Center for Teaching Excellence - Workshops

Center for Teaching Excellence Workshops

Designed to help faculty with planning and thinking creatively about teaching

• To register, please e-mail Becky Kasper with your request. (kasperrb@plattsburgh.edu).

Spring 2013 Schedule

Assignments that Don’t Break Your Back (Or Theirs): Feb. 7, 3:00, ACC 8
 A good life is a balanced one. You teach and your students learn best when your lives are balanced. In my experience the most time-consuming, and soul-draining pieces of teaching is creating assignments, fretting over whether students are doing them, and grading/giving feedback on them. This workshop will provide you with advice on how to create assignments/assign readings that fulfill learning objectives in a safe, humane way.

Moodle for Course Enhancement: Feb. 8, 12:00, ACC 8
Whether you are a proficient user of Moodle or just a beginner, this workshop can help you find ways to use Moodle to manage your classes as well as enrich your teaching practices.

The Tao of Teaching, Part I: A Pedagogy for Mental Health in Chaotic Times, Feb. 11, 12:00, ACC 1
This workshop is not so much about teaching strategies and techniques, but about changing one’s mind in a way that gives rise to a holistic and healthy approach to teaching. Participants should expect to engage in discussions that challenge traditional views about the nature of teaching and learning. Lunch will be served, so please contact me to register for this workshop.

The Tao of Teaching, Part II: Practicing What You Seek. Feb. 13, 12:00, ACC 1
Designed primarily for those who have take the “Tao of Teaching Part I,” this workshop can still be beneficial for those who would like to re-think their approach to practical pedagogical issues concerning course activities, assessments, and assignments. The perspective taken from this approach is based on the principle of wu-wei, which advocates action derived from compassion, restraint, and unimportance. Registration is limited to 10 participants. Lunch will be served.

Making the Most of Moodle: Feb. 15th, 11:00, ACC
While it is perfectly acceptable to use Moodle in a basic formatting fashion, don’t you wish your sites had some personality and style? If you consider your course site to be an extension of your own teaching and classroom, why not make it as inviting and accessible as possible? In this workshop I will show you how to make your Moodle course as efficient as possible and give it a shine that welcomes your students to the process of learning outside the classroom.

Teaching 101, Feb. 18, 3:00 ACC 8
Whether you have been teaching for many years or a few, it is always helpful to have an opportunity to review the fundamental best practices of excellent teaching. In this workshop we will review the established best practices in course design, assessment, lecturing, classroom management, teaching persona, and use of multimedia and presentation software. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own techniques to offer to a collaborative discussion.

Feedback: The Bedrock of Teaching: Feb. 21, 3:00, ACC 8
Simply put: why it matters to have timely and constructive feedback, and how to give it.

An Honest Look at Plagiarism: Feb. 27, 11:00, ACC 1
We all deal with it semester after semester and it is a real stress-inducer. In this workshop we will talk about creating assignments and environments that can reduce plagiarism, the limits and problems of tools to search for plagiarism, and how to respond to it.

Contact Information

For more information about the Center for Teaching Excellence, please contact:

Becky Kasper, Ph.D., Director
SUNY Plattsburgh
301 Feinberg Library, Plattsburgh, NY 12901
Phone: (518) 564-3043
Fax: (518) 564-5100
E-mail: kasperrb@plattsburgh.edu