In her presentations for the Contemporary Teaching Series in January, Alex Shevrin Venet outlined four key priorities to trauma-informed educational practices—predictability, flexibility, empowerment, and connection. While acknowledging there is creative tension between these four proactive priorities, and no simple formula for turning them into practice, she shared ways to approach them in the classroom. Recorded talks and event resources are available from the 2022 series on holistic, embodied approaches to teaching and learning. Read more
Becky Thompson’s Contemporary Teaching talk in January directly addressed a topic of concern for many Middlebury faculty—lower levels than expected of class attendance and participation. The pandemic has disrupted so much in the lives of our students and, not surprisingly, their connection to their education. Recorded talks and event resources are available from the 2022 series on holistic, embodied approaches to teaching and learning. Read more
As students’ ability to attend classes in-person continues to be disrupted, faculty are encouraged to accommodate students through non-hyflex and hyflex methods and reach out to the CTLR and DLINQ as needed. Dean of Faculty Sujata Moorti, and Deans Jim Ralph and Grace Spatafora emailed, “This may include sharing your notes and power point slides on canvas, meeting with students during office hours, creating a buddy system among students, or establishing small learning communities.” Read full message.
Ben Morris ’22 received a Keasbey Scholarship to support graduate study at Cambridge University and Middlebury alumni Darren Chen, Amani Core and Christina Wiremu-Brook were selected as Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Read more.
Director of Research and Instruction Carrie Macfarlane interviews Michelle McCauley, Professor of Psychology, about collaborating with a librarian to teach a research methods class. Read more.
On January 24, Peer Writing Tutor Jack Torpey ‘24 and Director of the Writing Center Professor Genie Giaimo, presented on college students’ meaningful writing experiences as part of the 2022 Contemporary Teaching Series. The talk began with insights from the book The Meaningful Writing Project: Learning, Teaching, and Writing in Higher Education, followed by the results of an on-campus study conducted by Torpey in 2021. Read key points discussed in the workshop.
On Thursday, January 13, participants gathered on Zoom to celebrate the nominees for the Ward Prize in First-Year Writingfor 2020-21. Rather than having one winner and two runners-up, as in past years, the committee selected 11 of the 30 nominees to receive the prize. The change allows for a broader range of styles and disciplines to be adequately represented and recognizes there isn’t one dominant voice in student writing that can be deemed best. Read more about the celebration and see the digital book of essays.
Between leading participants in movement exercises she uses with her students, Becky Thompson spoke on Tuesday, January 11, about the current challenges to staying present in the classroom. Centered on the pedagogy in her book Teaching with Tenderness, the talk and following workshop opened the2022 Contemporary Teaching Series on holistic, embodied approaches to teaching and learning.A recording of the talk is available to the Middlebury community. See upcoming events, including several on trauma-informed teaching, at go.middlebury.edu/contemporaryteaching.
An announcement was sent out on December 22, 2021 that the first day of classes for J-term will be moved to Monday, January 10, 2022. The last day of classes will be moved one day later to Friday, February 4, 2022. Classes will begin remotely on 1/10-1/11. DLINQ will be offering pre-semester workshops the first week of January to assist faculty with remote teaching.
