September 2008 - Posts

• Announcements: 9-29-08

  TEACH Coffee Talk:  We are so excited to begin our new Coffee Talk series and hope that you will join us Tuesday, September 30th to discuss student motivation and preparedness.  If you are interested in attending, please be sure to register online and email Micah with any questions or specific topics you’d like to discuss.    John Burns Conference:  Be sure to sign up for the 7th Annual John M. Burns Conference on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.  There will be two sessions on Friday, October 3rd featureing Dr. Susie Whittington who will be presenting the following sessions: Classrooms: Your Database for Publishing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (could be helpful for your teach project) and Teaching with Flair’\(Fla(a)/(e)r, n. [fr. Flairier 1: natural ability or capacity].  Plus, lunch will be served!  Be sure to register online and call Tina to let her know if you'll be there for lunch.   Peer Observation Consultations:  I think we’ve heard from almost everyone, but if you haven’t set up an appointment with your consultant for your fall peer group consultation, please schedule that as soon as possible.  If you have any questions, please let you consultant know!   Mentors:  Have you met with your mentor?  Please be sure to schedule an initial meeting with your mentor sometime soon so you can begin to establish what type of role your mentor will take in the completion of your Teaching Portfolio and TEACH Project.    Activity Contract:  Your activity contract is due to your consultant on Oct. 9th.  If you have questions about what the activity contract entails, check out the TEACH Wiki and/or talk to your TEACH consultant.   Posted Sep 29 2008, 01:54 PM by mmeixner with no comments Filed under: TEACH, Reminders, Upcoming Events

• Test Composition

  Can you believe it is almost October!  The semester is officially underway and exams are already starting or will be starting soon.  As you begin to create exams for your students or as you look back over exams you’ve already written.  Take a look at these resources on Writing and Grading Essay Questions and Improving Multiple Choice Questions from the University of North Carolina.  They offer some great suggestions on how to create reliable tests that correctly measure what you want students to learn. Posted Sep 29 2008, 11:31 AM by mmeixner with no comments Filed under: TEACH, Tests

• Team Teaching with Faculty Members

  Many of you are currently co-teaching courses with faculty members and know that this can be both a rewarding and challenging experience.  The Fall 2007 Speaking of Teaching Newsletter focuses on Faculty/TA Teaching Teams, making recommendations on how to establish a productive and successful teaching team.  Although this article is geared more towards faculty members, I think it provides great insight into the faculty/TA relationship and it has some great suggestions for what TAs can do to improve this relationship.   To view this article, please go to the Speaking of Teaching website and select the second link: Vol. 17, No. 1 - Faculty/TA Teaching Teams.  I'm sorry I can't provide a direct link!  For some reason when the direct link opened, it wouldn't show the content.  Posted Sep 22 2008, 09:09 AM by mmeixner with no comments Filed under: TEACH

• Announcements: 9-22-08

  TEACH Coffee Talk:  We are so excited to begin our new Coffee Talk series and hope that you will join us next Tuesday, September 30th to discuss student motivation and preparedness.  If you are interested in attending, please be sure to register online and email Micah (micah.meixner@ttu.edu) with any questions or specific topics you’d like to discuss.   Peer Observation Consultations:  If you haven’t set up an appointment with your consultant for your fall peer group consultation, please schedule that as soon as possible.  If you have any questions, please let you consultant know!   Mentors:  Have you met with your mentor?  Please be sure to schedule an initial meeting with your mentor sometime soon so you can begin to establish what type of role your mentor will take in the completion of your Teaching Portfolio and TEACH Project.  As you schedule this meeting, remember that your Activity Contract is due on October 9th and must be signed by your mentor.   Posted Sep 22 2008, 09:06 AM by mmeixner with no comments Filed under: TEACH, Reminders, Events

• Announcements 9-16-08

  TEACH Lunch Series: Are you having problems coming up with a TEACH project?  Then don’t miss this week’s TEACH Lunch Series!  Several of last year’s TEACH fellows will be there to talk to you about their TEACH project and what it takes to be successful in that endeavor.  We’ll meet in room 153 from 12:00-1:00 and lunch will be served.  Be sure to register online so we can get a head count for food.   Registration for your fall workshop hours was due last Friday.  If you haven’t signed up for at least 10 hours, please be sure to go online and sign up for more classes!   Please set up an appointment with your consultants for your fall peer group consultation by Friday, September 19th.  Remember that the observations don’t have to be done by Friday…just the final meeting date.  If you have any questions, please let your consultant know!   Posted Sep 16 2008, 09:05 AM by mmeixner with no comments Filed under: TEACH, TEACH Lunch Series, Reminders, Project

• Getting More “Teaching” out of “Testing” and “Grading”

  Hopefully your students are beginning to settle in and everything is progressing well in your classes.  As you begin (or continue) to grade your students’ assignments and think about test construction, consider this article, Getting More “Teaching” out of “Testing” and “Grading,” from Stanford University’s Newsletter Speaking of Teaching.  In the article Kelly McGonigal provides a range of ideas and suggestions for establishing meaningful methods of assessment that range from assignment creation to feedback.  Check it out and let me know what you think! Posted Sep 16 2008, 09:00 AM by mmeixner with no comments Filed under: TEACH, assessment

• Announcements: 9-9-08

  Hello!  Don’t forget that your fall workshop registration is due by Friday, September 12th.  By Friday you need to have signed up for at least 10 workshop hours.  If you are interested in attending more than 10 hours of workshops, please do!  You know we love to see you around the TLTC as much as possible!  Also be sure to watch for the TEACH events such as the Lunch Series and Coffee Talks.  These are great opportunities to earn some credit and get to know your cohort!    Also, if you haven’t been in contact with your peer groups please take a minute and send out an email or two.  By Friday, Septermber 19th we would like for you to determine a schedule for your peer observations and your consultation at the end of the semester.  Be sure to let your consultant know when you have gotten everything scheduled…it will save you from our nagging. J  If you have any questions, let us know!   Last thing, I believe that everyone has selected a mentor, so we will begin contacting those individuals within the next week.  We will officially invite them to serve as your mentor and will outline details of the program and tell them a little bit about what you are thinking of doing for your TEACH project.  That’s all for now…if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask!   Posted Sep 09 2008, 08:39 AM by mmeixner with no comments Filed under: TEACH, Reminders

• Is giving students a complete set of notes a good idea?

  A popular topic for debate is whether or not instructors should provide their students with notes from their lecture or PowerPoint presentation.  Take a look at these results from a Faculty Focus poll.  What do you think?  Is giving students a complete set of notes a good idea?  Why or why not?  If you don’t provide them with a complete set of notes, what do you provide?  I’d love to hear what you think! Posted Sep 08 2008, 03:13 PM by mmeixner with 2 comment(s) Filed under: TEACH, Notes

• Learning Your Students' Names

  Hello!  Welcome to the TEACH Blog!  Each week (usually on Monday or Tuesday) I will post a new article or topic, generally related to SoTL or the job search, which we’d love for you to check out and discuss with us if you are interested.  If you ever have any problem accessing the article or website, be sure to let me know!   Research shows that one of the fastest ways to connect with your students and help increase student motivation and engagment is by learning and using their names.  Here are a couple of links that offer some insight into learning your students’ names.  Take a look at the following posting from Tomorrow’s Professor, Learning Your Students’ Names, and Not Quite 101 Ways to Learning Students' Names from the University of Virginia for some practical suggestions for learning your students’ names.  There are some really great suggestions and it's not too late to get started; hopefully at least one can work for you!    Posted Sep 02 2008, 08:35 AM by mmeixner with 1 comment(s) Filed under: TEACH, first week of class, Student-Teacher Relationship