Craig Connolly

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March 10, 2015
Dear FGCU Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards Committee:
This is a letter of support for the Senior Instructor Faculty Teaching Excellence Award that Sheila
Bolduc-Simpson is applying for in the academic year 2014 2015. I have known Ms. Bolduc-Simpson
since the fall of 2014 when I was in her ENC 1101 Composition I course in Palmetto Hall. I am currently
in her online Spring 2015 ENC 1102 Composition II class. I feel that she would be an outstanding
candidate for this award.
After being Ms. Bolduc-Simpsons student for two semesters now, inside and outside the classroom, I can
truly describe just how special a human being she is. Just within my short time with her, Ms. BolducSimpson has impacted and educated a majority of her students and me in so many ways. Her cheery
personality comes with her unique and engaging teaching style. SBS is what she prefers her students to
call her. She is always very easy to talk to and get in contact with, and she is a great teacher because she
is all about putting the students first.
SBS is an innovator who articulates clearly her course objectives and assignments, encourages active
student participation and is very involved in her students learning.
An example of her innovative teaching is her use of many different tools on the Internet to help teach her
students to write in the 21st century. She uses a flipped-classroom method, where presentation materials
are viewed online and the majority of the teaching period is devoted to practicing concepts. SBS
classroom focuses on pair and group work tasks that take her students through the writing process and
prepare them for the major paper assignments done at home. She gives every student the same amount of
attention so none feel belittled and individualizes learning to meet the needs of her students. This helps
her students learn better. After viewing and interacting with the materials online, students become
teachers to reinforce the work that was done outside of the class. When I have had opportunities to review
concepts in a mini-presentation with my peers, I find that I retain the information better. After these short
mini-reviews of concepts, SBS will engage the students in a meaningful writing task applying the
particular concept.
SBS also has unique teaching assignments as well. For instance, an activity that she asked her students to
participate in for an online course was something that almost no teacher would ever teach in this way.
SBS asked her students to write an argument around a zombie apocalypse scenario. The argument had to
follow a Rogerian argument structure with a thesis, reasons and support, a common ground paragraph,
and a concluding paragraph offering a compromise that would create a win-win situation between the
humans and the mutant zombies. No other teacher I have ever taken could have planned an assignment in
such an engaging way. Another innovative online assignment is her Introductions Discussion Forum in
Week 1 of the course. Students use a multimodal tool called Capzles to introduce themselves with text,
photos, and music. They then respond to two of their peers Capzles. Mine can be accessed at
http://www.capzles.com/#/d49ce9d5-d021-4aae-ae0c-15dbf5e3a04d
Ms. Bolduc-Simpson is also extremely accessible and easy to get in touch with. On the first day of class,
SBS provides each student with a syllabus that displays her office location, office hours, email and
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personal cell phone number. By providing her own cell phone number, students are easily able to send a
text message to Ms. Bolduc-Simpson in todays tech-savvy world and she replies back promptly. This is
how I communicate with Ms. Bolduc Simpson a majority of the time because my workload is always
very busy and I do not have time to go to her office hours. Also, if students cannot make her office hours,
she will find a time that is best convenient for the student in order to make sure that no student is
incapable of getting more help from her outside of class.
As accessible as SBS is outside of the classroom, she is even more accessible in her face-to-face classes.
In the first three weeks of course, she has her students sign up for mandatory lunch sessions at SoVi
Dining. If a student doesnt have a meal plan, she gives them one of her meal coupons provided to her by
the Housing and Residence administrators at South Village. Students sign up on a Google doc on the
Canvas Home page for one-on-one conferences throughout the semester.
SBS is also a very a good role model and she always shows respect and concern for her students thereby
earning the respect and concern from her students. SBS wants to see every student succeed in her class.
On the first day of the semester in my first class with SBS, she said My goal is to give all you guys As.
which proves that she really wants the best for her students. No other teacher that I have had has come out
and stated the first day of class that it is her mission before she dies to put an A next to everyones
name in the grade book. I can remember a time last semester when she would look to help out a student
that kept missing class due to being ill and she would try her best to help bring the student out of the hole
he or she dug themselves into by missing class. It really pains SBS not to see her students reach their
maximum potential because she believes that every student is able to succeed if they put maximum effort
into the course.
SBS is also extraordinary at communicating ideas and information regarding the courses she teaches. In
the online course SBS has created a place called Anything Else Caf, a learning and social community
where students can get clarification on assignments, get help from other students, post announcements,
photos, concerns, etc.
SBS also clearly organizes the content of the course under the Modules tab in Canvas with headings:
Read, View and Interact, Submit. She promptly grades assignments and posts them on Canvas. Taking
one look at the modules tab, anyone can see that SBS has the entire course planned from start to end. It is
set up in chronological order starting at the first week of classes all the way until the week right before
final exams. By checking Canvas regularly, a student can stay informed about what will be going on
during class. SBS also provides thorough guidelines for her major paper assignments a detailed grading
rubric so it can be easily seen what criteria SBS is specifically looking for.
SBS also clearly outlines course objectives and assignments in her face-to-face classes. When I was in a
classroom setting with SBS, I can recall that SBS wrote the objectives on a dry-erase board every day
prior to the start of class, so it was clear what we were going to be doing that day in class.
Ms. Bolduc-Simpson is also highly encouraging. For example, last semester she regularly showcased
students in-class pair work and group work writing assignments and gave them extra participation points.
Moreover, through her teaching style of being eclectic and extremely outgoing, she can really help the
students who are somewhat timid like me participate. I used to not open up that much during class but
SBS created a risk taking nurturing environment where no one was afraid to speak or participate. By
opening her students up and making the classroom a community in which every other student is a friend
is really what makes SBS such a good teacher. She makes learning fun and engaging by encouraging
students to participate even if they do not have all of the answers.
The final aspect that helps SBS excel as a great teacher is her involvement in learning. SBS is involved in
the FYRE program at FGCU. FYRE stands for first year residential experience and is designed to aid first
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year students have a smooth transition between high school and their first year of college. This is
important because students are more likely to drop out of college during their first year, which is why
SBS remains so involved and concerned for a students education.
Within my short six months of meeting Sheila Bolduc-Simpson, my life has been changed for the better.
By learning under such a dynamic human being like SBS, it easy to be enlightened by her generous and
kind ways. SBS puts the student first, and that is the way it should be. SBS is willing to help any student
out and one can really tell that her own motive to teach is to help educate students not for any money that
she receives for salary. When you get a professor like SBS that is truly passionate about what she does, it
is hard to not say that she deserves the Senior Instructor Teaching Excellence Award.
If you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
______________________
Craig Connolly, Student