking about an academic career or a senior professor still searching for just the right position, this session provides a perspective and suggestions to help answer career questions. If you’re on a quest to tilt that academic windmill, your dream may not be as impossible as it now appears.

The process of determining your unique purpose begins with a self-assessment. Pinpoint your attributes beyond the knowledge and skills necessary to execute your job, including your special gifts and talents, imagination and creativity, and passion. Next, conduct a career assessment. How can you use all of your attributes in a teaching, research, or clinical position? Why did you pick an academic position? Scrutinize your motivation.

Six suggestions are given to guide these decisions, including using your gifts and imagination to separate you from the rest of the pack, putting your whole heart into everything you do, and being resilient and persevering in spite of setbacks. An interactive segment on the commitment, sacrifices, rejection, and satisfaction of an academic career permits participants to air their specific professional issues. Ultimately, the degree of match between your attributes and the job characteristics determines your success at spearing academic windmills. This topic is available as a 1–1.5 keynote.

Music as a Teaching Tool: From Classical to Hip Hop Across the Curriculum. Can music improve learning in college courses? For nearly 40 years, music has been an extremely effective strategy to teach preschoolers academic content and life skills on “Sesame Street.” What lessons can we learn from that experience and the research that has been conducted? The research evidence on music and the brain and the effects of music on learning is reviewed and critiqued. From that foundation, concrete guidelines are given for using available technology in the classroom, selecting appropriate music for any class, and applying music as a systematic teaching tool to improve learning.

Music is a best fit to the characteristics of this Net Generation of students and a valid approach to tap their multiple intelligences and learning styles. A dozen generic techniques to integrate music into teaching across the college curriculum are described, including the following: prelude to class; topic introductions; content grabbers; class demonstrations; collaborative learning productions; and class breakers. These techniques measure 20 specific learning outcomes. Numerous examples are provided with step-by-step procedures for planning and executing the various techniques. The finale presents a challenge to all instructors to seriously consider using music in their teaching. This topic is available as a 1–2 hour workshop.

Teaching With Video Clips: TV, Movies, YouTube, and mtvU in the Classroom. How can video clips be used to improve learning in college courses? To answer this question, a review of the theoretical and research evidence on videos and the brain is first presented, followed by an extensive literature survey of the uses of videos over the past four decades in college courses. Those reviews reveal a glaring scarcity of solid evidence on the effectiveness of video clips. However, despite this lack of evidence, they have the potential to fit the characteristics of this Net Generation of students well and to be a valid approach to tap the multiple intelligences and learning styles of these students. Concrete guidelines are given for using available video technology in the classroom, selecting appropriate video clips for any class, and applying those clips as a systematic teaching tool.

The use of clips can also attain 16 specific learning outcomes. Toward that end, 12 generic techniques with examples to integrate video clips into teaching across the college curriculum are described, such as the following: content and information; illustration of a concept or principle; presentation of alternative viewpoints; real-world applications; insert in collaborative learning activities; and motivation and inspiration. These techniques provide a wide-open opportunity to test the technology for video clips in your teaching to furnish memorable learning experiences for your students. Your application of the technology is limited only by your imagination. This workshop suggests a whole new world of strategies and challenges to your imagination. This topic is available as a 1–2 hour workshop.

To find out more, email Ed Leach or call (480) 705-8200, x233.