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How are you doing? Perhaps one silver lining of the current crisis is that we all think a little more carefully before asking this question, or before signing off “Hope all is well!” And we certainly think harder before answering. Those of us who are lucky enough to not be symptomatic and who have jobs where we can safely shelter at home often downplay our stress levels by recalling those who are struggling more than we are. This perspective on our own situation is incredibly important, and still leaves room for giving each other answers that are a true reflection of our experiences, in all their complexity.
As we begin to speed toward the end of the quarter, we want to remind you of the importance of taking time at the end of the quarter to ask yourself and your students not only, “How are we doing?” but also, “How did we do?” You may be justifiably tempted to write the whole quarter off, as one in which none of the plans you originally designed could be fully realized. But there’s no doubt that you are learning things about yourself as an educator, and that your students are developing a fuller understanding of themselves as learners.
So please consider giving yourselves and your students in-class time to write self-evaluations--you may even want to take a leap of faith and share your document with them after you’ve written it. You can provide a powerful model for them of what it looks like to write a clear-eyed assessment of all the good work that happened and all the lessons learned from the many challenges you faced together.
If you’re looking for some useful starting points, check out JuliA’s “Reflection on Teaching” prompts. And if you don’t already have a self-evaluation workshop you like, check out Elizabeth’s guided freewrite for students, which also includes a student-facing explanation of both self- and faculty evaluations.
In community,
Elizabeth Williamson
JuliA Metzker
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Evergreen student Zoë Lovato works with Eileen Grigsby of the Thurston County Food Bank to dispense food at the Evergreen Covid-19 Pop-up Food Bank on Tues., May 5, 2020. Volunteers from Evergreen, TCFB and the National Guard help check patrons in and give them food. Evergreen student Ryan Richter promotes the food bank on the parkway.
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Share your end-of-year presentations
At the end of the school year, programs and contract faculty often invite the campus community to see their students' work. There are art shows, performances, readings, mini-conferences, and the like. This year we are going to create an all-campus list of capstone and end-of-quarter student work so members of the Evergreen community can see all of these events and opportunities listed in one place. If you would like your students' work to be represented, please fill out this questionnaire. A WordPress site will be created where these events and opportunities will be listed.
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Teaching Resources
Workshop | Keeping Documentation Exciting and ManageableFacilitated by Arnold AprillWednesday | WK 7 | 13 May 2020 | 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
This virtual workshop is for sharing methods for keeping the documentation of work-in-progress exciting by introducing the concept of documentation as “action research”, and for providing tips on keeping documentation manageable. Please RSVP for advanced reading and the zoom meeting link.
Equitable Remote Seminars: Lessons Learned, Looking Forward
Facilitated by Elizabeth Williamson
Wednesday | WK 8 | 20 May 2020 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Keep Teaching Canvas Course
We encourage all faculty and instructional staff to enroll in the Keep Teaching Canvas course. The Canvas course offers a robust selection of remote teaching resources, curated by the Keep Teaching Coordinating Team and Evergreen Faculty and Staff. Check the calendar to sign up for Individual and Small group consultations.
Did you miss an important campus announcement?
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Faculty Highlights
Cynthia Kennedy and Paul Pryzbylowicz have managed to transform a highly experimental program, Outdoor Leadership and Group Dynamics, into a successful remote learning opportunity. Paul writes: 'Here’s a picture of me conferring with my wilderness medicine teaching team after hours. I had students find someone in their germ pool who were willing to be patients. I demonstrated basic life support skills with my daughter and they repeated them together in their own spaces.'
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Share your stories here
We've heard such wonderful tales of the creative ways faculty and students are adapting to learning and teaching in physical isolation. Send a short description of an activity, student project, and other resource to the Learning and Teaching Commons. Materials will be posted on the Keep Teaching Canvas Course and highlighted in this newsletter.
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Student ResourcesThe Writing CenterThe Writing Center continues to offer our students high-quality, tailored writing support. Please direct your students to their website for updated drop-in hours for Academic Statement support.
For students who were unable to attend the April Academic Statement workshop, facilitated by Ariel Birks and Luis Apolaya Torres, the Writing Center has uploaded a recording of the workshop to their website. Please share this recording with your students.
The Geoduck Student Union COVID-19 Support Group for Students
GSU invites students to a weekly Zoom space for students to speak, be listened to, and be in community with each other. It is a student-centered/student-run space that we intend to make as safe and comfortable as possible. For more information, please direct your students to https://evergreen.edu/gsu.
Thurston County Food Bank Pop Ups
Evergreen and the Thurston County Food Bank, in collaboration with members of the National Guard, successfully offer Evergreen's first Food Bank Pop Up since the pandemic began. Updates on the next Food Bank Pop Up will be broadcast through eMail and on Evergreen's Covid-19 Information webpage.
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