Don’t Cancel That Class offers full-time and adjunct faculty members an alternative to canceling class. If you know that you need to be absent this semester, you can select from the menu of workshops listed below and a GCC faculty or staff member will come to your classroom and teach during your normal class period. Workshops scheduled through Don’t Cancel that Class will not count as an absence, but please contact your dean ahead of time if you need to miss more than one class period or have other questions.
Please plan ahead! You have the best chance of scheduling your top choice workshop if you submit the request form two weeks or more in advance. Instructors and students have also indicated that these workshops are most effective when:
- Students are notified in advance about the change.
- Workshop instructors drop-in ahead of time and are introduced by the professor.
- Faculty share upcoming assignments or coursework with the workshop instructor so that the workshop content can be tailored to the class.
- There is some curricular integration between the workshop and the course (for example, a forum prompt in Moodle reflecting on the workshop).
Not all classes are available in a given semester. Only currently available classes will be selectable below in the request form.
Academic Advising
Scholarship Essay Writing
The GCC Foundation offers more than 50 awards and scholarships to GCC students annually, and all applications require at least one essay. This workshop will focus on Foundation scholarships, but students will learn strategies and tips that will help them write any personal statement.
Academic Advising
Stop Procrastinating — Academic advising staff
Do you find yourself pulling all-nighters to write papers or cram for exams? Do deadlines seem to spring out of nowhere and derail you? Do you feel overwhelmed, like you’re scrambling just to keep up with everything? Come to this workshop to explore tools and strategies for taking charge of your semester. Learn how to balance your responsibilities, cut down on procrastination, and create time to relax without the guilt!
Academic Advising
Study Smarter — Academic advising staff
Good students don’t just study hard; they study well! Do you ever find yourself unsure exactly HOW you should study? Or feel like the amount of time you spend studying and your grades you earn don’t line up? Then this workshop is for you! We’ll teach you how to best use your study time and share techniques for effectively learning new material.
Academic Advising
Take Better Notes — Academic advising staff
Taking notes in class or while doing homework can be tricky. Ever look at your class notes days or weeks after writing them and have no idea what you meant? Or worry that you’ve missed important points during class? This workshop will give you some strategies that will help you become a better note-taker so you can stay focused in class and understand what you wrote down later. We’ll offer tips for all kinds of classes – even Math!
Academic Advising
Transfer 101 — Shane Clark
Greenhouse and Grounds
Tour of GCC Outdoor Growing Spaces — Tony Reiber
Tour GCC’s outdoor growing spaces. This workshop is weather dependent and is best selected in later spring or early-mid fall. Because this requires students to traverse uneven ground, it may not be a good option for students with mobility issues. May be offered Wednesday mornings or Fridays.
Inclusion and Diversity
Language, Pronouns, and Gender Diversity — Liza Harrington and Kate Walker
This interactive workshop addresses gender pronouns and language to cultivate an inclusive environment for the trans and non-binary community at GCC. The purpose of the workshop is to inform why respecting gender identities matter, to familiarize students with trans-inclusive and gender-neutral language, and to engage students in interactive exercises where they will practice asking for and using various gender pronouns. In addition to this, the workshop will equip students with the tools to hold themselves and others accountable.
Leadership
Creating Communities of Mattering — Judy Raper
It’s no secret that when individuals feel a sense of belonging in the communities in which they work, live and learn they are able to reach their full potential and thrive emotionally and socially. In this workshop we explore theory proposed by Nancy Schlosberg regarding strategies for creating communities where people feel as if they matter and the tremendous cost of marginalizing individuals. An exercise that prompts us to reflect on communities we have thrived in and those we have struggled in culminates in the development of group strategies to create and participate in communities of mattering.
Library
GCC Tech Tools — Library staff
This workshop, for developmental classes and 100-level classes, will give students hands-on practice using the various tools available through their GCC account, including Google Drive and Moodle, along with strategies for how to use these tools effectively. This workshop must take place in a computer classroom.
Library
Interpreting Visual Representations of Quantitative Data — Library staff
In this interactive workshop, students will work with real graphs, infographics, and other data visualizations to develop strategies for evaluating visual presentations of quantitative information.
Library
Media Literacy: Beyond “Fake News” — Library staff
In this participatory workshop, students will develop criteria they can use to analyze news sources in order to make educated guesses about their credibility.
Library
Online privacy and security — Library staff
This workshop will help students identify risks to their data security and present them with tools they can use to protect themselves from identity theft and hacking. The workshop content can be adapted to address risks faced by specific populations, such as domestic violence survivors or undocumented immigrants.
Library
Scholarship and citation — Library staff
Using assignments or content from the course in which this workshop occurs, students will discuss the scholarly process and take part in hands-on activities that will help them decide when citations are needed in order to correctly integrate information in their creations.
Library
Strategies for Reading Scholarly Articles — Library staff
Students will work in small groups to dissect academic, scholarly journal articles relevant to the field of study for this course and develop a strategy for reading scholarly literature. This activity uses a worksheet which can be collected and evaluated or graded.
Library
Tailored Instruction Around a Research Assignment — Library staff
This workshop requires an initial consultation with one of the GCC librarians, in which we talk about the specifics of the assignment including the timeline for it and your students’ research needs.
Peer Tutoring
Reading, Note-taking, & Anticipating Test Questions — Cindy Snow
This workshop reviews the reading and study strategy SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review), as well as strategies that utilize multiple learning styles. If you provide a reading assignment that students haven’t done yet, we’ll use it to practice these strategies during class time.
Peer Tutoring
Study Strategies: Video and Discussion
A Peer Tutoring staff member and one or two tutors will come to your class, show a portion of a prerecorded video, and lead a discussion. The video is a panel discussion of peer tutors talking about study strategies, including time management, self-care, organization, breaking down assignments into doable chunks, etc. Remote or in-person; dependent on tutor availability.
WRC
Ethics for Practice — Diana Abath
Ethical behavior in one’s profession is a given in any industry. Many professional fields have codes of ethics that guide, and thus impact, their workforces. However, how do we come to have the “ethics” we hold? What makes up our ethical stance or philosophy and how does it show up for us in our daily lives? We will examine ethical decision-making models and real-life ethical dilemmas based on case studies and shared experiences and practice implementation. Remote only in Fall 2021.
WRC
Meaning of Work — Diana Abath
Have you ever considered what “work” (aka “employment”) actually means to you personally or professionally? This workshop will examine the meaning of work in American culture. Topics in human meaning making at different life stages and the implications for meaning making in the workplace will be explored. Variables such as age, gender, and career stage will be considered in formulating strategies to enhance job satisfaction. Remote only in Fall 2021.
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