WILLISTON, N.D. - Williston State College sent two professors under a Title III grant to the 2015 Hawaii National Great Teachers Seminar in Volcano National Park, Hawaii, August 9-15 to further their professional development.

Maren Furuseth, CPA, Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Accounting at WSC attended the seminar with Kim Weismann, Associate Professor and Arts and Human Sciences Chair. Designed specifically for community colleges, this seminar provided a means to collaborate with instructors from all over the United States in several disciplines with different approaches.

"Every instructor had different ideas that could be utilized in my classroom," Furuseth said. "I was able to come back and tell other instructors about these great approaches to help make our classes more innovative. Many of the ideas involved making the students feel more comfortable and open in the classroom, which helps cater to each student's learning style."

The seminar encouraged Weismann and Furuseth to think outside the box. Weismann has already incorporated one approach of giving the students the ability to control more of the assignments and the curriculum this semester.

"I started flipping the classroom a bit, but this year I flipped it entirely and added the Socratic method with students taking charge of the method," stated Weismann. "It was scary at first, but now the students are really excited about the material and have stepped up to take control of their environment. It is working well."

Staying at Kilauea Military Camp, Weismann and Furuseth experienced Hawaii in their free time by hiking Kilauea, the most active volcano in the world, visited the city of Hilo and sampling a local winery's grapes.

For more information about this seminar, contact Maren Furuseth at 701.774.4298.
For any information regarding WSC, please visit www.willistonstate.edu,
call 1.888.863.9455, or stop by 1410 University Avenue, Williston, ND.