Center for Teaching Excellence
What do you think?
Today's email from the Chronicle included an article about cheating and AI. Arik Levinson proposes two approaches to reduce the likelihood of cheating that could work in tandem. What do you think about the suggestions?
Winter Workshop
🗓️ Wednesday, January 15
⏰ 9:00 - 1:00
📍 KN 4090
🤖 Change is Hard: The emotional side of adapting to AI; AI Literacy for Adults
Generative AI is creating change in education, and change is sometimes hard or even overwhelming. This can lead to various emotional responses and various adaptation strategies. Join us at Winter Workshop where special guest Mike Kentz will lead us through identifying and processing our emotional responses to AI. Mike will then present some information on what AI is so that we can identify responsible and effective ways to use it, should we choose to do so.
Breakfast pastry, coffee, and lunch will be provided. Attendees will earn 10 CTE Knights Points.
Writers’ Retreat
🗓️ January 13–14
⏰ 9 am–3 pm
📍 Warwick Campus Library
Are you working on a book manuscript, journal article, creative writing project, grant application, teaching and learning conference paper, or other writing project?
Are you working on developing a syllabus for a new course or updating one for an existing course? Are you preparing your portfolio for promotion and tenure and need to write a narrative about your time at CCRI? Would you like to set aside two days dedicated to starting, improving or even finishing this project?
The Tutoring and Writing Centers and The Center for Teaching Excellence are sponsoring a Faculty and Staff Writers’ Retreat, which is open to any faculty or staff member working on a writing project.
The retreat will provide a structured opportunity for you to further your writing project. You will participate in small group planning and goal setting sessions, have ample time and inspirational space for independent work, and have access to a variety of consultants. Altogether, participants will spend up to 12 hours on their writing projects. Throughout the retreat, staff will be available to provide consultation and targeted assistance.
Participation in each day is worth 7 Knight Points. Please register by January 3, so we can make sure we have enough food!
New Location
The Center has moved downstairs to room 4559 in the Knight Campus Library. This sunny space is right in the middle of the CTE Book Collection, and still has coffee and tea! Stop by to check it out and get a cuppa!
Resources
Check out all the new books that CTE has added to the library collection in the past two years.
Rachel's Recommended Reading
"Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto" by Kevin M. Gannon
This slim book is packed with passion for the potential inherent in the act of teaching. I recently had the opportunity to hear Dr. Gannon speak, and he shared that he finished working on this book during the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic, when we were all figuring out how to adjust our teaching to this new world. The introduction begins with a long list of the complications and problems we encounter in higher education these days, followed by this:
"The question becomes, then, how do we avoid ending up in a place where we don't believe that what we do matters, and where we surrender to cynical detachment?"
The rest of the book is Gannon's attempt to answer that question for himself and his practical suggestions for how faculty can "answer cynicism with purpose, despair with hope."
Available in the CTE Book Collection as an ebook.
Activate your CCRI ID as a Library Card here.
Knights Points
Don't forget, you can fill out an Implementation Plan if you want to use anything you learn from any professional development in your classes for 4 CTE Knights points. Close the gap to a CTE Knights Certificate before Spring Symposium!
Disaggregated Data Requests
In February 2022, I (Rachel) was able to see my course data for General Psychology (a course I have taught many times here at CCRI) disaggregated by race and ethnicity. The results were surprising and difficult for me to face. Despite that, I’m very glad that I did it, and I’m looking forward to trying some new strategies in my courses to try to close the equity gaps I found.
If you’d like to check out your own course data, request a meeting here to get started.
This is a confidential process and is for your professional development only. Results are not shared with chairs, deans, or the VPAA.
The Center for Teaching Excellence is a collaborative, faculty-led community that supports continuous development and champions high-impact, equitable teaching and learning practices for our diverse student body.
We Listen and Learn
We Respond and Lead
We Recognize and Reward