I’m writing in anticipation of the quiet of winter. We’ll have a break from the bustle of teaching in the coming weeks, and we’ll mark the end of a tumultuous 2024. Since 2025 promises no end to that tumult, I remember the seasons’ reassuring return–the December sky rippled with clouds, the grey afternoon light, the bright spaces between the bare branches of the deciduous trees, and the particular kind of spacious quiet that settles on these ever-shortening days.  

Fall quarter’s end is also the season of reflection as faculty and students turn to the process of writing narrative evaluations and self evaluations and meet to share them in conversation. As the hum of activity subsides and things quiet down, we make space to listen to each other. The written narrative and the conference allow us to say to students I saw you and I heard you, I see you and I hear you, I am listening.

Pauline Oliveros, composer, musician, and world-changer, spent much of her creative life exploring the difference between hearing and listening, pioneering a kind of composition that facilitated strangers coming together, making sound together, and listening to each other, together. She called this a practice of “Deep Listening.” “Hearing” could describe the physiological experience of sensing sound vibrations, but “listening” involves being present with all of our senses for each other. 

Last month Emerald City Music presented a concert of Oliveros works in Seattle and Olympia. The final two pieces, two in her series of Sonic Meditations, were performed by all of us strangers in the audience, intimately connected through the process of making vocal sounds with and listening to each other. In Sonic Meditation No. 1, “Teach Yourself to Fly,” we moved through the stages of breathing quietly, then audibly, then finding the edge between breath and voice, and finally vocalizing, all the while listening to each other to do this in some sort of staggered unison. It felt both uncomfortable and exhilarating, making these animal noises with strangers and listening to each other. The container of Oliveros’ careful, simple instructions and the expert choreography of the performers made it possible for us to trust that we could practice such vulnerability in public, together. This is Oliveros’ “Deep Listening.”

In our educational context, to set out to learn something is to head directly into a space of vulnerability. Our students are courageous because they set out to do something hard–to practice vulnerability in public, together. As faculty, the trust we facilitate–of us and among students–is essential to creating a space where students can take the risks needed to do deep learning and growth. In a recent podcast episode of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning, from the Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning, entitled “Trust Moves in the Classroom,” educational developers and professors Peter Felten, Rachel Forsyth, and Kath Sutherland, discuss the vital role that trust plays in the classroom and the “trust moves” that educators can make to build stronger relationships and more inclusive teaching environments. As a relatively under-discussed area of higher ed teaching, this episode has shot to the top of my list of most exciting teaching-related podcasts. In fact, I highly recommend the entire current season of this podcast; episodes on presence in the classroom, rebuilding broken connections with students, and “a pedagogy of kindness” have all given me specific, actionable, and provocative ways of reconsidering our work of teaching. 

Julia Zay, Learning and Teaching Commons Faculty Scholar

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.

Michael Wallis is the Student Learning Consultant for The Washington Center. His collaborative services are available to faculty who wish to improve the equity and student learning focus of their curricula.

Join Julia Zay, LTC Faculty Scholar, and other colleagues for conversations about teaching 30 minutes prior to each faculty meeting. Bring your challenges, questions, favorite resources, or celebrations to share.

In the spirit of the coming quiet of winter and of gathering with others to deepen our practices of listening, I offer a Sonic Meditation by Pauline Oliveros, “The Greeting” (No. 9), from her collection of Sonic Meditations, published March-November 1971. 

Though Oliveros was a groundbreaking 20th century musical composer whose work centered on what she called “deep listening,” she designed her Sonic Meditations as scores that structure a collective activity using the body, the voice, the breath. “Music” she wrote, “is [only] a welcome by-product of this activity.”

Read more →

This month’s tech tip is to get off your computer and read a book! Specifically, come to the Learning and Teaching Commons to browse our online teaching books. We have a small but carefully selected collection. Here’s my pitch for a few of the best, using the filter criteria of readability, usability, and practicality.

Learn more →

Michael Wallis is the Student Learning Consultant for The Washington Center. His collaborative services are available to faculty who wish to improve the equity and student learning focus of their curricula.

Right now, I’m sitting in the Commons and looking out the window over Red Square. A dense fog has descended over the campus, hiding the details and texture of the landscape and leaving only the silhouettes and outlines of our little kingdom in the woods. 

I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m in a fogbank like this, I always have the thought, “Man, this would be difficult to paint!”

Read more →

The Learning and Teaching Commons and the Commons Advisory Council is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for 2025 Evergreen Summer Institutes. Visit our website to learn more about Summer Institutes and to review guidelines and resources for proposal development.

Proposals will be accepted from Wednesday, November 20 through Friday, February 14. Conveners will receive notification of the status of their proposal by March 17.

The Learning and Teaching Commons and the Commons Advisory Committee is offering a Proposal Development Workshop on Monday, January 27 from 3:30-5 PM [REGISTER] We encourage first-time conveners to submit proposals and are happy to answer any questions and provide support for the proposal development.

Hello faculty,

Evergreen's AAC&U-sponsored work group requests your help with suggestions for when and how faculty would like to engage with our learning about AI.

We are most grateful for 5 minutes of your time to complete this brief survey:

https://forms.office.com/r/BKHjZKzmcs

Your response by Dec 2 is most appreciated. 

Greg, Amy, Paul, Timothy, Ansley, Doreen

The Learning and Teaching Commons is pleased to announce a new resource to support faculty with narrative evaluations. This practical guide includes example narrative evaluations from your colleagues that you can annotate using Hypothesis. We invite you to check out the new module:

A guide to Narrative Evaluation at Evergreen. 

Let us know what you think.  Send your feedback to learningandteaching@evergreen.edu.

If your class is doing something cool this academic year, especially this Fall please email Shandra Witke: your name, the class title, what your class will be doing, and a general idea of the date(s) you will be doing it. 

we are hoping to connect with Faculty to schedule some updated shots. We need photos of:

-Updated classroom and group discussions

-Classroom demonstrations

-Class activities outside the classroom – both on and off-campus

-In the forest

-At the beach

-Off-campus field trips (downtown Olympia, local nature, Study Abroad)

-Class visits to the library or other places on campus 

-Art and design classes like woodshop or ceramics

-Classes in the computer labs or 3D printing lab

-Students making cool stuff or showing off their projects

-Students working and collaborating in the science labs or with science equipment

-Anything fun, engaging, unique, Evergreen

Email Shandra Witke→

Greener Hub is a newly launched resource available to all members of our Evergreen community, including students of all levels, employees, alumni, and campus visitors. We’re the first stop for questions, campus navigation, and support. If you aren’t sure where to go, or need help referring a student, we’re here to help!

Our office is located in Evans Hall 2147, off the main lobby near Holistic Advising and TRIO Student Support. We’re also available by email at GreenerHub@evergreen.edu

Our hours for Fall quarter are:

Monday: 8am – 5pm

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 8am – 7pm

Friday: 8am – 5pm

If you have questions, need flyers, or would like to schedule a class visit, stop by or send us an email!

Learn more →

Starting September 30, 2024 we will be open for appointments!

Hours of Operation for Fall quarter: 

1 to 5 p.m. Monday and Friday, Appointment Only

1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Drop-In

Holidays & Campus Closures are observed.

The Basic Needs Center, CAB 135, is located on the first floor of the CAB building. Separate entrance from the Greenery.

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. Learn more about how to share your work with our community.