The Center for Teaching & Learning

I recently read an essay where the author, Padgett Powell, talks about reading Absalom, Absalom! for the first time. Absalom, Absalom! has been called Faulkner’s most challenging novel; it has a labyrinthine and Rashomon-esque structure where you never really know what is happening, and that is the point; it once held the dubious distinction of containing "the longest sentence in literature"; and it once kept me, your humble CTL director, fettered to a chair in the library for days, gnashing my teeth, trying to figure out what was happening in the world of the Sutpens, as my friends on the outside threw parties, etc., without me.

Anyway–and I promise I’m getting to the teaching part–there's an image in this essay that I keep thinking about. Powell describes the experience of struggling to read this big, confusing book as stalling a car out at the bottom of a big hill. Over and over he starts this book; over and over he stalls. And then, finally:

“Somehow on one of the uphill runs I made it to page 100 or so, and then began the breathtaking downhill seduction, the rush, the delightful surrender to fictive gravity, and I was not the same boy when I finished the book” (116).

I love this image: the car, the stick shift, the hill, the surrender to gravity, the change in personhood. It’s an image of transformative learning. It’s an image of sticking to the difficult thing and feeling a feeling that would not have been possible if not for the initial stalling out.

We try, implicitly or explicitly, to inspire our students to keep at it, to stay in that car. We try to make them believe that the feeling on the other side will be worth it. (And when the feeling doesn’t sell, we try other things: grades, diploma, job, the future.) Meanwhile, there is a choir of Mark Zuckerbergs telling us that struggling is a time-suck, and that actually the hill, itself, might be unnecessary. We have text-generators and image-generators and the answer to any question we can think of; we have algorithms that create questions for algorithms to answer.

But, of course, sometimes the struggle is the point. Without the struggle, we don’t get the “breathtaking downhill seduction.” Without the struggle, we remain the same boy.

This year I wish everyone the luxury of the struggle, which requires time, attention, and brain space, but is so often worth it. I wish you students who are game to try and try again. I hope to see faces, familiar and new, at our CTL programming this semester--programming that begins, incidentally, this Thursday, with a drop-in course design sprint. It's my belief that learning (and thus, struggle and change) should be happening for all of us here, students and instructors alike. I continue to learn so much through CTL, and I hope you'll join us.

P.S. As a librarian, it is my sworn duty to cite my sources. The book? Padgett Powell’s Indigo: Arm Wrestling, Snake Saving, and Some Things in Between; the essay is “Lena Padgett, Nan Morrison,” also published as “Padgett Powell” in For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers and the Books They Love Most.

Course Design Sprint

Thursday, January 16, 1-4 PM, 2nd floor of the Beneficial-Hodson Library

RSVP here: https://bit.ly/ctlrsvp

In November, there’s the Butterball Hotline; in January, there’s the Course Design Sprint. If you find yourself looking for community, accountability, support, or coffee/pastries as you work on your Spring courses, drop by the second floor of the Library & Learning Commons on Thursday, January 6. You’ll be able to work amongst colleagues or get immediate help from our team of experts: Jeff Welsh (Blackboard, other educational technology); Jessica Hammack (library resources and information literacy); and Lisa Copenhaver (Beacon, tutoring, student success).

The New Normal?: CTL at the Five-Year Anniversary of COVID-19

Thursday, February 13, from 1-2 PM in Library 2028

RSVP here: https://bit.ly/ctlrsvp

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, things that once seemed strange became commonplace: “the new normal.” Join the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Humanities Council as we reflect on the five years since the beginning of the pandemic. What have we kept? What have we left behind? In the end, what really became normal?

Academic Innovation Grant Awardees: Where Are They Now?

Thursday, March 6, 1-2 PM; Location TBD

RSVP here: https://bit.ly/ctlrsvp

Former grant awardees will chat about their academic innovation projects, and members of the CTL advisory board will share what they’re looking for in a successful grant application.

Software-a-Palooza

Friday, April 11, from 2:30 - 4; Library 2028

RSVP here: https://bit.ly/ctlrsvp

"APP"-Y HOUR IS BACK! Enjoy drinks and appetizers while you get hands-on experience with emerging educational technology.

Communities of practice are groups of practitioners who share a common interest or knowledge who meet regularly to learn, grow, and build community.

The Center for Teaching and Learning wants to support your working groups, book discussion groups, teaching observation circles, and more. If you've got an idea that contributes to CTL's mission, then CTL wants to contribute to your idea.

During the times your community of practice meets, you can charge a lunch at the dining hall or snacks from the library café to the Center for Teaching and Learning. Here's how:

• Join an existing CTL community of practice below. If you're interested in joining a CoP, email the coordinator to learn more.
• Start your own CTL community of practice by completing and submitting the CTL CoP form. All communities of practice must be open to all faculty and staff and contribute to the mission of Hood's Center for Teaching and Learning.

Questions? Email ctl@hood.edu.

Faculty Writing Group

Meeting time: Wednesdays at 2:50-5 PM in the Beneficial-Hodson Library

Coordinator: Kristen Tzoc (tzoc@hood.edu)

Join the Spring '25 faculty writing group every Wednesday from 2:30-5pm in Room 2020 of the Beneficial-Hodson Library! We meet weekly to create a shared sense of community, build accountability partnerships, and encourage and motivate one another as we work on our articles, grant proposals, conference applications, syllabi, reviews, and other writing-related tasks. If you'd like to join the group, please email Kristen Tzoc (tzoc@hood.edu) for the Outlook Calendar invite. Snacks provided!

Teaching Information Literacy

Meeting times: First Wednesday of each month from 1-2 PM; Coblentz Dining Hall

Coordinator: Jessica Hammack (hammack@hood.edu)

No matter what discipline you teach, you're teaching information literacy. It's in your reading assignments, your research assignments, your classroom discussions. It's in the scrolling your students are doing during your classroom discussions. Join librarians and disciplinary instructors in conversations about best practices in teaching information literacy: from crafting inquiry-based assignments to helping students engage critically in an information environment that is increasingly questionable.

This CoP is connected to the "Teaching Information Literacy at Ohio State" virtual workshops. Participation in the virtual workshops is optional, but conversations will center around the content of the previous month's workshops.

A moment of vulnerability. I wasn’t a great student in college. The pre-med program I was in wasn’t a good fit for me. The intense focus on GPAs, cutoffs, and standardized test scores chipped away at my motivation, one low grade at a time. It wasn’t until I took an elective in my junior year (Psychology of Music) that I truly cared about what I was learning, not just the grade. That class took a unique approach: we helped design the rubric for our final projects and had opportunities to revise and resubmit our work. Suddenly, the grading process wasn’t a mysterious black box—it was transparent, collaborative, and focused on growth. I found myself more engaged, motivated, and eager to do my best work, knowing I was an equal partner in my own learning. This experience stayed with me, and now, as an educator, I see collaborative grading as a powerful way to transform learning. (And as a bonus, that one course changed my entire career trajectory.)

Research on educational psychology highlights the profound impact of autonomy and ownership on student motivation. When students have a say in how their work is evaluated, they’re more likely to feel empowered and take pride in their growth and achievements. Collaborative grading also aligns with best practices in active learning by encouraging students to engage critically with the criteria for success, fostering deeper learning and self-reflection. The following steps are specific to my two-semester research methods sequence, but can easily be modified to fit most classes. How I implement collaborative grading in my classroom:

1. Co-Design the Rubric – I begin the semester-long project by involving students in creating the grading criteria. I share with them samples of previous work, with the grades I assigned to each. I then pose questions like: “What does an “A” paper look like?” or “What should we prioritize in evaluating this assignment?”.
2. Peer Review Sessions – I incorporate structured peer review activities where students use the agreed-upon rubric to evaluate each other’s work. These sessions not only improve the quality of final submissions but also give students practice in applying the criteria, enhancing their understanding of the grading process. This activity also fits in nicely with the learning objectives of my class: critically evaluating peer research, giving and receiving feedback, and the iterative nature of academic writing. I share with my students the reviews I have received in the peer review process – modeling to my students that even those of us who have been doing this for a long time get critical feedback.
3. Self-Assessment – I recently read a book from our Hood College library collection, Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation (McGuire, 2015). The author discusses how metacognition (in this context, described as accurately assessing one’s own level of learning) can be beneficial for student learning. Towards this aim, I have my students evaluate their own work before submitting it. I have found that this practice promotes accountability and helps students identify areas for improvement. I then hold meetings with each group to discuss their grade and provide them with my feedback. Thanks to a suggestion by Dr. Heather Mitchell-Buck, I avoid assigning numerical grades at this stage. This shifts the focus away from a number and towards meaningful feedback and growth.
4. Revise and Resubmit – Finally, in alignment with how academic writing happens, I allow my students multiple opportunities to revise and resubmit their work, as long as each resubmission is accompanied by a detailed “Letter to the reviewers” reflecting on the changes they have made, and what they learned in the process. This approach emphasizes improvement and helps students see revision as an integral part of success, not as a failure.

While collaborative grading takes up a significant amount of bandwidth, the results—student engagement, motivation, and improved learning outcomes—have made it entirely worth it for me. If you implement collaborative grading in your own classes, I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

The start of a new year has magical qualities. It’s a time for a new beginning and a fresh start and all those cliches you have heard a million times before. Sure, the new year is great, but it is also the season of intentional amnesia. A time to forget all those previous goals with their associated failures from which you are now seeking a fresh start. We want to wipe the slate clean and then pretend the third or thirty-third time is going to be the charm. It’s great to start again but too much forgetting of past mistakes or too much positivity towards this next attempt and you are setting yourself up for the 2025 version of the same old mistakes. We all have the capacity to grow and change, but the change that sticks is usually accomplished slowly over time. That’s hard and boring. It’s not the magical change that we imagine when we are making our new year’s resolutions.

For my second year in the MAH program, I am aiming to remember my failures and work towards incremental progress. I am hoping to make just one small change and work to make it stick. This year I am going to practice writing out my notes immediately after reading every article or book chapter. I love to read, but I hate to stop for note taking. I’ve tried highlighting and scribbling in the margins but that does little good a few days or weeks later when that little scribble is hard to interpret. I know this is a worthy new year’s resolution, but it seems too small and too plain. How can I waste all the magic of the new year on this one tiny thing? Because the devil is in the details. Because a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Because to eat an elephant you take one bite at a time. The goal might be small but with sustained practice the results could be significant.

What small and boring step are you committing to this year to improve your teaching or your own learning? I’m sure there are techniques or tools that you have considered trying out but haven’t yet. Which one are you going to test out? If you don’t have a tiny step in mind for the new year, I have a couple of suggestions:

• Plan to join one CTL event each semester (check out our shared CTL calendar on Outlook).
• Join a CTL Community of Practice .
• Add a single sensory activity to your course (see Tiny Tidbits this month).
• Host a couple of office hours (or student hours) at the dining hall, library, or other shared space.
• Ask for student feedback and suggestions during week four to see what small adjustments would improve learning for that particular class.
• And of course, one tiny step that I would really appreciate this semester as the CTL GA – commit to reading and sharing the monthly CTL newsletter!

Add a short wiggle break to your class to keep the learning going! We might associate a wiggle break with elementary school, but even adult learners can benefit from frequent movement breaks.

Classroom Movement Breaks Reduce Sedentary Behavior and Increase Concentration, Alertness and Enjoyment during University Classes: A Mixed-Methods Feasibility Study

Brain Breaks Go To College

Can you remember the smell of a scratch and sniff sticker? Do you remember skipping around learning your multiplication tables? Our sense of smell and physical movement have long been associated with our ability to form and recall memoires, although scientists are still trying to define the relationships. While we are waiting for science to illuminate the connections, there is no reason to avoid the senses while teaching! The Smell of History explains how scents are being used in a museum to enhance the experience. When was the last time you included sensory or kinetic learning in your classroom?

Intrigued? Here are a few interesting articles about learning and our senses.

The Connections Between Smell, Memory, and Health

Smell-Based Memory Training: Evidence of Olfactory Learning and Transfer to the Visual Domain

Improving learning through physical action and sensory perception

Hacking Our Senses to Boost Learning Power

Kinesthetic-Tactile Style Learning

Learning on the Move: Making Meaning Through Movement

An Overview of Olfactory Displays in Education and Training

The Academic Innovation Grant funds innovative projects that are designed to support specific strategic initiatives related to teaching and learning. Former Academic Innovation Grant recipients have created libraries of instructional videos, collaborated with students to create course materials, and developed unique ways to engage students who are learning remotely.

Successful applicants will receive up to $2500 in sponsorship of their project. Review the Academic Innovation Grant page for more details and the link to apply. The application deadline is March 24, 2025.

The annual SPIRE Symposium is likely already blocked off on your calendar for Monday, April 21st. If you’d like to present your work in the form of a poster/panel/presentation/performance as a Hood faculty or staff member, you are also welcome to participate!

• 9:00-10:00: Poster Presentations

• 10:00-10:45: Oral Presentations/Panels/Performances Session 1

• 10:55-11:40: Oral Presentations/Panels/Performances Session 2

• 11:50-12:35: Oral Presentations/Panels/Performances Session 3

• 1:00-2:00: Poster Presentations

• 5:30-7:00: Poster Presentations

To submit your proposal, please complete this form by March 18th.

Did you miss one of CTL's fabulous events? Slide decks from previous presentations are available on Sharepoint!

November - The Anxious Generation

October - Open Pedagogy

October - Open Book It OER and OA

September - Student Engagement Discussion

The Center for Teaching and Learning condemns all forms of systemic racism, bias, and aggression against Black people, indigenous peoples, people of color, and those of marginalized genders and other marginalized identities. We understand that excellence in teaching, by definition, must reflect our shared humanity and promote inclusive practices such as:

• being conscious of biases, racial abuse, micro-aggressions, and those who are minimized or left out;
• understanding and supporting those underrepresented in our Hood community; and
• promoting ways to actively foster equity, diversity and inclusion in our classrooms, research, and publications.

The CTL advisory board is committed to raising awareness of all those who have been systematically oppressed, and we call upon Hood faculty and staff to join us in this commitment to create a more inclusive world.

Want to read about some of the topics CTL is covering? Find CTL on Zotero.

View the CTL Library: https://www.zotero.org/groups/5620207/hood_ctl/library

Help us build the CTL library! Email ctl@hood.edu to be added as a contributor.

Want unlimited access The Chronicle of Higher Education? Access it through the library.

The library also has a section of books dedicated to teaching on the second floor.

• Jessica Hammack, Head of Research and Instruction, CTL Director
• April Boulton, Associate Professor of Biology, Associate Provost, Dean of the Graduate School
• Cathy Breneman, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Ashley Coen, Assistant Professor of Education
• Sangeeta Gupta, Assistant Professor of Psychology
• Bridget Humphries, Director of Accessibility Services
• Beth Kiester, Associate Professor of Sociology
• Jessica McManus, Associate Professor of Psychology
• Heather Mitchell-Buck, Associate Professor of English, Coordinator of Digital Learning
• Nicole Pulichene, Libman Professor of Humanities
• Adelmar Ramirez, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature
• Kathryn Ryberg, Research & Instruction Librarian
• Sandra Thomas-Lalmansingh, Assistant Professor of Nursing
• Kristen Tzoc, Assistant Professor of Sociology
• Jeff Welsh, Director of Instructional Technology in the IT division
• Kelly Esposito, CTL Graduate Assistant

Email: CTL@hood.edu
Website: www.hood.edu/CTL
Location: Hood College, 401 Rosemont Avenue, Frederick, MD
Phone: (301) 696-3397