May 29-June 1 Apps due March 12 Winston-Salem, NC
Mid-career and late career faculty members are invited to join faculty from Wake Forest University, North Carolina A&T, UNC Greensboro and other regional colleges and universities for a four day early summer retreat. Join us as we explore new paths, both pedagogical and personal, to reconnect with the excitement that led us into teaching careers. The Teaching Renewal retreat will include time to work on specific teaching projects, opportunities to interact with colleagues from across the state, workshops and book discussion groups and personal coaching opportunities. Tai Chi & meditation sessions will be offered and participants will have ample time to enjoy the grounds and amenities at the beautiful Graylyn International Conference Center in Winston Salem. Costs for the retreat, including a private room at Graylyn for three nights and most meals, will be covered by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL).
Applications due March 12, 2012 – see application information below.
Sessions and Workshops
Opening Session – Seasons of a Professor’s Life
To sustain our creative vitality as teachers, we need to look not only beyond the classroom, but beyond the immediate semester. As we move through each new stage of our lives, we meet new challenges and have to draw upon different resources. Led by Peter Filene, award-winning teacher and historian and author of Joy of Teaching.
Creating Engaging Assignments & In-Class Activities
Learning can be: a) a by-product of deep thinking; b) a social process; c) a creative process; or d) all of the above! In this session, we will focus on creating active, engaged learning activities and assignments that facilitate greater retention and application as well as promoting student responsibility for learning. Led by Katie King, Assoc. Director, Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Elon University
Stories of Teaching
The use of storytelling can be a powerful tool for examining our experiences. In this workshop we will share stories about teaching experiences, both good and bad, to discover our strengths and determine how to keep those strengths at work in the classroom to nourish our excitement and passion for what we do. Led by Catherine Ross, Director, Teaching and Learning Center, Wake Forest University.
Just in Time Teaching (JiTT)
JiTT is a student centered approach to teaching and learning that makes regular use of before-class questions or problems that make visible to both students and instructors the nature of students’ understandings and misunderstandings of course material. JiTT can help instructors make efficient and effective use of class time and facilitates the development of students’ abilities to reflect on and regulate their own learning processes. This workshop will provide the rationale for the use of JiTT and help participants explore its use in their own courses. Led by Scott Simkins, Director, Academy for Teaching and Learning, North Carolina A&T State University, co-editor (with Mark Maier) of Just-in-Time Teaching: Across the Disciplines and Across the Academy, Stylus Publishing, 2009.
What is Social Networking and What Does it have to do with Teaching and Learning?
Social Networking tools can help faculty develop course activities that are more engaging, interactive and collaborative than traditional instructional methods. Students can create learning environments that interest them and can invite others to participate with them. Social Networking sites can also generate opportunities for creative assessment as well as collaboration with academic colleagues from around the world. Examples of using Facebook, Twitter, Wikis, Blogs, del.icio.us, Flicker, and even Second Life will be shown. Led by Ray Purdom, Director, Teaching and Learning Center, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
Contemplative Educational Practices in the Curriculum
By exposing students to the opportunity to experience reality through a contemplative approach that celebrates reflective inquiry, we honor the whole student, the inner self and the social self. In a competitive culture of interruptions and expectations, the need for quietude and reflection becomes crucial to learning and to empowering the student to take charge of their own personal growth. By constantly guiding our attention to the object of study and to the complex nature of our own humanity, we cultivate awareness of self and the other, and we set the foundations for understanding the virtues of reverence, tolerance, humility, empathy, and compassion. Led by Pat Dixon, Senior Lecturer, Music, Wake Forest University
Book discussions
- The Heart of Higher Education, Parker J. Palmer and Arthur Zajonc, 2010.
- How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett and Norman, 2010.
- Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, 2011.
- Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions, Stephen D. Brookfield, 2012.
Group and individual work time & one-on-one consultations with facilitators
There will be opportunities to work with faculty from other institutions on teaching topics of mutual interest, work on your own, and to meet with any of the facilitators for one-on-one consultations.
About the Graylyn International Conference Center
Graylyn is an historic building just minutes from Wake Forest University, approximately an hour west of Elon, 30 minutes from Greensboro. It offers 96 uniquely designed guest rooms, an executive chef, up-to-date meeting facilities, a fitness room, swimming pool and walking and jogging trails. Visit http://www.graylyn.com/ for more information.
Who may attend?
All continuing, tenure-track or tenured faculty members with at least seven years of full time teaching experience are invited to apply. Participants must commit to staying for the duration of the retreat (note that this program overlaps with the writing residency and the first summer school term). Elon will pay for the participation of up to five faculty members; if more than five apply, participants will be selected at random with those not selected placed on a waiting list.
How to apply
Complete the final page of this attached Word document. Send it as an attachment to kingcath@elon.edu or through campus mail to Katie King, CB 2610. Deadline for applications: March 12, 2012