CSM Flex Day Schedule

8:00-9:00

.5 flex credit hours

Continental Breakfast, Welcome & Updates

Location: Bayview Dining Room, Building 10 (map)

Enjoy pastries, coffee and tea service, and the chance to connect with colleagues.  Starting at 8:30, our leadership team will share important college-wide updates to kick-start our day of learning together.

Register

9:00-10:00

1 flex credit hour

Celebrating and Reflecting on a Year of Building a Culture of Assessment

Location: Bayview Dining Room, Building 10 (map)

Facilitators: Susan Khan, Professional Development Faculty Coordinator; Chiara Ojeda, Dean of Language Arts

Presenters:

ESL Center: Jill Haberlin, Evan Kaiser

English Department/AB1705 Implementation Team: Sarah Fama, Katherine Webster, Tim Maxwell

Wellness Center: Taleen Moughamian

Math Department: Yvette Butterworth

Geology Department: Katryn Wiese

To cap off a year of Flex Days centered around the theme of "Building a Culture of Assessment," this showcase will highlight efforts across CSM that have led to improved and equitable experiences for our students through assessment. Join us to celebrate the work of your colleagues and get inspired for your own assessment plans!

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9:00-4:00

5 flex credit hours

Leading for Equity Institute (National Equity Project) (Advanced Registration Required; Day 1 of 2)

Location:  Building 10, Room 468 (map) 

Facilitator: National Equity Project

This equity-centered professional development opportunity is supported through CSM’s Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI) Grant and is open to CSM employees across the college, with priority given to classified professionals in alignment with the goals of the IEPI grant to expand professional development opportunities for classified staff. 

This institute offers time for reflection, learning, and collaboration while strengthening equity-centered professional development and leadership practice. Participation in this institute also helps advance the goals of the 2025-2028 CSM Student Equity & Achievement Program (SEAP) Plan and the College’s Educational Master Plan (EMP).

We welcome your interest in participating. Space is limited, so we encourage you to register in advance if this opportunity aligns with your interest and availability. Selected participants must commit to attending both days of the institute (April 16 and 17) to support a meaningful and collaborative experience. We ask that you sign up only if you are able to attend both days so colleagues who can participate fully have the opportunity to attend.

Managers of selected participants will be notified in advance so they are aware of who will be attending and can help ensure participants are supported in fully participating.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to David Galvez at galvezd@smccd.edu or Marisol Quevedo at quevedom@smccd.edu. 

This session is open to all employees who have registered in advance, and with priority given to classified staff.

Register

9:00-4:00 (lunch provided)

5 flex credit hours

Building Captain Training (Advanced Registration Required; Day 1 of 2)

Location: District Office Board Room (map)

Facilitators: Ben Zara Minken, Emergency Manager; Vince Garcia, Emergency Management Coordinator

Join the San Mateo County Community College District’s Office of Emergency Management for an immersive two-day Building Captain Training designed to prepare employees to serve as leaders during emergencies on campus. This hands-on training equips participants with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to support the safety of our students, staff, and faculty when it matters most. Day one focuses on core emergency readiness skills and day two provides nationally recognized certifications and advanced lifesaving skills.

By the end of the course, participants will be trained to act as effective Building Captains—ready to support evacuations, provide initial medical aid, coordinate with Public Safety, operate extinguishers in live scenarios, and help keep their campus community safe during any emergency.

This session is open to all employees who have registered in advance.

Register

10:10-11:10
1 flex credit hour

Assessment and Nuventive -- Where do I start?

Location:  Zoom

Facilitators/Presenters: Natalie Alizaga Wakefield, Research Inquiry and Institutional Effectiveness Manager; Stephan Bera, Psychology Faculty; Trevor Basil, Psychology Faculty; Hoang Nini Che, Dental Assisting Faculty

In Spring 2025, Academic Senate approved an Assessment Plan for reporting SLO and SAO data, including assessment calendars and an opt-in alternative faculty project. This session will cover how to complete and submit your assessment plan and how to input SLO and SAO data into Nuventive. We will also explore the Opt-in Faculty project option and review SLO assessment visualization tools on the platform. This workshop is intended to be hands-on, so bring your laptops, assessment plans, and your questions!

This session is open to all employees.

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Join Zoom

10:10-11:40

1.5 flex credit hours

Listening Session: Writing Center Workshops across the Curriculum

Location: College Writing Center, Building 18, Room 104 (map)

Facilitators: Sarah Fama and Margaret McGugan, Writing Center Instructional Aides

Reading and writing are essential to teaching and learning across the curriculum and within the disciplines, but students enter our courses with a wide range of reading and writing abilities and needs. If you'd like to provide more reading and writing support to your students, let's collaborate! Our goal at the Writing Center is to begin offering workshops that will make reading and writing support more accessible to more students across CSM. Help us help you -- and help your students! 

This session is open to all employees.

Register

10:10-11:40

1.5 flex credit hours

Advancing Equitable Access to Employment: Leveraging Workforce and Career Resources for Campus-Wide Impact

Location: Building 10, Room 193 (map) and Zoom

Presenters: Heidi Bonilla, Interim Director, Workforce Development; Jane Southwick, Career Counseling Faculty; Nate Jackson, Program Services Coordinator, Workforce Development; Ibuki Hlaing, Program Services Coordinator, Workforce Development

This session introduces the full scope of CSM Workforce and Career Development resources that support student economic mobility. Staff and faculty will engage in dialogue about barriers students face in accessing internships and opportunities, and learn about actionable strategies, tools, and partnerships to support student career outcomes.

This session is open to all employees. 

Register

Join Zoom

10:10-11:40

1.5 flex credit hours

Gradescope: A Tool for Efficient Grading and Assessing Student Success

Location: Building 14, Room 105 (map)

Presenter: Kevin Sibucao, Chemistry Faculty

Do you find that grading takes too long? Gradescope may be the solution! 

This session will provide a brief introduction to the many features that Gradescope has to offer such as its rubric function and its AI-assisted grading functions.  We will also go through the workflow of using Gradescope to grade assignments. Finally, participants will be provided the opportunity to use Gradescope to grade a sample assignment. 

This session is geared towards individuals with no or minimal experience with Gradescope, but all are welcome!

This session is open to all employees.

Register

10:10-11:10 1 flex credit hour

When to Call Mobile Crisis Response Team and What to Expect

Location: Building 10, Learning Resource Center (map)

Presenters: David Seidner, LMFT Program Administrator for Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT)

We will give a brief overview of our program, what to expect during a crisis call, when a call would be escalated to a higher level of care (911, Psych emergency, Serenity House), and what that looks like. We will go over details about our follow-up resources and services to ensure continued care for our clients (FSP programs, AOT programs, NAMI, care court, connecting people to medi-cal, etc.), and how we go about deciding on which resources to offer. We will share some personal experiences of how our peers were able to utilize their lived experience to benefit the client on a call, as well as cover self-care tips that we practice to  maintain sustainability in this field. We will set aside some time for questions at the end.

This session is open to all employees.

Register

11:20-12:20

1 flex credit hour 

Bulldog 101

Location: Building 10, Room 401 (Skyview) (map) 

Presenter: Manuel Alejandro Pérez, President

Join us for the fourth session in the Bulldog 101 series for 2025-26. This year-long adventure is designed to onboard and build community for all our new CSM employees. Each Flex Day, we’ll take this special time to build connections, share insider tips, and discover how we can help you shine in your new role. Missed the first three sessions? No problem! All are welcome. 

This session is open to all employees.

11:20-12:20

1 flex credit hour

Overdose Prevention and Naloxone Training

Location: Building 10, Learning Resource Center (map)

Presenters: Ronni Brown, DDS, MPH, FADI - Senior Community Health Planner - Overdose Education & Response San Mateo County Health Behavioral Health Recovery Services (BHRS) | Alcohol & Other Drug Services (AOD)

The opioid epidemic continues to be one of the most significant public health crises in our nation’s history. In 2024, more than 80,000 Americans died from a drug overdose and  overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44. 

In this presentation, you will learn about the origins of the opioid epidemic, the use and misuse of opioids including fentanyl, and evidence-based risk reduction strategies in San Mateo County to prevent overdose deaths across the spectrum from youth to adults. 

This session is open to all employees.

Register

12:30-1:10

Lunch

Location:  Bayview Dining Room, Building 10 (map)

Join us for a meal and space for building community with others. 

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1:10-1:40

.5 flex credit hour

Community Spotlight: Performance from Members of the Parangal Dance Troupe

Location: Bayview Dining Room, Building 10 (map)

Representatives from the Parangal Dance Company will perform Filipino Indigenous and Barrio dances, including a special interactive demo for the audience. Though lunch will continue to be available, we'll be asking that attendees give their full attention to the performance. This is part of a series of performances this year to further enrich our shared in-person experiences during Flex Days and to spotlight different facets of our community.

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1:50-3:20

1.5 flex credit hours

Math and Critical Thinking Across the College

Location:Zoom

Facilitators/Panelists: Philip Tran, Business Faculty; Hellen Pacheco, Computer Science Faculty; Jesenia Diaz, Counseling Faculty; Beth La Rochelle, Dental Assisting Faculty; Katryn Wiese, Geosciences Faculty; Tatiana Irwin, History Faculty; and Yvette Butterworth, Math Faculty

Join colleagues from multiple disciplines for a panel discussion of the challenges and opportunities of teaching and using basic math across the college. In this context, “basic math” includes important concepts such as ratios, percentages, magnitude comparisons, geometry (angles and coordinate systems), units, number sense, and critical and logical thinking. Students come to our classes with a wide range of comfort in these skills. Those students who lack basic math and critical thinking skills struggle more than the other students in achieving SLOs and ILOs. This session will demonstrate how important these skills are to overall success in course completion across the curriculum. We will review challenges and possible solutions as well as what we can learn from each other and what more we can do collectively as a college. 

This session is open to all employees.

Register

Join Zoom

1:50-3:20

1.5 flex credit hours

Budget Forum Workshop

Location: Building 10, Room 195 (map) and Zoom

Presenters: Gerardo Ramirez, VP of Administrative Services; Manuel Alejandro Pérez, President; Danni Redding Lapuz, Acting VP of Instruction; Alex Guiriba, VP of Student Services; and Members of the Finance Committee

In alignment with our shared governance and principles of transparency, this session will allow Executive Leaders and the Finance Committee to interact directly with the CSM community at large. Key themes will include updates on the current finances of the College and interactive discussions to encourage dialogue with various constituents.

This session is open to all employees.

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1:50-3:20 1.5 flex credit hours

Mental Imagery, Reduction of Bias, Promotion of Equity 

Location:  Planetarium, Building 36 (map)

Presenters: Mohsen Janatpour, Astronomy Faculty; Mike Galian, Astronomy Lab Coordinator; Alexis Rodriguez Martinez, Student

After showing SkyTonight and Symvisio on the Dome, students who were provided a grant for their research will present the results of their investigations. 

This session is open to all employees.

Register

1:50-2:50

1 flex credit hour

Equitable Grading Lab Community of Practice

Location: Zoom

Facilitators: Julieth Diaz Benitez, Instructional Design Faculty; Cheyanne Cortez, Art History Faculty; Sarah Fama, English Faculty and Writing Center Instructional Aide

This session provides a dedicated space for participants of the Equitable Grading Lab (EGL). You will have an opportunity to connect with colleagues, and get insights and feedback on your implementation plans. 

This session is open to all prior participants in the Equitable Grading Lab (EGL).

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Join Zoom

3:30-4:30

1 flex credit hour

Meet your Fellow Crafty Bulldogs!

Location: Building 19, Room 121 (map)

Facilitators: Sarah Fama, English Faculty and Writing Center Instructional Aide; Elinor Westfold, ESL Faculty

Bring your knitting, crochet, sewing, or other portable craft project to this rejuvenating community-building session. College of San Mateo is full of creators, hobbyists, and artists, and this session gives us an opportunity to connect and share our love of crafts with one another. No project? No worries — we'll have craft supplies and resources on hand for those interested in picking up a crafty hobby! Participants will share their love of crafts and engage in unstructured conversation and reflection. 

This session is open to all employees.

Register

3:30-4:30

1 flex credit hour

Final Flex Day Reflections with Cabinet

Location: Building 10, Room 194 (map) and Zoom

Facilitators:  Manuel Alejandro Pérez, President; Danni Redding Lapuz, Interim Vice President of Instruction; Alex Guiriba, Vice President of Student Services; Gerardo Ramirez, Vice President of Administrative Services; David Galvez, Director of Equity; Monique Nakagawa, Interim Dean of Planning, Research, Innovation, and Effectiveness

Join the executive leadership team for the opportunity to ask questions and reflect on the day. Coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be served.

This session is open to all employees.

Register

Join Zoom

Asynchronous 

1-2 flex credit hours

Complete an SMCCCD Microcourse

Have you ever wanted to learn more about a specific topic related to teaching and learning but have limited time to commit? Are you looking for opportunities to learn in small doses on your own time?

We invite you to take advantage of the SMCCCD microcourses. These are self-paced, asynchronous learning experiences that focus on specific topics of interest. Each microcourse takes 1-2 hours to complete, and you can self-enroll at any time. Upon completion, you will receive constructive feedback and a digital badge. Microcourses may be counted toward Flex credits. Complete one during Flex Day for automatic flex credit.

Current microcourses available: 

• Accessibility Basics with PopeTech (2 flex credit hours)
• Reimagining the Syllabus (2 flex credit hours)
• The Easy Button: Recordings with Zoom and Panopto (1.5 flex credit hours)
• Ungrading: Part I (2 flex credit hours)
• Instructor Feedback (1.5 flex credit hours)
• Copyright in Education (2 flex credit hours)
• Revamping Your Course Introduction Video (2 flex credit hours)
• Path to Zero Textbook Course (ZTC) (2 flex credit hours)