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We are sending you a recap of the week in all things teaching and learning. These notes will share timely teaching tips, recent pedagogical scholarship, teaching events on and off campus, and Hub blog posts. Use this form to unsubscribe.

During moments of crisis, it is more important than ever to think about our mental health and it makes sense to be aware how current events might affect the mental health of people around us, including our students. Learning is a personal process that cannot be separated from the individual’s feelings and emotions. Positive emotions can enhance learning while negative emotions can hinder learning. Emotions matter for a quality learning experience.

It might be tempting to ignore current events simply because it is difficult to talk to students about some topics, but there are certain things instructors can do to support students that do not need to take the entire class time. You do not need to start a debate with your class either. Here are Five Ways to Help Students Get Through Grief. For example, you could take a few minutes at the start of your class to acknowledge the situation and ask your students to write a short reflection that they can turn in for extra credit, but it is fine if you do not give them points.

Mays Imad describes in this article how the pandemic triggered flashbacks to the time she was in middle school and her country was being bombed during the Gulf War; she presents 13 suggestions to support students' mental health. In this presentation she gave other ideas to talk to students.

This resource is about leading conversations after a crisis and the authors mentioned the importance of Listening to Students. This other resource presents the principles of active listening and other helpful information.

Here are more resources:

On Friday October 20th from 1-2 pm, join the Scholar-in-Residence about GenAI. This virtual session is focused on student voice. If you missed the first conversation, focused on faculty and assignment ideas, here is the recording.

Bruce Maxim, professor of Computer & Information Science, shares his experience teaching software engineering, game development and artificial intelligence with a flipped classroom (in person & online courses). PBL elements, active learning, roleplay, and gamification are strategies helpful to increase student engagement that at the same time will improve retention.

Friday October 20th 12:00pm-1:00pm

Join on Zoom: 

Hub Affiliates will develop expertise on a teaching and learning topic, of their own choosing, for the benefit of the campus teaching community and receive a $3000 stipend for their work during 2024. Check out the program description for suggested topics or pitch your own.

Our work in the Hub is connective – we want to be the vehicle that helps share your thoughtful teaching strategies with each other. If you know of something that will increase student success, use the Affiliates program to share it with your colleagues. Fill out this very short interest form by October 16th.

Tentative topics are: 

Questions or comments? Belen Garcia, beleng@umich.edu

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