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Five Things to Know About Nichole Finnegan

By Nichole Finnegan, Full-Time Faculty, Dental Assisting

Brief Bio

I'm currently living in Charlotte, NC, but I've lived all over, including Minnesota, Upstate New York and Ireland. While I was in New York, I received my Bachelor's in Marketing and Arts Administration from SUNY Oswego. After some time working in marketing, I moved to Ireland where I lived for about 6 years before returning to the U.S. and moving to North Carolina.

Once I returned to America, I began my journey into the profession of Dental Assisting. I attended a CODA Accredited program at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and during my time in the program, my passion for dentistry and patient care grew. 

Upon graduation, I prepared for, completed, and passed the Dental Assisting National Board exams to become a Certified Dental Assistant. I was asked to join the staff at RCCC as an adjunct instructor in one of the online classes. This way, I was able to continue my duties as a chairside assistant while also gathering experience as an educator. Eventually, I joined the team here at Davidson-Davie Community College (in 2021) where I teach Preclinical Procedures, Dental Radiography and Practice Management, along with Clinical Practice during the final months of the program.

When I am not involved in dental-related activities, I like to spend my time creating, crafting and reading. I've also been training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since 2019 and it is one of my favorite hobbies/sports. 

Five Things to Know

1. Travel: I absolutely love Ireland and can't wait to go back and visit. The people are amazing!
2. Music & Audiobooks: I listen to a WIDE variety of music. I have a long journey to and from Charlotte each day, so I have a large playlist for while I drive. Recently, I have switched to audiobooks for the journey, and I am currently listening to books written by Brandon Sanderson.
3. Food: My favorite food is probably sushi, but honestly I will eat just about anything. I'm a pretty big fan of trying new foods.
4. Streaming Show: The most recent thing I have watched was Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
5. Joyful Experience: Probably the best moment of my life so far was when I had my daughter. She is definitely the best thing I have ever contributed to!

Upcoming Events

• Equity Champions Meeting: Thursday, August 31st from 2-4 pm on Zoom. Sign up for Equity Champions
• Meet our International students and scholars: September 5th from 8:30-10:00 am in Gee N 139-142
• Dominican Republic: Service Learning: September 6th from 2:00-2:50 in Gee S124 and on Zoom

By Trudy Brown

Recently, Elena Alvarez-Ramirez from the Career Development Office and Marquita Richardson from Student Success approached us with video concepts that they wanted to make for their departments, so we booked them an appointment in the Creation Studio. There, they used the lighting and sound equipment to generate quality recordings, a teleprompter to help with narration, and a green screen so that we could try different backgrounds during editing. Elena and Marquita patiently performed their narration for multiple recordings to make sure we had several good clips to choose from in editing. Then we moved to the editing phase where I used editing software to edit the clips into a cohesive video with graphics, transitions, and music. View the final products to see what a great job Elena and Marquita did narrating their videos.

If you want to make a video like these, contact Gretchen Benton, Amy Holmes, or Trudy Brown. We’ll set up an appointment to work with you on the recordings and talk about your vision for the video. You can read our Video Creation & Editing Procedure to find out what to expect during the process.

By Dori Lloyd

Starfish progress surveys will become available Tuesday, Sept 5 for Fall 1 term courses. When a progress survey opens, faculty will receive an email generated by the Starfish system that directs them to complete a survey for their class(es). Please use the progress surveys as a way to provide timely feedback to students. You do not have to raise a flag or kudos on every student. Instead, utilize the flags, kudos, or referral as they are appropriate. You also do not have to wait until a progress survey to raise a flag or kudos. 

If you are a new Starfish user, access the Starfish tutorial for faculty. 

Emails sent to the student

Raising a Starfish flag or kudos generates an email to the student, in some cases from the faculty member. Access the tutorials below to view the messages for each flag and kudos. When you raise a flag or kudos, write your comments as if you were writing directly to the student. They will be added to the email the system generates. 

• Messages to Students from Starfish Flags
• Messages to Students from Starfish Kudos

Progress Survey Schedule

• Fall 1: 9/5 - 9/15
• Fall 2: 11/6 - 11/17
• Fall Full Semester: 9/25 - 10/6

Still have questions about how to submit progress surveys? Reach out to the Director of Educational Technology, Gretchen Benton at gretchen_benton@davidsondavie.edu.

By Grant Jolliff

The Piedmont Teaching and Learning Hub would like to highlight a new offering this year for a Faculty Learning Community (FLC), a year-long series of sessions focused on course design and development, starting with the idea of backwards design and flowing all the way through creating meaningful assessments that encompass assessment of multiple outcomes.

The FLC is designed to support faculty who are:

• Building or rebuilding courses
• Moving courses from a 16-week format to an 8-week format
• Wanting to strengthen their ties between coursework and class descriptions

For more information on the FLC, including a description and dates, click on this link. Applications are live and due on Friday, September 8, 2023.