News2008September

=CCT News=

2 September 08
See also previous news, alum news and exchanges, items for the upcoming news, and [|CCT calendar]. Inform cct@umb.edu if you have news OR want to be emailed when there's a new news compilation (no more than once/month) OR want to be removed from such mailings.

Contents: Student matters, CCT community, CCT events, alums, other events, opportunities, resources, food for thought, humor

__**Student Matters**__ Welcome to new CCT students: Bob Bruzzese, Julie Johnstone, Marie Levey-Pabst, Sheila O'Shea-Resto, Ashley Smith, Diana Truong, Nathan Wesner

Advising times for CCT students & prospective students > Peter Taylor is available for advising students (or prospective students) in person before Friday's CCT Community event, 4.30-5.20pm in his office, Wheatley 2-143-09 (opposite the opening to the suite of the School Counseling department on the back corridor) > He is also available for advising in person or by phone during his office hours on Monday 8th, 1.40-3.40. Available slots are listed at http://cct.wikispaces.com/PTOfficeHours > Any student who does not have a course plan on file or wants to update it should meet with him at one of these two times or soon after.

A 1 credit course for the fall, "[|Reflective Practice]" (sched # 15894) will allow students to get credit for participating in (then writing about) the events of the CCT Network. The plan is for this course to be repeated each semester and students can take it 3 times to equal one elective.

CCT Community Gathering, 5 September 2008, 5.30pm-8pm, Wheatley 2-209 This event will introduce students--new and continuing--, alums, and other members of the CCT community to each other and to the evolving body of tools and practices that help us keep "reflecting and connecting for lifelong learning." Please RSVP so we can provide the right amount of food & refreshments. At the gathering, you will get help to join the new [|CCT Social network site] -- if you have not done so already -- which aims to make connections among students, graduates, faculty of CCT Program beyond the formal programs of study. (See [|snapshot]; request invitation to join by emailing cct@umb.edu)
 * //Reflecting and Connecting for Lifelong Learning//**
 * New students are expected to attend; Prospective students are encouraged to come as well**

CCT Network, Wednesday October 1, 6.30-9:00pm, Wheatley 4-148 (at very end of corridor) (open to the CCT community and public)
 * //Our Lives and Other Worlds II: Visual Images and Reflections from Graduates of the Critical & Creative Thinking Program//**

The Office of Graduate Studies Pizza and Soda break for students, faculty, and staff 4 – 6 pm, each day, Tuesday-Thursday, September 2-4, Office of Graduate Studies, Campus Center Suite 2100

Graduate Student Orientation, Saturday, September 6, 2008, 8:30am-3:00pm, Campus Center This includes a series of free hands-on workshops designed to meet the particular needs of graduate students. In addition, representatives from various departments will be available to assist you in getting your graduate assistant contract, UMASS Boston ID card, library bar code, email account, parking and MBTA passes, and PIN numbers. Use this time to do the Library Self-Tour, join the Beacon Fitness Center (free to grad students) or visit the athletic facilities. You can also visit the Kennedy Presidential Library or the Massachusetts State Archives.

__**CCT Community**__ CCT Community Gathering, 5 September 2008, 5.30pm-8:00pm -- see above. (This is the first in the fall series of CCT Network events.

We invite you to join the [|online social network site] for the CCT Network, which is an extension of the Critical & Creative Thinking Program intended to facilitate "connections that take us beyond the formal CCT program of studies" -- connections that promote personal & professional development, community building & mutual support, educational-innovation & reflective practice activities. Please look for the invitation email from "CCT Network" and follow the instructions to establish your log-in. We will be explaining the "ning" in more detail at our CCT community event on September 5th, but, in the meantime, feel free to explore what you can do - for those of us who don't read instructions, the [|Instructions & Tips] note is especially helpful to read. Send any unanswered questions to cct@umb.edu. We are hoping that members of the CCT community will inform and inspire each other by posting updates on our work and thinking. Of course, each of us has to choose our level of involvement - from irregular visits to peruse what other have posted to receiving email notification of every change on the site. The biggest challenge for users of an online social network is to extend the experiences that we value in face-to-face and person-to-person interactions and to spark other kinds of generative interactions that hadn't been happening off-line. Keep this challenge in mind as you decide what to say and when on this ning.

During the Renewal Arts 2008 Forum in Caux, Switzerland in early August (overlooking Lake Geneva), Shari and Ben Schwendener (CCT Alum) gave creative workshops/instruction in music & dance. Lots of great people from around the world attended and presented, and Ben is sure the CCT students would love the gathering. Many young people work as interns for the event. From the Renewal Arts web site (www.renewalarts.net), "Renewal Arts is an international network of people who share the conviction that the different forms of art can be positive and powerful forces for changing our personal lives and the wider world."

__**CCT Events**__

CCT Community Gathering, 5 September 2008, 5.30pm-8:00pm -- see description above.

CCT-University of Exeter Open House, Thursday, September 25,7-9 PM to celebrate an exciting international mentorship program between four CCT Synthesis students and four Dissertation students from the Master of Creative Arts in Education program at the University of Exeter, England! In pairs, CCT and Exeter students have been providing each other with mutual support, feedback, and discussion of shared experiences of their capstone work process, in collaboration with CCT and Exeter faculty who helped pave the way for this to take place. Highlights of the accomplishments of this unique partnership between our students and theirs is bound to comprise a wonderfully engaging, enlightening evening for us all! Grad Student Lounge, 4th floor,Wheatley Hall RSVP: (essential!) by September 19: cct@umb.edu

__**Alum Notes**__

Bob Schoenberg (CCT alum and regular online instructor) is teaching a new (not-for-credit) online course "Critical Thinking in Business" this fall. http://www.ccde.umb.edu/corporate/business-critical-thinking/

The Return to Uketopia! Alum Davis Sweet, who admits that going to a Uketopia in 2000 changed his life, encourages others to attend. A recent Uketopia took place on Friday, August 22nd at Amazing Things in Framingham - check it out for other experiences http://www.amazingthings.org/

**__Events__**

__**Opportunities**__

Teach in the Experimental College at Tufts, applications due 10.10.08 http://www.excollege.tufts.edu/lecturersApply.asp

CCT Alum looking to start a basic/novice level Latin study group. This group will be composed of two types of people. Those who need a refresher and those new to the language. Ideally those who have previously studied Latin will help the new comers in the group. Anticipate meeting at least once a week, location and time TBA. Study will be based on Wheelock's Latin 6th edition (or later). If interested please contact Frank at: fmcarv@yahoo.com

**__Resources__**

__**Humor**__

__**Food for Thought**__