Category: Classroom Strategies

Unlock Your Teaching Potential with the FDEV Teaching Certificate!

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Dear Faculty,

We are taking the Teaching Tip this week to announce the FDEV Teaching Certificate. This self-paced course includes three modules. The completion of each module comes with a letter designed for inclusion in your dossier as evidence of your commitment to improving your teaching. This work started with Chiara Ferrari and Grazyne Tresoldi and was completed by Jamie Gunderson from the School of Education. I am proud of the contributions all of them made along the way. Special thanks to Jamie for completing the work and doing so in a way to maximize utility for faculty. 

Are you ready to elevate your teaching? We’re excited to invite you to participate in the FDEV Teaching Certificate course on Canvas! This is your opportunity to invest in your professional development and enhance the learning experience for your students—on your schedule, at your own pace.

Why the FDEV Teaching Certificate?

Tailored Learning: Choose from three modules — Instructional Planning, Teaching Enhancements, and Research in Equity, Antiracism, Diversity, and Inclusion — to align with your interests and teaching goals.

Innovative Strategies and Resources: Explore new instructional methods and assessment techniques designed to engage your students more effectively. Gain access to tools and resources to confidently design or redesign your courses. 

Flexible Format: Learn at your own pace! Whether you have a busy schedule or prefer deep dives into specific topics, this course fits your needs.

What’s in it for you? 

Enhance your teaching practices and create more inclusive learning environments. Participants who submit a module deliverable and reflection will receive an individualized letter for their dossier, outlining their work and the resources they applied to improve their pedagogy.

Ready to Get Started?

Don’t Wait! Log into Canvas and enroll in the FDEV Teaching Certificate course today!

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website

Course Materials

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You are at the grocery store selecting ingredients for a fall-themed soup you read about. You have found everything you need except for kale, then you spot some lovely looking organic kale, but there is no price. Asking an employee restocking the produce how much for the kale she responds, “don’t know, and you can’t find out until checkout.” You are confused. “That doesn’t seem right, what if it is really expensive, can I buy some non-organic kale instead?” Her facial expression is somewhere between indifference and judgment. “No, once you get to the checkout you have to buy it, those are the rules.”

This is not a perfect analogy, but it does highlight a difficult situation we sometimes put students in. Course material costs range from free to several hundred dollars and students often have to sign up for classes without knowing. When that information becomes available to them it is often too late to select different kale courses. This is even important if you are using a free resource or something that is not at the bookstore. Create the first step towards trust and transparency with students by selecting materials before 10/28. This process looks different for different people. 

  • You know what you are teaching and the course materials you are requiring. Use the Canvas “Account” menu option in the upper left, and then click “Follett Discover”, or you can email your course materials list to wildcatstore@csuchico.edu, and you will be done in a flash. If you know what you are teaching, but have yet to be officially assigned your Chair can help or you can email the bookstore. 
  • You know what you are teaching, but aren’t sure about course materials. Try to make the time to select something before the 10/28 cutoff. Talk to colleagues, make an informed decision, and give your students the information they need. 
  • You aren’t sure what you are teaching. Talk with your Department Chair. Many courses assign the same materials every term, but the faculty change. In these cases, the Chair can take a moment and select materials for the course. 
  • You are a Department Chair and know the agreed upon materials, but have not assigned classes yet. You have your own menu in Follett where you can make that selection.

Speaking of textbooks, if you are looking to find or develop a quality resource to lower costs for students, that also increases the likelihood they will have the materials and read for your class, be on the lookout for our CAL$ program in Spring. If you are looking to learn more now, check out this recent episode of Teaching in Higher Ed.

Finally a reminder, this Friday at 12PM is the second part of our Zoom webinar series on Free Speech and Inclusion (PDF). This week we are working with Juni Banerjee-Stevens on de-escalation in the classroom. All faculty and staff are welcome.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

New Research on Student Names

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It is week five. There is a robust class discussion, the kind you have been trying to create the space for all semester. A student makes a great point to move the conversation forward and you respond with “Great point! This is the perfect segway to what we are going to cover next…I don’t remember your name, but great job.” Not your best moment.

We have all been there. Remembering student names has always been hard for me, just like it is for so many of us. It is also important to remember names and preferred pronouns to cultivate an inclusive and welcoming classroom which is why this topic has become a somewhat regular tradition for Tuesday Teaching Tips. 

This year I want to emphasize this enduring theme through the work of Michelle Miller whose book A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names will be available in November (you can pre-order now). Miller’s text is more than a how-to guide, it is rich with research from her background in psycholinguistics. One of the takeaways highlighted in this Chronicle of Higher Education interview (available with a free account) is that learning names is hard, because it is different from other words. We have to tap into the power of association in an intentional way to actually remember. 

Miller promotes a four step process of attend, say, associate, and retrieve. This is explained in more detail in the interview and explicated much more in her book. It is worth a read as we all have room to improve in this area. 

Finally a reminder, this Friday at 12PM is the kick-off of our Zoom webinar series on Free Speech and Inclusion. We are starting with Free Speech Basics, which should be accessible to everyone. Faculty and staff are welcome to attend any part of the series, we look forward to seeing you soon.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

Improving Classroom Climate

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Last week we announced our funded webinar series on free speech and inclusion (Google Doc). Everyone is welcome to attend every session, but we have 20 paid spots for people to attend all sessions and produce the related deliverables. The application for these spots is brief and due on 9/20. 

Today’s teaching tip is related to this upcoming webinar series. Dr. Mylien Duong is the Senior Director of Research and Innovation for the Constructive Dialogue Institute. She was a recent guest on the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast for a conversation about Facilitating Contentious Conversations in Your Classroom (Duong, 2024). Her work in this field is cutting edge and I want to share an abbreviated guide to setting up classroom discussions from her co-authored 2022 piece in Times Higher Education (the whole thing is worth a read, but this section is an abbreviated quotation from the article).

  • Invest time to foster a positive climate. Get to know your students as students and as people.
  • Establish ground rules, norms or shared agreements for discussions. Whatever you call them, it’s more effective to co-create these norms with your students rather than simply telling students what they are. 
  • Plan discussions. Meaningful exchanges rarely happen spontaneously. Planning for discussions means two things.
  • Think through what role you want to play during the discussion. Is your stance one of intentional neutrality? Will you challenge a student’s point of view if you don’t agree? What if you find the point of view offensive? Will you play devil’s advocate? Under what circumstances, if any, will you as facilitator express your own stance on an issue?

The key takeaway from the work of Dr. Duong is that facilitating this sort of dialogue requires planning. We often see poorly planned classroom discussions in YouTube shorts or things that seem expertly constructed during peer observations. The planning work is lost in these snapshots. It can take up class time, it can be challenging, but in the end building community is worth it for an array of reasons–not least among them is the capacity to have meaningful conversations about difficult issues. 

Last thing, just a reminder that this Thursday we are collaborating with Information Security, the Technology and Learning Program, and Student Rights and Responsibilities to offer a workshop on Academic Integrity and AI. It is on Zoom from 9-11am on Thursday and we will record it.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.

A Quick Guide for Difficult Situations

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Most of us have experienced tense situations in classrooms. A discussion gets out of hand, a student is experiencing some sort of trauma, or, in extreme situations you think someone might be a threat to themselves or others. Whether you are on Zoom or in a classroom, it is tough to know what to do in real-time. In recognition of this difficult circumstance and the sometimes complicated nature of University support structures, we have developed an easy reference guide for faculty, a “one-door” system for you to “knock” on when you need help. You may have also seen the guide as the Canvas pop-up last week and we are working on placing it in physical classrooms.

We are trying to simplify the process of getting help for students by directing most traffic and alerts to the Campus Assessment Response and Evaluation (CARE) team. This is a group of professionals on campus at the intersection of mental health, physical health, and overall well-being. 

Associate Vice President Juanita Mottley shared this additional context with me for the message this week. 

Thank you for your continued commitment to the well-being of our campus community. We appreciate your diligence in submitting a CARE Report when you have concerns about a student.

Please be aware that we take every report seriously and cannot disclose specific information regarding the actions or outcomes related to the student in question. Rest assured, once a concern is submitted, our multidisciplinary team promptly connects with the student to offer the appropriate support and resources. The student’s participation in these support efforts is voluntary.

Thanks again for your understanding and continued support.

Keep a copy of the guide (PDF) handy. We all have a role to play in supporting our students. Let’s take care of each other and our students. If you need help with a situation in your own life don’t hesitate to contact the Employee Assistance Program.

Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150

All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.