Jaime O'Connor, Washington Center Assistant Director
Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education

The Learning and Teaching Commons newsletter is delivered to your inbox on the first Friday of the month during the quarter. Click here to read past newsletters

Save the date! Friday LTC programming coming up in Spring: 

Sustainable Design and Systems Thinking with Rachel Beth Egenhoefer | Wednesday, April 24, 1:15-2:45pm 

Best and Worst Case Scenarios in Teaching: Trauma-Informed Approaches | Wednesday, May 8, 1-3pm 

Supporting Trans Students | Wednesday, May 22, 1-3pm

ICYMI -- If you missed any of the fall Salons, you can access resource packets developed by Julie Russo, Faculty Scholar, below:

Embodiment Online: Bringing Our Bodies to Zoom

VIRTUAL WORKSHOP

Friday, March 22nd, 2024 | 10:00 am- 11:30 am (Pacific Time)

Timothy Corvidae, The Evergreen State College

It can be hard to connect with each other on Zoom. It can be hard to connect with ourselves, on Zoom. To feel that we are really all there. Let’s experiment together with inviting our bodies into the frame. We’ll try out a variety of brief movement and awareness building activities, aligning each with underlying theory and discussing how and when to use them with students. The focus is on quick interventions that can fit in and around other online class activities, to enhance social presence and restore attention. We’ll play together, stretching the limits of those little squares we spend so much time in.

The Washington Center is pleased to welcome Rachel Beth Egenhoefer as our Spring quarter visiting scholar. Details about her visit and opportunities to engage with Rachel Beth coming soon! If you are interested in meeting with her or arranging a visit to your program or course, please let us know.

Rachel Beth Egenhoefer is a design educator, sustainability and systems researcher, strategy consultant, and critical maker who uses design as a tool for social change. Her work focuses on shifting the narrative from sustainable to regenerative design that creates intersectional, systems change for the masses. She encourages regenerative actions to restore, rejuvenate, and reenergize ourselves, our communities, and our planet. 

Egenhoefer is a full professor in design at the University of San Francisco. The 2nd Edition of her book The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design will be out in April 2024.  Working to bridge academic speak, the design industry, and climate science to create lasting change for the everyday, she also writes Regenerative Conversations on Substack

Julie Russo, Learning and Teaching Commons Faculty Scholar for 2023-2024, is seeking faculty feedback and insights on the implementation of seminar at Evergreen. Please take a few minutes to complete a survey about your seminar practices or to provide your seminar materials.

General Survey on Seminar 

The goal here is to generate a rough quantitative picture of how seminar is currently deployed at Evergreen (although I may not achieve a rigorous sampling). If you skip the optional narrative questions, it should take less than 5 minutes to complete. This survey is for all faculty – if you never or rarely use seminar in your classes, it’s helpful to have that data too.

 Your Seminar Materials 

I’m eager to collect examples of seminar-related documents that you use in your classes. You can contribute by submitting resources using the form linked here, including:

-writing assignments oriented to seminar preparation and/or synthesis (e.g. seminar “tickets”) 

-in-class activities for seminar (“recipes”)

-participation or facilitation guidelines, ground rules, community learning agreements for seminar

-learning outcomes and assessment frameworks for seminar

If it’s more convenient, you can also email files to me at russoj@evergreen.edu. Please let me know if I have your permission to edit and publish these in an internal Evergreen resource.

Dumas Bay Centre | Federal Way, WA | May 9-10

Interested in getting some time away to focus on program planning for the 2024-25 academic year? Join us at Dumas Bay May 9-10 for a two day Integrated Learning Curriculum Planning Retreat. 

Timothy Corvidae (he/him), Instructional Designer at the Washington Center, brings a range of experience in curriculum design, instruction, and facilitation. Check out his full bio on our website and connect for further conversations on online teaching at Evergreen.

Canvas 'Message Students Who'

As we barrel toward the end of the quarter, here’s a Canvas feature that could save you some time. Do you find yourself scrolling through your Canvas Gradebook, looking at the variety of students who haven’t submitted a different variety of assignments, wondering how to cajole them all to successfully cross the finish line? Canvas provides a way to reach out efficiently

Read more→

This spring, Evergreen will hold our 6th annual Equity Symposium.  Each year the Equity Symposium creates space for our community to come together toward the common goal of growing our knowledge and skills in the areas of equity, social justice, and liberation.  This year our theme is Building Skillful Coalition.  With our common goal of learning, we come together to inquire and share skills for building coalitions, partnerships, and collaborations.  Our keynote speaker Loretta J. Ross has spent her career in human rights and reproductive justice advocating for diverse groups to work together toward the common goal of advancing human rights and liberation.  Her online offerings on Calling In the Call Out Culture focus on developing relational skills and strategies that can help us build skillful coalition during these divisive times.  You can access her new e-course here Calling In Course Loretta Ross (thinkific.com)

In this spirit, here are 3 things we can focus on for Building Skillful Coalition...

Read more→

Have a writing project you want to work on? Looking for a time to write alongside other writers? The Writing Center is hosting Community Writing Time for all faculty and staff looking for time and space to dedicate to writing alongside a community of writers of all levels. We will follow the Pomodoro method (20 minutes of writing, 5 minute break) and give opportunities to share with those present. No sign-up needed—drop in anytime!

The first session will be from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, January 26. Winter quarter sessions will be held from noon to 1 p.m. every other Friday on February 9, February 23, and March 8 at the Writing Center.

Winter Quarter Hours:

Monday-Thursday, 12pm-7pm, in-person or online

Friday, 12pm-4pm, online-only

Sunday, 12pm-4pm, online-only

Learn more about Winter Quarter at the Writing Center →

These individuals and offices are eager to support students. Keep this list handy when advising students or reach out to schedule a visit to your program or course. 

• The Greener Hub connects students in touch with the people, offices, and services they need. 

• Visit the Daniel J. Evans Library page to learn about student access to electronic and print materials.

• Refer students to the Writing Center and the Quantitative & Symbolic Reasoning Center for tutoring support.

• TRiO provides wraparound services to first-generation, low income, and disabled students.

• Media Services offers equipment, instruction, and production services in audio, video, animation, film, and photography for students, faculty, and staff.  

• The Title IX office is available to support us in our responsibilities as mandatory reporters. Review the Guide for Responsible Employees for more information.

• Connect your students with Advising and Career Services for support with academic planning and career exploration.

• Access Services for Students with Disabilities works with admitted Evergreen students to ensure equal access to academic programs and services.

• Submit your student concerns to the Campus Assessment, Response & Evaluation (CARE) Team. This cross-divisional team directs students towards supportive campus resources.

• The basic needs center provides resources for a variety of student needs.

Submit schedules for proposed Fall, Winter, Spring 24-25 curriculum using Schedule Evergreen by the end of winter week 10  

Nominations due March 8th

Nomination form

March 6, 2024 1 to 2 p.m. in the Social Justice Center  

March 8, 2024 noon to 1 p.m. via Zoom 

Now accepting Proposals 

April 2-4 | The University of Tennessee at Martin

Proposals due March 8th

Learn more →

There are many opportunities for faculty to share their achievements, and we want to encourage you to contribute to the wealth of knowledge in our Evergreen community. Explore the options below for highlighting your work.

Faculty Notes

Submit a Faculty Note.

Library Institutional Repository

Please submit any publications, learning resources, or other materials that you would like to share and contact archives@evergreen.edu with any questions or feedback.

Real Evergreen: An Educator’s Handbook

 For details or to submit a contribution, contact Joli Sandoz.