The Center for Teaching & Learning

Well, YOU DID IT! By now, your final grades have been submitted (save a few incompletes), and you are likely turning your attention to the December holidays and/or the coming new year. Hats off to our truly exemplary, dedicated and talented faculty! Now, some of you may be thinking about your J-term course or have begun perusing new resources for one or more of your spring courses. Regardless of your current mindset, this issue is packed with resources and articles to support you whenever you’re ready to think about teaching in 2021. If you were unable to complete the Prep-N-Check last summer, be sure to register for one of the January Prep-N-Check sessions with Dr. Torres-Crespo, our Coordinator of Online Instruction (details in our SCHEDULED section below). Next, members of the CTL advisory board met recently and discussed the powerful role our teaching has in empowering disenfranchised students in the classroom and beyond. To that end, board members drafted and approved a statement affirming the CTL’s commitment to anti-racist pedagogy, faculty support and programming (see EQUITY EMPHASIZED below). In closing, I hope to see you at the next CTL workshop on January 15th, Operation Engagement, which is being crafted in response to your feedback in the fall faculty survey. Or maybe you’ll join us for one or more meetings of the CTL Book-Club Break (see SCHEDULED below). Either way, enjoy your well-earned respite and “see” you next year!

Here's to you, Hood community! You made it through a tough semester amidst a global pandemic. Congratulations! Click below to watch this celebratory video--a BIG thank you to Marisel Torres-Crespo & Tim Jacobsen, who were the masterminds behind this fun clip!

Nicholas Owad, Ph.D., grew up in nearby York, Pennsylvania and went to Kutztown University for his bachelors in Math and Physics. He attended University of Nebraska-Lincoln for graduate school where he studied low-dimensional topology, which looks at how objects can be arranged in space. After graduating in 2016, he spent one year visiting at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, two years as a postdoctoral scholar at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Okinawa, Japan, and then one more year visiting at Colby College, in Maine. Nick joined the Department of Mathematics at Hood College in the Fall of 2020. He is a Project Next (Gold, ’21) and Section Next Fellow. Drop Nick a note at owad@hood.edu or visit nick.owad.org to learn more about his work.

Katherine (Katie) M. Robiadek, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Hood College and Director of the Martha E. Church Center for Civic and Community Engagement. A political theorist with broad training in the history of ancient through contemporary political thought, she focuses her current research on democratic theory as well as the early modern egalitarian political theories of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, and through a literary lens, Cervantes (working with texts in their original languages). She enjoys presenting her work in scholarly fora and has published in a wide variety of peer-reviewed venues, including on the results of the National Survey of Student Leaders as designed by the Consortium for Inter-Campus SoTL Research to assess democratic engagement of student leaders in campus organizations. Prior to graduate school, Katie worked as a professional artist as well as a non-profit administrator for grants, advocacy, accreditation, education outreach, economic development, and other programs in various organizations. In general, she enjoys poetry, hiking, and the theatre. Contact her at robiadek@hood.edu and learn more about her scholarship here.

"The early days of the pandemic took a toll on faculty members, but for many, peak stress is now, according to a new study of faculty mental health from Course Hero. Researchers for the study website surveyed hundreds of faculty members on and off the tenure track, across institution types, this fall. The findings suggest that faculty worries about the pandemic have morphed into chronic stress -- with serious implications for professors’ mental health, their students and the profession as COVID-19 drags on." Read the complete article in Inside Higher Ed here.

View this inspiring clip on "The Human Experience in a Digital World: Be Healthier, Happier and an Inspiration to your Students!" Presented by Denise Antoon, Professor of Criminal Justice.

Watch here

Scott Trexler shares a video with us on how to add the "Tutoring" menu item to Blackboard. This is in response to a student asking after tutoring and not finding the link in his Blackboard course. View the video here.

"Like a lot of professors, James M. Lang long sympathized with the frequently voiced view that phones, laptops and other devices are like the biblical serpent, distracting students and enticing them away from the learning that instructors earnestly plied in the classroom. But as Lang, an English professor and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University, began exploring the academic literature on attention and distraction, he reached the conclusion 'the human brain is' and always has been 'an eminently distractable organ,' and that trying to eliminate distractions is a 'losing battle.'" Read more about his winnable strategy here.

See full size graphic here.

The above infographic is based on Hood faculty input
and was created by CTL GA, Erum Marfani. Thank you!

Learn more about the work-life-school balance and how to help your students achieve it (presented by Oscar Lewis). Recording from the 2020 ADEIL (Association for Distance Education and Independent Learning) Conference: United Together: Enhancing the Quality of Online Learning. Watch here

"A large survey of students who lived on or near campus among peers during the fall semester showed that they had positive learning and social experiences, even if all of their classes were online." Read the full article here.

Help your students bypass bullying. In a recent article by David Mihalyfy, he writes: "Even if you don’t think it can happen to you, you still should consider the possibility. Bullying can quickly spread within a program, and forewarned, as they say, is forearmed. I grappled with a couple bouts of bullying during grad school and have since also learned from the many others out there who’ve had similar experiences. Here are my five biggest takeaways, and I hope you might find them helpful, as well." Read the article here.

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) condemns all forms of systemic racism, bias, and aggression against Black people, indigenous peoples, people of color, and those of marginalized genders, as well as discrimination based on socioeconomic status. We understand that excellence in teaching, by definition, must reflect our shared humanity and promote inclusive practices such as:

• being conscious of biases, racial abuse, micro-aggressions, and those who are minimized or left out;
• understanding and supporting those underrepresented in our Hood community; and
• promoting ways to actively foster equity, diversity and inclusion in our classrooms, research, and publications.

The CTL is determined to raise awareness of all those who have been systematically oppressed and call upon Hood faculty to join us in this commitment to create a more inclusive world. As members of the CTL Advisory Board, we stand united and affirm that Black Lives Matter.

"Experts agree higher education needs to do more to create equity for Black students. But more attention needs to be paid to barriers Black students face before they step foot on campus." This recent article is posted on Inside Higher Ed. Read it here.

Watch this video on microaggressions in the classroom here. This short feature is produced by Dr. Yolanda Flores Niemann, Professor of Psychology at the University of North Texas (UNT).

"Scholars discuss what it’s like to be a Black professor in 2020, who should be doing antiracist work on campus and why diversity interventions that attempt to 'fix' Black academics for a rigged game miss the point entirely." Read the full article here featured on Inside Higher Ed.

Now that many of us have more experience teaching online courses, we realize the need to organize, not just for our students, but for ourselves. Click here to learn how to organize online content.

Remember our P3 conference in August? It feels like a lifetime ago! Learning to teach virtually, and at the same time, trying to make the experience meaningful for our students, was harrowing at best. BUT WE MADE IT! Now, as we anticipate the next semester, I want to share with you an article I found that summarizes how to engage students, from day one, on Zoom or any virtual platform you decide to use. The crucial part is to create a positive tone. We cannot let the students start the semester worried about how difficult this will be or how isolated we are.

Let’s show them how lucky we are that Hood succeeded in the fall amidst a global pandemic and how technology is helping us to continue the teaching/learning process so that they can graduate on time. We can still see each other and establish close relationships through any virtual platform; it is up to us to be the first ones to be excited about this! If you want to talk about this article in more detail, please feel free to contact me (torrescrespo@hood.edu)

Attend live sessions on " Enhancing Online Education through Community-Based Learning." Through this faculty development opportunity, learn how to infuse community-based learning into online courses to give students hands-on, real-world experience that will strengthen learning, create connections to the larger community, and improve student retention rates. Courses in December and January: https://events.compact.org/fusion-fall20. Scholarships for Hood faculty to attend are available through the CTL.

Email: ctl@hood.edu
Website: www.hood.edu/CTL
Location: Hood College, Rosemont Avenue, Frederick, MD, USA
Phone: (301) 663-3131