Contemporary Teaching Series
The 2023 Pedagogy Series will include at least two sessions every week of Winter Term, all focused on Learning Lessons from Ourselves and Each Other.
Much of how we teach and interact with students has been tried and tested by the considerable turmoil of the last few years. What can we learn from those teaching experiences and by looking inward within our own campus community? Each week, faculty, staff, and administrators will share their stories of challenge and discovery, of lessons learned and opportunities to grow within different pedagogical areas.
Most sessions in this series will take place over lunch on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the CTLR Lounge.
2023 Contemporary Teaching Series
Learning Lessons from Ourselves and Each Other
CTLR (Lib 225) or Zoom
Current Anti-Racist Initiatives and What’s to Come
Join us for lunch and a panel discussion with Tara Affolter (Education Studies), Mikaela Taylor (Special Collections), and Renee Wells (Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). From the plethora of DEI workshops Renee has created for faculty and staff, to the support Mikaela brings to the archival work of the Twilight Project, and then the new “Freedom Dreaming” theatre project created by Tara and her students, this panel will help fill in the picture on current efforts to create an anti-racist Middlebury. Panelists will lead us to consider how we might all advance this goal, especially in the academic realm.
CTLR (Lib 225)
On "Freedom Dreaming" and Students’ Dreams Deferred
Students from Tara Affolter’s class will perform Act II of their “Freedom Dreaming” theatre production, which points out barriers the students have faced or witnessed in the work towards an anti-racist Middlebury. The performance (about 10 minutes) will be followed by an informal discussion with attendees over cocoa and cookies. Audience members will be asked to reflect on what they heard and how it might affect their own curricular and pedagogical choices.
CTLR (Lib 225)
More on “Freedom Dreaming” in YOUR discipline
Join us for lunch and this final session of the “Freedom Dreaming” series, where participants will explore the ideas offered in the play as well as the live audience responses regarding how to make progress towards an anti-racist Middlebury. Participants will then set anti-racist goals within their own disciplines. This session is also a chance to ask for specific support or offer ideas for more programming around equity, justice, and inclusion.
In advance of this session, participants should read Act III from “Freedom Dreaming.”
CTLR (Lib 225) and Zoom
Taking a Leap with Novel Approaches to Teaching and Learning
Join us for this lunch, panel discussion, and workshop with Julia Berazneva (Economics), Ellery Foutch (American Studies), Alex Lyford (Math), Alexis Mychajliw (Biology), and Greg Pask (Biology). Following a brief panel discussion about faculty’s experiences with teaching through play, project-based learning, research-based learning, and community-connected public humanities labs, participants will be able to meet with the panelists to discuss ideas for experimenting with their own instructional approaches.
CTLR (Lib 225)
Back to Basics: Teach Them to Read
Sometimes growth involves reassessing our own foundational practices and assumptions. Join us for this lunch and discussion about academic reading, facilitated by Hector Vila (Writing and Rhetoric Program). Knowing how to read is fundamental, but do we prepare our students to meet the objectives we set for reading assignments in our courses? How can we understand and communicate the value of this fundamental skill and the various reading processes our students need to use? Are we experiencing students not reading what’s assigned or perhaps being challenged by what we’re assigning? A shared reading completed in advance will help to ground the discussion.
This session is the first in a series that will extend beyond January. Each month the CTLR will host a casual discussion around “What We’re Reading.” These lunchtime gatherings will involve one brief relevant reading recently published about academia for participants to complete beforehand.
CTLR (Lib 225) and Zoom
Our Students: Understanding Their Past and Present
Join us for this lunch and a panel discussion with Derek Doucet (Dean of Students), Jennifer Bates (CTLR), Maddie Hope-Lyng (Health and Wellness Education), and Jodi Litchfield, Peter Ploegman, and Dierdre Kelly (Disability Resource Center). Panelists will provide their perspective on the impact of the last few years on student learning and what challenges and opportunities our students are navigating at Middlebury now. For discussion: How can we all embrace our current students and support them in their learning, wherever they are?
CTLR (Lib 225)
Our Students: Creating a Curriculum for Their Future
Join us for this lunch and panel discussion with Dean of Curriculum Grace Spatafora (Biology), Elizabeth Morrison (Religion), Jonathan Miller-Lane (Education Studies), Priscilla Bremser (Math), and Tanya Byker (Economics). What can we do to create a curriculum that fits our students’ needs? Discussion will begin with impressions of the new half-credit course option and midd.data’s summer bootcamp pilot.
CTLR (Lib 225) and Zoom
Investing Students in the Work of the Academy
Join us for this lunch and panel discussion focused on different ways that faculty/staff collaborate with students. How do they all stand to benefit from working together? What conditions are most suitable for effective, collaborative learning? Panelists include Laura Lesta Garcia (Luso-Hispanic Studies) and a PBL Project Assistant, Sarah Lohnes Watulak (DLINQ) and Inclusive Design Studio students, Brandon Baird (Luso-Hispanic Studies) and a research assistant, and Amanda Crocker (Neuroscience) and a course tutor.
Zoom participation will be limited to viewing and sharing in the chat. Register for the lunch by Wednesday, January 25.
CTLR (Lib 225)
Making the Most of Course Response Forms - CANCELLED
Join us for this lunch and discussion about course response forms with former members of the COR and academic administrators. CRFs don’t need to be scary or something to avoid. How might we embrace course response forms as a constructive tool towards reflection about our teaching practices and greater pedagogical effectiveness? Following the discussion, attendees can get assistance from CTLR staff in rethinking their syllabi in advance of the spring semester posting deadline.
Please note this event has been cancelled.
2023 Organizing Committee
Julia Berazneva, Assistant Professor of Economics
Amy Gibans McGlashan, CCI Director of Academic Outreach and Special Projects
Laura Lesta Garcia, Assistant Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies
Sarah Lohnes-Watulak, DLINQ Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media
Amy Morsman, Interim Director of the CTLR and FYS Director, Professor of History
Jill Strube, CTLR Center Coordinator
Past Contemporary Teaching Series
2022 - Holistic, Embodied Approaches to Teaching and Learning
2021 - Teaching and Learning through a Pandemic
2020 - Mythbusting Pedagogy from Technology in the Classroom to Grading
Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research
Davis Family Library, Suite 225
Middlebury, VT
05753