Renton Technical CollegeAugust 2004

Office of Instructional Improvement Volume 3 No. 1

Bruce Campbell to Speak at Faculty Inservice

This year’s faculty inservice on September 14, 2004 welcomes BRUCE CAMPBELL, a classroom teacher who has developed a nationally- acclaimed instructional model based on Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. He has published numerous articles and coauthored four books, including Teaching & Learning Through Multiple Intelligences and The Multiple Intelligences Handbook: Lesson Plans and More. Come hear about teaching to different learning styles from this leading educator at the Fall Inservice.

Please contact Cheryl Culwell at x5724 or to pre-register and to indicate whether you would like a vegetarian or regular entrée for lunch.

RTC Instructors Face Computer Literacy Challenges in Classroom

The July meeting on RTC student computer skills brought out many successful teaching methods, and many challenges involved in computer literacy instruction. For example, how do you balance instruction for multi-leveled computer users within the same class, or find the extra time for computer instruction within your program content? Plus, teaching basic computer skills is an instructional challenge itself, and requires a new set of teaching methods and resources.

How do YOU teach basic computer skills to your students? What software or resources do you use? Let us know what you’re doing, help share solutions! EmailSusie Navone with your feedback.

Use Fonts Effectively in Your Multimedia Presentation

Choosing the right font for your PowerPoint or Internet presentation can really make a difference. Do you know the 24 karat rule? Read about it and other tips at:

The Five Key Facets of High Performance Leadership by Brian Ward

This is a great read on the five characteristics of effective leaders. These are skills that all students, regardless of industry or profession, can use to succeed in life. A first-week reading assignment?

Articles on Brain-based Education

Brains.Org provides a selection of information on brain-based education. A variety of interesting topics are covered in these articles, including “stress and memory”, and “how to grade student-centered assignments while maintaining standards”. Visit:

From the RTC Library:

New helps for you:

Cross cultural communication in diverse settings

(1 videocassette -60 min.)

Effective lecturing(2 videocassettes + 1 guide)

The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape

of a teacher's life

New helps for your students:

Apply yourself: English for job search success

How to do your best on tests

The confident student

Voice Narration in PowerPoint Presentations

Many teachers narrate their PowerPoint presentations to help student learning. It allows the student to watch or review a presentation independently, with your voice and lecture. Some teachers are providing their presentations on disk or the Internet so students can watch them at home.

There are many ways to add narration to PowerPoint:

Donna Maher of the Medical Administrative Program recommends Vox Proxy, the audio add-in for PowerPoint, to include your voice to presentations. To read more and try it, go to:

John Mundy of the Ford ASSET Program uses ScreenCorder in combination with PowerPoint. After recording a presentation with added narration, ScreenCorder creates a self-running video file viewable with Windows Media or other players. RTC has a license for ScreenCorder, and it is available thru IS.

An additional way is to use the narration feature in PowerPoint itself. For a tutorial on this process, go to:

Have You Seen the RTC Mural Yet?

Here is a current photo of the mural-in-progress. It reads: “A Community Drawn Together Along the Path of Lifelong Learning”

Come check it out !! Located outside of room J-102 (Noreen Light’s classroom, on the first floor of J-building).

Web Resources for Assessment

Thanks to Debbie Crumb,RTC Faculty Librarian, for providing this first-rate selection of assessment websites!

  • The Evaluation Center- The site includes a searchable database of evaluation instruments:
  • Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment:
  • Guidelines for Rubric Development:
  • ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards Toolkit:
  • Assessment of Information and Technology Literacy- Information from Washington public 4-year colleges.
  • American Evaluation Association:

Self -Defeating Behaviors of Students

It’s always nice when research validates what our common sense has told us to be true! In this case, the University of Notre Dame researched “self-handicapping behaviors” of students—the behavior that students engage in that ensures their failure, like not showing up on time, forgetting assignments, procrastinating, or acting out to get attention. This article from says that some students use "self-handicapping" behaviors to avoid looking "stupid" in front of teachers or classmates—even if it means undermining themselves in the process.” The article says the key to helping these students is to encourage and reinforce mistake-making as part of the learning process! To read the full article, go to

101 (+) Teaching Tips

Did you know that WD-40 lubricant works great to get tape off walls and clean dry-erase boards?Browse other tips at this useful list for teachers:

Quotable: “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” – Jimi Hendrix

For more information regarding the articles in the Faculty Focus or to make suggestions for this newsletter, please contact the Office of Instructional Improvement.

The mission of the Office of Instructional Improvement is to advance educational strategies, seek to improve the quality of learning environments, and support RTC staff as they prepare a diverse student population for work.