Join a Current Teaching Circle

Spring 2023 Teaching Circles 

We are pleased to announce the following online teaching circles for Spring semester 2023. If you are interested in joining one of these groups, email the designated contact person as soon as possible, but no later than January 25, 2023.

Most Spring circles will determine meeting frequency, dates, times, and/or modes (F2F, Zoom, hybrid) by polling interested participants (unless otherwise noted in the circle description). Circles typically hold their first meeting during the third or fourth week of the term. 

For more information about the purpose, organization, and history of teaching circles at RIT, please see our overview of the Teaching Circle Program. If you have any questions about or would like to propose a future teaching circle, email Michael Starenko.

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Sandi Connelly, Center for Teaching and Learning, Academic Affairs; and School of Life Sciences, COS

While most educators can see the value of active learning, implementation of active learning in any classroom / modality can be daunting, overwhelming, and downright scary. Even the "seasoned experts" find themselves struggling to make the a-MAZ-ing active learning idea they had while washing their hair, driving the morning commute, or while zoning out in a faculty meeting become reality.

Getting buy-in from the students is not only imperative from day 1, but the buy-in has to be rewarded for 15 weeks to keep the students engaged. As active learning is often a team sport, even a single nay-sayer in a group can put the best active learning approach into a tailspin.

This teaching circle will focus on “strong willed” active learning strategies for any classroom (in person or online). We will research techniques for building group trust, bookending activities to demonstrate effectiveness and learning outcomes, and encouraging constructive feedback on the strategies implemented in the class. We will share best practices for the inclusion of all students in learning, even with support staff shortages and accommodation stumbling blocks. Lastly, for those who may teach in the SHED in fall 2023 / spring 2024, we will discuss best practices for scaling active learning, from 15 to 150!

This teaching circle will form over email, use a shared google drive to compile resources and keep meeting notes for reference, and connect on slack (if desired). The circle (or sub-circles) meeting times will be every three weeks, with the day/time and modality determined at the formation of the circle. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Sandi Connelly.

Alex Lobos, Industrial Design, CAD

One of the most important skills for any job is teamwork. Employers in all industries emphasize that no product or service is result of a single individual. In education, there has been an increased number of project-based courses, which frequently include group assignments. The issue is that students in these courses don’t necessarily learn how to be effective team members. A common reason is the misconception that students will learn teamwork just by working together.

This teaching circle will focus on understanding how to successfully integrate teamwork into project-based courses. The session will start with a series of strategies for teaching teamwork as a skill. From there, participants will discuss these strategies, as well as to share their own experiences, both positive and negative, in running team projects. Smaller groups will take some of the negative experiences and brainstorm on different approaches that could lead to successful outcomes in the future. The strategies covered in the session will be documented and shared with the group as a useful guide for teaching effective teamwork.

We will use email and a Doodle poll to determine the circle meeting mode (in-person and/or via Zoom) and meeting frequency and times. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Alex Lobos.

Garret Arcoraci, School of Information, GCCIS 

Communicating with students is the basis of education. However, with a host of platforms and digital communication devices, it can be challenging and overwhelming for instructors and students alike. Now, more than ever, it is essential that instructors clearly define policies to establish student expectations. In this teaching circle, we will explore the best practices and approaches to communicating with students outside the classroom. Explore techniques and practices to effectively use the various platforms available while being accessible to our students.

Our circle will meet via Zoom; we will use a Doodle poll to determine the meeting frequency and times. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Garret Arcoraci.

David Yockel, Jr., University Writing Program, SOIS

Faculty teaching writing-intensive courses (or any faculty interested in more effectively integrating writing into their curriculum) are invited to join this interactive teaching circle. As we all work to revise (or even create new) syllabi and incorporate new pedagogical practices, this year's initiative will be designed to help you develop and establish a creative and deliberate approach to the implementation of low-stakes writing exercises in your classes as well as diverse, effective, and sustainable feedback practices.

Participants will be challenged to explicitly connect both of these crucial aspects (i.e. the feedback they provide students and the low-stakes writing assignments they ask them to complete) to the established learning outcomes or core course objectives.

We are currently planning on meeting three times over the course of the semester (for about an hour each session) but the dates, times, and modes of these meetings are yet to be determined. Interested parties will be polled to identify the most appropriate time(s) and mode(s) to meet. If you are interested in joining our group and energizing your approach to writing instruction, email David Yockel, Jr.

Michelle Chabot, School of Physics and Astronomy, COS

In this on-campus teaching circle, we will take turns sharing specific active learning activities that we have used in our own classrooms or that we are thinking of using. We will collect example files and instructions for each shared activity so that they can be easily repurposed and implemented by anyone interested. After each shared activity, follow-up discussion will help clarify the activity and its potential usefulness in your own classroom.

Each participant will be asked to share at least once, so that it is truly an interactive and collaborative effort. If you are newer to active learning, you are still welcome to attend; you can share something you would like to implement, and we can help you develop it.
   
There will be four one-hour meetings, in person. Each meeting will have about 3-4 share-outs, each with 5-10 minutes for the description of the activity and 10 minutes for group discussion. Interested participants will be polled for availability, for how many activities they would like to share, and for whether they are willing to share at the first meeting. Let's stop reinventing the wheel, and let's work together and share! If you are interested in joining this circle, email Michelle Chabot.

Amanda Bao, Civil Engineering Technology and Environmental Management and Safety, CET

In this technological era, students can easily get distracted by smart device uses in classes along with other distractions. Building classroom learning environments that are engaging, vibrant, and motiving is therefore essential for students’ academic success.

In this teaching circle, participants will explore student engagement techniques that have been adopted for years and proven to be effective at RIT. These techniques include background story-telling of the instruction topics, linking to the real-world applications and projects, using visual aid and physical models to demonstrate concepts, designing hands-on activities for learning from doing, connecting with industry and hosting field trips, creating a safe environment to encourage students to show work and share mistakes, learning together from common mistakes, asking questions and extending thinking beyond the prescribed solutions, setting clear expectations and milestones and assessing frequently with fun quizzes, loosening up classroom atmosphere to reduce stresses and nervousness, and building up students’ confidence in learning.

Participants will also share and discuss student engagement techniques in their own teaching practices, either success stories or lessons learned. Producing a list of effective practices for student engagement techniques is one potential outcome of the circle. Meetings will be in-person, biweekly on Thursdays, 12:30-1:30pm, starting on February 9, 2023. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Amanda Bao. 

Michael Starenko, Center for Teaching and Learning, Academic Affairs

"Questioning the educational value of assigning grades is one of the hottest topics in higher education," noted The Chronicle of Higher Education recently. "Professors have always felt strongly about grading, and perhaps even more so about its newest alternative: 'Ungrading'." In this teaching circle we will explore and discuss not only the "why" but also the "how" of ungrading. Susan Blum's anthology, Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) will serve as our initial guide to both. We will then move on to consider, create, and, if we're feeling adventurous, "try out" ungrading grading approaches with our students.

We will collaboratively determine our meeting times and mode (in-person or Zoom) via email or polling. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Michael Starenko.