Category: Personal Growth

If Only I…

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We often have complaints and ideas in the middle of the semester.

  • If only I had a tablet to keep track of attendance I would remember that student’s name.
  • If I had a course release to work on this redesign it would make a difference, I just need some time.
  • If my colleagues and I could get together and talk about this over the summer, we could solve this problem.

Then when opportunity knocks in the form of budget to be spent down or a request for proposals we find ourselves saying “I’m fine, I don’t really need anything.” Sometimes we say this because filling out another form seems like an insurmountable obstacle. Sometimes we cannot remember what we wished we had. Sometimes we figure other people have real needs and what we would ask for is not that important.

Stop it.

Not just one of those behaviors, stop all of them. Take the time to fill out the form, most of the time it is easier than it seems. Make a note to yourself using Evernote, google docs, or an old fashioned sticky note when you have an idea that would improve learning. The needs of your students are real and if you have a good idea, don’t let it linger in the back of your mind, get it done.

Investing a little time and energy into improving learning environments is almost always worth it.

On an immediate note take the time to apply for a Learning Enhancement Grant (announcement on Wednesday) to get course release, create a Faculty Learning Community, or buy needed materials, etc. This is our most flexible internal grant and one that can make a real difference for you and your students. You may have noticed that we have been working to streamline the application process for our programs and this is no exception. Have a look at the google form when it is published on Wednesday and the included directions to see just how easy it can be to apply for funding to increase student learning.

 

Come prepared

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On Monday I did something uncharacteristic and came to work unprepared. I was caught up on emails and had not missed any deadlines, but I had the wrong socks. I bike to work whenever I can and keep clean clothes in my office to change into. However, on Friday I took home all my dress socks and forget to pack in more. Alone, I was left to face the horror of wearing white athletic socks with blue dress pants and brown shoes.
harry-potter-stare-downIt was not quite on the level of Harry Potter staring down Voldemort, but it was close.

My clever wife suggested I buy some socks at the bookstore and my day was saved, but the episode gave me a moment to reflect on the things I do to stay prepared on campus (most of which I have borrowed from others) that have saved me classroom embarrassment more than once.

Here is my checklist:

  1. A neutral change of clothes. This way if something tears or stains you can swap out things that will work with most of what you are wearing.
  2. Shout wipes. These are essential and help salvage clothes with stains until they can be washed and keep clothes clean on campus. They even get Flamin-Hot Frito dust out of white dress shirts…or at least that is what I have heard.
  3. Something nutritious to eat. I like high-protein granola bars for the occasional forgotten lunch or late night. You really need to have something in your desk or backpack.
  4. A toothbrush. This was a more recent addition to my stash but a welcome one for anyone I work with who does not want to smell my coffee breath all day.

What are your must-have supplies for campus? Let us know so we can add them to the in-construction Tuesday Tip repository.

Soon to be on your list will be an audio device so you can listen to an exciting podcast. Check out this collaborative podcast on “Adulting” I put together with some campus partners. We will be doing a new podcast on life at Chico State every two weeks. Stay tuned for an upcoming episode on Greek Life, or better yet, subscribe so you never miss a podcast!

 

Get more tips!

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The most common refrain I hear on campus is: I wish CELT and Faculty Development would invade my life even more! Okay, so maybe no one has ever said this in the 130 year history of the University, but still, if you want even more teaching tips, download the Magna Publications “Teaching Professor Tips App.” You can set it to deliver a tip at a particular time and you can even contribute, best of all it is free! If Magna sounds familiar, they are the same people who offer our 20 minute mentor program that you can still take advantage of this year.

The App may be a good choice for you and it may not. This is actually part of a larger conversation about managing the information streams in your life. Earlier this year a colleague and I calculated the average faculty member receives 3.5 campus wide emails per day. This is on top of college, department, research group, conference, student, peer, and personal email. If you find yourself deleting every email from a discussion group you are a part of, take 20 seconds and unsubscribe or set up a filter to put all the email from your disciplinary list serve into a folder. If your Facebook or twitter feed is full of stuff you hate, take a minute and unfollow/hide those posts. Our lives are full of information, investing a few minutes in making the streams you use the most the most useful for you will be time well spent.

 

What exactly are we measuring?

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We rely on Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) for a lot as instructors. They are a tool for measuring ourselves. They can provide valuable feedback for course design and content. They are a part of the puzzle when evaluating our peers. They also measure gender bias.

Wait! What was that last one?

Inside Higher Ed reported on new research into SETs concluding “evaluations are biased against female instructor in particular in so many ways that adjusting them for bias is impossible.” It comes as a surprise to no one that SETs are not always an effective tool. I used to teach a class of 500 and committed myself to reading every written comment and making changes as a result, but how seriously could I take them when students were frequently confused about whether they were evaluating me or a graduate student teaching one of the sections?

However, this recent study is different than student confusion or that offhanded comment in your evaluations, it points to systematic discrimination in one of our only standardized tools for measuring our work. This is a significant issue for higher education everywhere, but we tend to gravitate towards the immediate question of: What do we do about it? I am short on answers, but I have some suggestions.

  1. We are researchers, so let’s devote some of our time to learning more about this issue through the work of others (see this previous study to start) and our own investigations. The primary study was co-authored by an Associate Dean of Mathematics and Statistics and a postdoctoral researcher in Economics. The authorship speaks volumes about the reach of this issue and the diversity of people in a position to study it.
  2. If you are on a personnel committee of any sort it is time to have a conversation. The FPPP includes some strong language that SETs “shall be used, but will not weigh excessively in the overall evaluation of instructional effectiveness.” It is time to have some explicit conversations about what this means and how new information about SETs might inform future decisions.

Just a final reminder to come to the working lunch on Wednesday 12-3 in Colusa 100A to complete a Chancellor’s Office course redesign proposal. The funding package is generous at up $20,000 and the application is easy. This is a working lunch, not a series of presentations. Bring a laptop or pen and paper, leave with a completed application.

Got an idea for a tip? Send it to us!

 

We are all busy

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This time of the semester it is easy to think our experiences at work are unique to us. Nod in silence if you have said or overheard a colleague recently say

“I am so busy.”

“There is so much grading.”

“Arggh, students.”

“I don’t think (person X) understands how much work I have.”

“Why do I get so many annoying emails from CELT?”

These things might all be true, but it is important to remember they are true for everyone. Your colleagues are stressed and busy, students are scrambling to finish projects and study for exams, your chair and dean are grappling with their own issues, and the administrative assistant you work with all the time is probably getting the worst of it from all sides. Ask yourself how you would treat people if everyone were as busy as you are, and then do that, because they probably are.

Related to this piece of advice, here are a few more for the end of the semester.

  1. You would probably advise your students to abstain from ranting about their employers or coworkers on social media so take your own advice and do the same. What is posted on twitter lives forever in the memory of the internet. Think about how the student you are venting about would feel if you read your facebook post aloud in front of them.
  2. Yes it is the end of the term and ridiculous excuses are a part of our lives, but they can also be true. People do get sick during finals week and people we care about do go to the hospital. The fact that students may have been untruthful before does not mean the student who is emailing you asking for an extension is lying.
  3. Do something nice for someone. donuts Bring your class donuts or ask your administrative support person how his/her day is without immediately cutting them off to ask for a rush order copy job. Sometimes simple kindness gets us through the most challenging times.
  4. Looking for some help and a quiet place to grade during finals week? Check out the Faculty Grading Oasis in MLIB 458. We are open 8-5 with hot coffee, snacks, and student support to help alphabetize exams and data entry (as long as it is FERPA compliant). There may even be spontaneous “Hotline Bling” inspired dance-offs, you just never know.

 

National Controversies can have local implications

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There have been a lot of stories about race on college campuses in the past few weeks. Protests that reached the football field rocked Missouri; students, faculty, and administrators clashed at Yale resulting in varied responses; protests at Dartmouthhave become a flashpoint for administrators and politicized news. Anyone on our campus who was not aware of these broader trends became so before break through a timely email from President Zingg. His email was the topic of choice on anonymous social network Yik Yak immediately afterwards and I can promise you—students were and are talking. Lost track of what these protests are about and how they impact education? The Chronicle has a good briefing to get you caught up although each summary becomes outdated in short order.

Beyond the campus and in the international spotlight, terrorist attacks in France have lots of people talking about limiting immigration based on racial, national, or religious tests.

Regardless of your area of expertise or the topic of your class, you are walking into a classroom where students are asking questions about race and diversity on campus and off. If you are affiliated with Multicultural and Gender Studies, you are more likely to be ready for this conversation. But what happens when you walk into your Physics classroom and several students are in a heated argument about a slur someone used in the dorms? What happens when a student in your hybrid Business class asks “are black students safe on campus?” in the chatroom in the middle of a class session? How can we best serve our students and community in this changing environment?

  1. Educate yourself. No one expects everyone on campus to be an expert on all current higher education news and all topics related to diversity on and off campus, but these issues are only becoming more prominent in higher education. AAC&U has some great resources to get started.
  2. Odds are good, someone will be unhappy with how you proceed. Cut off discussion and students may feel you are dismissing legitimate concerns. Engage the topics some students are deeply concerned with and you may do so in the wrong way or let a conversation take over a course students are paying to attend to learn critical material. Be okay with the prospect that things may not go as planned and maybe check with your chair to find out if there is any advice from the program or college that may help you out, even when things don’t go well.

Most of the easy problems have already been solved. Only the hard ones are left.

For quick tips on just about any teaching topic you can think of, check outhttp://www.csuchico.edu/celt/ for information on our subscription to 20 Minute Mentor!

Need a quiet place to write or grade? Come by MLIB 458; we are open 8-5 and here to help faculty however we can.

 

Know your limitations and get some help

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My academic training is in communication. I am reminded of all the things I do not know every time I have a conversation with my father-in-law who is an engineer or my friend who works as a recreational therapist with physically challenged youth. I like to think of myself as well rounded, but the most important life/academic lesson I have learned is when to ask for help.

This lesson is most important when dealing with students in crisis. We are teachers, mentors, and field area experts, but rarely possess the training or experience to properly assist a student in a time of deep psychological distress. There are as many different profiles of students in distress as there are students. The young man who is away from home for the first time and feels crushed by responsibility, the student who was been the victim of sexual assault, the young women poised to be the first family member to graduate, but riddled with anxiety about what happens next, the high achieving student who appears confident but is actually struggling through a family crisis, and an infinite number of other variations and combinations. The one thing these hypotheticals have in common is that we as faculty members are only a part of the puzzle in supporting the student, not the whole picture.

There arumatter-logoe so many places where students and faculty can find support when dealing with these difficult scenarios.  The Counseling Center is the resource we most often think of, but in many situations Student Judicial Affairs, The Health Center, University Police, or an Associated Students organization like the Gender and Sexuality Equity Center may also be able to offer help.

The first move often falls to you as the faculty member, you need to pick up the phone and ask for help. Even if you call the wrong unit, you can be directed to the right one. When students confide in us or seek guidance about an issue putting them in crisis. What we have to realize is that most often they are doing so because they need some help, and while we may not be the ones to provide it, we can help them get it.

 

We all have something to share

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In Faculty Development we are making mentoring a priority. We formally and informally connect new faculty with experienced peers in their colleges. This program is critical to new faculty members as it allows them to ask tough questions and it values the experience of our wonderful full and part-time faculty members. In the new and exciting “U-Courses” the leadership of instructors is put into motion by advanced peers who help students move through complicated course content. We also value the mentoring relationships faculty build with students in undergraduate research efforts which have been recognized by AAC&U as a high-impact practice.

Increasingly, we know mentoring is important for our students and our faculty, but questions persist:

What is mentoring?

How do I know if I am engaging in good mentoring?

I enjoy pointing out other people’s failings in public settings to embarrass them, does that count as mentoring?

While mentoring is as old as human experience, we are still figuring out how to value it in the academy. At Purdue it is increasingly valued in tenure and promotion. On our campus, it is the focus of an exciting and diverse exploration in the upcoming mentoring conference. See the message below for a chance to learn about something we almost all do, but we could all benefit from knowing more about.

 When: Friday, October 16, 2015

Where: Colusa Hall 100A&B

Time: 9:30-4:30pm

[Register for one or multiple sessions, see conference schedule for details]

*No registration fees*

Reasons why you should attend:

  • Mentoring helps people establish caring relationships
  • Provides resources to help people learn and succeed
  • Build mentoring skills that you could use in workplace, community, and education settings
  • Opportunity to connect with clubs and organizations that are interested in mentoring, leadership, and civic engagement
  • Learn how programs at Chico State implement mentoring into their organization

 Interested? Register now. 

 For more information, contact Gina Tigri at the First-Year Experience Office at 530.898.3705 or visit our Experiential Mentoring Website at http://www.csuchico.edu/fye/mentoringconference.

Connect with your colleagues!

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For many of us teaching can be somewhat isolating. We prepare in our offices or at home, come to campus, teach our classes, grade in solitude, and meet with students individually. Between service obligations, research opportunities, and life outside the academy, there can be precious time left to connect with our colleagues, especially about teaching.

The CELT Conference is a great and easy way to reinvigorate your love for the classroom and learn something new. Ever think about Sports Radio as a teaching strategy? What about setting students on academic probation up to succeed? Explore these topics and many more at the Conference this Thursday and Friday.

If you cannot make the conference that does not mean you cannot move forward with your teaching. Come by the faculty development center in MLIB 458 to take advantage of some of our teaching resources or schedule a teach-and-tell coffee date with a colleague whose teaching you admire, but take the time to connect about teaching.

In the grind of the semester it is easy to lose sight of the fact that a passion for student learning is what brought most of us here. Do what you need to do to remind yourself.

See you on Thursday and Friday at the CELT Conference!

 

Did I just say that?

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Prior to this year, I taught the large lecture public speaking class which includes a live streamed/recorded version of the lecture. Everything I said was public and viewable in an archive. We had a string of technical problems until one day I thought everything was going well, I even commented on how well things were going in the lecture. Then I realized no one was complaining because all the online students were locked out. There was no one to complain because they could not get in.

I lost it.

raidersI got red in the face and let loose a stream of profanity more befitting an Oakland Raiders practice or 1970s basic training. I did this in the middle of a recorded lecture, a lecture on public speaking. We have all said things in the classroom we wish we could take back. The question is: What do you do next?

Fortunately I have done something like this enough times (I am not kidding; it is a bit of a problem for me) to have developed a system for this:

  1. Realize your class is looking at you to model behavior for them. Mistakes are made and the wrong words come out all the time. Think of what you would want them to do and let that inform your subsequent behavior.
  2. Acknowledge that something happened in the moment if you collect yourself in time. This is one of the best ways to defuse a situation and sometimes turns into a teachable moment where you can reflect on a mistake with the class.
  3. Follow up with a class announcement through Blackboard if the situation warrants it. This is an easy way to document your response to a mistake and model good behavior for your class by dealing with it rather than ignoring it.
  4. Follow up with your chair or supervisor if necessary. If what you said is likely to result in a student complaint or if you would like some advice, get in touch with the people you work with and let them know.
  5. Move on. We have all caught ourselves dwelling on that one bad student evaluation or that one mistake. The students are here because they want an education and you can help them with that. Deal with the problem and move on; don’t spend your semester reliving one moment.

Got a great teaching idea of your own? Showcase at the CELT Conference in a SLAM session (10/8 at 9:30am) facilitated by Ben Seipel or be on the lookout for a poster session invitation. Remember to Register!

Got an idea for a tip? Pass it on to us!