Teaching and Writing Retreat
Every August, Middlebury faculty and staff gather to discuss effective teaching strategies. In this congenial forum, they learn new pedagogical approaches and strengthen skills for teaching in general as well as for the teaching of writing.
2025 Teaching and Writing Retreat
Teach, Write, Connect: A Community-Centered Retreat
Thursday, August 28 - Friday, August 29
Reconnect with your teaching voice, your writing self, and the colleagues who inspire you.
Sponsored by the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research and the Writing and Rhetoric Program.
Over this day and a half, we’ll create a space where you can:
- Experiment with teaching approaches that bring more joy and deeper learning into your classroom, exploring ways to make discussion more electric and assignments more meaningful
- Engage with innovative tools, including a NotebookLM workshop, to enhance research and classroom collaboration
- Discover effective strategies for working with peer tutors to create more dynamic learning environments
- Find your people across departmental lines who share your pedagogical questions and writing challenges, creating lasting partnerships for teaching innovation
- Share and learn from teaching experiments that didn’t go as planned—because sometimes our most valuable insights come from what didn’t work
- Rediscover the community-building magic that happens when we make space for authentic intellectual exchange with colleagues
- This retreat will balance structured sessions with plenty of breathing room for reflective writing (to take away rather than share in sessions), walks, and conversations over meals.
Come as you are – tired, inspired, stuck, curious – and leave with teaching ideas that excite you, writing momentum that sustains you, and collegial connections that remind you why you love being part of this academic community.
More detailed information about the retreat will be shared through an invitation on June 16th.
Teach, Write, Connect: A Community-Centered Retreat
A detailed schedule and links to register with be posted in June.
Retreat Day 1—Thursday, August 28
Retreat Day 2—Friday, August 29
2025 Organizing Committee
The retreat has been planned with care by members of the Writing and Rhetoric Program and the CTLR Advisory Committee:
Hector Vila, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric
Sarah Lohnes-Watulak, DLINQ Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media
Amy McGlashan, CCI Director of Academic Outreach and Special Projects
Amy Morsman, Director of the CTLR and First Year Seminar Program
Jill Strube, CTLR Center Coordinator
Zara Contractor, Assistant Professor of Economics
Daniel Silva, Associate Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies
Danielle Simon, Assistant Professor of Music
Recent Retreats
2024 Retreat: I Wasn’t Trained for This: How to Build and Benefit from an Inclusive Classroom
2023 Retreat: Students Expectations - Faculty Expectations: How Prepared Are We for Fall ‘23?
2022 Retreat: Recovering Ourselves: Relationships and Sustainable Strategies