Monday, May 17, 2010

Grant Seeking 101 - Abbey Showalter-Loch and Michelle Epp (Corporate and Foundation Relations)
Learn about the process of grant seeking at Macalester and strategies to prepare a competitive grant proposal.

Panels, Discussions, and Blogs, OH MY! : Assigning and Grading Student Group Work in any Discipline - Sue Young, Professor of Communication Studies, Mansfield University
Confused about how to word assignments to get students to produce the projects you want? Perplexed about how to manage group conflict in the classroom? Unsure how to grade group work or use peer evaluations? Assigning group work can provide students with enhanced learning experiences, as well as prepare them for graduate study and becoming competitive in the workplace. This workshop will take you from assignment development to assignment evaluation.

GoogleSites for Classroom Web Projects - Scott Legge (Anthropology) and Brad Belbas (Information Technology Services)
Ever wished for a tool to create professional looking websites for class assignments or research projects, but without the extensive technical demands? In the past, assigning students to create web-based content meant making a potentially undesirable tradeoff: the technological demands could undermine the quality of students' learning. GoogleSites brings ease of use to new levels and might just what you’ve been waiting for. See examples of Mac course projects using GoogleSites and get hands-on experience using this remarkable tool.

Grant Seeking for a Sabbatical Leave - Helen Warren (Corporate and Foundation Relations)
Have a great project in mind for your sabbatical? Warren will discuss special considerations for preparing a grant proposal for your sabbatical research.

PLENARY SESSION - Discussion as a Way of Teaching - Stephen Brookfield, Distinguished University Professor of Education, University of Saint Thomas
Co-author of Discussion as a Way of Teaching, Brookfield will provide a range of exercises for starting discussions, strategies for maintaining their momentum, and ways to elicit diverse views and voices. He will also explain how to balance the voices of students and teachers, while still preserving the moral, political, and pedagogic integrity of discussion.

Dr. Brookfield has written twelve books on adult learning, teaching, critical thinking, discussion methods and critical theory, four of which have won the Cyril O. Houle World Award for Literature in Adult Education (in 1986, 1989, 1996 and 2005). In 2001, he received the Leadership Award from the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) for "extraordinary contributions to the general field of continuing education on a national and international level." After 10 years as a Professor of Higher and Adult Education at Columbia University in New York, Brookfield now holds the title of Distinguished University Professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota where he recently won the university's Diversity Leadership Teaching & Research Award and also the John Ireland Presidential Award for Outstanding Achievement as a Teacher/Scholar.

Teaching Collaborative Writing in Google Documents - Marlon James (English) and Fritz Vandover (Information Technology Services)
Want to lower the overhead involved in collaborative writing? Want to be able to peer into groups to see which students are contributing and which ones aren't? If so, join us and we'll show you how!

Getting Aligned – Part 1 – Aligning Your Teaching with Your Philosophy of Teaching - Karl Wirth (Serie Center and Geology)
Why did you enter the teaching profession? What are your core goals for student learning? A well-formulated teaching philosophy comprises an essential foundation upon which one's teaching can be built. This hands-on workshop will help you articulate your teaching philosophy by providing time for reflecting together on your goals, principles, and strategies, and on ways of making these manifest in your teaching.

I Have a Great Book Idea: A Page a Day to Project Completion - Sue Young and Howard Travis, Professors of Communication Studies, Mansfield University
You have a completed dissertation, an idea for a book, or a dream about a textbook. How do you get from your dream book to a published work? Young and Travis will walk you through their process of getting from a great idea to a finished book manuscript.

Advanced Moodle: Using the Gradebook Feature - Academic Information Associates, Information Technology Services
Moodle is a very flexible tool for sharing content with your students—including their grades. In this session, you will learn how to make the revamped Gradebook feature fit your grading needs!

Getting Aligned – Part 2 – Aligning The Elements of a Course Using Reverse Design - Karl Wirth (Serie Center and Geology)
Research demonstrates that one of the most effective ways for improving student learning is by aligning the instructional goals, learning assessments, and instructional activities. Reverse design is a process that begins with considering what students should know and be able to do at the end of a course, and then proceeds to acceptable evidence of learning, and finally instructional practices. Workshop participants will use this process for one of their courses.

Coaching Faculty for Successful Media Interviews - Amy Phenix (Communications and Public Relations)
Sharing your expertise through the media is one way faculty reach out and educate the broader public. However, talking to the media also can be daunting. Phenix will discuss effective techniques for delivering your message through the media, including how to get over the sense that you are not the "best" expert, responding to tough questions and how to cut through the clutter.

Revising Your Course for Next Term: More than Putting in New Dates and Editions - Tina Kruse (Educational Studies)
We frequently urge students to rethink and revise their academic papers. Rethinking and revising our classes and syllabi can be equally productive. Kruse will discuss strategies for revising courses and syllabi to avoid the trap of simply changing dates and re-using tired ideas. Please bring a syllabus you would like to update so you can take notes and jot down thoughts during the discussion.

Staying One Click Ahead: Emerging Technologies - Ron Joslin (Library) and Fritz Vandover and Josh Allen (Information Technology Services)
Being impacted by ‘disruptive’ technologies and innovations has become the norm for most of us. In this fast-moving session, we peer into the crystal ball and discuss the emerging technologies already on the horizon as well as those experts say are destined for our future. We’ll show examples of these innovations and speculate on how they may impact higher education and other learning environments.

Help! I'm Drowning in Student Letter of Recommendation Requests - David Moore (International Studies) and Roopali Phadke (Environmental Studies)
Find yourself increasingly swamped by student requests for letters of recommendation and wonder if there is an easier way? Do you feel obliged to write stronger and stronger letters for students in order to help them compete in a world driven by “recommendation inflation”? Come hear about strategies that other faculty members have devised to manage student requests for letters of recommendation.

PLENARY SESSION - The Tyranny of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning - Diane Pike, Professor of Sociology, Augsburg College
Borrowing from author Matt Miller's 2009 book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity, Pike will examine the dead ideas that hold us back from practicing the best teaching we can. Liberation from the oppression of often deeply held ideas can lead to more rewarding teaching and better learning.

Dr. Pike is currently Professor of Sociology and has served as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Augsburg College. Professional commitments include active professional development with the American Sociological Association, the Sociologists of Minnesota (President 1991), and the Midwest Sociological Society (past State Representative; Committee on Undergraduate Education). Pike is the current (2008) President-elect and Program Chair of the Midwest Sociological Society.

Be the Media! Using New Media to Teach Macalester Students - John Kim (Humanities, Media, and Cultural Studies) and Alison Sommer (Information Technology Services)
Students come to the classroom with proficiencies in a wide variety of media production techniques. In fact, many students are more literate in these media forms than traditional writing. How can professors take advantage of this change both through the design of courses that contain media production assignments and integrate media workshops directly into the classroom?

Bringing the Audience In: Teaching with Posters and Exhibits in the Humanities Classroom - Ellen Arnold (History)
Arnold will discuss how she brought science and public history presentation styles into history courses, specifically a stand-alone poster session from last year and a Spring 2010 course project that replicated a museum exhibit. These approaches allowed her humanities students to practice working beyond the single audience paper and explain complicated ideas to a broader audience.

Publishing Your Research on the Internet with “Selected Works,” Terri Fishel (DeWitt Wallace Library)
Learn about "Selected Works," our online site that does more than promote your research interests; it is also a place where you can post and publish your research. Best of all, "Selected Works" provides feedback on when your work is being used (something you don't get from journals or citation reports).

Hey, What Did Your Department Assess? Learning from Each Other's Department Assessment Plans - Kendrick Brown (Associate Dean of the Faculty and Psychology) and Nancy Bostrom (Institutional Research)
In the Spring semester, faculty completed 32 plans to better understand student learning in their departments. This session describes some interesting techniques proposed and/or implemented by different academic departments. Discussion of various assessment practices will be encouraged amongst session participants.

PLENARY SESSION - Financial Planning For Faculty at Every Career Stage - Ann Witte, Professor of Economics, Wellesley College
How can you manage your assets to meet your commitments and achieve your goals? Modern finance and capital market developments provide new answers to this age-old question. To meet your commitments and achieve your goals, you need to consider all of your assets (e.g., your human capital as well as your financial capital) and jointly manage your assets and liabilities.

Witte will provide a thorough and hands on approach to more effectively managing your finances. Using prototypes of faculty members at Macalester, she will provide assets allocations and asset choices for faculty members at different stages in the career cycle and with different capacities to assume risk.

Dr. Witte splits her time between teaching and research as a Professor of Economics at Wellesley College and running her own financial & economic consulting firm, ADW Consultants, LLC. She is a distinguished economist/statistician and Fellow of the American Statistical Association and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research as well as a highly regarded Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). As an RIA, Witte uses approaches that rapidly adjust to market changes and incorporate major insights from financial economics. She also provides pro bono counseling and education for low-income families.