Upcoming Events
Online Course Design Institute
July 27-29, 2020 or August 5-7, 2020: The three day institute walks you through the process of designing an entire course to best promote inclusive and accessible student learning no matter the learning environment this fall. Each day, synchronous sessions with the CTL will be complemented with small group breakout rooms based on discipline, learning goal, or assignment / assessment type. Participants will also be expected to complete nightly homework toward the goal of building their course, with a total expected commitment of 4-5 hours per day over the 3 days. Only 75 participants will be allowed per institute.
RSVP for July 27-29 at: https://forms.gle/9gFkr55rJ7ALJo9i9
RSVP for August 5 – 7 at: https://forms.gle/hpegJQrZkzwt1C1q7
Fall Pre-Semester Workshop
“6 Ways to Build A More Inclusive Community Into Your Online Classes”
Many faculty, especially those who have primarily taught in-person courses, are worried that the online experience this fall won’t lend itself to the kind of authentic and caring classroom communities they’ve experienced in the past. However, there are promising practices out there that are easy to implement and have shown themselves effective at building inclusive and welcoming online classrooms. In this workshop, we will explore some of these practices, workshop ways to embed them in your courses from the very first day, and reflect on our own role in promoting antiracist, equitable, and accessible online classrooms.
RSVP at: https://forms.gle/rbyv1sPVH1mgi5J58 A zoom webinar link will be distributed 24 hrs before the event.
Other CTL Events
Looking for more information on our recurring events?
Guilt-Free Book Club and Faculty Learning Communities have their own pages with more details.
Past Events
Building Community in Online Spaces
A virtual conversation with Dr. Mellissa Eblen-Zayas, Director of the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching at Carleton College (MN). Dr. Eblen-Zayas co-developed the highly successful CUBE summer bridge program at Carleton with Pomona’s own Janet Russell, which helped new students transition to college life through online community- building activities. The link to view this webinar is: https://youtu.be/hITkWZnefc0
Spring Workshop Series: My Class was going fine! But Now it’s Online??
In response to the transition to online instruction, the CTL has adapted our Spring Workshop Series (Originally titled, My Teaching is Great! But…) to focus on how to adapt the excellent things you do as a teacher successfully into an online format. This will be a space for troubleshooting and practical tips on how to effectively adapt specific aspects of your course to reach your students in this new venue.
March 31 @ 1:15 or April 1 @ 3:30: My Discussions were Great! But Now They’re Online?
April 21 @ 1:15 or April 22 @ 3:30: My Exams were Great! But Now They’re Online?
May 12 @ 1:15 or May 13 @ 3:30: My Student Evals were Great! But Now They’re Online?
Preparing to Move Your Course Online
Spring Teaching Tune Up
A free mini-conference on effective and inclusive teaching.
The Tune Up Line Up:
Ungrading – Michelle Decker, Scripps
Open Educational Resources for Teaching – Jennifer Beamer, Library
Wicked Course Design – Sadie Otte, KeckSci and Mary Hatcher-Skeers, KeckSci & CTL
Accommodations and Access to Education – Megan Gallagher, CMC
Course Design for Community Engagement – Jessica Tinklenberg, CTL
Beyond Grading: Inclusive Assessment Practices – Paula Gutierrez, Pitzer
Online Instructional Design – Yi Luo, HMC
Preparing for Difficult Classroom Moments – Deborah Faye Carter, CGU & CTL
Breakfast, Lunch, and reception included.
Wednesday, January 15th, 9am-4pm HMC Shanahan 2450, 2454, 2460
What Your Students Want You To Know About...
Educational Access and Disability
Catherine Calhoun from the Student Disability Resource Center will share information about new programs the SDRC has developed to help faculty better accommodate students.
Thursday, September 19th, 12-1pm @ Honnold Mudd Library, Honnold Conference Room
Open Classroom Week
The first Open Classroom week was September 23rd-September 27th!
Teachers across the campuses will open their classrooms to other teachers, so they can observe and experience different types of teaching.
Building Welcoming Gateway Courses
Introductory courses are the gateway to upper division courses and majors. Some students call these “weed out” courses because they perceive them as difficult to pass. It is important that these courses welcome all students with an interest in these fields.
This workshop will discuss the importance of creating equitable learning environments where all students, regardless of educational background, can succeed in gateway courses and continue within majors.
Participants will be exposed to research describing the positive effects of building a sense of belonging in our classes and effective techniques for making their courses welcoming while retaining their rigor and content.
What Your Students Want You To Know About...
The Chicano Latinx Student Experience
Tony Jimenez from the Chicano Latino Student Affairs center shared information about how Latinx students experience the Claremont Colleges.
Preparing for Difficult Moments in the Classroom
Difficult Moments in class can arise from our tense political times, incidents of hate/intolerant speech in class, campus crises, or otherwise challenging personalities and interactions. Do you as a faculty member feel prepared to handle these moments and interactions? How might we prepare ahead of time to be ready for such moments?
Participants in the workshop will discuss various scenarios around difficult interactions and focus on creating safe and engaging classrooms. We will learn strategies for addressing challenging topics and tense incidents, and reflect on ways we can structure our classes and our interactions with students to facilitate communication and positive educational environments for students.
Mindsets Workshop 2: Who are my students?
Several recent studies have shown that the ways we think and talk about our students can have a significant impact on their college success. With the help of these studies, participants in this workshop will interrogate common educational phrases like “weed-out classes,” “grit,” and “students today can’t …” to determine what ways of thinking might lie behind them, and what the impact of such thinking might be. Participants will use this knowledge to begin to reformulate one assignment or lecture to better encourage student learning and success.
Building Welcoming Departments
Is your department welcoming? Do students feel encouraged to major in your field? Do students know how to navigate your major? Does your department foster a community for students, faculty and staff?
This workshop will discuss the importance and benefits of creating transparent, inclusive, and welcoming departments.
Participants will be exposed to research describing the positive effects of building belonging in our departments. We will discuss examples of obstacles students face (hidden prerequisites, when courses are offered, microaggressions) and suggest remediation strategies. We will also discuss different easy to implement strategies for engaging and welcoming students at all levels (first years through declared majors).
Teaching is Hard, Have Some Wine
The CTL invites all mid-career faculty to our first ever “Teaching is Hard, Have some Wine” reception. Your colleagues at the CTL will be on hand to answer questions and facilitate conversation about the unique challenges and opportunities of mid-career teaching. We’ll even have some great books to give away!
Difficult Moments 2
This is the second workshop focusing on “Difficult Moments in the Classroom.” The first provided a broad introduction and discussion of strategies that faculty can employ to effectively manage challenging course interactions.
In “Difficult Moments 2”, we will discuss in-depth strategies to develop classroom community, and specific ways to plan for high-stakes and/or controversial topics, and unexpected events and hot moments. There will be a few minutes of review from the previous workshop with the bulk of the workshop focused on new material. A particular focus of the workshop will be on successfully facilitating challenging classroom discussions. You need not have attended the previous workshop to participate in this one.
Presenters: Deborah Faye Carter
Wednesday, Dec 4th, 4:15-5:30pm, Honnold Mudd Library, Digital Toolshed
Thursday, Dec 5th, 11am-12:15pm, Honnold Mudd Library, Keck Classroom
Mindsets Workshop 3: Classrooms and Teaching
Have you heard that students who use laptops in class don’t learn as much as those who handwrite their notes? Or, that active learning is the opposite of lecturing? In this last “Mindsets” workshop, we’ll do a little myth-busting about teaching strategies and classroom approaches and then learn together some proven ways to help all your students succeed.
Monday, December 9th 10 AM – 11:15 AM Honnold Mudd Library, Honnold Conference Room
Tuesday, December 10th 3 PM- 4:15 PM Honnold Mudd Library Keck Classroom