Postdoctoral Associates and Fellows with interest in teaching are invited to participate in the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program (FTEP). FTEP is led by Dr. Mary Ann Shea and strategically supports CU Boulder faculty and postdoctoral professionals in implementing the most effective, evidence-based classroom practices to facilitate engaged student learning. All Postdoctoral Associates and Fellows looking to maintain their teaching credentials with current best practices are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Registration for Fall 2018 events and courses is now open. Fall programming is detailed below and broken into three categories: Back-to-School Prep, Symposia, and Short Couses. There are a limited number of slots available so be sure to register today by clicking the linked courses below.
Dr. Mary Ann Shea or an FTEP Faculty Associate is also available to meet one-on-one with any postdoc. If interested, please email ftep@colorado.edu.
Back-to-School Prep
Designing a syllabus for an effective & flexible course
Facilitated by Sarah Sokhey, Assistant Professor, Political Science. A well-designed syllabus has the potential to set the tone for an entire course and provide a blueprint for dealing with common challenges in the classroom. This FTEP session will address 3 main goals of syllabus design: 1) effectively communicating why the course is interesting and relevant, 2) designing the course so that it is well-organized, but also flexible allowing you to adapt the content of the course as you go, and 3) preempting potential complaints and problems by anticipating common issues.
Tuesday, August 14, 12:00pm – 1:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Facilitated by Vanessa Roberts, PhD Candidate, Sociology, and William Kuskin, Professor, English & Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives. The classroom is a dynamic space that fosters personal growth for many students. Much of the time, teachers can plan the trajectory of this growth; sometimes, however, it takes an unexpected detour. When a student speaks inappropriately, fundamentally questions the course’s premise, or undermines the instructor’s authority, even the best of educators can find themselves at a loss for words.
This symposium offers concrete and practical advice for managing difficult moments in the classroom. It discusses the nature of public authority, methods for building a foundation of community, and pragmatic approaches to redirecting potentially hostile situations into productive developmental moments for every person present. Attendees will leave with skills and tools that can be put into immediate use.
Wednesday, August 15, 10:00am – 11:15am, CASE Building, E351
Writing great clicker questions to spark peer discussion
Facilitated by Stephanie Chasteen, Associate Director, Science Education Initiative. If you are using, or want to use, clickers in your classroom, but are struggling to write or revise questions that engage students, this workshop is for you. We will focus on questions for facilitating "peer instruction" -- a research-tested method of requiring students to discuss challenging questions with one another. This workshop is appropriate for all disciplines, but will focus on questions with one right answer. This workshop discusses pedagogical aspects of using clickers, but not technical components. For technical assistance with i>clicker, please visit http://www.colorado.edu/oit/services/teaching-learning-tools/cuclickers
Thursday, August 16, 10:00am – 12:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Facilitated by Stephanie Chasteen, Associate Director, Science Education Initiative. Students operate in a different reality than we do, and our goals are not always clear to them. Plus, we do not always teach for what we value. Taking the time to write clear learning goals or objectives can help you create a coherent, fair course, and makes it easier to write great assessments. In this workshop you will learn about, and get practice writing learning goals. We suggest taking this workshop with another faculty in your department.
Thursday, August 16, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Aligning course assignments with learning goals
Facilitated by Nichole Barger, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. In this symposium, we will actively engage in creating learning goals for a course, discuss the importance of communicating those learning goals to students, and demonstrate how to effectively align learning goals with course assignments. Participants will gain experience in setting reasonable assignments to achieve course learning goals.
Friday, August 17, 1:00pm – 2:30pm, CASE Building, E351
Symposia
Getting around student pushback & passiveness in active learning classrooms
Facilitated by Stephanie Chasteen, Associate Director, Science Education Initiative. Are you using interactive techniques in your classroom and are worried about student engagement? Do students complain about the active learning components of your class, or are reluctant to talk to their peers during activities? This interactive workshop will explore ways to help your students get the most out of interactive techniques, through addressing pushback and creating a positive learning environment. We will analyze the problem in your class and discuss concrete strategies to address it.
Wednesday, September 5, 12:00pm – 2:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Facilitated by Vanessa Roberts, PhD Candidate, Sociology, and William Kuskin, Professor, English & Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives. The classroom is a dynamic space that fosters personal growth for many students. Much of the time, teachers can plan the trajectory of this growth; sometimes, however, it takes an unexpected detour. When a student speaks inappropriately, fundamentally questions the course’s premise, or undermines the instructor’s authority, even the best of educators can find themselves at a loss for words.
This symposium offers concrete and practical advice for managing difficult moments in the classroom. It discusses the nature of public authority, methods for building a foundation of community, and pragmatic approaches to redirecting potentially hostile situations into productive developmental moments for every person present. Attendees will leave with skills and tools that can be put into immediate use. This event is co-sponsored with the Graduate Teacher Program (GTP). Graduate student instructors are welcome to attend this session.
Tuesday, September 11, 10:00am – 11:15am, CASE Building, E351
Creating spaces of belonging: Telling stories and making connections
Facilitated by Enrique Sepúlveda, Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies. Many students feel they don’t belong in the academic setting or to the larger university culture. This is especially true of first generation college-going students, immigrants, queer students and students of color. This presentation calls for professors to consider and address the larger social context in which our teaching and learning is embedded, via the power of narratives and the practice of storytelling.
Stories are personal, as well as social and communal. When deployed effectively they can help us to contextualize our experiences and emotions, especially experiences and feelings of displacement, transgression and social fragmentation that new students often experience. Integrating stories into our teaching can raise levels of consciousness and provide the connective tissue that allows us (faculty and students) to further explore and examine key questions pertinent to our disciplines.
Please join Enrique Sepúlveda as he narrates his educational journey from a near high school dropout to becoming a “university learner” with the help of professors who went beyond a technical view of teaching and learning that frames the learning process as simply a matter of content mastery and acquisition of technical skills. Using storytelling as a pedagogical tool to transform teaching and learning, Enrique will provide examples of how teaching and learning are situated in a social context, where learning is viewed as a feature of membership in a community of practice. This event is co-sponsored with the Graduate Teacher Program (GTP). Graduate student instructors are welcome to attend this session.
Tuesday, September 11, 12:00pm – 1:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Doing it all: The first seven years
Facilitated by Myles Osborne, Associate Professor, History. This session with recently tenured professor Myles Osborne is about succeeding in the first seven years at CU. The symposium is presented by a faculty member with an extensive publication record (including three books), but little knowledge about – nor interest in – time management techniques. Professor Osborne discusses how those who dislike work plans and schedules can move forward successfully at CU being productive scholars, teachers, and colleagues, by thinking about the bigger guiding principles, agendas, and strategies that we might use in our work. This event is co-sponsored with the Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP) program.
Wednesday, September 12, 1:00pm-2:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Aligning course assignments with learning goals
Facilitated by Nichole Barger, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. In this symposium, we will actively engage in creating learning goals for a course, discuss the importance of communicating those learning goals to students, and demonstrate how to effectively align learning goals with course assignments. Participants will gain experience in setting reasonable assignments to achieve course learning goals. This event is co-sponsored with the Graduate Teacher Program (GTP). Graduate student instructors are welcome to attend this session.
Monday, September 17, 1:00pm – 2:30pm, CASE Building, E351
Undergraduate research opportunities and you
Facilitated by Joan Gabriele, Director, Special Undergraduate Enrichment Programs and Tim O’Neil, Assistant Director, Special Undergraduate Enrichment Programs. This presentation and workshop will introduce new faculty to the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), a campus-wide funding source for faculty-student research, scholarly and creative partnerships. You’ll learn how the program works, how students can assist you on your journey toward tenure, and how you can support students doing research, scholarly and creative work in your department. UROP is available to all majors, departments and colleges. More information on the program at: http://www.colorado.edu/suep/urop
Tuesday, September 18, 3:30pm – 5:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Flipping the class for the skeptic
Facilitated by David Brown, Professor and Chair of Political Science. This segment of the FTEP program addresses common hesitations, misperceptions, and challenges involved with flipping a classroom. The instructor, David Brown, will lead participants through the evolution of a happy lecturer to a strong proponent of active learning. Why flipping the class is not for everyone, how to get your feet wet, and how it can change your perception of research, teaching, and students will also be covered. Different tools and methods which have been successful and not so successful in Brown’s experience will be candidly discussed. New technological tools which facilitate the flipped classroom will be presented along with their advantages and disadvantages. This event is co-sponsored with the Graduate Teacher Program (GTP). Graduate student instructors are welcome to attend this session.
Friday, September 21, 11:00am – 12:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Preparing a teaching portfolio for review & tenure
Facilitated by Katherine Eggert, Professor of English. This seminar will explain both the method for assembling a teaching portfolio and the type of material it should include. It should help pre-tenured faculty prepare to create this important part of their tenure dossier by offering an outline of the process and by including concrete examples from portfolios created by successful tenure candidates in the past.
Thursday, September 27, 2:00pm – 3:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Active learning & group work in classes of any size
Facilitated by Jenny Knight, Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Students benefit from working in groups, and there are many different ways one can organize and implement group work in courses of any size. We will discuss best practices for forming groups, different kinds of group work, accountability, and effective implementation. Bring questions and ideas, and we will work together to help you and your students get the most out of your course. This event is co-sponsored with the Graduate Teacher Program (GTP). Graduate student instructors are welcome to attend this session.
Friday, September 28, 1:00pm-2:00pm, CASE Building, E351
How LISA can help you assess learning goals
Facilitated by Eric Vance, Associate Professor, Applied Mathematics and Director of LISA, the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis. In this symposium, we will review creating learning goals for a course, discuss the importance of assessing these goals, and learn methods for assessing them. We will also discuss how LISA can help you assess your course learning goals. Participants should arrive with learning goals for their courses and then apply the principles from the first half of this symposium to create their own assessment plan. We will discuss example plans from the participants on how to assess learning goals.
Wednesday, October 3, 2:00pm – 3:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Designing a syllabus for an effective & flexible course
Facilitated by Sarah Sokhey, Assistant Professor, Political Science. A well-designed syllabus has the potential to set the tone for an entire course and provide a blueprint for dealing with common challenges in the classroom. This FTEP session will address 3 main goals of syllabus design: 1) effectively communicating why the course is interesting and relevant, 2) designing the course so that it is well-organized, but also flexible allowing you to adapt the content of the course as you go, and 3) preempting potential complaints and problems by anticipating common issues.
Friday, October 12, 12:00pm – 1:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Showcasing student learning and engagement: ePortfolios as a metacognitive high impact practice
Facilitated by Andrea Feldman, Senior Instructor & ESL Coordinator, and Rolf Norgaard, Teaching Professor & Associate Director, Program for Writing and Rhetoric. As CU students prepare for careers, internships, and graduate education, one way to synthesize, highlight, and reflect on their learning is to create an ePortfolio. Data suggest that when ePortfolios are implemented properly, students build a more holistic self-picture, gain agency, and find new ways of understanding themselves as learners. ePortfolios differ from other e-media in that they allow integration and synthesis of students' work, reflection, and intellectual growth. These metacognitive processes are very important in the development of a learner, and promote higher order critical thinking skills. This session will demonstrate student examples of ePortfolios and discuss student comments and feedback. Examples of student projects incorporated into the portfolio will be demonstrated. Handouts will be provided with specific suggestions to foster reflective writing, audience awareness, and assignment suggestions.
Friday, October 26, 1:00pm – 2:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Facilitated by Stephanie Chasteen, Associate Director, Science Education Initiative. Students operate in a different reality than we do, and our goals are not always clear to them. Plus, we do not always teach for what we value. Taking the time to write clear learning goals or objectives can help you create a coherent, fair course, and makes it easier to write great assessments. In this workshop you will learn about and get practice writing learning goals. We suggest taking this workshop with another faculty in your department.
Tuesday, December 4, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Facilitated by Robin Bernstein, Associate Professor, Anthropology. This symposium will combine presentation and open discussion to focus on several key issues for professors teaching large classes. The goal for the session is to give new faculty both some useful and tested practices for handling large classes. This event is co-sponsored with the Graduate Teacher Program (GTP). Graduate student instructors are welcome to attend this session.
Wednesday, December 5, 2:00pm – 3:00pm, CASE Building, E351
Short Courses
Teaching in a nutshell: Strategies to enhance student learning
Facilitated by Tamara Meneghini-Stalker, Professor of Theatre & Dance. This participatory symposium involves not only observing yourself teaching, but also investigating how your ways of communicating affect student learning. Although watching yourself on videotape can be challenging, what you see in yourself will change you more than anything about teaching that you may learn in the abstract.
In this symposium, the group works together to identify communication strategies that enhance the students’ learning experience. Collaboratively, you support one another over the rough moments of embarrassment and fear, coming to view yourself more objectively as a member of a community where learning is reciprocal to teaching. In the process, you acquire specific techniques for guiding and improving learning; and you perceive how your voice and your body affect how well your students see/hear/grasp what you are saying. Few of us have had the opportunity to focus on these subtle, yet vital dimensions of teaching and learning. For those of you who have taken this symposium before and wish to refresh yourself on the subject matter, join us again as a refresher.
This is a two-part course. Faculty commit to participation in both parts.
- Part 1: Thursday, September 6, 2:30pm – 4:30pm, CASE Building, E353
- Part 2: Thursday, September 13, 2:30pm – 4:30pm, CASE Building, E353
- Part 1: Wednesday, October 10, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, CASE Building, E353
- Part 2: Wednesday, October 17, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, CASE Building, E353
Writing for publication: Expressing reasoning in writing
Facilitated by Tim Lyons, Instructor of The Program for Writing and Rhetoric. Writing for publication doesn’t differ in essentials from writing for any reader or group of readers, for in every case the writer must think of the reader with each sentence, in every connection from one sentence to another, and in the overall construction of an essay. Because the people who guard the gateways to publication may have particular needs depending on the gateway they guard, the writing must intuit those needs, taking the reader/gatekeeper into consideration while remaining true to his own intention and conviction. In this series of workshops, we will explore the ways in which you can accomplish this multifaceted task so that your audience can grasp your purpose, follow you as you work to accomplish it, and benefit from the process.
This is a three-part course. Faculty commit to participation in all 3 parts.
Registration is limited to 3 participants per session. Additional registrants will be placed on a waitlist. If a registered faculty member cannot attend, we will move to the waitlist for a new participant.
- Part 1: Tuesday, September 25, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, ATLAS 336
- Part 2: Tuesday, October 2, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, ATLAS 336
- Part 3: Tuesday, October 9, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, ATLAS 336
- Part 1: Thursday, October 11, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, ATLAS 336
- Part 2: Thursday, October 18, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, ATLAS 336
- Part 3: Thursday, October 25, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, ATLAS 336
- Part 1: Wednesday, October 31, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, ATLAS 336
- Part 2: Wednesday, November 7, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, ATLAS 336
- Part 3: Wednesday, November 14, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, ATLAS 336
Creating an on-camera presence
Facilitated by Chip Persons, Associate Professor of Theatre & Dance. This symposium will help instructors reveal their on-camera presence for recorded instruction in online courses. Participants will build and strengthen their on-camera presence by recording and then watching themselves on video, along with the rest of the group, speaking about both themselves and their respective course content. This event is co-sponsored with the Graduate Teacher Program (GTP). Graduate student instructors are welcome to attend this session.
This is a two-part course. Faculty commit to participation in both parts.
- Part 1: Thursday, November 1, 10:00am – 12:00pm, CASE Building, E353
- Part 2: Thursday, November 8, 10:00am – 12:00pm, CASE Building, E353