Ask-A-TAC: What about blogging?

The TACs would like to encourage our readers to send in questions about teaching! We are happy to make suggestions and/or direct you to appropriate resources. Please send your questions to tac@ucdavis.edu. Whenever appropriate we will share our suggestions here, making sure you, dear TA, stay anonymous. We hope to make the "Ask-A-TAC" entry a regular event here at this blog.

Dear TAC,

I have a blog and it’s awesome! But how do I generate discussion and get my blog readers to ask and answer questions? Please help!

– Bogged-Down Blogging TA

Dear Bogged:

Good for you! Starting a blog as a busy graduate student is above and beyond the call of duty. It’s a tricky undertaking that requires some thoughtful planning, time and energy and the desire to experiment and see what happens. Let me ask you a few question: Do you read other people’s blogs? What do you like most about your favorite blogs? What motivates you to leave a comment on a blog?

As an avid blog reader myself, I find that I return to blogs and become a regular reader when a few criteria are met. First, the blog needs to frequently post new material. Depending on the type of blog this might mean a weekly post (which I very much look forward to), several times a week with “Theme Days” or, best of all, daily posts. This takes a lot of work! It might be a good idea to generate a list of topics and try to stay ahead of your posting schedule, that way new content is always being published.

Second, my favorite blogs have a consistent point of view. This means they cover the same type of content on a regular basis. This also means that they act as a clearing house for information about a given topic. The authors will link to, comment about, or discuss various articles or topics they find interesting and relevant to the central themes of the blog.

Finally, my favorite blogs mix it up! Contradictory to #2, I know. But it’s always interesting when a guest blogger shows up. It’s also fine if a blog takes a hiatus and comes back with fresh new ideas and posts.

But let me return to your original question: how do you generate discussion on a blog? To be honest, I don’t have the magic answer, but I do have some suggestions. First, your readers will want to feel like they know you (and your fellow blog authors). It’s really easy to lurk on a blog, but it takes some pluck to leave a comment, or ask a question. The point is: your readers need to feel safe!

Your readers also need to have content upon which to comment! Posting frequently provides them with content. However, posting “Reading Group” style questions at the end of your posts-- topics you would like to see discussed--will also generate discussion. It might even initiate conversation about other topics. When the conversations start, make yourself heard, and participate in the conversation in the comments section. Your readers will feel valued and acknowledged if the conversation is respectful, friendly and encouraging. And those lurking might be enticed to join in.

Your blog will serve as an amazing teaching and learning tool! If you want your students to traffic the site you can require a certain number of comments per term, and/or invite them to write guest posts. If you are attempting to reach a wider (global) audience you will need to build a sense of community with your readers through content and by generating a safe space to keep them coming back to learn more.

I hope these suggestions help. If any TAs reading this have their own tips we would all benefit if you left a comment. Tell us what's worked and what hasn't for you when it comes to teaching and blogging.

Keep us posted, Bogged, on how it turns out and good luck!

~ UC Davis TA Consultant

PS. If you’re still feeling stuck, check out these links:

Building relationships

For Science Bloggers

Establishing a Persona

Blog lurkers

And more about blog lurkers

Matthew Nesvet

Hi, TA's! My name's Matt. I'm a PhD student, California Humanities Scholar, HASTAC Scholar, and one of the 'awesome eight' graduate students chosen to be your teaching consultants this year. Teaching can be many things: the awesome second class citizen of the modern university; the reason why you spent six of your last summer hours in TA training workshops; a great reason to think broadly about your research and how you can make it meaningful to others ('other' [people] (adj.): those who, though they're not on your dissertation committee, do indeed, yes the rumors are true, exist); how you'll make a difference in your student's lives; your job; and possibly, hopefully, one of the most exciting, valuable activities you'll engage in while at university. I've both taught and TA'd many college classes, and love helping my students learn. I'm excited about working with you this year as you develop, reflect on, and improve upon your teaching practices. For those of you who want to stop by and talk about teaching, my office is in Kerr Hall (6th floor); you're welcome to visit whenever you have a few minutes. You can also send me an email and we can schedule a time to meet. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you in workshops and consultations throughout the year!

My name is Richard Osibanjo. Am a second year TA Consultant and a 3^rd year PhD student in Analytical Chemistry. My experience has a TA Consultant has being a blast. I teach General and Forensics Chemistry which is very exciting.

I believe everyone is a teacher and at one point or the other we all will have to teach something to someone or a group of people. Being a TA consultant, has really helped me develop my teaching skills, which are applicable not only in the classroom but to every facet of life.

My best memories being a TA consultant involve relating and meeting with diverse people, sharing their experiences and helping them become the best they can be in their teaching experience. I am influenced by the words of John Maxwell said “people don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care” Being a TA Consultant, provides an avenue for me, to really do what am passionate about, which is connecting with diverse people , getting to see through their eyes and speaking their language. This has gone a long way in making my classroom fun, inclusive and memorable. There is nothing so gratifying, as being able to help my students, in a 360 degree way in and out of the classroom.

Outside teaching, I enjoy meeting people, reading, writing, photography and am building my portfolio as a long distance runner

TAC: Sarah Dalrymple

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Population Biology Grad Group, and I study fire dynamics in Jeffrey pine forests in the Eastern Sierra. A bulk of my research also involves ants so I spend a lot of my time crouched down looking at the ground in forests. It's more fun that it sounds!

In my last 4 years at Davis I have TAed a variety of classes, including biology labs, a field course, and an art-science painting studio. I am incredibly enthusiastic about teaching and learning how to get students to engage more effectively with one another and with course material. This is my second year in the TA Consultant program and my first year serving as a TAC Co-Coordinator alongside Mara Evans. The current TA Consultants come from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, which often results in well-rounded and lively discussions about teaching and education in our weekly meetings.

As a TAC, I hope to pass along knowledge I have gleaned from my own experiences and from discussions with other TACs, whether during individual consultations or workshops. TAs often interact with students more than professors, and as a result, they have an opportunity to positively influence student learning. However, many of the departments on campus lack structured support for grad students interested in improving their teaching. This is why I am so excited to be a part of the TA Consultant team! My ultimate goal is help TAs improve their teaching and provide encouragement for those who otherwise lack the support to do so.

Emily Evans

This is my first year with the TAC program and I am really excited to be a part of this group. The opportunity to engage and research teaching and learning is the reason that I am here at UC Davis. The TAC group has been a great opportunity to meet and collaborate with others who share these interests.

I am currently in my 5^th (and hopefully final) year of a PhD program in education. I am in the science education emphasis specifically focused on environmental education. My dissertation research is an investigation of what youth learn about water and water systems through experiences in different formal and informal contexts, such as school, home, and outdoor fieldtrips. As part of my work, I coordinate a section of the science education and outreach program. In the winter quarter, students participate in a weekly seminar and discussion sessions. In the spring quarter, students apply what they learned in seminars to field work with different environmental science education programs. I particularly enjoy the interdisciplinary nature of this work and that is also what I enjoy about the TAC group; the chance to meet and work with people from different fields and interests.

I look forward to meeting many more TA’s in the coming quarters and working together to advance our practice as teachers and expand learning opportunities for students.

Building Community in the Classroom Wokshop

Building Community in the Classroom

On Monday, May 3rd, we held the third of six workshops in the "Collaborative Connections" workshop series. Here is a condensed version of what we did.

In this workshop we talked about how you (as the TA or instructor) can develop a sense of community in your classroom, and how this contributes to an effective learning environment for all of your students where they feel safe participating and learning from each other and from you.

We identified these learning goals for the workshop:

Understand components of successful and unsuccessful learning environments

Especially the role of community between teachers and students in these environments

Appreciate the diversity of factors that contribute to successful learning environments

Including factors related to learning activities and social and environmental activities

Reflect on and articulate the classroom community you want to create and the relationship you want to foster with your students

We tried to model classroom techniques that help facilitate an effective and collaborative learning community. We began the workshop with a 'group mingle', where participants talked to their 'classmates' to get to know each other and find out what they had in common and what was different.

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‘Group Mingle’ Activity

For four (or more) of the following statements circle the response that best describes you, and find someone in the room who is on the other end of the spectrum to initial the other response. You can only have each person on your sheet ONCE.

I prefer sitting at the front of class I prefer sitting at the back of class

I like working alone I like working in groups

In my free time I like reading fiction In my free time I like reading non-fiction

I am a night owl I am an early bird

(do my best work at night) (do my best work in the morning)

I generally speak up in class if I generally stay quiet in class

I have something to say and let others do the talking

I am older than most of my siblings I am younger than most of my siblings

In groups I tend to be a leader In groups I tend to be a follower

I am the most excited about this I am most excited about other

workshop workshops in this series

**This is one example of a way to get your students talking to each other at the beginning of class. Make the questions anything you like – for example, they can be personal, related to the class topics, or about how they typically prefer to learn. Activities like this can help set a tone for your class and help establish an environment where your students communicate with each other. Depending on the types of questions you ask, your students may meet other students that they have things in common with which can help establish collaboration outside of class.

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Successful and Unsuccessful Learning Environments: Reflecting on our Experiences as Learners

In order to think about how WE can create an effective learning environment, we reflected on the experiences that we had where we felt like we were successful learners, and unsuccessful learners, and defined successful and unsuccessful learning.

Participant folded their paper into four quadrants and brainstormed their thoughts about learning in each box.

#1 Your own definition of a learning success

#2 A personal example of a successful learning experience

#3 Your own definition of unsuccessful learning

#4 A personal example of an unsuccessful learning

**This activity generated a lively discussion about how we as instructors can contribute to successful learning environments.

Main ideas:

- Many different factors contribute to learning success. Many of these are related to the environment that the instructor can create in the classroom, and related to interactions between teacher and students.

- There are many things that we as teachers cannot control. For example, the physical space and set-up of the environment, and the experiences, perspectives, and motivation of our students coming into the class. By keeping in mind what these challenges are we can be better prepared to deal with them and create a successful learning environment.

Communicating with your students

After we spent some time reflecting on what makes a successful learning environment, participants applied their ideas to real classroom scenarios. These classroom scenarios included diverse physical and social environments (large lecture, lab, discussion) and different activities. For each of the following 'unsuccessful leanring environments' participants were asked how they would turn it into a successful learning environment:

Scenario #1: You are teaching a 7-10 pm lab and students have to stop all experiments and start cleaning up. the dispensary closes by 10pm and you as the intructor or TA would be held responsible for anything that happens after 10pm. you have a student who refusues to stop the experiment and tells his partner to do the same. You make an annocement 2 more times but you are just ignored The whole class is aware of this behaviour, what would you do to solve this situat

Scenario #2: You are the TA/instructor for a seminar of about 20 students in a small classroom with large tables and lots of chairs. Your discussion section meets on friday afternoon and most of your students appear tired and distracted. Every time you ask a question or solicit feedback from the group, it is always the same 2-3 students that respond. By mid-quarter, attendance has dropped and you had one section where only 1/2 of your students showed up.

Scenario #3: The TA/instructor is teaching a large class in a stadium-style lecture hall. The students are a mixture of majors and non-majors, with a large diversity in the amount of preparation for and interest in the course. The instructor would like to have an engaging and interactive class, but is struggling to get the students to engage and communicate with each other and with him/her during class, and with so many students, there's not a lot of time for one-on-one conversations/questions between instructor/student.

Successful learning environments in YOUR classroom

By this point in the workshop we had spent a lot of time thinking about all of the characteristics of an effective learning environment, and all of the factors that influence your classroom community. Then we asked participants to apply all of these ideas to a real life teaching situation for them.

Prompt:

Think about a class you have taught, that you will teach, or that you would be interested in teaching, and what your goals are for that class. Which characteristics of an effective learning environment are the most important for you to incorporate into your classroom community? What type of relationship do you want to have with your students? What tone do you want to strike with them?

After reflecting on our own classroom communities, participants wrote a mission statement to their students:

Write a letter to your students about the community that you want to create with them? Things to consider including: what should they expect from you? What expectations do you have for them? How will you try to create a community where everyone feels valued?

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Strategies for Creating a Community in Your Classroom

Value your students as individual learners that are part of the community. Students learn more when they feel valued as individual learners. Suggestions:

• Greet your students when they enter class.
• Make an effort to get to know your students.
• Start and end class on time. This acknowledges to your students that you value their time and their other commitments.
• Encourage questions.
• Give all students the opportunity to talk.
• Make time spent in class worthwhile.
• Acknowledge contributions .
• Gather information about the class and what they want to learn. (eg. student can fill out a KWL chart - what the Know, Want to know, and at the end of you class what they Learned)
• Consider asking them to write a letter of introduction.
• Give students opportunities to make comments and suggestions (eg. a comment box)

Encourage Participation. Create a classroom where students feel comfortable testing and sharing ideas. Suggestions:

• Get to know your students.
• Arrange seating to promote discussion.
• Use discussion techniques (eg. popcorn discussion, have students share work on individual writing exercise as a springboard to discussion)
• Encourage students to meet one another and provide opportunities (when possible) in class to facilitate group discussion and promote outside of class group work.
• Create opportunities for all students to talk during the first two weeks.
• Periodically divide students into small groups.
• Assign leadership roles to students.

Give timely and effective feedback. Giving feedback to your students is important for them to feel like you value their efforts and their learning, and that you are not just there to give them a grade. Suggestions:

• Give feedback as quickly as possible.
• Use praise judiciously - students can be particularly affected by specific positive comments.
• Try to cushion negative comments (eg. a criticism sandwich - try to bracket each constructive criticism with something positive about their work)
• Focus on the task, rather than on the learner.
• Provide guidance in manageable chunks.
• Give comments in writing.
• Emphasize learning rather than performance by acknowledging the role that mistakes play in the learning process.
• Avoid comparisons with other students.

Extending The Claaroom: One great attribute of effective communities is elimination of walls. The classroom is not necessarily confined to your assigned teaching space, you can extend it. Suggestions

• creating a chatroom for students for communication (participation)
• Students writing on note pads to account for participation
• Having a blog to keep the community alive
• Use of Social media Facebook, Youtube, Myspace
• Coffee bars and outdoor meeting points--- (limits)
• Wikis
• Having class projects that groow dependent that each person does their part
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TAC: Sarah Augusto

I’m a first year TAC and a doctoral candidate in sociology. My research areas are social movements, sex and gender, culture, and emotions. I have studied reproductive rights issues for much of my academic career and wrote my masters thesis on the pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion movements. I’m currently working on my dissertation, a study of the UC budget crisis and the movement to defend public education.

When I first came to grad school I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy teaching, but it turns out I absolutely adore it. I am passionate about education and about the subjects that I teach. My goal is to impart this enthusiasm and dedication to my students. While it is my responsibility to convey specific information and knowledge, my ultimate goal is to encourage students to be excited about their education and to seek out knowledge on their own. I want to help instill in them a lifelong love of learning that extends beyond the classroom and the university.

As a TAC, I am excited to be part of a community of educators who share my enthusiasm for teaching and to impart that enthusiasm to new TA’s. The TAC program offers a unique opportunity to improve my own skills and knowledge while helping others do the same. To me, this is what truly great education is all about – a collaborative environment where rigid barriers between students and teachers are broken down and we all learn from one another.

TAC: Mara Evans

This is my second year as a UC Davis TA Consultant, and my first as a Co-coordinator for the Teaching Assistant Consultants Program at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. I am a fifth-year PhD student in the Ecology Graduate Group. I spend my time in local creeks, up to my hips in cold water looking for the tiny, non-native New Zealand Mudsnail. When I'm not sliding down a creek bank I'm teaching, thinking about teaching, or thinking about how to teach about teaching.

Graduate school has been a tremendous, often unpredictable experience. Having time and space to focus on my teaching has made these past four years incredibly rewarding and personally formative. I am happiest when I am immersed in teaching in some way, and I am getting a PhD to become a professor of Ecology with the hope of changing how we teach ecology at the college level, and changing how we help graduate students develop into educators.

As a TAC I especially look forward to working with new TAs so that teaching is not seen as a chore but a creative opportunity. Every year I learn right along with our workshop participants and this year I hope we can have conversations about social media in the classroom, facilitating classroom discussions, and helping students with disabilities thrive in our classrooms.

When I'm not teaching, I swim for the Davis Aquatic Masters team, spend time with friends and family and make quilts.

I'm the quiet one in the funny shirt.

Hello, my name is Jonathan Bragg (but call me Jon!). I'm a seventh-year graduate student in Microbiology, and I'm a first-year TAC. My time in lab is focused on identifying key regulators of the multicellular fruiting body formation program of the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus; my time in the classroom has also revolved around Microbiology in both intro and more advanced labs.

Teaching wasn't really on my mind when I started grad school, but I quickly discovered that T.A.-ing is in fact my favorite part! Whether it's helping students understand complex processes, giving them useful skills that I know they can use, or just having a captive audience for my jokes, I'm a fan. I especially like being a TAC because of our strong commitment to collaborative work: I can add my practical experience but cover for my lack of formal education training.

I'm really looking forward to getting out there and helping other T.A.s fine-tune their classes and work through the rough spots. I think we got a great start with the T.A. Orientation a couple weeks ago and I hope to maintain that great momentum all year.

In my off time you'll find me doing any one of my innumerable hobbies. Games of all kinds fascinate me, comedy (writing, TV, movies) invigorates me, and photography and cooking challenge me.

I look forward to meeting other T.A.s during our workshops, consultations, and other events!

TAC: Ann Chang

Hello. I'm Ann Chang. This is my first year as a TA Consultant. I'm a 5th year ecology Ph.D. student studying how individual variation, specifically aggression in waterstriders (Aquarius remigis), affects group success. After three quarters of teaching I realized that teaching is the most rewarding career for me. I hope to find a lecturing position at a large university or a teaching position at a small college after I graduate.

My favorite challenge of teaching is getting the students who are only taking my class as a prerequisite to care about the material and to want to know more about the field. I try to do this by increasing student input through discussion and small-short group projects. I've also brought in readings that relate to other fields that the students may be interested in.

Some hobbies that help keep me sane are reading detective stories, knitting, doing other fiber arts, and cooking. Also, if I hear music, some part of my body will move to the beat. And if it's raining I'm going to jump in a puddle. Hope to see you all soon.

Workshop #5: Setting Sail on the Mentorship

The 5th workshop of the Collaborative Connections Workshop was on Mentoring. Specifically the MentorSHIP. The goals of our workshop were to;

1. Analyze characteristics of good and bad mentors
2. Discuss some mentor-mentee predicaments
3. Reflect on your current mentor-mentee relationships
4. Develop a mentorship plan

To achieved these goals we had a series of activities, beginning with a Think-Pair-Share to identify what mentorship is, what is it like to not have a mentor, the scales of mentorship, and lastly the characteristics of good and bad mentors. We also discussed the differences between an advisor and a mentor with several people noting that advisors are paperwork positions while mentors have a vested interest in your success.

After we listed the characteristics of mentors we asked the attendees of the workshop to create concept maps using our shared characteristics and characteristics unique to them.

"What keeps a mentoring relationship afloat? If the relationship were a boat, what type of boat would it be and why?"

The participants were asked to depict their graduate school mentoring relationship using the above prompt. Mentoring relationships, whether you are the mentor or the mentee, are dynamic. The relationship often serves a purpose and the individuals in the relationship are trying to achieve specific objectives. The participants were asked to consider the direction, obstacles and unique qualities of their relationship(s).

Mentorship :: coal-powered boat. The fuel (coal) is labeled as "interest", "active participation" and "Encouragement to Excel." Interestingly, the participant depicted obstacles as bird droppings raining down from above ("disinterest" and "unavailability"). Also, the participant commented that the boat is out to sea with no land in sight. This exemplifies his feeling that he is in the middle of his graduate school process. Luckily, his pile of fuel is large!



Mentorship :: Trash Barge. Navigating past obstacles such and QE (qualifying exam) and comps (exams), looking to catch the illusive three-eyed dissertation fish, the goodship "Co-Sponsorship"is loaded down with goods: "personal attention", "support", "engaged", "coauthor" and "direction." The mentee and mentor sit together in the pilot house and stay protected from the clouds of "bad ideas."

The concept maps gave attendees to chance to reflect on the aspects of mentorship that they appreciate and/or avoid. It also illustrated the dynamic nature of mentorships where winds, currents, and predators representing bad mentorship threaten to capsize boats but where good mentorships help mentees stay afloat.

We then explored mentorship scenarios with the following 4 scenarios developed from Johnson and Huwe 2002 (for full citation see below);

1. You are mentoring several people, two or more of which do not get along. How do you handle the situation? Under what circumstances involving this situation would dissolve a mentorship? How would you do it?
2. After working closely with your mentee for several weeks you suspect that your mentee is attracted to you. You realize it is unethical and against University rules to start a relationship with your mentee. How do you handle the situation?
3. You are frustrated because you feel neglected by your mentor. However you are unsure what the cause of your mentor's neglect is. How do you assess whether your mentor is just busy or has purposely neglected you? How do you rectify the situation?
4. You are believe in formal relationships between mentors and mentees. However you are mentoring a person of a different culture who address you in a very informal way. How does this make you feel? How do you handle this situation? How would you feel if the situation were reversed and you were informal while your mentee was formal? How would you handle this situation if you were the mentee?

The attendees were asked to discuss these scenarios from both the mentor and mentee's perspective in small groups, then to develop skits to demonstrate the scenarios. After each skit we had a short discussion, with the longest discussion involving how to deal with mentees that don't get along. It was brought up that sometimes a mentee's environment becomes hostile because bad mentors fail to intervene in a timely matter or ever at all. At which point it was noted that mentees also have the power to dissolve mentorships and should do so if they are not receiving what they want or need from the relationship. In the end for the mentee it becomes a matter of weighing the time it would take to finish up if one stayed vs. left the mentorship.

Lastly, we gave a handout with prompts for thinking about how to write a mentorship contract. A mentorship contract lays out all the expectations a member of the mentorship has for the relationship and provides a framework from which to discuss what both members of the relationship hope to gain. The questions in the handout were:

STARTING YOUR MENTORSHIP CONTRACT

WHAT CAN MENTEE/S EXPECT FROM YOU?

1. How much time you are willing to commit to your mentee/s?

2. Are you willing to write letters of recommendation?

3. Are you willing to help with writing in general? If so, will you look at outlines, partially completed drafts, completed drafts only?

4. Will you offer personal guidance? Can your student rely on you for personal as well as academic advise? Will you advise on career advancement, grantmanship, publishing, teaching, enhancing professional visibility, networking with other scientists and practitioners, overcoming barriers to career success?

5. Timely comments

6. Weekly/monthly/quarterly meetings?

7. Respect your mentee's time as much as you respect your own.

8. Make only positive or neutral comments about your mentee to others.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT OF YOUR MENTEE/S?

1. Timely revisions?

2. Timeliness in general?

3. Be open to constructive criticism?

4. Listen to what you have to say?

5. Seriously consider the advice given to you by your mentor, even if your immediate reaction is not positive.

6. Make only positive or neutral comments about your mentor to others.

Johnson and Huwe. 2002. Toward a typology of mentorship dysfunction in graduate school. Psychotherapy: Theory/Research/Practice/Training 39(1). 44-55.

Workshop #6: Burst Your Academic Bubble

It's not uncommon to hear people remark "Yes Virginia, there is life outside the university!' Undergrads often sound relieved to hear this. Even more often, PhD students just sound surprised. At the final Creating Community workshop, the group discussed the challenges, rewards & strategies of reaching out to, as well as drawing in, communities into our lives and classrooms.

The learning goals for the workshop were:
1. To explore your community connections.
2. Consider the costs and benefits of reaching out to these communities.
3. Consider how these interactions affect your teaching.


We explored ways we could contribute to outside communities through our research, teaching and non-academic service. And we talked about how we could enrich ourselves and our classrooms by starting to break down the barriers between town (that is, non-academic communities) and gown. We began with participants constructing a concept map of all the communities they currently interact with (circles connected with solid arrows) and communities they would like to interact with but are not able to (squares with dashed arrows).

Some of the noted advantages to conducting outreach (in whatever capacity or form one is most comfortable with) were discussed. It became apparent that interacting with a variety of communities has professional advantages (for future employment or collaboration), has rejuvenating properties (the road to a graduate degree is long, but planting trees offers immediate satisfaction!) and helps us be better communicators (explaining our research to others outside of academia).

Some of the disadvantages we discussed include the amount of time it takes to find communities and projects to get involved in. Also, the emphasis of our graduate school career falls squarely on our ability to make meaningful intellectual contributions to our fields. This means that outreach might be viewed by our mentors as a waste of time or indulgent.

We did have a great discussion -- the last one of the year and for this workshop series! But it's not over, and we know we left the room with more questions than answers.


Are any of the readers of this blog involved in communities outside the university campus? What are these communities? Has your involvement helped enrich your teaching, research, or general state of being? Has your involvement posed challenges to these? And the ubiquitous questions everyone asks: how do you find the time?

One thing we know is, now that it's summer and you have the time to read this blog... surely you have time to contribute! Let us know, whether you attended the workshop series or not!

Workshop 2: Developing a Teaching Persona

The second workshop in the Collaborative Connections workshop series was on developing an effective 'teaching persona.' Sharada led the workshop off by going through the goals of the workshop, which are listed below.

We began by stressing how the way in which you present yourself to your students can help you achieve your learning goals. We hoped that participants would leave motivated to think about how they could align their teaching persona with their student learning goals.

We then had a discussion about what a teaching persona is. We defined it as the way in which someone presents oneself and the how one is perceived by their students. We also stressed that your identity in the classroom can draw from, but doesn't need to be identical to, your actual personality.

In order to illustrate how different presentation styles can be utilized for different learning goals, Sarah D gave an example of a freshman seminar she hopes to teach on "The Amazing World of Ants." The main goal of this seminar would be to awaken students to the fascinating behavior, ecology, and life history of ants and make them excited about these animals, rather than afraid of them. In order to do that, she would be best served by being enthusiastic and exciting when presenting information. Sarah A gave a contrasting example of a class she has taught in Gender Studies on sexual assault. It would behoove her to assume a more serious tone in a class of this sort and place an emphasis on making people feel comfortable enough to discuss such serious issues.

Richard concluded the workshop by going through a S.W.O.T. analysis with the group. The idea of this exercise is to think of your strengths as an individual (and teacher). Then you list your weaknesses. These are meant to be inherent, internal qualities that help you or hold you back. Then you think about the external forces that you feel threatened by and the external forces that you perceive as opportunities. The last part of this exercise it to think about how you can take your perceived weaknesses and make them strengths and, likewise, how you can take the things that threaten you and make them opportunities to improve.

Workshop #4 Review: Advancing Community in the Classroom

On May 13th, Cassandra, Sarah D., Travis, and I facilitated the fourth workshop in the Collaborative Connections series, titled Advancing Community in the Classroom. You may have seen the immediate follow-up post which explored a few online tools and linked to some other resources that were briefly mentioned in the workshop. This post is a more general review of the whole workshop.

Today in our workshop “Advancing Community in the Classroom,” I spoke briefly about ways to introduce collaboration and build community outside the classroom. In this follow-up post, I’d like to gather a variety of online resources together in one (hopefully) convenient place. This post can also serve as a place we can continue our discussions and share ideas we might have thought of after the workshop was over.

Workshop #1 Active Inclusivity: Benefit from Diversity in the Classroom

On Monday April 19th we held the first the of six workshops in the "Collaborative Connections" workshop series. Here is a condensed version of what we did.

Message to participants:

In this first workshop we will develop a mindset for all of our future interactions in a effective collaborative community. Instead of discussing diversity as something we should know about in order not to offend people, we will instead focus on why how we as an academic community benefit and thrive from diversity.

In the first part of the workshop we will identify how we as individuals contribute to the diversity in this room, and in other academic settings and discuss how this can affect us as learners. In the second part we will create techniques to use in the classroom to make the learning environment more accessible to others.

We have identified the following learning goals for this workshop:

Since today we are going to be talking about topics that are sometimes

emotionally charged, we thought it would be a good idea to establish some community agreements concerning how we communicate with each other in the classroom.

(Last three agreements were contributed by participants)

Next we are going to do an activity that is intended to generate discussion about diversity. We are going to ask you a few questions, but you don't need to answer them if you don't feel comfortable doing so. As we ask the questions, feel free to look around the room and see ow others are responding.

As you answer I will count and write down a number for each category. Please raise your hand if you....

identify as female,

identify as male,

identify as African American,

identify as Asian,

identify as Hispanic,

identify as white,

are an international student.

Now everyone turn to your neighbor and discuss what just happened, and if it evoked an emotion, how did it make you feel?

Themes that came up:

• many don't like being put in categories
• many felt the categories not represent their personal identity (categories were missing)
• the categories were unclear, ethnicity, nationality, and cultural identity are different, and this list does not acount for that
• it was uncomfortable to be placed into a category
• it was uncomfortable watching to see what categories each identified with

Here is how the University talks about diversity:

From the UCD Student Affairs Research site:

What types of diversity are missing? What are all the different ways people can identify that might change their perceptions?

Students then wrote a bunch of different ways we can be diverse. Instead of talking about specific labels (ex: queer, straight, bisexual, gay...) we instead talked about avenues of diversity (ex: sexual orientation). We are sure there are more, but in the 10 minutes we gave this is the extensive list we and the participants came up with. We had them come up and write them on the board. Here they are in no particular order:

health, primary language, family’s educational backgroud, major, level of sports participation, military service, personality, family position, region of origin, sex, coping style, gender, aspirations, relationship status, learning style, reproductive status, age, educational status, major/minor, hometown/place of origin, Familial college history, reason you are in school, perspectives, political orientation, ethnicity, experience, motivation, beliefs, orals, background, class, race, religion, ability, self-expression style, educational heritage, sexual orientation, minority experience

Now we are going to create a diversity web. We are going to circle each word on the board that represents a strong part of our identity, and link them together if they are related. For instance, my gender (female) is a strong part of my identity, and this influences my perspectives. Because my gender sets me apart in my major, I feel I have different motivations, and reasons for being in school than my peers. Circling and linking these items provides a visual representation for how different types of diverse avenues intersect and overlap.

Here is what our board looked like after many participants represented how they contribute to diversity.

So why does this all matter anyway? It seems like we all contribute to diversity in some way, why should we examine all the ways in which students in your classroom can be diverse? There are a lot of reasons, but one way we can quantify it is by looking at student prospected retention.

The three items in red are directly related to community, which you can facilitate in your classroom by being inclusive. But it's not only important to be inclusive because students will be more likely to feel comfortable and therefore remain in school, there are some really easy ways your classroom can benefit from diversity.

How is diversity in the classroom beneficial?

Participant generated responses:

• Students can learn from different experiences & perspectives
• It makes class more interesting to hear diverse opinions
• By recognizing diversity, you can make learning more widely accessible
• Students are exposed to different ways of thinking (both philosophical, and with problem solving)
• This makes the classroom more robust
• Students bring complementary knowledge to the table
• It can encourage debate and inspire change
• It makes students more well rounded to be exposed to different perspectives
• Students are exposed to different problem solving approaches

Next we will talk a little more explicitly about how diversity effects our classrooms. We will split into 4 groups, and each group will have one of the five terms: Teach, Learn, Research, Communicate, or Collaborate.

In your groups you will discuss how diversity in the classroom and on campus affects your group's term.

Finally we will apply what we have learned in our groups by turning them into a skit. Each group will use some of the ideas generated in their small groups concerning their term, (Teach, Learn, Research, Communicate, or Collaborate) and connect it to a positive classroom benefit.

Skits are difficult to recount, but the main themes were students benefitting from different learning styles, and students not being able to participate without being part of a community.

We will now pass out a hand out that offers a number of strategies you can use to promote inclusion in your classroom.

HANDOUT:

These ideas are intended to help you work effectively with the broad range of students enrolled in your classes. They are based on current research and on teaching practices of faculty.

• Become aware of any biases or stereotypes you may have absorbed. For example, some faculty and TAs on occasion collectively call undergraduates 'unmotivated,' or even 'uneducated.'
• Treat each student as an individual. Try not to project your experiences with, feelings about, or expectations of an entire group onto any one student. For example, some TAs occasionally have trouble with lying or cheating students, but this does not mean it should be assumed most would do this if given the opportunity.
• Monitor the climate in your classroom. Ask students to let you know if you inadvertently offend them. If your class is small, consider opening up a dialogue with each student individually (either via email or short 5 or 10 minute office hour appointments) so you may know a little more about your students. Conduct a mid quarter evaluation to let your students weigh in about the classroom environment. Consider adding questions such as these to your course evaluations:· Does the instructor treat students equally and evenhandedly?· How comfortable do you feel participating in this class? What makes it easy or difficult for you?· Do you have suggestions for encouraging open and candid discussion in class?
• Recognize the complexity of diversity. Avoid making assumptions about students based on only one of their groups characteristics and neglecting the complexities in their lives and experiences.

Communicating and Fostering Respect

• Be attentive to terminology. Terminology changes over time, and individuals within groups can disagree about preferred designations. Ask your students which terminology they prefer. For example, some students may prefer 'African American' whereas others may prefer 'black'. Some Asian Americans may prefer to be identified not by a continent, but by the nationality of their ancestors – 'Thai American', or 'Japanese American.' Learn about groups other than your own.
• Convey the same level of confidence in the abilities of all your students. Students who believe that they belong to a stigmatized group can result in underperfromance. “Stereotype threat” occurs when a student’s anxieties about confirming a negative stereotype can cause the student to perform poorly. Convey your clear conviction in each student’s intellectual potential.
• Be evenhanded in acknowledging students’ accomplishments. Praise students for good work, but avoid lavish displays that may make students uncomfortable (“why is s/he so surprised that I’m doing well?”) Note in some cultures being singled out for personal accomplishments is neither valued or appreciated.
• Be aware of possible misinterpretatioins of students’ nonverbal behaviors. Many behaviors vary across cultural groups.

Pedagogical Approaches

• Use inclusive language and examples. For example, use ‘parenting’ rather than ‘mothering’, ‘house of worship’ rather than ‘church’, ‘partner’ rather than ‘boyfriend’. Avoid comments that diminish students’ perspectives (“don’t be so sensitive”) or make assumptions about students’ lives (“when your parents were in college…”). Draw examples from a variety of cultural and social contexts.
• Learn to correctly pronounce students’ names.
• Look for opportunities to give personal attention and validation to students.
• Assign group work and collaborative learning activities. Group work can reduce prejudice and bias by giving students opportunities to interact with others from different backgrounds.

Course Content and Material

• Try to select texts and readings whose language is gender neutral and free of stereotypes. Aim for an inclusive curriculum. Try to structure your course so that students view concepts, themes, and events from diverse perspectives.· Assign texts and readings that reflect scholarship and research about previously underrepresented groups.· Discuss the contributions made to your field by historically underrepresented groups.· Describe how recent scholarship about gender, race, sexual identity, and class is changing your field of study.
• Do not assume that all students will recognize cultural, literary, or historical references familiar to you.
• Bring in guest lecturers.

Class Discussion

• Emphasize the importance of considering different approaches. Show students different viewpoints and encourage them to evaluate their own beliefs.
• Make it clear that you value all comments.
• Encourage all students to participate in class discussion. Try to prevent any one group of students from monopolizing the discussion. Solicit alternate viewpoints.
• Speak up if a student makes a distastefull remark-even jokingly. Students make take your silence as condoning the behavior.
• Do not treat students as spokespersons for their demographic group. Asking a student to speak for his/her entire group ignores the heterogeneity of viewpoints among members and reinforces the idea that every member is an authority on his/her group.

Assignments and Exams

• Be sensitive to students whose first language is not English.
• Help students form study teams. Peer support is an important factor in student persistence in school. By arranging for times and rooms where groups can meet you can encourage students to make friends beyone their personal networks.
• Give assignments and exams that recognize students’ diverse backgrounds and special interests.
• Use a variety of names in classroom examples and test questions.

END HANDOUT

Final thoughts: Please think about all we have discussed today and think of one change you are going to make in your classroom.

Homework:

}Reflect on what happened for you during this workshop

}Think about what ‘being inclusive’ means to you. Email a paragraph to tac@ucdavis.edu with the subject ‘being inclusive’

Also visit these difficult questions:

}If you treat everyone identically, are you favoring everyone?

}Is it possible to “level the playing field in the classroom”? What does this mean? Should you try?

Thanks for coming!