Tag: connections

Celebrate the Earth

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Compiled by Rebecca Nelson, Admin Analyst/Specialist (ranelson@csuchico.edu)

Join us in celebrating Earth Day on 4/22 and Earth Month throughout April, along with continuing efforts throughout the year to support environmental sustainability and resiliency. In Faculty Development, we are passionate about this work and have been proud sponsors of the Teaching Climate Change Resilience FLC series. These events are enrichment opportunities for ourselves and our students. We hope you find something here that resonates with you and what you teach.

Earth Day is an internationally recognized holiday to raise awareness, inspire change, and foster a deeper connection with nature. The Associated Students (AS) will be hosting an Earth Day Festival on Monday, April 22nd from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at Trinity Commons. Visit the AS Sustainability program webpage for more information.

Extend your Earth Day celebrations into the weekend by signing up to volunteer at the 2024 Chico Spring Clean Day on Saturday, April 20th from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at Hooker Oak Park and attending the Butte Environmental Council’s Endangered Species Faire on Saturday, April 20th from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Attend a public talk on Thursday, April 25th from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at the Recital Hall as we welcome Dr. Sarah Ray (Cal Poly Humboldt) and Dr. Jennifer Atkinson (University of Washington Bothell) for a distinguished visiting professor public lecture to discuss the pre-release of their book, The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators: How to Teach in a Burning World, an easy-to-use field guide for teaching on climate injustice and building resilience in your students—and yourself—in an age of crisis. Their talk will be followed by a book signing and reception.

Watch The Climate Baby Dilemma, a film written, directed, and produced by award-winning filmmaker Victoria Lean. We were honored to host the international university film premiere of The Climate Baby Dilemma in March and have purchased digital access to the full film for Chico State through the Meriam Library.

Explore the Butte Resilience Collaborative vision for a resilient community through collaboration, communication, and connectedness throughout the year.

Visit the Teaching Climate Change and Resilience (TCCR) webpage for additional information and resources.

Upcoming events and announcements:

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

Small Changes: Big Results

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We are a month into Spring and the time for adjustments or changes may seem to have passed. It is not too late to make a small change that could make a big difference for your students. I often return to the Small Change Series from James Lang during these moments because it is such a pragmatic guide to making adjustments during the semester (you only need a free Chronicle account to access these). In this tip I want to recommend an excerpt from his short essay on the last five minutes of class (library link) where instead of cramming in another example or theory you could try out a connection exercise. 

Closing connections. If we want students to obtain mastery and expertise in our subjects, they need to be capable of making their own connections between what they are learning and the world around them — current events, campus debates, personal experiences. The last five minutes of class represent an ideal opportunity for students to use the course material from that day and brainstorm some new connections.

Finish the last class of the week five minutes early, and tell students that they can leave when they have identified five ways in which the day’s material appears in contexts outside of the classroom. You’ll be amazed at how quickly they can come up with examples when this activity stands between them and the dining hall.

I liked this suggestion because it promotes student activity and a solution to something we sometimes struggle with–helping students see themselves in the work we are doing. 

Finally, just a reminder that we are still soliciting feedback on our summer programming through tonight at 11:59pm. Please help us better understand your needs by filling out this brief survey.

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.

Learning Agreements

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This Tuesday Tip is sent on behalf of joshuah whittinghill, Information Technology Consultant in the Technology & Learning Program.

Hello faculty,

Whether we plan it or not, building community is part of what we do as faculty. Not only is community being built, but it is crucial to students, as they find successes through connections they make with their peers as well as with us. 

As education evolves, so do our experiences, abilities, and resources. This week’s Tuesday Tip is another opportunity to highlight engagement. One way to increase engagement for students, as well as ourselves, is to examine accountability. Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I hold myself accountable? How do I ensure students are holding themselves accountable?”   

How do you create individual and collective accountability in your courses? According to accountability theory, it is common for members of a group (i.e. college classes) to develop a need to justify one’s behaviors to others, which causes one to consider and feel accountable for the process by which decisions and judgments have been reached. One way to cultivate accountability is by using learning agreements in your courses.  

Learning agreements enhance students’ education by helping them understand the importance of adhering to their own best practices and goals.

Learning agreements have also shown to:

  • Create individual and group accountability
  • Enhance students’ investment in their education
  • Develop personal and community connections to collective successes
  • Develop a guide for student to content engagement 
  • Build community

As the instructor, you can share two agreements you feel would be useful for the course, then ask students to add their agreements. Often creating course agreements is often useful to do the first week of the term, followed up during the second week with time for everyone to review and agree on agreements to that time.

In order to maximize course learning agreements, it is important that everyone has access to them, that the document can be amended during the semester. As the instructor, it is important to revisit them weekly during a class meeting, announcement, email, or text. Revisiting them can be resharing the link to your course learning agreement document, highlighting one or two agreements each week in a message or during class time.

Here is a Google doc with instructions to create a shared and editable document so all members of the course have access and can contribute.

Learning Agreements

adminLeave a comment

This Tuesday Tip is sent on behalf of joshuah whittinghill, Information Technology Consultant in the Technology & Learning Program 

Hello faculty,

Whether we plan it or not, building community is part of what we do as faculty. Not only is community being built, but it is crucial to students, as they find successes through connections they make with their peers as well as with us. 

As education evolves, so do our experiences, abilities, and resources. This week’s Tuesday Tip is another opportunity to highlight engagement. One way to increase engagement for students, as well as ourselves, is to examine accountability. Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I hold myself accountable? How do I ensure students are holding themselves accountable?”   

How do you create individual and collective accountability in your courses? According to accountability theory (PDF), it is common for members of a group (i.e. college classes) to develop a need to justify one’s behaviors to others, which causes one to consider and feel accountable for the process by which decisions and judgments have been reached. One way to cultivate accountability is by using learning agreements in your courses.  

Learning agreements (PDF) enhance students’ education by helping them understand the importance of adhering to their own best practices and goals.

Learning agreements have also shown to:

  • Create individual and group accountability
  • Enhance students’ investment in their education
  • Develop personal and community connections to collective successes
  • Develop a guide for student to content engagement 
  • Build community

As the instructor, you can share two agreements you feel would be useful for the course, then ask students to add their agreements. Often creating course agreements is often useful to do the first week of the term, followed up during the second week with time for everyone to review and agree on agreements to that time.

In order to maximize course learning agreements, it is important that everyone has access to them, that the document can be amended during the semester. As the instructor, it is important to revisit them weekly during a class meeting, announcement, email, or text. Revisiting them can be resharing the link to your course learning agreement document, highlighting one or two agreements each week in a message or during class time.

Here is a Google doc with instructions (Google Doc) to create a shared and editable document so all members of the course have access and can contribute.