Joy and Awe. Towards the end of a busy semester, my mind turns towards a slower, more reflective time that is just around the corner. A few weeks ago, I heard Bryan Alexander speak at a conference and share his thoughts on the nature of the polycrisis times in which we find ourselves. While Bryan didn’t coin the term, I found his description a helpful framing and naming of the chaos and associated energies that just feel different these days. Maybe I am just speaking for myself here. In any case, it wasn’t surprising that two other resources mentioned at the conference captured my attention. One was a report, The Science of Awe, from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Another was Joy-Centered Pedagogy in Higher Education: Uplifting Teaching and Learning for All, an open-access volume with endorsements from several scholars we have hosted at GVSU. May you also be inspired this month to consider how awe, joy, open exploration, playfulness, collaboration, resilience, care, and love show up in your classrooms and in your daily lives.  

People have a voice and a choice. I draw this statement from Chapter 18 of Joy Buolamwini’s Unmasking AI. I was inspired to read the book upon learning that a Pew FTLC Learning Community was engaging with the text. As we continue to work towards greater digital literacy on campus, we are presented with plenty of choices and also with opportunities to use our voice. Building on the momentum of this year’s Digital Literacy Summer Institute and Digital Literacy Friday series, I am thrilled to announce the fully virtual January 2026 Digital Literacy Institute that is scheduled for January 6-8. We are still finalizing the schedule, but I invite you to review the website and sign up to receive the Zoom links. It will be fun and a great way to launch 2026: in community with colleagues around timely topics applicable to all disciplines.  

–Christine Rener

The January 2026 offering of the Digital Literacy Institute is completely virtual. Join us for case studies on how digital literacy is taking shape at GVSU. The sessions will highlight ways we can design opportunities for students to use, create, evaluate, and engage critically with digital technologies to complete tasks safely and ethically in professional and civic contexts, in alignment with GVSU’s definition of digital literacy. In these interactive sessions, your colleagues will share concrete teaching strategies and provide space for discussion. For some of the sessions, you will have the chance to dive deeper into GVSU-supported technologies and explore applications for your teaching and professional work.   

Faculty and staff are welcome to attend any (or all) of the sessions. Register to access Zoom links for the Institute.   

The Blackboard organization, Digital Literacy - Faculty Professional Development, is also available and all faculty and staff are invited to join. 

What are you and your colleagues talking about in the break room? AI in your classrooms? Teaching first-year students? A cool presentation at a conference about teaching and learning? Do you want to keep having that conversation?

Learning Communities (LCs) are small, faculty- and staff-led groups that gather around a shared topic for a semester or two. These communities create space for collaboration, new kinds of learning, and the opportunity to meet people across campus.

If you’ve got an idea—or just the start of one—we invite you to propose a Winter 2026 LC. Submit a Letter of Intent using our online form. If you're wondering what’s possible, browse our Past LCs webpage for inspiration from years past. And, if you want to check out our current list, check out our Current Learning Communities webpage.

CREATING CULTURES OF GROWTH IN THE CLASSROOM

The Pew FTLC is offering a special Learning Community (LC) opportunity through our Strong Start Initiative. We are looking for faculty and staff to lead several sections of a special-topic Learning Community on Creating Cultures of Growth in the Classroom. The best part? In addition to being paid a stipend to facilitate, the curriculum is already designed, so you don’t have to worry about planning! That’s right: our friends at the Equity Accelerator prepared a 6-week facilitation plan including learning objectives, shared resources, and discussion prompts. The LC will follow our traditional 6-week hour long meeting format with the following themes:  

For a full description and info on how to submit a letter of intent, check out the Strong Start Initiative page or our Learning Community homepage.

Were you hoping to join a Faculty Mentoring Community this Fall but just ran out of time? Consider joining one in Winter 2026! We have groups for all faculty, including several for Affiliate and Visiting Faculty specifically!

Faculty Mentoring Communities will be meeting through the Winter 2026 semester and are open to adding new members. These mentoring communities offer structured meeting opportunities to gather with colleagues and explore the multiple sources of guidance and connection available at GVSU for professional growth and development. Sessions center around topics that are top-of-mind for participants—the content of each meeting is flexible and responsive to group members.

There are mentoring communities designed for faculty in their first year of teaching (meeting every other week) and communities that focus on faculty who are well beyond their first year of teaching (meeting once a month), as well as groups focused on specific topics. Visit our Mentoring Communities webpage to see a complete list of mentoring groups, as well as their meeting dates/times.

Our Sponsored Teaching and Learning Event (STLE) Grants support faculty attending a curated set of teaching and learning related workshops, institutes, and conferences. The STLEs listed below are still open and accepting applications. Don't delay! Apply online via our grants system today!

The Teaching Professor 2026 Conference

June 5–7, 2026
St. Louis, MO
Award Amount: up to $2800
4 spots available
Application deadline: February 1, 2026

No matter your discipline, your career stage, or your classroom, you’ll find what you need at The Teaching Professor Conference. Thousands of educators have come seeking practical, evidence-based tools and strategies, and left with so much more.

This annual conference is designed with the needs, challenges, and goals of higher education faculty and educators in mind. The Teaching Professor Conference provides an opportunity to dive into effective teaching practices, enhance student learning, and join a supportive community of fellow faculty members who share your same challenges. You'll be able to share your experiences, discuss actionable solutions, and rejuvenate your passion for teaching in an ever-evolving academic landscape.

NOTE: Preference given to first-time conference attendees. This grant supports the full cost of attendance and therefore additional funding should not be sought.

Learn more about these opportunities and others by visiting our Upcoming Sponsored Teaching and Learning Event Grant webpage.

Sponsored by the Digital Literacy Initiative, Pew FTLC, and eLearning Technologies, we are hosting sessions related to digital literacy. Nearly every Friday of this semester, we are featuring faculty and staff experts who will share approaches, provide hands-on learning, and facilitate lively, cross-disciplinary conversations. The sessions rotate between the Valley Campus, the City Campus, and Zoom. 

All sessions will take place from 11am to 12pm on Fridays. The table below provides schedule details and registration links for each session. As the schedule continues to be built, additional details will be added. 

Session materials are being shared via a Blackboard Organization–Digital Literacy-Faculty Professional Development–open to all faculty and staff. This organization is open for self-enrollment. Contact us at PewFTLC@gvsu.edu for access support, if needed. 

Missed the Summer and Fall Writing Challenges? Have looming writing deadlines for the end of the academic year? We're happy to announce that, starting in January, we will be hosting the Winter Writing Challenge! On select Thursdays, jump on Zoom for 1.5-hour writing sessions. Each session includes:

Join us on the following Thursdays from 2:00-3:30 PM on: January 22, February 5, February 19, March 19, April 2, April 16, and April 30. Whether you're working on articles, presentations, SOTL, book chapters, professional documents, syllabi, or other writing projects, these sessions provide accountability and momentum to help you make progress. We’ll provide a quiet, distraction-free space to keep you focused. Just bring your materials and a clear goal for the session.

We look forward to writing with you!

GVSU Faculty are invited to submit a proposal for the 2026 Midwest SoTL Conference, which will be held in person on April 10, 2026, in the beautiful city of South Bend, Indiana. The conference theme is The Human Element of Education. The theme can be interpreted broadly, but it relates to the keynote speaker Dr. Anne-Marie Womack whose newest book, Inclusive College Classrooms (Rutledge 2023), is about research-based practices and tools to create an effective and inclusive classroom environment.

The conference is looking for proposals that describe empirical studies of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, theoretical discussions of SoTL, descriptions of best practices of teaching, and interactive workshops on implementing best practices. Proposals are due by January 23, 2026, at 11:59 pm. See the conference flyer or the conference website for details.