Wednesday, April 12: “Your Favorite Writing Assignment”
12:00pm-1:00pm; Gendebien Room, lunch provided
Faculty: could your writing assignments use some updating? My Favorite Writing Assignment is back! Join Sue Wenze (Psychology), Rob Root (Mathematics), and Julia Nicodemus (Engineering Studies) for a discussion of their favorite assignments for teaching writing and critical thinking. Open to all faculty. [co-sponsored by the College Writing Program and Skillman Library]
Friday, March 31: “Thoughts about Universal Access and Design”, a panel discussion with Rebecca Brenner (Disability Services, ATTIC), Jill Heilman (ATTIC), Greta Brubaker (Information Technology Services), and a student
12:00om – 1:00pm; 103 Ramer History House; lunch provided
Panelists will talk about universal access and design in a multi-layered way that incorporates both what Lafayette has to offer and what is needed in terms of accessibility. Through the various members of the panel, they will discuss the accommodations that Lafayette offers to the Lafayette community as well as the use and application of tools for accommodation such as the Kurzweil program and how it works with accessible content. The student panelist will offer a first hand perspective on what accessibility means to them and how it impacts their learning process and experience.
Wednesday, March 8-9: “Workshop on Peer Review of Teaching”
Bruce Lenthall (University of Pennsylvania)
3/8- 4:10pm – 6:00pm; 103 Ramer History House
3/9- 11:00am – 1:00pm; 117 Kunkel
As a means of helping colleagues improve as teachers and of providing insight to help evaluate teaching, peer review can be a valuable tool – bringing the value of the collective scholarly process to the realm of teaching and encouraging faculty to think deeply about their teaching aims and how to pursue them. To make the peer review process as effective as possible requires taking a deliberate approach, planning in advance what an institution wants all parties to get out of the project as well as the structure and steps that will make that happen. This is doubly the case when using peer review both to help faculty improve as teachers and to evaluate their teaching for tenure. In this discussion, we will explore the elements of an effective peer review process – from pre-observation consultation through observation to a post-observation discussion and summary – and consider the responsibilities of both the reviewer and the instructor in that process. Along the way, we will work to establish the standards and protocols that make the most sense to apply at Lafayette, keeping in mind accepted effective practices in the field more widely. [co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Teaching and Learning Committee]
Friday, March 3: “Technology Roundtable: Moodle as a Pedagogical Tool”
12:00pm-1, 103 Ramer History House, lunch provided
Michelle Geoffrion-Vinci (Foreign Languages and Literature), Christian Tatu (College Writing Program), Carol Buckley (Psychology), Roxy Swails (Chemistry)
This open roundtable discussion will consider ways in which Moodle – and LMS platforms in general – can be leveraged to go beyond the “digital syllabus.” Highlights will include: collecting anonymous course feedback, leveraging forums to enhance participation and engagement, tools to enable learner-generated collaborative content, generating rubrics to facilitate grading and set clear expectations, and using quizzes for powerful, efficient assessment. [co-sponsored by Information Technology Services]
Friday, February 15: Elizabeth Barre, Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, Rice University
12:00pm-1:00pm; Gendebien Room, lunch provided
Elizabeth Barre will present a workshop on race and gender bias in student evaluations of teaching. (co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Teaching and Learning Committee, Promotions, Tenure and Review Committee)
4:10pm- 6:00pm; location TBD
Elizabeth Barre (Rice University) will present an overview of the research literature on student evaluations of teaching. (co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Teaching and Learning Committee, Promotions, Tenure and Review Committee)
Friday, February 10: “Advocating Diversity: Co-creating Structures for Listening, Learning, and Taking Action”
Alison Cook-Sather, Mary Katharine Woodworth Professor of Education, and Crystal Des-Ogugua, Sociology major and Mellon Mays Fellow, Class of 2017, Bryn Mawr College
12:00pm-1:00pm; 103 Ramer History House, lunch provided
In this interactive discussion, we will share our approach to co-planning an undergraduate course called “Advocating Diversity in Higher Education” that aims to create spaces and provide structures within which students explore dimensions of identity, develop capacities to advocate for themselves, and learn how to listen to others and support their advocacy. We will share examples of structures (environment, activities, and assignments) and discuss how you could adapt these to your own courses.
Friday, February 3: “Technology Roundtable: Teaching with Technology Grantees”
12:00pm-1:00pm; 103 Ramer History House, lunch provided
Brett Hendrickson (Religious Studies), Tim Laquintano (English), Han Luo (Foreign Languages and Literatures), and Chris Ruebeck (Economics) will tell us about their projects exploring new pedagogical strategies augmented by technology to help improve their teaching. (co-sponsored by ITS) [More info about the grant program: https://its.lafayette.edu/teachingtechgrant/]
Wednesday, January 18: “Applying Diversity and Inclusion across the Curriculum”
Dr. Kim Case (Professor of Psychology, Univ. of Houston-Clear Lake)
9:00am-10:00am: a keynote address by Dr. Case (107 OCGE)
10:00am-4:00pm: a workshop lead by Dr. Case (216 OCGE)
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kim Case (Professor of Psychology, Univ. of Houston, Clear Lake) will be visiting Lafayette College to give a keynote address, “Applying Diversity and Inclusion across the Curriculum,” and lead a day-long workshop on developing inclusive and diversity-focused curriculum. Dr. Case is an expert in inclusive pedagogy whose published work includes the books Intersectional Pedagogy: Complicating Identity and Social Justice and Deconstructing Privilege: Teaching and Learning Allies in the Classroom. (See her short bio below.)
There are various ways that you may participate. First, all are invited and welcome to Dr. Case’s keynote address at 9:00am. Second, you may also choose to sign up for the day-long workshop, which will be begin with the keynote and be followed by workshop activities throughout the day, concluding at 4:00pm. Lunch will be provided to workshop participants. Please RSVP to kimberc@lafayette.edu so that we can make lunch reservations for you.
Wednesday, November 30: “What’s in a Name?”
Susan Basow (Psychology), Luis Espinal ’17, Chawne Kimber (Math), Lijuan Xu (Skillman Library), Meihe Xu ’17
Gendebein Room, Skillman Library; lunch provided.
There have been many recent studies about the effect of the proper pronunciation and use of students’ preferred names in the classroom. We will discuss some naming traditions, pronunciations, and the cultural identities conveyed by our names. Some food for thought beforehand:
Key & Peele satire emphasizing cultural dominance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw
An article with strategies for faculty:
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/getting-names-right-personal/
[Sponsored by CITLS, Skillman Library]
Friday, November 11: “A Conversation about Procrastination with Karen Forbes (Counseling Center)”
12:00pm, 103 Ramer History House, lunch provided
Procrastination is often equated with poor time management, but new research has identified emotional and cognitive factors as well. In this workshop she will provide faculty members with an overview of the tools and approaches she uses to help students reduce the negative academic and emotional impact of delaying important academic tasks. [Sponsored by CITLS]
Wednesday, November 9: “Panel on New Approaches to Gateway STEM Education: Biology and Math, Laurie Caslake (Biology), Robert Kurt (Biology), John Meier (Math)”
12:00pm, 103 Ramer History House, lunch provided
The SEA-PHAGES lab is an alternative to our General Biology lab for a select group of 16 students. Through the fall semester, students collect soil samples, isolate bacteriophage (a virus that infects bacteria), and characterize the phage using both molecular biological tools and electron microscopy. At least one phage is sequenced over interim and students use bioinformatics tools through spring semester to identify and annotate the genome for curation at the University of Pittsburgh and the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 125 institutions now use this lab sequence to positively impact student education.
Lafayette is partnered with Bryn Mawr College and ten other institutions to design, deliver, and assess just-in-time support for fundamental computational skills. This semester students in Chemistry 121, Mathematics 161 (and 165), and Physics 111 have been invited to use online materials to build skills and confidence in areas that often inhibit their progress in STEM fields. The hope is that these supports will increase STEM completion rates for all students, particularly low-income, first-generation and under-represented minority students, categories where STEM attrition is particularly acute. This project is funded by a First in the World grant, of the Fund for Improving Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), U. S. Department of Education. [Sponsored by CITLS]
Wednesday, November 2: “Panel Discussion of the College’s Behavioral Health and Safety Committee”
12:00pm, 117 Kunkel Hall, lunch provided
POSTPONED: Monday, October 31: “Kaleidoscope Conversation on Resistant Audiences, small group discussions among faculty and students”
12:00pm, The Marlo Room (Farinon), lunch provided
Kaleidoscope is a student organization whose mission is “to foster greater social justice awareness and facilitate intercultural conversation within our communities.” One way that they pursue this mission is through workshops for students in various courses or groups and often the workshops are required activities for the audience. The Kaleidoscope students have questions for faculty about how to manage conversations with resistant audiences, a problem many of us have in common with them in our classrooms–no matter our division or discipline.
The Kaleidoscope students invite you to participate in small group conversations with them over lunch. Sample discussion questions include: How do you protect your self, values, and identity in the face of the resistance in an audience? And how do you (re)calibrate your relationships with the resistors based on revelations in the conversation? How do you facilitate a rigorous conversation with integrity? Is it necessary to make space for “balance” and “fairness” for all perspectives? [Co-sponsored by CITLS and Kaleidoscope]
Friday, October 28: “Information Literacy Brown Bag with Tamara Carley (Geology) and Jessica Carr (Religious Studies)”
12:00pm, the Gendebein Room of Skillman Library, lunch provided
Our colleagues will discuss how they integrated information literacy into their courses, Geol 321 Geochemistry and REL 306 Jewish Responses to the Holocaust. If you would like to learn more about their endeavors and/or are interested in applying for an information literacy grant for Spring 2017, please join the discussion.
[Co-sponsored by CITLS and Skillman Library]
Thursday, October 20: “How We Talk About Class on Campus, Elizabeth Lee (Ohio University)”
7:15, 104 Kirby Hall
Class is increasingly recognized as an important factor shaping not only whether young adults attend college, but also their experiences as students. This is perhaps especially so at selective colleges, where the vast majority of students are from middle- and upper-income backgrounds. In this talk, sociologist Elizabeth M. Lee discusses the ways that managing class inequality is difficult for college administrations and individual students alike, focusing on the ways that class inequality is talked about–and not–on selective campuses.
[Sponsored by the Office of the Provost]
Wednesday, October 19: Using Creative Practices to Enhance Teaching and Learning in First-Year Seminar Courses, a panel discussion”
12:00pm, 103 Ramer History House, lunch provided
Mary Roth (Civil & Env Engineering), Nestor Gil (Art), Ben Cohen (Engineering Studies), Tim Laquintano (English), Alessandro Giovanelli (Philosophy), Chawne Kimber (Mathematics)
[Co-sponsored by CITLS and the FYS program]
Thursday, October 6: “Moving from Access to Inclusion”, Anthony Jack (Harvard University)
7:30pm, 104 Kirby Hall
What does it mean to be a poor student on a rich campus? This question is all the more important as colleges and universities continue to take affirmative steps to socioeconomically diversity their campuses. In this talk, Dr. Jack examines how class and culture shape how undergraduates navigate college by exploring the “experiential core of college life,” those too often overlooked moments between getting in and graduating. Drawing on data from interviews with 103 undergraduates and two years of ethnographic observation at an elite university alongside administrative and archival data, he interrogates the social and personal costs of exclusion that have implications for undergraduates’ objective opportunities and their social well-being. Anthony (Tony) Jack is a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. After his tenure at the Society of Fellows, Tony will serve as an Assistant Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he will also hold the Shutzer Assistant Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study.
[Co-sponsored by CITLS, Anthropology and Sociology Department, Intercultural Development, and the Office of the Provost]
August 18, August 29 and August 22
A 3-day workshop for new faculty, which includes presentations, conversations, panel discussions, and hands-on activities to introduce new faculty to the expectations and resources for pedagogy at the college.