When you accomplish a goal, don’t look at it as the finish line; look at it as being the starting point for your next achievement. We are at that time of year in most programs where we start to see the end of the annual plans and start thinking ahead to new cohorts. The finish line is in sight and it’s hard to not get excited about it. There is a big change of pace coming up and we strive to find the motivation to get to the end, making sure to finish strong. In our last newsletter, we encouraged you to reflect on the past year and note changes you feel might be needed for the next time you do the same activity. Don’t forget to celebrate your accomplishments too. That exercise is just as important! It will confirm your good work and provide that energy to manage the transition from one academic year into the next. As educators, we all know that there is always room for improvement, but there also are many successes along the way that we shouldn’t ignore. Taking the time for that reflection can be productive for lesson and course improvement as well as your own personal teaching philosophy and goals. Education isn’t something you can finish. You may be getting course and teaching evaluations soon too. It is really easy to dread reading through those, but approach that effort with an open and positive mindset. Understand that some comments can be considered outliers, positive or negative, and that there is useful information in what might not be included in the comments. As we have often been told, no news is good news. Use those rating in a constructive way to help you see what went well and what might warrant attention. Work with a trusted peer to discuss the results in the context of the whole course and program. Then take action to make modifications while things are still fresh in your mind. You will feel more confident and much better prepared when it’s time to teach those same lessons again. Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. – Saint Francis of Assisi, Italian Catholic preacher Even though we won’t be publishing newsletters during the summer months, we are still here in CTL to assist you. Just like athletes have people to help them train, please consider us your personal trainers to achieve your instructional goals. Continued success, Kerry Dr. Kerry Gregoryk, CTL Director Upcoming Workshops
SoTL CornerEach month, CTL will share links to articles and multimedia items of interest that fit current DMU activities. These will be archived with each newsletter for your future reference.
Brenda Gunderson on Active Learning in Large Classes Brenda Gunderson, an award-winning lecturer featured in ACUE's Course in Effective Teaching Practices, shares the origins of her famed cartwheels and discusses other active learning strategies to use in large classes. (The Q Blog) Students Who Don’t Participate in Class Aren’t All Introverts Todd Zakrajsek illuminates the different motivations students have for shying away from active engagement in class discussions and suggests strategies for encouraging participation. (The Scholarly Teacher) Conserving Your Teaching Energy Neil Baldwin lists small steps instructors can take for their well-being to ensure that they are mentally, physically, and emotionally equipped to meet the demands of teaching today’s students. (Vitae) Living in the Real World Refuting the idea that colleges should withhold special accommodations for mental health disabilities to prepare students for the working world, Cate Denial argues that, for many students, college is the “real world,” and these accommodations allow students to successfully participate in their education. (Cate Denial) How Does Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Feel? Using poems written by students and teachers, Kathleen Quinlan points out that embracing positive emotions helps instructors cultivate key relationships in higher education—between students, instructors and students, and students and their environments. (The Bera Blog) What will learning look like in 2025? How will technologies such as virtual reality teaching assistants and immersive learning experiences impact higher education in the coming years? (eCampus News) Literacy Levels Among College Students Considering our students’ literacy development and ability, we need to assist them with interacting with the readings we assign. We need to help them access our disciplinary texts and support them in their growth as readers. (Faculty Focus April 17. 2017) Helping Students Discover What They Can Do Telling students that they can learn something just doesn’t work. Student have to discover for themselves what they can do. (Faculty Focus April 26, 2017) Building Rapport: Moving Beyond Teacher Characteristics to Actions that Promote Learning When it comes to connecting with students, good relationships and good rapport go hand in hand. The desired rapport develops when faculty are friendly, approachable, respectful, and caring toward students. And how do students respond to professors who’ve established good rapport? (Faculty Focus April 19, 2017) From Written to Digital: The New Literacy Students need to learn how to write and think digitally, not only as a prerequisite for many employment opportunities, but also to help them gain intellectual independence, Phil Ventimiglia and George Pullman write. (EDUCAUSE Review) Students Can Be Parents, Too An instructor who attended college as a single mother offers a list of suggestions for instructors that could help nontraditional students stay in school. (The Chronicle of Higher Education) Getting Our Students Wrong David Gooblar advises instructors to avoid falling prey to the initial assumptions they form about students, and to understand how these biases can impact their understanding of student learning. (Pedagogy Unbound) “How Do I Reach These Kids?”: An Experiment in Gamification In order to test out the merits of game-based learning, an instructor gamified her marketing curriculum so that students progress through “quests” that increase in difficulty based on prior performance. (Teaching & Learning Innovations) Immersing Yourself With Intention Laura Schram offers suggestions for making the most of “immersives,” which give graduate students the opportunity to sample prospective careers, network, and learn more about organizations that interest them without committing to full programs or internships. (Inside Higher Ed)
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