The Center for Teaching & Learning
Newsletter
May 2, 2024
In This Edition:
Message From the CTL Director
Faculty Focused:
- Last Day of Class Ideas
- Tips for a Productive Summer
- AI Resources
- FAFSA Nightmares
- The Kids are (Not) All Right
Equity Emphasized:
- First Generation Students: Not A Monolith
- Webinar: Effective Online Instruction: Recording Effective Microlectures
Scheduled:
- Live Webinar: 5 Recommendations on Supporting Neurodiverse Students in Teaching and Learning
- Virtual Conference: Linguistic Justice
- Save the Date!
From the CTL Director
Bonus issue!
For many campus constituents, May is a busy and exhausting month. It can be tempting to rush through the days and weeks laser-focused on a time-sensitive tasks. Remember, also, that relationships are an important part of our campus community:
Check in on a colleague or say hello to someone who looks especially beleaguered.
Send off quick thank you emails to colleagues who made your job a little easier this year.
Consider flexibility and compassion with students and colleagues
Offer to take a year-end task off someone’s plate
Have a wonderful summer!
Last Day of Class Ideas
Click here for seven ideas from the Chronicle to get your wheels turning.
Tips for a Productive Summer
“Summer is both an academic’s best friend and biggest challenge. Freed from routines and obligations in early May, summer beckons, promising you long days of productivity sitting at a desk and typing away, not so much thinking as recording the words that a muse is whispering in your ears. Things rarely work out that way, of course. By August there is a mad rush to have something to show for your ‘time off,’ soon interrupted by the coming demands of the fall semester: syllabi, meetings, proposals. Your goal of three finished book chapters and a journal article ends up looking more like a halfway-drafted chapter and a bunch of jotted-down thoughts.”
Check out this article for tips from The Chronicle on reaching your summer goals.
AI Resources
Blueprint for AI Bill of Rights for Education: https://criticalai.org/2023/07/17/a-blueprint-for-an-ai-bill-of-rights-for-education-kathryn-conrad/
Policy Insights Report: https://resources.norrag.org/resource/view/845/468
Curated Content: https://padlet.com/kathrynconrad/critical-ai-literacy-for-educators-umh8r80mykrw0d68
Book Recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/Co-Intelligence-Living-Working-Ethan-Mollick/dp/059371671X
If part of your summer plans include learning more about integrating AI as a tool in your courses, consider reading this advice column from The Chronicle. Or, check out the upcoming webinar “AI and Personalized Learning” on May 8th at 2pm.
The CTL has a dedicated bookshelf space in the Library Commons for CTL resources and materials! Feel free to check out these books and return them when you are finished. If you would like the CTL to order other materials to increase our repository, contact Kerri Eyler with your request.
FAFSA Nightmares
“Though the FAFSA Fiasco of 2024 has affected everyone with a stake in the federal-aid process, low-income and underrepresented minority students have felt its effects most deeply. A long string of bureaucratic and technical screwups continues to strand the nation’s most vulnerable applicants in limbo...” To read the full article by Eric Hoover in The Chronicle, click here.
The Kids are (Not) All Right
First Generation Students: Not A Monolith
If just one parent attended college, that student will not be placed in the first-generation category, even by the most liberal standards. But students from single-degree households struggle more academically compared to their peers with two college-educated parents. To read the full piece from the Chronicle, click here.
Statement of Support for Racial Justice and Equity
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) condemns all forms of systemic racism, bias, and aggression against Black people, indigenous peoples, people of color, and those of marginalized genders, as well as discrimination based on socioeconomic status. 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 is determined to raise awareness of all those who have been systematically oppressed and call upon Hood faculty to join us in this commitment to create a more inclusive world. As members of the CTL Advisory Board, we stand united and affirm that Black Lives Matter
Webinar: Effective Online Instruction: Recording Effective Microlectures
Microlectures are short (6 minutes or less), instructor-produced videos designed in a structured format to provide effective explanations of a single key concept or specific skill set. Learn how to use this format to help maintain student attention and allow students to reengage with the content when and if needed. To access the recorded webinar, click here.
Live Webinar: 5 Recommendations on Supporting Neurodiverse Students
Thursday, May 23rd, 2-3pm
To register for the live Zoom webinar, click here. Please note that only the live version of the webinar is available for free. On-demand only available to OLC members.
Virtual Conference: Linguistic Justice
Save the Date!
July 5th: CTL Director's Birthday
July 29th: Blackboard goes live for fall courses
July 31st: Course projections due
August 9th: New Faculty Orientation (Library 2020)
August 13th: Adjunct Faculty Orientation (WCC)
August 12th: Fall Forum
August 15th: Assesstivus (WCC)
August 18th: Convocation
August 19th: First day of undergraduate and graduate fall classes
- Michelle Gricus, Associate Professor of Social Work, Director of the CTL
- April Boulton, Associate Professor of Biology & Dean of Graduate School
- Catherine Breneman, Assistant Professor of Social Work
- Ashley Coen, Assistant Professor of Education
- Paige Eager, Professor of Political Science, Dean of Faculty
- Jessica McManus, Assistant Professor of Psychology
- Heather Mitchell-Buck, Associate Professor of English; Coordinator of Digital Learning
- Katherine Orloff, Associate Professor of Journalism
- Kathryn Ryberg, Reference & Education Services Librarian
- Atiya Smith, Assistant Professor of Psychology & Counseling
- Jill Tysse, Associate Professor of Mathematics
- Jeff Welsh, Director of Instructional Technology in the IT division
- Adam Weintraub, Graduate Assistant for the CTL
The Center for Teaching & Learning
Email: CTL@hood.edu
Website: www.hood.edu/CTL
Location: Hood College, 401 Rosemont Avenue, Frederick, MD
Phone: (301) 696-3397