Join a Current Teaching Circle

Makini Beck, Strategic Priority Fellow for Inclusive Teaching Practices, Academic Affairs; Department of Sociology and Anthropology, COLA; and SOIS

Faculty mentoring takes many forms, all of which contribute to our success in higher education. Co-mentoring offers the possibility to create a space for faculty to learn from one another as we navigate changing student demographics, evolving classroom expectations, and the increasing complexity of teaching. 

Like many mid-career faculty, I have found that teaching has become increasingly challenging each year. A class activity or lecture that worked beautifully one semester can unexpectedly fall flat the next, leaving me wondering, What happened? Am I still a good teacher? And perhaps, the answer is not that we have become less effective educators, but that our classrooms, our students, and the world around us are changing. What worked yesterday may need to be reconsidered, reimagined, or refreshed today.

This in-formal teaching circle is an opportunity for RIT faculty of every rank, discipline, and experience to reconnect with the craft of teaching. We will gather to discuss our classroom experiences, reflect on teaching practices, and experiment with new approaches. Together, we can create a supportive and confidential space to share our challenges as well as celebrate our successes.

The goal is not simply to survive the changing landscape of higher education. Rather, we should aim to thrive in it—and to rediscover what can make us amazing educators along the way.

Participants will be polled to establish five to six in-person meetings. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Makini Beck. 

Kendra Evans, Spectrum Support Programs, Student Affairs; and SOIS

The goal of this circle is to help faculty build greater confidence in recognizing and responding to diverse learning needs through course design, communication practices, classroom structure, and relationship-building. Together, participants will examine common classroom challenges such as executive functioning, sensory needs, participation expectations, group work, and flexibility in assessment.

This teaching circle will be facilitated through collaborative discussion, case studies, shared reflection, and practical strategy exchange. Participants will be encouraged to bring classroom experiences, questions, and challenges for group exploration. As a collective deliverable, the circle will develop a shared resource guide and practical toolkit of neuroinclusive teaching strategies that can benefit the broader RIT community.

Participants can expect to deepen their understanding of neurodiversity, reflect on their own teaching practices, and leave with concrete strategies to create more accessible, inclusive, and effective learning environments.

Participants will be polled to establish a meeting time and to determine if in-person, Zoom, and/or hybrid discussion format is preferred for the six, 50-minute meetings. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Kendra Evans.

Shaun Foster, Strategic Priority Fellow for Generative AI, Academic Affairs; School of Design, CAD

Does using AI leave students more capable of handling their next challenge, or merely help them complete the current task? This teaching circle will explore how faculty can use artificial intelligence to strengthen adaptation, judgment, research, creativity, and independent learning without producing dependence on automated answers.

Each session will begin with a concise AI Pulse Check followed by discussion of a teaching question, faculty case, or emerging capability. Potential explorations include AI-assisted research and source verification, summaries and podcasts, adaptive study systems, flashcards and retrieval practice, interactive webpages, multimodal learning materials, and agents that complete multistep tasks.

Participants will consider how these tools can help students translate knowledge across formats, generate and evaluate alternatives, identify gaps in their understanding, and adapt strategies when conditions change. We will also examine automation bias, cognitive offloading, appropriate AI-free practice, and assignments that require students to explain, critique, revise, or reject AI contributions.

The emphasis will be collaborative inquiry rather than technical training. Participants may test small interventions, share successes and failures, and contribute questions from their disciplines. No technical expertise or assigned readings are required. We will meet on Zoom on the following Fridays: 11:00–11:45 AM: September 11 and 25, October 9 and 23, November 6 and 20, and December 4.

If you are interested in joining this circle, register at https://forms.gle/hgLvCpnWaXtP8vzP9 // Sign-up Form. Questions, contact Shaun Foster.

Matt Dye, PhD Program in Cognitive Science, Academic Affairs; Department of Liberal Studies, NTID

How can doctoral advisors provide the structure students need while cultivating the independence expected of emerging scholars? Advising practices can vary considerably across faculty, disciplines, and research settings. Although this flexibility has value, unclear expectations concerning project ownership, authorship, milestones, communication, and student independence can create confusion and uneven learning opportunities. These challenges may be especially pronounced in new or evolving doctoral programs and during students’ first year, when coursework, teaching, and early research demands compete for attention.

This teaching circle will bring together faculty involved in doctoral education to examine effective, sustainable approaches to advising and mentoring. Through facilitated discussions, case studies, shared experiences, and selected research or resources, participants will explore written advisor–student expectations, scaffolding students’ development toward independence, early conversations about authorship and project ownership, shared or secondary mentoring, peer mentoring structures, and strategies for managing first-year demands.

We aim to balance transparency and predictability with respect for disciplinary differences and faculty mentoring styles. Participants will collaboratively develop a practical doctoral mentoring toolkit that may include a customizable expectations template, prompts for annual advisor–student conversations, milestone-guidance practices, and recommendations for shared mentoring. These resources will be designed for adaptation rather than prescription.

Participants will be polled to establish dates and determine whether in-person, Zoom, or hybrid meetings are preferred for five to six 50-minute sessions. No prior expertise in mentoring research is required. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Matt Dye.

Jessamy Comer, Fellow for Humanities/Social Sciences, Academic Affairs; School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, COLA

In this teaching circle, we will discuss some unique challenges that female faculty face in the classroom. We will read research articles and discuss how faculty gender influences things like student course evaluations, student requests for exceptions/extensions, student attitudes in the classroom, etc. We will ultimately work towards a list of best practices for handling these challenges in our own classrooms. The format of this teaching circle will be biweekly zoom meetings, with dates determined via polling. If you are interested in joining this circle, email Jessamy Comer.