Recent Work with the Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin TRiO Chapters
April has been a great month for interacting with MAEOPP members about submitting education practices to the MAEOPP Best Practices Center. The Center hosted a webinar on April 3rd with MAEOPP members from more than 30 institutions. Another webinar was provided as a preconference workshop for nearly a dozen members of the Michigan TRiO chapter. I had the opportunity to address attendees of the combined Minnesota/Wisconsin TRiO chapter meeting about the work of the Center. In addition there was opportunity for a number of personal conversations about submitting practices to the MAEOPP Center.
The more that I have the opportunity to talk with people, I gain new language to use when describing the work of the MAEOPP Center. One conference attendee put it this way. "It is like the conference sharing tables that we have taken advantage of for decades. People leave handouts, extra copies of Power Point presentations, and other resources for other TRiO programs to use." The MAEOPP Center functions in a similar function, it is just an online version of the sharing table.
Another MAEOPP conference attendee shared with me how she would respond to others who think that they maybe do not have anything to contribute to the MAEOPP Center for other TRiO programs to review. She said, "We may all do nearly the same things, we all do them differently based on local student needs and local resources." The MAEOPP Center celebrates the diversity of ways we all work to achieve the same TRiO program goals. The practices you could share do not have to just be something new, it may be an education approach or practices used successfully by your TRiO program for decades.
Please consider attending one of the free webinars that explores the possibilities of education practices that might be sugmitted and the procedures to do so. Even if you do not know what you might share, attend the webinar and it may generate some ideas. The webinar is only 90 minutes with frequent stops for discussion and questions. Think about having a couple of you participate from your TRiO program. During those stop periods during the webinar you can brainstorm with your colleagues.
Free webinars will be held on Friday May 4th and Friday June 8th from 9:00 to 10:30 am Central Time. Click on the "webinar" link on the top menu bar of this page to register for the event and receive instructions how to join the event. We hope you will.



David Arendale