Portsmouth NH College

I continue to be amazed by the individuals that teach here at Granite State College.  I'm pleased that this blog has provided an opportunity to trumpet news about so many of the unique people that contribute to learning at this wonderful New Hampshire State College. 

Just the other day, Dr. William "Bill" Cuff popped by my office.  To say Bill is interesting would be a true understatement.  In addition to teaching behavioral science classes here at Granite State College, Bill teaches at UNH, and is also heavily involved with service projects, through groups like Danny's Team.  

Bill was chatting with me about his upcoming class this Spring at our Portsmouth NH College - PSY 602, Theories of Personality.  The structure of this class exemplifies the Granite State perspective on adult college education: it is a weekend-intensive that takes place over five Saturdays.  Yes, Granite State offers affordable Bachelor degree programs, but weekend college classes also work for students with other obligations.  

Bill is off to New Orleans and Mississipi next week for more service.  As part of this trip he mentioned an opportunity to visit the hometown of Medgar Evers.  His eyes were lit-up and intense, and I thought - right, so this is quite a person to have teaching here in our corner of the New Hampshire University System.       

Twins! 

With a colleague from our Portsmouth NH College, we visited with one of our Faculty members that gave birth to twins this past fall.  Dr. Angele Fauchier teaches behavioral science classes for Granite State College in Portsmouth and at our Rochester NH College.  As Angele commented to me, being the parent of twins is her Human Development course come to life!  Angele is also keeping a fantastic blog that is incredibly educational.  I was thrilled to hear Angele discuss incorporating her experiences as a parent of twins into her future teaching.       

Aside from marveling at what it takes to care for twins, and of couse sleep patterns, we also discussed online classes for adults, and part time classes, and being a lifelong learning college.  Yet what struck me about this visit, apart from holding Angele's wonderful children, and comparing parenting stories, was the very direct connection to adult college education.  Dr. Fauchier is an excellent example of what our New Hampshire State College provides: it is quite valuable to learn in small classes, with accomplished faculty teaching from experience.

I just have to say it again - twins!



       

I had an interesting conversation with a student this evening at our Portsmouth NH College.  I asked about her experience taking adult college classes with Granite State College, and her response made me sit up and pay attention.  Because I hire Faculty that teach in both Portsmouth and our Rochester NH College, I was fascinated by her take on teaching at this particular NH State College.  For her, the individuals that teach our adult college classes are "fresh."  

I thought - well isn't that something for New Hampshire Colleges and Universities to consider.  Granite State College does indeed have unique people in our classrooms bringing current, "fresh" and unique perspectives with them.  I believe it was this student's view that our Faculty truly want to be in our classrooms, and offer a great deal.  

This student asked me in return - so, what do I look for when I hire Faculty?  Clearly I'll now be thinking about a "fresh" perspective. . .but rather than list particular qualities, I thought I would be specific.  Whether you are interested in classes for early childhood education, or behavioral science or management, chances are, you might consider a Sociology class as part of your adult college degree.  If that class is with Granite State College in either Rochester or Portsmouth, you could have the pleasure of hearing a "fresh" perspective from Dr. Nena Stracuzzi.  Take a listen here to Nena talking about her research involving students from Northern New Hampshire.  This is how we keep teaching at Granite State College fresh, and why I feel so fortunate to have individuals like Nena Stracuzzi as our Faculty.     

I'm writing this post with my other hat on, that of an online educator.  I'm currently teaching Developmental Writing online to students from GSC.  Out of the NH Colleges and Universities, Granite State truly has it right in that our instructors are professionals in their fields and our small class sizes make both our online courses and face to face classes a close knit learning community.  As a professional, wife, mother and friend, I can tell you that there is not enough time in the day for all of us to accomplish all the things we find of value in our lives.  At GSC, instructors get that.  We understand that we all have a lot of balls in the air and with many choices of colleges to take Portsmouth NH classes and more and more online schools for adults, you will want to get an education somewhere that understands the challenges you face outside of school. 

Adult College Degree programs where you can take classes at night or from the convenience of your own home, that are also affordable, are a rarity in the state.  The quality of our programs for the cost is quite good. 

Teaching writing online has been interesting.  Many students feel they did not get the grammar and sentence structure education in their secondary school experience.  Our Developmental Writing course helps students learn the basics to prepare for Accuplacer testing in Sentence Skills.  I think my students would tell you that they have learned a great deal from the class so far...more to come!

Hello Everyone!
As a part of my Adult  College Education Program, I am presently taking the most wonderful class!  It is called Environmental Heritage which covers a wide range of topics pertaining to our New England area.

Due to the nature of our study in this particular class, two field trips are included as part of the accredited experience.  Sunday, January 31, 2010 we went on our first field trip. Did I tell you that the Instructor for this class is brilliant?  Well, he is!  And, the reason why I tell you this is because his brilliance, his ability to answer questions and to provide his students with good and interesting information is what set this educational experience aside for me.

I enjoyed this field trip more than any other because of the Instructor's passion for the subject matter.  His amazing enthusiasm was contagious.

We first visited an actual working farm in South Hampton, New Hampshire.  We had the opporutunity to pick the brain of a Farmer who is actually making his living by farming the land.  In his hothouse, where we actually saw radishes growing in the ground on the last, (freezing) day of January.  And, for the first time in my life I heard the word "vole" and just had to ask, "What is a vole?"
Well, let me tell you, a vole is  a rodent with chopped off ears and a chopped off tail and looks like a sausage.

Farming is a tough life, but Andre is passionate and dedicated to the cause of growing his own food, knowing what and where his calories come from, and he will continue to farm as his life's work.

Adult Education Programs become relative to the individual.  That is for certain.
I have never known a farmer from my generation and if I had not taken this course as a part of my Adult Education Program I might never have met Andre, at his farm in South Hampton, New Hampshire.

After our visit at the farm, we  journeyed further south to Plum Island in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Have I told you how blue the sky was or how crisp the air was on that day? It was a perfect day for our brisk yet cheerful walk along the board walk to the bird screens where we looked out toward the Parker River and saw huge mounds of Marsh Grasses that we think were built by muskrats.  Because the Instructor of this particular Adult Education course is so knowledgeable, combined with the fact that I was not in a good position to take notes, I have actually forgotten the name of the grasses (sorry to say).  But, I did take photos for the notebook I am creating for this course.

We observed SCAT.  Now, scat is not for everyone.  But... this course does give you a better understanding of what scat teaches us about the habitual underpinnings of wildlife.  In nature, scat marks territories and... if you look very, very closely at it.. and I mean get right down there on the boardwalk and take a look at it.. you can actually discover what the animals are eating which tells you what the food sources are for wild life in the area.  So, if we recognize fox scat it is because we know what they eat and we know they are there with us ... somewhere.

I loved it best of all, when I learned aabout the squirrels and how they actually discovered maple syrup!  We watched as Dan bit into a very old Red Maple tree with lots of "bruises" on it.  He then told us how squirrels bite into the tree to eat the sap.  It was by watching squirrels do this and asking why, that sap was discovered, reducing it was discovered and Maple Syrup was born.

My Adult Education Program is a gift from my husband but it is so much more than that to me because I just love the learning process.  So far, I have taken Portsmouth NH classes and Rochester NH classes through Granite State College and I am very happy with them.  I make every effort to get the most out this experience as I can.

Learning is vital to my experience of Adult College Education.  It is one of the joys in my life.

If you work for the NH Department of Environmental Services I will be attending your Wellness Fair on February 2nd...come and learn more about Granite State College's continuing education degrees.

Students currently in the CCSNH come out and see Outreach Coordinators at your respective campuses the first week in February.  The University of New Hampshire System is holding Transfer Fairs at each campus.  On Friday, February 5th I will be at Great Bay Community College for Rochester NH college and Portsmouth NH college students.   Check out www.nhtransfer.net to look at transfer options. 

Students currently at York County Community College, I will be visiting your campus on February 10th.  Stop by and learn more about taking classes online, night college classes or
teacher training education. 

Hope to see you on the road!