Dear Evergreen Colleagues,

Spring quarter brings a wealth of events and activities to our community. These are opportunities to engage, learn, and connect, for ourselves and for our students. Let’s acknowledge the work that went into making these events happen during especially challenging times.  

Following this past Wednesday’s International Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV), First Peoples Multicultural, Trans & Queer Support Services will be hosting two upcoming events, an Unlearning Gender Workshop on Thursday, April 8, 12:00 – 1:00pm and an Unlearning Gender Community Conversation on Thursday, April 22, 12:00 – 1:00pm.

This quarter also brings a new series of Public Seminars hosted by Reimagining Community Safety, supported by the Center for Community Based Learning and Action (CCBLA), and running in concert with the Art Lecture Series. These seminars feature (1) alternatives to policing and incarceration, (2) transformative and restorative justice, and (3) the power of a liberal arts education as a countermeasure to mass incarceration.

Linked to this work is the Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning (CIEL) conference, on Friday, April 16 – Saturday, April 17, which will include presentations by Evergreen faculty and feature a keynote address by Gilda Sheppard. See the schedule draft for more details; you can register here. The Public Seminars intersect with the ongoing Climate Justice and Resilience Speaker and Event Series, which includes Jose Gomez Farmworker Justice Day on Wednesday, April 24.

Also connected with the above events, this year’s Equity Symposium begins on Tuesday, April 13, 4:00 – 5:00pm with a keynote talk by Makita Wilber, a visual storyteller from the Swinomish and Tulalip peoples of coastal Washington. Events follow throughout that week, with multiple, concurrent sessions on the morning of Wednesday, April 14, and on the afternoon of Thursday, April 15. You can see the full schedule of events and to register for the Equity Symposium here.

The Washington Center will be hosting a three-part Curriculum Planning Retreat beginning with a panel featuring four past Washington Center directors on Thursday, April 22, 3:30 – 5:00pm. You can register here for the retreat (registration fee applies to Evergreen faculty and staff).

Finally, and, coming up right around the corner, The Learning and Teaching Commons will lead off our spring quarter conversations with “What can your commons do for you?” on Wednesday, April 7, 1:00 – 1:50pm.

Let the calendar marking begin!

Eric Stein, 2020-21 Learning and Teaching Commons Faculty Scholar 

A new quarter brings a new focus on the syllabus. There has been much written on this document and its purpose. But there is no debate on the importance a syllabus plays in any learning experience. The document communicates expectations, provides a roadmap, and is a shared community text.

For this tip, I am returning to one of my favorite inclusive teaching resources - the Inclusion by Design syllabus survey. This tool, created by Carl S. Moore, Edward Brantmeir, and Andreas Brocheild will guide you to take a critical eye to your syllabus in three important areas of inclusive teaching practice. I highly recommend the entire tool, but for this tip I want to focus on the last part:

The final piece of the tool encourages a critical look at the subtext of the syllabus – the hidden curriculum. This important component to creating a welcoming and inviting space for learning is the one we overlook most often. Not because we want to hide parts of our practice but rather because we, as experts and expert learners, have lost our ability to see what isn’t explicit. We’ve got a backstory for every aspect of our syllabus – and we are just too good and drawing connections to tap into how a novice learner will experience the syllabus.

So, how might we uncover implicit rules or messages? Employ the perspective of a novice. Perhaps you have a family member, a former student, or a staff colleague you can turn to. Getting honest feedback from someone who doesn’t share your back story can really help.

Or you might ask students at the end of the quarter to reflect on the syllabus after they’ve had some experience and identify what was hidden. This activity has the added benefit of helping learners “see” their own growth

For many, many more inclusive teaching resources visit http://bit.ly/AllLearnersWelcome

In the interest of keeping our newsletter brief, this Inclusive Teaching Tip has been truncated.  Please visit the Learning and Teaching Commons blog for access to the full-length article.