Fall Kickoff
Announcements

August Fall Kickoff Programming from the CTL

Rick Moore

The CTL will offer a number of workshops, virtual conversations, and other events in the weeks prior to the start of the fall semester.

Please join us and set yourself up for success in the new semester. To search by date, please visit our events page.

Half-Day Faculty Workshops

The following half-day workshops will be offered for faculty preparing to teach this fall. All workshops will be in person and will include breakfast starting at 8:30am.

Leveraging Active Learning Classrooms for Student Collaboration and Engagement

This workshop focuses on fostering student collaboration and engagement in active learning classrooms (ALCs). ALCs are designed for students to move around, work collaboratively, and engage together in the learning process.  The CTL supports several of these spaces at WashU. The classrooms feature moveable furniture, shared whiteboards, monitors, and more. Participants will learn how to take advantage of these innovative spaces by engaging in activities, sharing ideas with other participants, and designing activities for their own classes.

    • Wed, Aug 17, 9:00am – 12:00pm, Danforth Campus: REGISTER HERE

Maximizing Student Engagement in Large Classrooms

Thinking about refreshing your large-enrollment course? Or maybe you’re teaching a large course for the first time? In this workshop, we’ll explore concrete ways to maximize student engagement while teaching in classrooms that seat 50 or more students. Participants will learn how to structure course sessions, try out student engagement activities, and share experiences teaching large classes with other participants.

    • Thurs, Aug 18, 9:00am – 12:00pm, Danforth Campus: REGISTER HERE

Virtual Conversations

The CTL is happy to offer a number of 30-minute virtual conversations between August 16 – August 25th that will help you jump start your teaching planning for this fall. All Virtual Conversations will be held on Zoom.

Quick Surveys to Help You Get to Know Your Students

One small way to show your students compassion and help reduce their stress is by giving them opportunities to provide feedback about themselves and their experiences in your course. In this session, we will talk about short surveys you can give your students at the beginning of a course to help you get to know them and establish closer connections.

Designing Compassionate Course Policies

In this virtual conversation, we will consider how to craft inclusive, compassionate, and responsive course policies that will set you and your students up for success this semester. We will discuss questions that you can use to find a balance between offering students grace and flexibility with also providing them with the clear boundaries and structure that they need to stay on track. Note that the goal here will not be for everyone to leave with exactly the same course policies, but that participants will be able to use this time to discuss what has worked and what hasn’t in the past and brainstorm about possible adjustments for the coming semester.

Adopting Inclusive Syllabus Language

In addition to providing important university policies and acting as a reference guide for course logistics and requirements, the syllabus is likely one of the first places where students will begin to become acquainted with you and your course. As such, it can begin to set a positive, inclusive tone for the semester ahead. In this virtual conversation, we will discuss aspects of the syllabus that can help demonstrate your commitment to an inclusive learning environment where all students have the opportunity to feel like they belong.

Making the First Day of Class Count

The first day of class provides a unique opportunity to connect students to the course and to each other. Explore how first-day activities can create a welcoming, inclusive classroom environment that will boost student’s sense of belonging and enhance their learning experience throughout the semester.

What’s My Name? Learning Student Names to Boost Inclusion and Belonging

Memorizing (and correctly pronouncing) student names is one of the most effective ways to create an inclusive and effective classroom environment. Participants will learn techniques to help with this, plus be introduced to Name Coach–the new university-supported tool that allows people to record and share their name the way they like to hear it said.

Putting Your Student Evals to Work in the New Semester

You’ve received your student course evaluations from last semester, but now what? In this session, we’ll discuss how to interpret your evals – good or bad – and how to use the results to inform your teaching in the Fall semester.

Understanding FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) governs the privacy of student educational records. But what does this law mean for us as instructors? In this session, the Office of the University Registrar will present FERPA best practices for faculty and answer your FERPA-related questions.

Tech Trainings

These half-hour and hour-long tech trainings are geared towards helping you gain familiarity with educational technology tools that will support your pedagogical success.
Tech Trainings include:

Introduction to Zoom Whiteboards in the Classroom

​​​​​​​Sketch, brainstorm, and collaborate with your students using a new Whiteboard option that you can use in the classroom or online. Learn how to create and share a Whiteboard with your students for collaborative problem solving, group discussions, building classroom consensus, and more.

    • ​​​​​​​Tues, Aug 16, 10:00am – 10:30am, Zoom: REGISTER HERE
    • Wed, Aug 24, 3:00pm – 3:30pm, Zoom: REGISTER HERE

Introduction to Piazza

Save time answering the same question in emails and allow students to help each other by using Piazza as a class Q&A discussion forum. This session with Dr. Sally Wu and Piazza’s Ryan Bradford will demo how you can set up a space for students to easily pose and answer questions.

Poll Everywhere Basics

This hour-long session will walk through how to use the polling software Poll Everywhere to increase student engagement and to gauge student learning. We’ll look at the different types of questions that you can ask and show you how to get started with Poll Everywhere for both in-person and online synchronous courses.

Recording and Sharing Lecture Videos with Kaltura

In this session, you’ll learn the basics of recording, uploading, and managing lecture videos on Kaltura. Kaltura is seamlessly integrated into Canvas with many features such as video editing, closed captioning, and unlimited storage. For more information, see our resource on using Kaltura.

Introduction to Gradescope

Gradescope makes it easy to grade paper-based and digital assignments across multiple instructors and semesters. Learn how to use Gradescope to save time grading assignments during this one-hour training.

Poll Everywhere Canvas Integration Training

This hour-long faculty training is for instructors who are already familiar with Poll Everywhere basics and who are interested in giving students participation points or grades from polls. In this training session, you will learn how to set up the Poll Everywhere 2.0 integration to work with your Canvas roster and Gradebook.

Introduction to Padlet

Get insights and ideas from all of your students at once with Padlet, a virtual pinboard, that allows users to easily share text, images, files, and more. We will discuss various ways to use Padlet in and out of your classroom.

    • ​​​​​​​Wed, Aug 17, 3:00pm – 3:30pm, Zoom: REGISTER HERE
    • Thurs, Aug 25, 11:00am – 11:30am, Zoom: REGISTER HERE

Language Teaching Fair

The Center for Teaching & Learning and Coalition for Language Teaching and Learning LTF Planning Committee invite language instructors from across departments to engage in an afternoon of sharing and collaborative discussion about topics in language pedagogy at the 2022 Language Teaching Fair.

    • Tues, Aug 23, 2:30pm – 5:00pm CT via Zoom

Instructors who would like to submit a proposal to present can do so here through August 8th. For more information or to register to attend the event, please visit the CTL event page. For questions, reach out to Dr. Meg Gregory, Associate Director for Faculty Programs.

 

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