TLC Bi-Weekly Newsletter for Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Good morning, K-State!

We are fifteen weeks into the Fall semester and the Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) would like to remind you of our commitment to supporting your efforts in teaching, mentoring, and advising. We at the TLC are excited to announce the various priorities, events, and resources that are designed to advance teaching and learning at K-State!

Click HERE to see what the TLC can do for you!

Thank you for all that you do!

Click HERE to see a video from ACUE thanking all resilient educators!

We have Professional Development Events in January to help you get ready to teach this Spring!

We understand the Spring semester will present unique challenges, and we are preparing for those challenges by offering some helpful events in our professional development series next semester!

We have revised our previously released Spring Professional Development schedule in order to give you this important information earlier so you can include it in your course planning. As such, our first event will now be a Teaching CHAT on Tuesday, January 5th with Global Campus instructional designers, Trina McCarty and Laura Widenor, to get ready for the new semester. The following week, on Wednesday, January 13th, Don Saucier will present his event entitled, “Encouraging Empathy in Your Course Design and Policies.” We will have two more Teaching CHATs with Global Campus instructional designers, Trina McCarty and Laura Widenor, on Thursday, January 14th and Wednesday, January 20th. Then, on Wednesday, January 27th, LaBarbara Wigfall will present her event entitled, “Maintaining Your and Your Students’ Mind, Body, & Spirit.” Mark your calendars!

TLC Highlighted Teacher

Taylor Jennings Quote Graphic

Our TLC Highlighted Teacher this week Taylor Jennings. Taylor joined the K-State family in 2013. In her almost 8 years, she has taken on various roles as an instructor and advisor. She currently teaches a CAT Class, Global Conversations, and is a doctoral candidate in Student Affairs in Higher Education. The best part of teaching for Taylor is getting to know the students. She has been fortunate to have taught 438 students from 33 different countries. Working with students, she is driven by her belief that each individual student is unique, should be celebrated, and has the ability to learn. “I am grateful for every day that I get to interact with students and watch them develop and learn. It is a humbling experience that I will never take for granted.”

Click here to view a video of Taylor discussing her teaching.

TEVALs

Keep in mind, teaching evaluations will be conducted entirely online this semester. Be sure to give your students plenty of time to evaluate your courses. You can create your TEVALs until December 13th, they will be offered until December 15th, and reports will be made available on December 16th. For more information, click here for a video tutorial on how to set up and complete your TEVALs. You should also have your students watch the SGA-created video on how and why to complete TEVALs.

TLC Video Series

In the Spring of 2020, we invited teachers to share what was working well in their remote classes in our Teachers Thriving Remotely video series. Click here to see a playlist of our Teachers Thriving Remotely series. However, despite our best efforts, teaching remotely/online does not go as planned, which is normal, and sometimes hilarious, so this Fall we have created a Remote Teaching Fails video series to normalize these experiences. Click here to see a playlist of our Remote Teaching Fails series. For full archives of these video series, see our Teachers Thriving Remotely page and/or our Remote Teaching Fails page.

Programs & Events

To show our commitment to K-State teaching, we partner with programs like the New Faculty Institute and offer our professional development series, both of which have upcoming events (see our Events page). We hope to see you there!

The theme for our professional development series this year is "Caring, Connections, and Community," and events occur every Wednesday at 12 noon via Zoom. Thus far, we have already offered fourteen events this semester! Over 366 people have attended synchronously, and over 383 people have participated asynchronously. See our Professional Development Series page for more information (e.g., types of events, the post-event survey link, the TLC Professional Development Certificate, how to become a TLC Fellow). For recordings of past events, see our Archived Events and Canvas pages.

Upcoming TLC Events in the Next Two Weeks

Tim Shaffer Quote Graphic

On Wednesday, December 2nd at noon, Tim Shaffer will present an event entitled “Going Forward from Here: Civil Discourse in the Classroom and the Workplace”. Click here for the promotional video for this event.

On Wednesday, December 9th at noon, we will have our final Teaching CHAT of the semester where any and all conversations about teaching are welcome!

Follow Us on Social Media!

Like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel! Please use the hashtag #ITeachAtKState when you post about your teaching, mentoring, and advising activities!

Please email us (teachingandlearning@k-state.edu) if you would like access to our TLC Professional Development Series Canvas page!

We look forward to this exciting year as we advance K-State's teaching and learning mission, as always, with energy and optimism! We are proud to say that, "I teach at K-State!"

#ITeachAtKState

Sincerely,

brian niehoff solo don saucier solo

Brian Niehoff Don Saucier

Director, Teaching & Learning Center Associate Director, Teaching & Learning Center