Scott Brown ACP E-Portfolio

• This has been a LOT of fun!
• I did not know what I did not know
• I have learned not only from the course

material, but from each of you
• I have already made strides as an educator,

my students are learning more

• THANK YOU!

Reflections on ACP

Scott Brown, March 3, 2019

I decided to enroll in the Adjunct Certification Program after instructing for a year, with varying
levels of success. After an extended conversation with my program head, I was suddenly struck by
the fact that we were not speaking the same language. She was talking about classroom techniques
I had never heard of, and certainly never utilized. As I mentioned in my presentation, I am not an
educator by either experience or education. I have fulfilled that role many times during my career
as a clinical preceptor, a Field Training Officer, a System Training Officer and having taught
American Heart Assn. classes for BLS, ACLS and PALS. I had not however, ever served as a
classroom educator for an entire semester course. My feeling was that I would present the course
material as is, the students would learn it and I would have the opportunity to influence the
direction of their careers at the beginning. I have always been a good classroom speaker, I have a
good grasp of the material and I truly enjoy instructing. I quickly realized that despite my belief
earnestly that I was prepared to meet the challenges of students at different levels of motivation
and aptitude, I clearly was not. My results were divergent in all directions. Some students did
great, others took more effort and some I never did believe I reached. I had the realization that I
was not nearly as effective as I believed I was and that was extremely dejecting. My education has
always been clinical based and management focused, and I have excelled in every aspect of my

career, so suddenly not being excellent at something was new, and disturbing territory. The parts of
my experience that I believed would translate well to education, were not as effective as I had
hoped, and I was becoming demoralized. I also mentioned in my presentation that I didn’t know
what I didn’t know, and that is completely accurate. Not having any formal training in education, I
wasn’t aware of just how little I knew about it.

The first day of class for the ACP, I could tell almost immediately that I was going to learn some
extremely valuable lessons and was going to come out of it with at least a firm grasp of the
knowledge of how little I knew, but more importantly with a direction and a plan for improvement.
Now that I know a little bit about how much else there is to know, it’s encouraging to have an
educational plan. It was also extremely welcome to be in class with other instructors and hear that
I was not the only adjunct at Lone Star who felt like they were excellent at performing their
disciplines but were not as confident at education as they would like to be.

My BOPPPS presentation also included the reflection that I was already a better educator and
had already started to incorporate some of the things that I was learning into my techniques, and
they had shown positive results. The one that has shown the most promise is the individual piece of
the lesson presented by individual students. As I stated in that lesson, it is imperative that my
students come to class having read the pertinent text book chapters and course material before my
lecture. My intention is to lecture at higher order learning level, so having the base knowledge is

crucial. I noticed in pervious classes that I was spending inordinate time explaining basic
knowledge, and it did not seem like the students were engaged. I started this technique early this
semester, and what I have seem is that since the students know they are going to be responsible for
a small concept in the lecture, they are encouraged to at least become well versed in that area, an
added benefit is that they become more comfortable with speaking in front of a group. It has also
shown to prevent lecture fatigue, since it breaks up the monotony of just listening to me lecture.

The lessons about teaching to millennials was especially useful, as it reversed some of my
preconceptions about youngers students and showed me how to relate better and understand their
motivations. I have been a believer in “meet the student where they are” but was having difficulty
achieving that goal. I am relating better with my younger students and have come to realize that
their motivation isn’t less than previous generations, it’s just different and they are able to respond
well to instructors who are willing to invest in them.

I am using more alternative lesson techniques like group effort on smaller concepts, more
technology-based techniques like videos and games, and will involve more of them as I progress and
become more comfortable with them. So far, I find them fun and my students do as well. One that
they have come to appreciate is the Minute Paper to gauge how much they have absorbed of
previous reading. Later this semester I plan on using my Quizbox game, which they have expressed
great interest in. I am looking forward to using more and varied technologies in the future. Most of

these I wasn’t even aware of, and certainly had no idea how they might relate to a new way to
present course material. I noticed that 2 of my classmates had utilized Poll Everywhere and liked
it, so that is something I am excited about to assess progress from class to class in a way the
students might find entertaining.

This course has opened my imagination to a world of educational opportunity I did not know was
available. It has absolutely taught me how much fun it is to explore new and more creative avenues
to reach my students and help spark their interest in a subject that I am so passionate about but
was having problems imparting. I learned not only from Professor Turner and the course material,
but also from my fellow students, and that has also exposed me to how satisfying it is to share
techniques and collaborate on new processes. The different disciplines involved is especially
interesting because we were exposed to a unique set of challenges presented by the differences in
what we teach, and the types of students we teach. That insight has provided me with an
understanding of how important it is to continually push to reach students of all kinds. That has
made me a much more enthusiastic and engaged instructor.

My suggestions for further development opportunities would be to continue on with the advanced
course, and to concentrate on a program to demonstrate the real value of this program to as many
adjunct faculty as possible. The program absolutely has made a significant change in both how I
approach teaching and how much I understand how much work I need to do to continually improve.

One of the most valuable things I believe I learned was how much technology there is to utilize to
better reinforce key concepts. I believe a shorter class available to adjuncts and full-time professors
as well as an orientation into how valuable those tools are would have an immediate and dramatic
impact on overall effectiveness.

I have enjoyed my experience in this program immensely. It has expanded my education and
opened opportunities to grow as an educator I did not realize were available. I would recommend it
as a must have for any adjunct who is interested in becoming a better teacher.