Dear graduate employees,
Welcome to the 2024-25 academic year! The Teaching Engagement Program (TEP) and UO Online look forward to sending you this newsletter twice each term to inform you of events, workshops, and resources designed to support your teaching.
As we open our new term, we want to ensure that you are aware of the teaching-related services that are available to you, including:
Fall 2024 Course Resources. These include a Syllabus ‘Starter’ with all required UO policies and many sample course policies and ready-made modules for reporting absences, promoting academic integrity, and welcoming students to courses. We encourage GEs teaching your own courses to:
- Include your AI policy on your syllabi
- Update your syllabi to match instructors’ new status as designated reporters
- Track new exceptions to reason neutral attendance policies
- Plan for Election Day Nov. 5 and engaging difficult national and international contexts with care. The new Teaching in Turbulent Context Resource Guide offers principles linked to concrete practices and invites faculty and GE instructors to four events that deepen and build on these ideas.
Sincerely,
The Teaching Engagement Program and UO Online
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Building Community
Each issue, TEP provides a research-informed technique you can take straight to the classroom. To begin our series, we bring you a brief activity from the University of Michigan’s Icebreaker Grab Bag Activities:
Uncommon Commonalities: In groups of two or three, students will get to know each other by attempting to find a commonality between them that is uncommon. For example, three students discover that they each have three older siblings. After finding an uncommon commonality, students in each group will attempt to find a unique trait/experience that they hold in the group. Time permitting, groups can share out their uncommon commonalities to see which group has the most uncommon, shared experience/trait.
Got a tip to share? Email tep@uoregon.edu with your questions or suggested topics.
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Science Teaching Journal Club: Teaching Large Classes
Thursdays starting Oct. 3 from 9-10 a.m. in LISB 217 or Zoom
A friendly venue for learning about evidence-based teaching practices and how we can use them to improve our own teaching. Faculty and graduate students warmly welcome.
Teaching with AI Reading Group
Thursdays starting Oct. 10 from 11 to noon on Zoom
Faculty and graduate students are invited to join this space for conversation and idea-sharing around how AI might support our students’ critical thinking skills and information literacy.
Neurodivergent Instructors and Staff Affinity Group
First Monday of the month starting Oct. 7 from 10-11 a.m. on Zoom
This recurring affinity-group discussion is a space for neurodivergent instructors and staff (and those who hold identities within the umbrella of neurodivergence, like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, bipolar, etc.) to connect in ways that feel positive, and to share community, resources, strategies, questions, and scholarship around both neurodivergence and other things that matter to you.
TEP GE Drop-in Office Hours
Wednesdays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in the Knight Library DREAM Lab or Zoom
Bring your questions, share experiences, and problem solve with TEP consultants.
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Graduate Teaching Initiative Meet & Greet
Oct. 8 from 11 a.m. to noon at the Knight Library DREAM Lab
We welcome all UO graduate students with interest in applying for the GTI program, including those who are working on or who have completed their certificates. Join us for pastries, coffee, and community with graduate students across campus!
Teaching in Turbulent Contexts: A Faculty Panel Reflects on Principled Approaches
Oct.14 from 10-11:30 a.m. in the Gerlinger Lounge
Together we will take stock of the national and international contexts impacting our teaching this term, from the U.S. presidential election to ongoing conflict in the Middle East. TEP will share a set of broad principles that could be enacted across courses and disciplines, and a panel of faculty colleagues will discuss the specific ways they interpret, enact, and deepen those principles in their day-to-day teaching.
Pizza & Pedagogy
Oct. 15 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in EMU Swindells Room 230
Join us to discuss how you and your students might incorporate AI into your online asynchronous activities. Discussion topics might include AI for brainstorming, language tutoring, as a study tool, and how we can encourage student choice and creativity.
Effectively Using Student Feedback
Oct. 15 from 2-3 p.m. in EMU Miller Room 107
Whether you use the Midway Student Experience Survey or your own surveys, reflections, or minute papers, weeks four and five are the perfect time to check in with your students, clarify your expectations, and make smart shifts to meet students’ needs and interests. After completing this workshop, you will have drafted questions to prompt student feedback, made a plan to analyze and debrief their feedback with your students, and considered if and how to act on student feedback in your courses.
Teaching in Turbulent Contexts: Role-Playing Classroom Scenarios
Oct. 21 from 9:30-11 a.m. in Gerlinger Lounge
Join us as Rehearsals for Life brings to life a series of teaching scenarios that bring national and international political contexts into the classroom. In this interactive workshop, you will work with colleagues and actors to explore the gains and losses of different teaching choices and practice turning fraught classroom moments into opportunities to deepen engagement, learning, and trust.
Encouraging Active Listening
Oct. 22 from 10-10:30 a.m. at the Knight Library DREAM Lab
In this highly practical, 30-minute session you will learn and practice the “Circle of Voices” discussion strategy, and several other techniques designed to increase broad participation, expand students’ range of views, and encourage active listening. This session comes with a special invitation to graduate students with teaching responsibilities. Come for techniques you can apply right away to deepen dialogue in your class.
Pre-Election Teaching Forum
Oct. 29 from 1-2:30 p.m. in the Gerlinger Lounge
Come together as a teaching community to discuss how unfolding national events are impacting our classes and to create a forum for strategy sharing, asking questions, and offering collective support. All faculty and GEs welcome. Hosted by the Division of Equity and Inclusion, College of Arts and Sciences, and UO Teaching Engagement Program.
Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement
Oct. 29 from 3-4 p.m. on Zoom
The Teaching Philosophy Statement (TPS) is a common request as part of faculty job applications. Come learn what goes into a TPS and what academic hiring committee chairs say about what makes a good one.
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We welcome your input to keep this newsletter informative and meaningful, so please send your ideas, resources, and suggestions our way. You can reach us at tep@uoregon.edu.
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