Pew Faculty Teaching & Learning Center
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Director's NoteRest, renewal, reading, reorganizing, reflection, recommitting – all are relevant and real for me this month. In addition to sharing several timely resources, I am delighted to unveil our plans for the 30th Annual Fall Conference on Teaching and Learning. We are busy stringing together pearls of wisdom to share on this auspicious anniversary occasion. I do hope that you will consider sharing your expertise and even giving colleagues the gift of a window into your own classroom. See the announcement and call for proposals below.
- Article: An important step in fostering a sense of belonging in your classes learning student names. I recently rediscovered this 2017 article, What’s in a name? The importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their names in a high-enrollment biology classroom. Regardless of your discipline, the background information and research findings detailed in this article are worthy of your time and attention.
- Video: Last month, I shared an interview with noted author Parker Palmer. This past April, he participated in a webinar about education and vocation and did not disappoint. Many great ideas were shared; I took detailed notes and am thus thrilled that the webinar is now available for viewing.
- Book: I know that I am not alone this summer in reading Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout. I can’t say enough about it and highly recommend reading or listening.
- Website: As you plan for next year’s courses, keep the Course Workload Estimator hosted by Wake Forest handy. How long should students spend on assignments and readings? How much reading is too much? While these questions don’t have simple answers, this tool can help you plan and also communicate expectations to students.
- Resource: In advance of August, I encourage everyone to work through Syllabus Review, an excellent guided inquiry resource from the Center for Urban Education at USC. Bonus points for working through the guide with departmental colleagues.
- Opportunity: Did you know that to date,156 GV faculty have completed an NCFDD 14-day Writing Challenge? If you are interested in a wee bit of structure and accountability towards your writing goals, the next challenge takes place July 15-28. Register by July 5.
—Christine Rener
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For The First Time, Attend For Free!We welcome you to The Humanity of Inclusive Practices – Teaching and Learning Academy Mini Course 2024 community, where we re-engage a conversation on higher education’s agreements with the students we serve and the global society we hope to help improve. Inspired by Laura Rendon’s 2005 classic article on ‘recasting agreements’, we will identify the implicit and explicit agreements students, society, and instructors expect from a robust, equity-minded education.
As we gather in this year’s course, we will revisit the ways in which higher education prepares students for both technical and civic participation within a peaceful society. We will discuss why the agreement for both preparation pathways are still critical, and we will develop specific activities, backwardly designed, that position our classrooms to achieve both, regardless of institutional and academic context. This year’s theme calls us to continue to make and remake the case for the transformative and transcendent properties of education and prepare ourselves as willing changemakers to make transformations possible.
If you’re interested in taking the course, attend this Interest Pre-Meeting to learn more about the opportunity.
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Strong Start Teaching Institute Continuing Series
Stemming from the May 2024 Strong Start Teaching Institute, this workshop series is meant to refresh and continue conversations around small teaching practices for faculty to support our first and second-year students. While we would love (and encourage!) faculty to attend all three workshops, the workshops are designed to act as standalone events (meaning it’s okay if you aren’t able to attend all three). These in-person workshops will be offered in both downtown and Allendale locations and are led by Dr. Maggie Goss, the new Pew FTLC Assistant Director.
Workshop #1: Rejuvenating Your Syllabus
Thursday, June 20th 10:00 - 11:30am (411 Eberhard Center)
In this workshop, participants will revise or “rejuvenate” their syllabus to better promote inclusivity and a sense of belonging for their students. Specifically, participants will learn strategies for promoting feelings of student belonging, and provide peer-to-peer feedback on their written syllabi.
Workshop #2: Faculty Primer - Resource Intervention and Prevention
Tuesday, July 9th 10:00 - 11:30am (3068 Zumberge Hall)
Thursday, July 11th 10:00 - 11:30am (411 Eberhard Center)
In this workshop, we will tackle issues related to student well-being, resource awareness and how best to connect students to resources. Participants will walk away with concrete strategies for preventing, or rather “priming” students to overcome obstacles throughout the semester. Participants will actively engage with the following questions:- What are some signs a student may be struggling?
- When do I intervene if it looks like a student may be struggling?
- I’ve pointed a student toward support resources, now what?
- What could I have done to intervene earlier in their struggle?
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Upcoming Sponsored Teaching and Learning Event Grant Opportunities
Did you know we set aside funding to send groups of GVSU faculty to certain conferences, workshops, and events centered on teaching and learning?
Our Sponsored Teaching and Learning Event (STLE) Grant is designed to support faculty in attending a predefined list of teaching and learning-related conferences, events, and workshops. The list of STLEs for each year changes allowing us to highlight some of the leading practices in teaching and learning pedagogy. Below are some STLEs that are currently open and accepting applications! Learn more about these opportunities and others by visiting our Upcoming Sponsored Teaching and Learning Events webpage. Apply online via our grants system.
Lilly Conference-Traverse City, MI
October 9-11, 2024
Traverse City, MI
Award Amount: up to $2000
Application Deadline: September 5, 2024
10 faculty spots available
Lilly-Traverse City is a part of the overall Lilly Conference Series. For nearly 40 years, Lilly Conferences on College and University Teaching and Learning have provided opportunities for the presentation of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Faculty and administrators at various stages in their academic careers come from across the United States, representing nearly every discipline found in higher education. Visit the Lilly Conference Traverse City webpage for more information.
OLC Workshop Sponsored Grant
Various Topics and Virtual Workshops Available
Award Amount: $170
Application Deadline: Applications will be accepted year-round until funds are depleted.
Limited seats available each academic year
The OLC Workshop Sponsored Grant supports faculty enrollment in online courses offered by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). Courses related to digital learning and online/hybrid course design are offered throughout the year. The immersive programs are expert-developed and designed to improve quality in every facet of online education.
Grand Valley State University has an institutional-level membership in the OLC and the workshops are a smart and cost-effective way to support your continuing professional development. These workshops are a $270 value and the Pew FTLC is able to purchase these courses for faculty for $170/seat. We have a limited number of seats available in the workshops which range in length from 10 days to three weeks and provide opportunities to interact with faculty from a wide variety of institutions. The offerings are designed as online classes so that you may also experience being an online learner. Certificates are issued upon timely completion of all coursework.
Faculty who are interested in participating in OLC workshops should review the list of available topics on their website.
All faculty (tenure-track, tenured, affiliate, visiting, and adjunct) are eligible to apply.
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Thursday, August 15
8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Eberhard Conference Center
Pew Grand Rapids Campus
This year's conference features two expert keynotes, Lauren Barbeau speaking on Critical Teaching Behaviors and John Warner speaking on AI in education. Visit our website for additional details. The call for concurrent session proposals is now open! We seek faculty-led sessions on one of five themes:
- Student Engagement Refresh - successful changes instructors have made in the last few years to better engage students in their learning
- Reclaiming a Liberal Education - deeply and explicitly engaging students in a liberal education
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - telling the story of teaching excellence at GVSU
- Equity-minded Approaches - meeting the needs of all students, multicultural approaches to course design
- Experiential Sessions - short, hands-on sessions wherein participants can experience a colleague's classroom, see website for a full list of questions of inquiry
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Save the Date!New Faculty Orientation
August 7, 8, & 9, 2024
30th Annual Fall Conference on Teaching and Learning
Thursday, August 15, 2024
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