Month: January 2015

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Inclusive Teaching Workshop: How does ‘who we are’ affect ‘what we do”?

The UMass Center for Teaching & Faculty Development is hosting a series of diversity-related workshops this spring that are open to Five College faculty.  Please sign up for the first this spring!

What: Positionality: How Does ‘Who We Are’ Affect ‘What We Do’?
Speaker: Dr. Jesse Tauriac
Audience: All instructors
When: Thursday, January 29th from 9 AM to 11 AM
Location: UMass Amherst Campus Center (room given after registration)
Register: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/positionality

DESCRIPTION: Often when educators consider starting classroom discussions about multiculturalism and bias, emphasis is placed on analyzing student viewpoints or societal perspectives about various diverse communities and forms of oppression. Much less considered but, arguably, more important is an exploration of our own personal backgrounds and identity dimensions, and recognition of the ways these shape our perceptions of and experiences with individuals from a range of backgrounds. This two-hour, interactive workshop will guide participants in examining and discussing meaningful aspects of our identities, and drawing links to the ways we engage diverse individuals and multicultural topics.

SPEAKER: Dr. Jesse Tauriac is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Social Sciences at Lasell College. He has delivered trainings on multicultural teaching and mentoring, culturally competent management and service delivery, respectful workplace environments, and building student cross-cultural alliances. His research interests include factors promoting academic engagement and success among racially and ethnically diverse students, particularly Black American males and first generation college students.

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Feb. 2nd Deadline for 5 College Blended Learning Grant Submission

REMINDER: there is a February 2nd deadlin

e for the 2015-2016 Five College Blended Learning grant cycle. There are two separate blended learning grants:

1. Mellon Foundation: 8-10 projects per year, approximately $13,000 per grant for one year, for a blended course in the humanities or humanistic social sciences (multicampus collaboration is possible, but not required);

2. Teagle Foundation: 2-3 projects per year, approximately $15,000-25,000 per grant for one year, for a blended course in any area by a team of faculty members from at least two different Five College institutions.

For more information and application materials, go to https://www.fivecolleges.edu/blended, or contact Rogelio Miñana, Faculty Director of the Five College Blended Learning Program (rminana@mtholyoke.edu) and Nate Therien, Five College Director of Academic Programs (ntherien@fivecollege.edu).

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New Spring Course Explores Enduring Questions about Art

This spring semester marks the start of a new course that explores the enduring question, “What is Art?” The course will be taught by Dr. Karen Koehler, professor of architectural and art history, with support from a $22,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Organized around five concepts (Origins, Authenticity, Spirituality and Transcendence, Mimesis, and Commitment), this course will use selected texts in philosophy alongside literature, film, visual art and performance to probe a series of sub-questions, such as:

  • What is creative expression?
  • What is artistic authenticity?
  • What makes art transcendent?
  • How do artists see themselves?
  • What is political art?

The course features a film series component, including two films at Amherst Cinema, and a trip to New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  A final digital exhibition culminates the course, where students will explore an object of their choice that raises an enduring question about art.

The Enduring Questions grant program sponsored by NEH is a wonderful opportunity to develop new inquiry-based curricula. For more information visit: http://www.neh.gov/grants/education/enduring-questions

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Back to Eval Writing?

Back to eval writing? Check out our resource page on writing student evaluations (under “teaching resources”). There are resources that might be helpful. In particular, check out the work done by some of your colleagues developing guidelines for writing Division II evaluations. It grows out of an evaluation analysis workshop in which they learned that many evaluations were descriptive and lacked evaluative comments that help students know what they are doing well and what they need to work on next.