Category: TLW

See details about your classroom online

Posted on by Rick Barth

The College’s room reservation platform (EMS) is loaded with helpful information about your classroom.

A step-by-step example

I see at HornetHQ (I needed my short form username and password) that I’m teaching in Olds Upton Hall, Room 207 this term. Click here for a post with more details about how to find details about your class.

I go to Hornet Hive and then select “Facilities Calendar” from the left side menu. I’m prompted to sign in again with my short form username and password (this is a separate service, so needs a separate login)

Once there I choose “Locations” from the left side menu

Now I’ll click on Add/Remove Locations and select Olds Upton Science Hall from the resulting popup window

I select the room I want from the resulting list and I see lots of information that will help me plan my class, including images of the space:

What we have lost, and what remains — TLW Fall 2020

Posted on by Rick Barth

In the Teaching and Learning Workshop this morning, we spent some time in individual reflection around the question “What have I lost in this time of the pandemic, and what remains?”. When we shared our thoughts with each other, we notice themes of grief and mourning we share in common.

First we noticed that our lives have felt less satisfying in a fundamental way without the spontaneity and energy of seeing, interacting and responding to colleagues and students face-to-face.

Second, we noticed a feeling that we have lost control: in pre-pandemic times we felt that we understood and had a firm grasp on the structures of the academy — courses, curricula, fora for sharing our scholarly work. Our sense of familiarity in that system, with norms and manners accumulated layer-by-layer over centuries, was hard won. In fact our graduate educations were designed for exactly that purpose. Without those structures as they previously existed, we feel especially the loss of the ability to plan for a predictable future. We also noticed feeling that we had lost our clear sense of our various identities (professor, parent, etc.) with the loss of spatial and temporal separation between home and work.

And what remains in us even during the pandemic? We noticed that though we feel the loss of spontaneous interactions, we are struck by the generosity of colleagues as we work together and encourage each other in facing this challenge. Especially gratifying is the sense that we remember, in this light, that academic life in pre-pandemic times could feel like a very solitary enterprise.

We noticed, too, that with our eyes open anew to age-old inequalities baked into traditional academic structures, we can bring our creativity and energy to bring forth fairer, more equitable structures. One clear example of that might be the Liberal Arts Experience itself. As we mourn the loss face-to-face instruction at this moment in the history of the College, we also remember throughout academia in recent pre-pandemic times there was a great deal of soul-searching about how to regenerate the sense of vitality and relevance Liberal Arts education might have in the 21st century. We notice in our work to re-imagine our lives of online teaching and learning, green shoots begin to emerge that will endure when the pandemic has passed for the good of the Liberal Arts spirit.

This summer a group of 25 K College faculty participated in a 3-part online workshop lead by Kalamazoo poet and philosopher Mark Nepo. The first two sessions focused on the profound changes we as instructors and scholars are experiencing in the time of the pandemic, and what remains unchanged within us that we bring to the task of making our future. Among many readings, Mark shared with us a short piece by the eminent American poet and liberal arts professor (Lewis and Clark College) William Stafford:

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

The Way It Is, William Stafford

TLW Library Resource List

Posted on by Rick Barth

Liaison Librarians

Teaching and Learning Workshop, September 3–6 2019

Posted on by Rick Barth

Teaching and Learning Workshop Agenda

All Session will take place in the Teaching Commons (Dewing 206) unless otherwise noted.

Workshop Goals: Teaching purposefully and creating a “connected education”

  • Create and sustain a community of learner-teachers 
  • Increase our understanding of, and appreciation for, the diversity of learners and teachers 
  • Explore how that diversity affects teaching and learning 
  • Develop a common language for teaching and learning 
  • Catalyze conversations about teaching and learning among the faculty 
  • Foster a dynamic campus culture centered on teaching and learning 
  • Situate educating students within the K environment 

Tuesday, 3 September 2019

5 – 7 p.m.          Dinner and informal introduction to the workshop and each other

Attire: very casual

Location: Home of Jan Solberg . Rides can be arranged as needed.

Logistics: Partners, spouses, and children are invited. Vegetarian and omnivore food choices will be served in back yard (weather permitting). Workshop participants will gather for 15 minutes in microteaching groups to preview the weeks work.

Introductions: Name, Department, Where you’re coming to K from, and…

  • What is the best or most absurd  “ice-breaker” question you’ve encountered?

  As an example, a previous TLW used “what color is your academic discipline?”

Preview of Wednesday’s Microteaching Assignment (more information will be provided at Monday’s gathering): teach a 10-minute segment that will introduce your focal course and make use of knowledge you gained from reading How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice, Chapter 2: Key Findings. Do try to imagine that your microteaching audience is composed of K College students. Please note that your segment should attempt to make a connection between your class and the reading. The debriefing sessions afterwards will also discuss how your class and the reading are connected.

[Donovan, M. S., Bransford, J. D., and J. W. Pellegrino, Editors; Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, National Research Council. 2000. How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice.]

Why did we choose this reading?

The most important goal of teaching is student learning and all teachers want their students to learn. Most of us agree that learning implies that a student can use concepts and skills taught long after leaving the classrooms and in situations different from the classroom environment. Effective instructional design therefore requires us to know something about how students (people) learn and how different teaching strategies achieve different learning outcomes. This reading provides a few fundamental results from the research on learning and some implications for effective teaching. The reading encourages us to explore the research on teaching and learning as we purposefully decide on content, teaching strategies, activities, and assessment choices for our individual courses.

Note: All TLW readings are intended to introduce ideas related to teaching and learning. Readings do not offer the “best” ideas or comprehensive coverage of a particular topic. Readings are really only meant to get us thinking about something together.

Wednesday, 4 September 2019

8:00 – 8:30        Breakfast at the Teaching Commons, 206 Dewing (attendance expected)

8:30 – 8:45       Opening Welcome from Provost Danette Johnson

8:45 – 11:15      Workshop Sessions for Microteaching (Dewing Hall classrooms)

11:15 – 12:00    General discussion of how to match teaching approaches to how students learn

12:00 – 1:00      Lunch

1:00 – 1:45        Discuss guidelines and scenario for Wednesday’s microteaching segment and sign-up for Wednesday’s dinner hosted by Provost Danette Johnson  

2:00 – 2:20       Dewing Commons Introductions:  Center for International Programs, Center for Career and Professional Development, Center for Civic Engagement (Dewing 1st floor lobby)

2:30– 3:30       Student Development:  Office of the Dean, Counseling Services (Stu Dev Conf Room)

6:00 – 8:00       Dinner at Provost Danette Johnson’s home (attire: informal, casual) Partners, spouses and children are invited; RSVP sign-up at dinner Tuesday

Preview of Thursday’s Microteaching Assignment: teach a 10-minute segment of your focal course employing knowledge you gained from reading Saunders and Kardia (2016) in order to promote student learning in an environment of diversity and inclusiveness.

[Saunders, S. and D. Kardia. Creating Inclusive College Classrooms. Accessed July 25, 2016 ]

Why did we choose this reading?

Kalamazoo College strives to be an institution where all students feel that they belong and are able to reach their full academic potential. Fostering a sense of belonging is important to all students’ academic success and psychosocial wellbeing, and especially to students who may see themselves as marginalized. To achieve these goals, we promote inclusive classrooms where students and instructors work together to build an environment in which everyone feels safe and supported. This reading presents potential issues related to content, assumptions, and classroom activities. The reading offers practical suggestions that might be helpful, or at least act as the beginning of a conversation.

Thursday, 5 September 2019

8:00 – 8:30        Breakfast at the Teaching Commons (attendance expected)      

8:30 – 11:15      Workshop Sessions for Microteaching (Dewing Hall classrooms)

11:15 – 12:00    General discussion of how to creating inclusive classrooms

12:00 – 1:00      Lunch

1:00 – 1:45        Discuss guidelines and scenario for Thursday’s microteaching segment

2:00 – 3:30        New Faculty Orientation Event: Library resources (IS, IT, Learning Commons, Circulation, Acquisitions) and mandatory Title IX training  (First floor Library)

Preview of Friday’s Microteaching Assignment: teach a 10-minute segment of your focal course that helps students “learn through experience” (Best Practices in Experiential Learning) in your course at Kalamazoo College. Accomplishing this task might be easier after thinking about the K-Plan, how you could use structured reflection in some way in your course (see the one-pager about structured reflection at K. 

Schwartz, Michelle (accessed July 28, 2017). Best Practices in Experiential Learning. 

Why did we choose this reading?

At Kalamazoo College we believe in experiential learning; i.e. learning from experience or learning by doing. Such learning occurs in every dimension of the K-Plan. However, having experiences is not enough; having experience presents the promise of learning, but to learn students must reflect on their experiences and analyze the outcomes. This reading helps define experiential learning and provides guidelines for how to incorporate experiential activities into our courses. It also discusses the role of the instructor and how to end the activity through student reflection. In short, the reading provides some ideas for how to incorporate experiential learning into our courses.

Friday, 6 September 2019

8:00 – 8:30        Breakfast at the Teaching Commons (attendance expected)      

8:30 – 11:15      Workshop Sessions for Microteaching (Dewing 2nd floor classrooms)

11:15 – 12:00    Presentation of backwards design and the K syllabus

12:00 – 1:00      Lunch with participants from the 2018 TLW

1:00 – 1:45        One Year Later:  Perspectives and Insights on the first year of teaching at K

1:45 – 2:00        Introduction to Mentoring Expectations and Workshop Evaluation

2:00 – 2:30        New Faculty Orientation Event: Business Office, HR, Registrar (Mandelle Lobby)

2:30 – 5:00        Follow-up appointments with Jennifer Williams, Human Resources (Mandelle 201)