Winter Pedagogy Series
The Pedagogy Series runs every January, with sessions offered across the month, to help instructors with their pedagogical preparations for courses starting in February.
Perched between the busy Fall and Spring, Winter provides opportunities to reflect on last semester and think anew about the work of the semester ahead. Join us as we revisit objectives, retool, and learn together effective approaches to this essential work.
2026 Winter Pedagogy Series Schedule
Theme: Teaching with Intention
In a moment marked by technological disruption, shifting institutional landscapes, and the ongoing challenge of connecting meaningfully with students, teaching with intention is necessary work. The CTLR’s January ‘26 Pedagogy Series creates space to ask the questions that matter: What kind of teacher do I want to be? What actually supports student learning? How do I sustain myself in this work?
Intention emerges through practice. It means learning from the unplanned moments that reveal who we are as educators. It requires honest attention to our own well-being. It involves designing courses that align with both evidence-based practice and our deepest educational values, even as we navigate rapidly evolving tools and expectations. And it depends on building the trust and academic integrity that make genuine learning communities possible.
This series offers workshops, conversations, and dedicated work time, not as prescriptive solutions, but as opportunities to think alongside colleagues who share your commitment to teaching that matters. Come as you are. Bring your questions, your uncertainties, and your desire to teach more intentionally in a world that often makes that difficult.
For a full list of events for registration see the CTLR Events calendar.
Week 1 - January 6-8, 2026
MBH 169 (Q-Center)
Learning from Unplanned Teaching Moments: Critical Incident Analysis for Reflective and Impactful Pedagogies [Part I]
Our teaching does not always go as planned. How might we learn from these experiences, on our own and with our colleagues? This session, led by Netta Avineri, Executive Director of the Conflict Transformation Collaborative, introduces “critical incident analysis” as a meaningful tool for exploring unexpected events in our teaching. This approach foregrounds storytelling, storylistening, vulnerability, and honesty through both individual and collaborative engagement. We will discuss what “critical incident analysis” is (describing the incident in detail; critically analyzing its handling; considering future actions; and exploring what this means about our role as professionals) and how it can be used for ongoing reflective practice. We will then apply this approach to pedagogical case studies (outside of Middlebury contexts), before setting goals for session #2.
MBH 169 (Q-Center)
Learning from Unplanned Teaching Moments: Critical Incident Analysis for Reflective and Impactful Pedagogies [Part II]
In our second session, we will reflect upon session #1 and create collective goals. We will then explore critical incidents in our own teaching practice, individually and in small groups. In particular, we will highlight the roles of both feedback (focused on past teaching experiences) and feedforward (a future-oriented focus) in cultivating teaching philosophies, teaching persona, and teacher identities that resonate in our professional lives and pedagogical contexts.
MBH 169 (Q-Center)
Who supports the supporters? How are faculty/staff taking care of themselves?
Borrowing from the adage that you can’t pour from an empty cup, and the wisdom of community healing, the CTLR and Kristin Hocker invite you to pause the focus on “doing” and shift it to how we are “being.” In light of the frequent inundation of political uncertainty, constant change, organizational transitions, and the communal grief of Lia Smith’s passing, this conversation is an opportunity to come together as a community to process how are you tending to your feelings and needs, how are you taking care of yourself, and what is supporting you to be present in your role? In an opportunity for communal sharing, participants will engage in spaces where they can be open about their experiences and emotions, and find ways to extend grace to themselves and others.
Week 2 - January 12-15, 2026
MBH 169 (Q-Center)
Course (Re)Design Institute (Three Days)
Are you looking to shake up a course, rediscover what excites you about a topic, and make your teaching feel more meaningful? The Course (Re)Design Institute offers three days of dedicated space to intentionally design or refresh a course, grounded in research-based practices that support student learning. Whether you’re building something new from the ground up or re-imagining a course that’s been on your mind, this institute provides the structure, evidence-based tools, and support to make it happen—on your terms. Join us this winter term to get a head start on spring course prep!
Please visit the DLINQ Course (Re)Design Institute webpage for more information, including what to expect, a daily schedule, and how to register. Note: A Zoom version of this institute will be held the third week of Winter Term.
The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Academic Integrity in the Age of AI
This event will be in-person and streamed (link coming soon). If you attend in-person, the talk will be followed by a dinner discussion from 5:45-7 pm in the Q-Center (MBH 202).
Higher education stands at a crossroads. Economic, cultural, and technological forces are encouraging and permitting students to cheat in new and more pervasive ways. Generative AI has rendered current assessment regimes obsolete and called traditional pedagogical strategies into question across disciplines. How then, is an instructor to respond in the face of overwhelming change?
In this talk, David Rettinger, coauthor of The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI, will outline a positive approach to academic integrity, one that focuses on student learning and relies on evidence-based principles for guiding our policies, practices, and pedagogy. He will discuss practical strategies that allow instructors to craft nuanced responses to artificial intelligence products, to reflect on what really matters and to foreground human interactions that foster student growth.
Week 3 - January 20 & 22, 2026
MBH 169 (Q-Center)
When Cheating Rears Its Ugly Head: How to Talk with Students about Honor Code Violations
What should we do when we strongly suspect a student of having broken the honor code? What are the best practices for approaching students in such cases? How can we build trust and a spirit of academic integrity, especially when generative A.I. now makes cheating so easy and so tempting? Join us for a discussion organized by the Academic Integrity Committee with faculty and students who have been through the judicial process and come out the other side intact.
MBH 169 (Q-Center)
Writing Effective Letters of Recommendation
Join Hannah Benz, Mary Lothrop, and Lisa Gates for a conversation about writing letters of recommendation for different purposes: fellowships, medical school, summer research, and graduate programs. What makes recommendations most effective? How can you tailor letters for different purposes? We will discuss the style, content, and purpose of different letters, point out potential pitfalls and possible remedies, and analyze examples.
2026 Organizing Committee
Sayaka Abe, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies
Emma Guiberson, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Paul Hess, Assistant Professor of Physics
Sarah Lohnes-Watulak, DLINQ Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media
Amy Morsman, CTLR Director, Professor of History
Danielle Simon, Assistant Professor of Music
Jill Strube, CTLR Center Coordinator
Hector Vila, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric
Past Winter Pedagogy Series
2025 - Winter Pedagogy Series (Focus on Generative AI)
2024 - Learning Is the Goal
2023 - Learning Lessons from Ourselves and Each Other
Note: Prior to 2026 this series was called the Contemporary Teaching Series.