This page provides a run-down the activities and programs sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning this term:
UPDATE: Book Club/Castleton Mentors:Â After consultation with participants,. we are going to fold the Castleton Mentors and the Book Club into a joint meeting. Talking Teaching will also be cancelled. if you would like to join this interesting discussion group or weren’t present for the mentor meeting and want to learn more, contact Chris directly.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Castleton’s new Innovation Lab is proud to offer our first hands-on workshop this Wednesday, from 6:00-7:30 PM. The topic of this week’s workshop will be an introduction to 3D printing. The workshop is intended for those with little or no experience with 3D printing. Instruction will include identifying/downloading suitable 3D models, preparing them for printing, and then getting a print job started on one of the lab’s 3D printers. This workshop is open to all Castleton students, faculty, and staff. Details:
- 3D Printing Workshop
- Wednesday, March 16th
- 6:00-7:30 PM
- Innovation Lab – Leavenworth Hall 201
- Space is limited. Please register here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=A5d-sd3b-kmQnAPf0TCGryggYErRp49Fik_rVU689plUMlFKVFRLWUJYVzBKRkkzN1cxNlFUMUZBVi4u
Spring Workshop Series!
You are cordially invited to attend our Wednesday Workshop series. Unless otherwise announced, workshops will be held on Zoom, will be recorded, and will be available for you to access at any time. Please join us Wednesdays at 3-4. The focus of these workshops is to continue to build our capacities as a community of learners sharing ideas and preparing ourselves for the next challenges in education. This year, we have a focus on ideas for teaching and advising, as well as assessing our effectiveness in these areas:
WORKSHOPS COMING UP:
March 16: Hands-On Advising Practices for Registration: Join members of the Faculty Assembly teaching and Scholarship Committee for an overview of basic advising practices and online systems for the specifics of student registration. This session is especially recommended for first-time or early-career advisors.
March 23: Learning Myths: Join Megan Blossom and Sarah Chambers for a look at some of the myths and realities of learning with a focus on insights from research into how humans learn.
April 13: Planning Action Research: Join Gillian Galle for a hands-on session on planning and executing an action research project. This session will also launch a call for proposals for small grants supporting action research in fall courses.
April 20: The Future of Community Engagement and Community-Based Learning: Details TBD.
PREVIOUS WORKSHOPS:
February 9: Introduction to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Action Research, and IRB at Castleton. (Recording) Join Gillian Galle and Monica McEnerny for an overview of how teachers study their work and what would be involved in such an endeavor. Later in the term, small grants will be available for faculty who wish to design an instance of action research in one of their upcoming courses.
February 23: Introduction to 3D: (Recording) Join Matt Moriarty for an overview of 3D technologies and the opportunities available in our new Innovation Lab in Leavenworth Hall. We will review 3D scanning, imagining, and printing. One-on-one workshops for interested faculty and staff will be scheduled in lab; come and learn how to print your own 3D objects!
March 2: Introduction to XR: Join Archeologist David Hixson for an introduction to Extended Reality. Professor Hixson will introduce his work in using 3D imaging to produce virtual renderings of archeological sites and will suggest some wider applications for extended and augmented reality in education.
March 9: Big ideas in Advising: Join Gillian Galle and James Wolfe for a discussion of formal advising and informal support practices. This session will review the practices that emerged from the ad hoc faculty committee on advising last year and look ahead to the future of advising in the VSU. This session is especially recommended for first-time or early-career advisors.
Other Programs:
-  One-on-one help: Whether it involves figuring out a component of your course or working through a difficult problem with a student, you can come to the CTL for help. Any interactions or participation in programming is absolutely confidential and won’t be reported to administration unless you request it. Contact CUCanvas@ for help with any facet of online or remote teaching; for other matters contact Chris if you are interested.
- Book Club: This year participants are reading Teach Students How to Learn by Saundra Yancy McGuire. Kick-off meetings will be announced soon. You can still join! Contact Chris if you are interested.
- Innovation Lab: The new Innovation Lab is open for faculty and staff to use. The lab is equipped with a teleconference classroom with user laptops, VR headsets, 3D scanning and printing, and a Glowforge Laser Cutter. Introductory and hands-on workshops will be announced soon.
