Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) 2024 Mid-Winter Institute
TLC 2024 MID-WINTER INSTITUTE
January 22 (Online) Monday
10:00-11:30am: Blending Practices for Accessible, Flexible, Equitable Classrooms
Hosted on Zoom by: Manju Adikesevan, Oriana Mejías Martínez, and Şule Aksoy
This workshop provides an introduction to Blended Practices and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in CUNY classrooms across disciplines. Drawing upon equity, accessibility, and flexibility perspectives, this workshop will discuss how these pedagogical approaches enable instructors to respond to students’ needs. It will address blending and UDL in the context of commonly implemented CUNY teaching modes such as in-person, hyflex, blended synchronous, etc., paying attention to the pedagogical imperatives, constraints, and opportunities of humanities, social sciences, and STEM teaching and learning. Participants will think about how to implement blended and UDL approaches in their teaching.
12:00-1:30pm: Grading/Ungrading aka Grading: Just Say No!
Hosted on Zoom by Jeff Voss and Pedro Cabello del Moral
Grading frequently induces anxiety, stress, and confusion for students and instructors alike. Grades are an unavoidable aspect of the labor that graduate student teachers and adjunct instructors at CUNY undertake. Whether we view them as the imposition of standards or a meaningful metric to account for students’ effort, we all understand that grades hold a lot of power as currency in American academia. This workshop will help instructors reflect on their grading practices and discuss approaches to assessing students’ diverse ways of learning.
2:00-3:30pm: Building Community with Routine and Ritual
Hosted on Zoom by Kristine Riley and Zach Muhlbauer
This workshop invites attendees to reflect on how routine and ritual can help transform the classroom into a communal space that supports affective and collaborative learning. From index-card check-ins to free writes, this workshop will explore activities and strategies that foster groundedness and create structure for imaginative and critical thinking. Attendees will walk away with ideas for their pedagogical toolkits and ways to help students develop their own routines, habits, and ritual-work as learners.
4:00-5:30pm: Crafting Creative Assignments and Activities
Hosted on Zoom by Ana Badue and Şule Aksoy
A creative classroom facilitates engaged learning and flexible teaching, encouraging new possibilities and perspectives within and beyond our disciplines. Through assignments and classroom activities, we can stimulate student curiosity and critical thinking and invite them to demonstrate their learning in innovative ways. This workshop will explore the TLC Assignment Library and craft new and creative teaching materials. It will also discuss how to celebrate students’ imagination as part of classroom routines.
January 23 (In-Person) Tuesday UnInstitute
10:00-11:00am: Opening Session, Room 3317
The day will start with a brief recap of Monday’s sessions, focused on key takeaways that attendees can implement in their courses immediately. The meeting will then shift to brainstorming topics, methods, and approaches that attendees would like to explore in more detail the remainder of the morning.
11:00-11:45am: Break Out Session One
11:45am-12:30pm: Break Out Session Two
12:30pm-1:30pm: Lunch (On Your Own)
1:30pm-3pm: Group and One-on-One Syllabus Consultations, Room 3317
Register for Tuesday’s UnInstitute
January 24 (Online) Wednesday
10:30am-12:00pm: Drop In Office Hours
Hosted on Zoom by Luke Waltzer, Laurie Hurson, and Şule Aksoy
Register for Drop-in Office Hours
TLC staff will be available on Zoom at this time to work with anyone who would like feedback on a syllabus, an assignment, an exercise, or any other matters related to their spring teaching.
2:00-3:30: Student Engagement on the CUNY Academic Commons
Hosted on Zoom by Laurie Hurson
Active learning and collaborative knowledge creation are two core components of student-centered pedagogy. Instructors using the CUNY Academic Commons can develop course websites and assignments that foster student engagement in the classroom and with course materials through digital annotation, public and private writing, and crafting creative projects and digital portfolios.
January 25 (Online) Thursday
11:00-12:00: Teaching with Manifold
Hosted on Zoom by Robin Miller (GCDI)
This workshop will introduce Manifold, an open source, digital publishing platform, that is free for anyone at CUNY to use. It will present an overview of the platform, show examples of how Manifold is being used at CUNY, and explore possibilities for teaching and using Manifold in the classroom.
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