Community Members

Hello, my name is Francisco, I am an Adjunct Lecturer of Sociology at BMCC and a Sociology Phd Candidate at the New School for Social Research. I am currently writing about citizenship “from below,” democracy and violence in Colombia since the post-world war period, between 1958 to the present. I have taught Introduction to Sociology since 2019. I like road bikes (a lot) and I enjoy the bike lanes across the city.

I want to join the Teaching at OpenLab community of educators because I believe in the power of collaboration and sharing among educators. I want to connect with other educators who are passionate about innovating teaching and learning, and I see this community as a valuable platform for sharing ideas, learning from innovative teaching practices, and contributing to the improvement of our teaching methods. I look forward to participating in meaningful discussions, learning from others, and collectively contributing to a vibrant academic community. This summer, I look forward to diving deeper into educational technology and learning new digital tools that can enhance my teaching practice. I plan to attend meetings that focus on the effective use of technology in the classroom. In addition, I am enthusiastic about collaborating with colleagues to develop interdisciplinary projects that promote active and engaged learning among students. Right now, I am not reading a specific book but browsing the internet to learn more about artificial intelligence (AI) as I hope to apply AI to research and education. I have a strong desire to create engaging and interactive curricula that enable students to become critical thinkers and lifelong learners. I am excited to share my experience, learn from fellow educators, and contribute to the growth and success of the OpenLab Learning community.

Hello everyone! I’m an adjunct lecturer in the Music and Art Department. I teach music history currently but have taught different music courses like piano and musicianship skills. I am finding that the landscape is really changing as far as what history let alone what music history can mean from students. I’m looking forward to learning about Asset-Based Pedagogies and evolving my course to better suit the needs and curiosities of future students at BMCC.

Here at BMCC, I am the OL (OpenLab) learning experience designer, designated for faculty. I also support students logging in, and I work with our team and director to plan changes for the OL, getting requests from all of you implemented into the OL. I dearly love all of my varied work tasks here on the OL team, and I particularly love seeing instructors’ faces light up when I’m able to come up with a solution to make their OL course site accomplish a functionality that they envision for their learners. I serve part-time here and part-time at the GC, where I research heritage language learning with the ILETC team. My PhD is in linguistics from the GC, and I have experience teaching linguistics, writing, ESL, and public speaking, at Hunter, LaGuardia, and Brooklyn College. Schedule help sessions with me at calendly.com/syelle-bmcc.

My name is Lorraine Singletary, and I am an Adjunct Lecturer in the Media and Arts Department. I teach VAT 100, which is an intro to film production class. I also work here as a CLT. I am excited to join the “Teaching on the OpenLab” and meet everyone. I have never used OpenLab, so I want to learn more about it. Additionally, I’d like to explore more profound ways for students to obtain more resources online. The pandemic has become an essential turning point in understanding the significance of online learning and its impact. So I’d love to contribute to students gaining a practical and firm understanding of subjects through online learning. Fun fact: I am also an Alumna of BMCC and have worked here for over ten years.

Hi everyone! I am looking forward to being part of this community. My name is Tim Leonard. I am an Associate Professor in the Academic Literacy and Linguistics Department. I am most interested in learning about using the Open Lab platform in ways that will help me to engage students, and be part of contributing to the academic community. In my role, I am an advocate for literacy development, and I am constantly encouraging my students to see the value in reading on a regular basis. That said, I need to read more for personal enjoyment! I also love music – I can’t play anything, but I enjoy going to concerts and also organizing events throughout the year!

I took the Open Pedagogy course last summer and learned so much from the community that I knew I wanted to come back for more. I have been an Adjunct Assistant Professor of music at BMCC since 2018 and also serve as the Director of the Music Access Project at the Bloomingdale School of Music. In both roles, I serve communities with limited access and resources; I’d like to dive deeper to find ways for students to discover more resources on their own. This summer, my husband, two kids and I will be returning to Europe to spend time with our extended family and friends. For my summer reading, I’ve chosen to read My Mother’s War by Eva Taylor and Those Who Forget by Geraldine Schwarz; both books are about the resistance in Germany and the Netherlands.

Hello everyone my name is Dina and I am a Adjunct Lecturer in Marketing at BMCC. Presently I’ve been utilizing various OER resources along with my own ideas based on whats trending to navigate my course. I would love to be able to learn how to streamline things to keep the class engaging but also that its reflective of whats going on within the industry. I am doing alot of traveling and minimizing my home. I know that doesn’t sound exciting but for me it does. I’ve been reading too many trade magazine so I want to get back into reading and writing which is a passion of mine.

Greetings everyone! As an adjunct Lecturer and CLT in the Math Department, I also have two kids who are 3 and 6 years old. Lately, I’ve been really interested in open pedagogy, OER and open lab. My aim is to explore their potential impact on teaching, and use it to enhance my teaching methods for my students. I often think about what kind of education I want my kids to have, and I try to use that as my guide. To understand more about how children and students think and behave, I’ve been using different things to learn. Recently, I’ve been listening to LingoKids Podcasts with my kids and reading books like Dogman, Magic Tree Houses, and Wimpy Kids Diary. I hope I can get some good ideas to help me teach and guide students better this summer.

I’m the director of CETLS and co-lead BMCC’s open education program with jean amaral. At BMCC, I strive to create spaces that bring faculty together to learn from one another. I think WordPress is fun and love working with faculty to realize your vision for your class on the OpenLab. This summer, I’m looking forward to spending more time in nature, and to heading out west for the first time since the pandemic.

I am passionate about creating engaging learning experiences. Today, I work for Borough Manhattan Community College as the OpenLab Student Engagement Coordinator. I am also the product owner of EduCash, a program that helps students learn finances through play in Brazilian schools, and the producer of English Learners in NYC, a podcast and educational resource for English learners and educators. I’m happy to be in this journey with you all! 😉

Hello all, I’m Eliot Chayt, a lecturer in Communication Studies. I’m back and forth on online vs. in-person but I am signed up to teach two different online classes next semester and I’d like to be prepared to use whatever web-based resources I can! I’m also the club advisor for the Communication Studies club and I want to spiff up that page. … I’m also seeing what I might be able to do for helping students to pursue online publishing. Right now I’m afraid that I’m reading Clinton Heylin’s newest Bob Dylan biography. But I’m also going to try White Noise for the first time this summer.

Hello, I currently teach in the English Department at BMCC where I have been employed for nine years, and I’ve been working and teaching within CUNY for nearly 16 years. My readings and approaches to teaching have not changed a lot over time, and I think that creating an OpenLab class site would be a great way to connect outside of the classroom with our population of students who seem to be more interested in doing more of their discussions and assignments outside of the in-person classroom setting. This month I’m looking forward to a short getaway from my cramped apartment and NYC to a cabin in the woods in Narrowsburg, NY. I’m currently reading Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado and the memoir Class Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education by Stephanie Land which I’m reviewing for Bust Magazine . In general, I hope this summer allots me more time for both writing and reading as well as some pedagogical evolving.

Hi Team — My name is Cody, and I’m a new lecturer in political science. I’ve been adjuncting throughout CUNY for the last 8 years, primarily Brooklyn College, where I was placed as a Teaching Fellow while getting my PhD in Political Theory at the Graduate Center. I’ve taught at quite a few other campuses, as well – as I’m sure we all have – and in other departments, like Philosophy and English. I’m excited for this program. I’m a little bit of a luddite, and I’m in desperate need of including more tech in my teaching repertoire.

Hi all, I’m also an adjunct. Part of the Computer Information Systems (CIS) department, teaching the computer science courses and sometimes the computer information systems courses. I haven’t used OpenLab before and I’m looking to explore the interface and how it can be utilized for courses. Currently teaching a programming course this summer. Books I’m slowly moving through are The Code Breaker (Walter Isaacson) and parts of the books by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

Hi!I am an Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice Program, Department of Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice at BMCC. I have been an early adopter of OpenLab. I teach all my courses exclusively in OpenLab (with Blackboard only performing a grade book function). I am passionate about OER, and OpenLab is a perfect medium for it. I get excited when I find new features in WordPress that make my course sites more engaging. I want to share with my colleagues my love for OpenLab and try to convince people that is far better than Blackboard. As for the books that I am reading for pleasure: I just finished A Lesson in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Before that I read Eleanore Oliphant is Completely Fine. My next book is going to be the most recent Harry Hole book Killing Moon by Jo Nesbø.  

Hi! I’m an adjunct OER librarian and really enjoy working with faculty in thinking creatively about teaching and learning at BMCC. I took one or two classes—a couple of them intense—during each of the past three summers, so this summer I am looking forward to having no homework. Which means I can read whatever I want to read! My TBR pile currently includes works by Ana Božičević, Chen Chen, Annie Ernaux, Tove Jansson, and Jenny Odell.

Adjunct at the Ethnic Studies Dept. Looking to update my syllabi, course resources and develop new content for the next academic year. Im reading LOTS of books at the moment as I have 3 papers that I am working on…lol

Hi there! As y’all know, I’m the open knowledge librarian here at BMCC, and this I believe . . . Knowledge is a public good and a human right. We need to continually develop and defend the knowledge commons so that every human being has access to humanity’s accumulated knowledge. I strive to create spaces that celebrate, spark, and engage the potential of every human being to create knowledge. So many of our students have been taught to be knowledge consumers; at BMCC, they can learn to claim space and raise their voices up as knowledge creators. My book pile is large and teetering; some near the top are Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer; on not knowing: how to love and other essays by Emily Ogden; and Comedy Against Work: Utopian Longing in Dystopian Times by Madeline Lane-McKinley. So happy to be in community with everyone here and look forward to learning with you!