A weekly newsletter to build community through updates, opportunities, and celebrations | |
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December 12, 2024 | Volume 11 | Issue 16
Next issue out on January 9
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Spotlight on Dr. Dee Stokes | |
- One year at Davidson-Davie on Nov. 1 2024
- 31 years in higher education
- Five degrees: BA in Sociology, Masters of Public Administration, Ed.S. & Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, Masters of Biblical & Theological Foundations
- Former Division I Women's Basketball Coach
- Grew up in Arkansas, but NC is my home now
- Love to sing, movies, travel
- I am also an ordained minister and spend most travel time ministering
- Own two businesses: A non-profit ministry & consulting firm
- Recently developed a course called Christianity: The Tenets of Our Faith and you can enroll at www.deestokes.org
- I am also an author
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Travel: I love the Caribbean and have been there four times in 2024
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Books: My goal was to read 12 books this year and I surpassed that. I usually read Theological books or something that can help me be a better disciple of Jesus and a better person in general. Two great books I read this year were: The Other Half of the Church & The Gift of Being Yourself. Both were amazing!
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Food: I am trying to give up eating meat, but I love steak, chicken, and bacon! Bacon on anything is good!
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Show: The Midwives on Netflix. Quite heartwarming.
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Favorite Thing about Myself: My favorite thing I love about myself is the ability to forgive and to truly love people!
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Professional Learning Events
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Top 5 Moodle Tips for 2025 | |
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By Gretchen Benton
As we move into the new year, set yourself up for success with these top 5 tips for using Moodle in 2025! Moodle will update to version 4.4 on December Friday, December 27, 2024, 12:30 AM - 6:30 AM. During this time, Moodle will be unavailable.
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Check out the new icons! Our Moodle icons are getting a facelift. The new icons will still be color coded by activity type, but will now be represented in more digitally accessible shades!
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Start using Copyleaks! Our contract with Turnitin has come to an end in 2024. If you want to continue checking your student submissions for plagiarism, start using Copyleaks in Moodle for this Spring 2025 semester. View the Copyleaks Instructor Guide, Student Guide, and our Freshdesk tutorial.
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Check out new Course Formats! Make your course easier for students to navigate by choosing the best course format. Visit the Settings page in your course and scroll down to course format to try out new course formats we activated in 2024 like OneTopic. In 2025, the Topics format will be updated to be called “Custom Sections”.
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Create an instructor welcome video! In the age of AI, students want to see your face and know that you are a real person. Enhance your instructor presence by creating a welcome video with YuJa Video. Students can also use YuJa to create and share videos with you and their classmates using the online text box or text editor button in Moodle. See the YuJa instructor guides and share the YuJa student guides with your class.
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Check the accessibility of your courses! YuJa Panorama provides digital accessibility reports of the activities and documents in your Moodle courses. View the Panorama Tutorials to get started.
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By Órla Casserly
An Nollaig / Christmas is a time of celebration and tradition in Ireland and there are many customs that take place in the lead-up to December 25th. On the first Friday in December, the TV programme The Late Late Toy Show unofficially marks the start of the Christmas season in every Irish person's calendar. It is the one night a year when children from across the country take over the set and production of The Late Late Show, the biggest evening chat/entertainment show in Ireland, and present the toys they wish to ask for from Santa with musical performances, dances, prizes, celebrity surprises and everything in between bringing families and friends of all ages together for the night which is affectionately known as ‘Toy Show night’.
As the countdown to Christmas Day begins, we decorate our houses, businesses and towns with trees, lights, wreaths, candles, holly, and cribs and children and families visit Santa Claus. Children write letters to Daidí na Nollag and put on school plays while many send Christmas cards to friends and family. We also make preparations for the meal we will share with family. As part of the traditional turkey and ham dinner, a family tradition of ours is to raise our own turkeys and to give them to family and friends as gifts for Christmas. Another culinary tradition which happens in homes across the country is the making of the Christmas pudding when everybody in the house must stir the mixture, close their eyes and make a wish for the year ahead. This is one of my favourite traditions and foods of the season - come and taste this sweet, dried-fruit and alcohol infused dessert from Ireland and some mince pies at our event on Friday morning!!
On December 23rd, young people take part in the new tradition of the ‘12 Pubs of Christmas’ in their hometowns. They wear Christmas jumpers and go from pub to pub, following different rules in each pub. For example, “pub 3: No Names, must call everyone ‘Buddy/Bud’”, “Pub 6: Can’t put drink down”, “Pub 8: walk backwards to pub 9” …..
On Christmas Eve, some people go to Mass and some visit family. Children prepare for Santa Claus’ visit by leaving out treats, a glass of milk or a beer, some carrots for the reindeer and by making sure to go to bed early if they can contain their excitement! Christmas Day brings giddy children opening presents from Santa Claus, as well as people gifting presents to loved ones with some going to Mass and most visiting or hosting family for dinner. We eat good food, pull crackers, some wear party hats, and often the day ends up with dads and grandads falling asleep on the couch only to be awoken by the pile of pillows their children or grandchildren have stacked upon them while they dozed.
December 26th is known as St Stephen’s Day and often people do the traditions and foods of Christmas Day all over again with the other side of their family. This is also Lá an Dreoilín, Wren Day, when groups of youths would go from door to door and play music, sing a song or tell a story and collect money while they ‘hunt’ for the Wren to welcome in the new year.
The end of the Christmas season comes on January 6th which is known as Nollaig na mBan, Women’s Christmas. Although this was traditionally the day when men were left at home to cook and take care of the household while women celebrated together, in recent years the tradition is being revived among young and old with some even opting for a dip in the sea - brrrrrr!!
Nollaig Shona !! - Happy Christmas !! :)
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By Neriman Yeniay
“Little Santa Claus
When you come down from the sky,
With thousands of toys,
Don’t forget my little stocking.
But before you leave,
You should cover yourself well—
It’s so cold outside,
And that’s kind of my fault.”
This little verse is like a Proustian madeleine for French people: it reminds us of our childhood and the song we used to learn and sing every Christmas. When we think of Christmas, we often imagine a magical celebration for children. Therefore, we buy a chocolate Advent calendar for them, counting down the days until Christmas.
When the 25th finally arrives, we always have a neighbor, an uncle, or a cousin dressed as Santa Claus to meet the children and give them the presents they have written about in their letters. Or we simply say that Santa came during the night and left gifts next to the Christmas tree—a pine tree that has been lovingly decorated by the family.
You will also often hear, “Santa won’t bring you any presents this year if you’re not good.” For kids, presents sometimes seem like a reward for being nice. Of course, gifts are not just for children; Christmas is also a time when we give presents to everyone we love.
The 24th night and the 25th lunch are a time for festive meals, including an aperitif, starter, main course, and dessert. The menu often includes oysters, foie gras, duck, turkey with chestnuts, salmon, seafood, snails, yule log, and chocolate candies (papillotes), all accompanied by champagne. We stay at the table for an eternity...
Outside, the streets are lined with decorated houses, twinkling lights, Christmas trees, ice skating rinks, and Christmas markets in various cities. The most famous one is in Strasbourg, where you can find food, hot wine, and handmade items for sale.
Joyeux Noël! Merry Christmas!
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International Intrigue
Let’s Make Resolutions a Thing of the Past in 2025
By Sarah Wright
My previous article about the harvest was certainly about taking inventory of one’s riches and losses. However, the next few weeks will be the time that we truly take stock of the year in review. If there were ever any Jeopardy questions/answers about me, you’d know I love summer and do not like fall. I’m going to give you another one. I am sure you’ve all been waiting to find out my favorite holiday. It is the often overlooked and sometimes disliked: New Year’s Eve. I like it for so many reasons.
It can be a time to spend with those we love (or at least like)— that is not always true for other holidays. The ambiance is often festive. Christmas lights still sparkle. Occasionally, that sparkle will reflect in my own eyes, and I feel as innocent and excited as a child. We are often aglow with the relief of a less hectic time to follow. Champagne (no additional words needed here). In the United States, we get to see those across the world celebrating before us. The images give us hope that our time to celebrate is coming. I think hope really is the undercurrent of the holiday for me. I think hope comes from a clear understanding of where you’ve been and where you’d like to go—literally and figuratively. And that self-inventory and self-evaluation is how I will spend the next few weeks.
I truly believe we are a sum of our parts, an amalgamation of our experiences, so I cherish the concept of a new year and a new you (or me or whomever), but I don’t subscribe to that. Each day is new, so a new year isn’t the starting line to launch a new persona, philosophy, etc., but the knowledge that the next day is the dawn of a new day, new year, and people across the world are filled with the same hope. They are working on their resolutions— because THIS is the year that the resolutions will be successfully accomplished.
If I had a dollar for each time a colleague told me that they had to tell students they could not quote themselves, I’d have about $15-16, so not a lot but way too much for that. I always laughed and was grateful I’d never had to have that conversation, but the truth is, I am guilty of quoting myself. When I was 23 years-old, I was promoted to manage college internships and partnerships at a large investment company. It changed my life in so many ways because I realized I wanted to work with college students for the rest of my life. I was 23, and my employees were 23, 22, and 21– for some reason they did respect me though, but I felt like such an imposter.
Most of the super influential people in my life are sports personalities. Pat Summitt was and always will be someone I have a great deal of respect for. She authored several books before her death. One thing she was known to do was carry quotes that meant something to her in her planner— they reminded her of who she was, what she believed, and her goals. I not only tried to ground myself with the quotations, I tried to motivate others—Pat Summitt would argue that we cannot motivate others unless they are intrinsically motivated— but I have always been less sure about that philosophy of hers. So outside my office, I broke that rule of quoting myself, and wrote: “Live every day so you don’t need a New Year’s resolution.” And I know I mentioned this last year, but it still rings true—that is my wish for all of you: have a bad day or a good day, the next day is a beautiful chance–a new year, if you will–to make the next better. From International Education to all of you, I wish you peace, joy, happiness, a fruitful time of reflection and the happiest of new years!
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