June 2025 Volume 8 Issue 11

Reimagining Education: Creative Approaches to Students and Teaching (RECAST) Professional Development Conference

Tuesday, August 19 – Thursday, August 21, 2025

by Amy S. Bryant, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Director, The Teaching Center

The Teaching Center and the Office of Online Learning encourage you to register for sessions in the RECAST Professional Development Conference. This year’s theme, “Reimagining Education: Creative Approaches to Students and Teaching,” invites each of us to explore bold new ideas and share creative practices that engage today’s learners in meaningful and transformative ways.

Throughout the conference, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in dynamic presentations and insightful panel discussions. Whether you’re looking to deepen your pedagogical toolkit, connect with like-minded professionals, or spark new collaborations, RECAST offers a vibrant space for professional growth and imaginative exchange.

Together, we’ll reimagine what education can be—responsive and full of possibility.

Welcome to RECAST. Let’s reshape the future, one idea at a time.

Conference Information:
Events have been coded in two ways: 1) to show connection to Nashville State’s Core Values – Nashville State LEADS and 2) to show which workshops qualify for CRTP credit.  

L – Learning

E – Equity Driven

A – Accountability

D – Data-Informed

S – Student-Centered

CRTP – Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices

Audience encouraged to attend:

• Faculty
• NSCC Staff Members
• NSCC Administrators

Badging: NSCC employees who engage in 8 professional learning sessions presented by the Teaching Center and Office of Online Learning during RECAST (pre-conference and conference sessions) will earn the RECAST badge. The RECAST badges will be awarded in late August.

Conference Schedule
The schedule for RECAST Professional Development Conference is available now on The Teaching Center website.

Staff Assembly Committee Highlight

Kelsie Huffman (Clement), Student Services Specialist III, Welcome Center

Our April 2025 Employee of the Month is Seanna Petr! 

Seanna Petr, Student Services Specialist III, White Bridge Campus

This is what nominators had to say: 

“A few words to describe Seanna Petr, a Student Services Specialist III in the Welcome Center at the WBR campus: She continues to demonstrate a positive attitude despite what obstacles that may appear! Seanna is always willing to lend a helping hand to whoever and whenever and wherever help is needed!

She is very approachable, which makes it easy for students and staff to ask her for assistance! I have seen her interaction with future and current students as well as co-workers, and the positive energy given. Seanna is highly engaged with the task at hand! Me and the welcome center staff are definitely fortunate to have her on our team and as a part of the NSCC family.

Thank you, Seanna, for being a dependable team player whose dedication and willingness to help others makes a lasting impact!”

Think Global, Act Local…In Class

by Jessica Rabb, Ph.D., Professor of Biology

This summer I am teaching BIOL 1110 General Biology 1 on the White Bridge campus and incorporating activities that connect the class and content to the “real world” in our local communities.

In week one, I had students connect career competencies all employers want and that my students can develop in my class. There is interest globally in helping students see how their classes, especially general education classes, connect to careers. I have an online introduction activity that involves discussion and reflection on career competencies students will grow like critical thinking, communication and teamwork.

Teamwork is particularly important in a post pandemic job. Our students need to develop the teamwork competency to work with other people online, virtually and in-person. My biology students wrote the following this summer:

• There is so much we can learn from each other if we adopt a collaborative spirit. 
• I find the more I stay connected with my peers, colleagues, and friends/family, the more I care about what I do and why I do it.
• I started the process of creating a group chat so we can reach out to one another if we have questions on our assignments.
• To me, succeeding together is often easier and more fulfilling than succeeding alone. 

In week three, I took the class outside to Richland Creek so we could literally see the connections between our class and the world outside. During our walk we were on the lookout for flora and fauna that let energy flow through the Creekside environment. We can use technology to help us identify organisms. The Merlin App helps you identify birds you describe or hear. The Seek App will tell you what it is you are seeing using your phone’s camera. We identified flora (trees, mosses, and vines) and fauna (insects, deer, rabbits, turtles, and birds). Then in class in week four, students arranged the creekside flora and fauna into energy flow diagrams like food chains.

Both of these activities, early in the term, helped me get to know my students in ways that I would not be aware of with traditional content assessments and they got to know each other too. These are high impact practices the cultivate growth, purpose, and belonging. Students see that success in class is not just about biology class learning outcomes but also connecting to each other, their community, and future employment.

Student pictures taken by Ellen Zink on 6/10 of Jessica Rabb’s BIOL 1110 General Biology 1 summer class

Jessica Rabb took these pictures: Fawn observed June 10 at Richland Creek and Richland Creek