We found 79 results that contain "semester start-up"

Hello again everyone! Here are some talking points to think about in the run up our 10am meeting tomorrow (Friday, November 05, 2021).

Recurring Zoom Link: 951 4830 7886
Passcode 432210


Student Engagement in Higher Education, ch. 2-3

Chapter 2: “Engaging Students of Color”Samuel D. Museus, Kimberly A. Griffin, Stephen John Quaye [MGQ - “Magic”]

1) How would you describe the campus racial climate and/or culture of the schools where you got your degrees and/or have previously taught? Do any institutions in your background for having been successful in instilling a positive racial culture? Do any notable failures or struggles stand out in your memory? It may be helpful to recall: climate is shaped by five internal dimensions: (1) an institution’s history and legacy of inclusion or exclusion, (2) compositional diversity, (3) psychological climate, (4) behavioral climate, and (5) organizational/structural diversity (Milem, Chang, & Antonio, 2005). [p. 19]

2) Museus, Griffin, and Quaye note that “two concepts provide a useful backdrop for the current discussion: campus racial climate and campus racial culture” (18). What knowledge or familiarity do you have of/with the racial climate or culture at MSU? How would you describe the local manifestation of the framing concepts Museus, Griffin, and Quaye provide?

3) What concrete steps could you take to alleviate cultural incongruence (21) and cultural dissonance (ibid) while boosting cultural engagement (22) for Students of Color in your courses?

4) The “proactive philosophies” indicator of the CECE model describes “Educators who use proactive philosophies [to] go above and beyond to actively reach out, encourage, and sometimes pressure students to take advantage of available information, opportunities, and support” (23). What does being such a faculty member/administrator look like? How does one responsibly and equitably pressure students to pursue opportunities?

5) Practical question: In several places, MGQ advocate for community-based opportunities, but also caution against the tendency towards siloing. Practically, what does/should it look like to provide opportunities for this type of contact among students that is supportive and culturally responsive, without siloing them, or making students of color serve as “ambassadors of their community”?


Chapter 3: “Engaging Multiracial Students”
C. Casey Ozaki, Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, Kristen A. Renn [OJGR - “Jogger”]

1) It seems like today’s college students often have to enter the classroom already knowing who they are and who they will be. We can likely point to any number of institutional practices/requirements that reinforce that pressure. How can we create spaces for hybridity, ambiguity, uncertainty in our students’ perceptions of self?

2) OJGR note that “median age of the mixed race individuals is 19, compared to single-race individuals with a median age of 38” (39), which means that our students represent the age cohort closest to the “center,” so to speak, of multiracial identity discourse. What pressures might this present to college-aged students? What opportunities?

3) Studies show that “biracial students at HBCUs and non-HBCUs had poorer quality of interactions with faculty, staff, and students than Black and White students at both institutions” (40). What incentive/impetus/motivation does/should a finding like this make for us as educators? How could we productively address situations in which multi-racial students might approach us with complaints about feeling isolated and alienated from classmates in our courses?

4) The most provocative element of OJGR’s chapter comes in their final suggestion, which is to “Create a Campus Culture of Boundary Crossing.” What does this mean for you, and what would it look like at Michigan State?

Digital Humanities did a great job with this Code of Conduct they drafted for an upcoming conference. Do you have a similar document? Have you found it useful to include these sorts of items within a given event or conference (or something that's more discipline-specific)? Digital Humanities also came up with a reporting form that accompanies this document. Let me know if you'd like to see that too!

The University of Waterloo's Center for Faculty Excellence has shared some interesting approaches for engaging students who are disruptive to your classroom learning environments:

1. Ask the students if they have a question. Sometimes talking during class is legitimate; students have missed a key definition or number and need clarification from someone sitting nearby.

2. Move closer to the disruptive students. Your proximity may signal to them that they are interrupting the class.

3. Make a general statement to the class about the disruption. If you do not feel comfortable singling people out, you can indicate to the class in general that the disruption level is too high and remind them of the ground rules you set on day one.

4. Use an active learning activity. Try a think-pair-share where you have students turn to the person next to them to discuss a problem or question. This will break up the flow of the class and help to re-capture students’ attention. It will also give you an opportunity to approach the disruptive students and discuss your concern with them.

5. Ask those who consistently disrupt the class to see you after class. This will give you an opportunity to air your concerns outside of class and indicate your displeasure with the students’ behavior without embarrassing them in front of the class.

(Large Classes: Limiting the Chaos. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo)
https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/catalogs/tip-sheets/large-classes-limiting-chaos link

SpartyQM is back! This summer, hundreds of #iteachMSU educators engaged in a peer review process for certifying the quality of online/blended courses. SpartyQM is informed by the nationally recognized Quality Matters process and educator centered for continuous quality improvement. Sign up at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctA95SqCo2LRuEOcPweYG8wRfZ_o5lUNhQkqbigFZLJwvm3Q/viewform.

ELLIE - I had an amazing experiential learning experience (HA) as an undergrad at MSU, but I lucked into it. It just so happened to be amazing (but I didn't sign up for it because I knew it was experiential). Do you have suggestions for A) educators to communicate if/how their offerings are experiential or B) how learners can find such offerings?

It is important to note that the peer-educator dialogue should be an iterative process of lifelong learning and practice improvement. These are tools aimed at helping educators learn with and from one another. How an instructor-educator utilizes or shares the feedback provided in through this dialogue process is completely up to them.

Click the attachment below to download a copy of the Peer-Educator Dialogue Protocol (.docx, 41KB).

After the workshop ended, we struck up a discussion about the issue of scale when it comes to creative assignments, namely:

How do you incorporate creativity/alternative modalities into especially large classes?

The example from our discussion was the 450-person IAH courses that run in lecture halls, but we could certainly use this discussion to comment on the ways we scale creative assignments to class size as well.

What experience do you have with handling the challenges of creativity with a large group? Alternately, if you have any sources that address this question, please feel free to share here as well!