Proposed Summer Institutes
2009 Summer Institutes
All institutes are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. unless noted.
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Core Summer Colloquium
Convener: Eddy Brown
Dates: June 17 - 18
Location: Sem 2 A3109
This will be a series of informative, evocative conversations and other interactive sessions on the characteristics, development, teaching, and support of first-year students. Faculty teaching in Core, Lower-Division or All-Level programs anytime during 2009-10 and beyond are invited and encouraged to attend. Participants will include former Core faculty, staff from both Student and Academic Affairs, as well as your colleagues from next year's teaching cohort. To enhance and facilitate your curriculum planning* and teaching, we will consider and explore applicable topics, issues, and questions, including but not limited to the following:
- What are some forms and purposes of skills, aptitude, and other college-readiness pre-assessments for first-year students? How might we gather and make the most of this information?
- Considering some of the typical challenges and constraints inside the first-year classroom (e.g., different learning styles, academic preparation, work ethic, stages of intellectual and personal development), how can we make the first-year program more broadly conducive to student success?
- What are the expected, actual, and ideal roles & responsibilities of faculty as both teachers and mentors for students new to college?
- How might faculty make the most of co-curricular campus resources and support staff?
- How can faculty both challenge new students with academic rigor and personal responsibility, as well as support their well-being and development as students, individuals, and learning community members?
- As a teaching cohort, how might we pool and share ideas, best practices, and materials to enhance both teaching and learning experiences?
*PLEASE NOTE: This will be a full agenda with no scheduled planning time; however, teaching teams who attend this two-day institute will be eligible for one additional paid, self-selected, team planning day over the summer.
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Title: Write That Book!
Convener: Sean Williams
Dates: June 22 & August 24
Location: Sem 2 C2105
This institute comprises bookends on our summer of writing, with the two months in between meeting times set aside for constructive engagement in our work. In our first meeting we will bring what we have (an idea, an outline, a single chapter, a half-baked manuscript). We will do some writing, present our work to each other, form small writing groups with the intention of meeting several times during the summer, enjoy a potluck lunch, write some more, gain support from each other, and then go forth and produce. At the end of the summer, we will join forces once again to celebrate our successes, read some of our material, share what we have learned, enjoy another potluck lunch, and make plans for the future.
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Title: Cultivating Voice: The Craft of Teaching Writing
Convener: Sandy Yannone
Dates: July 16 & 17
Location: Sem 2 D3109
Teaching writing across the curriculum requires constant refinement of practices. This institute will allow each of us to address our concerns regarding the particulars of teaching writing at Evergreen, upgrade our best practices, and cultivate new practices. We will examine the significance of the writing process across disciplines and the necessity of student reflection. We also will explore ways to tailor assignments and give feedback that reduce our workload while providing ample support for our students to do their best work. Come experience some of the practices that led to the Writing Center's commendation during the fall accreditation visit. Expect lively discussion, engaging readings, and plenty of writing!
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Title: Tacoma Campus Institute
Dates: July 27 - 31
Location: Tacoma Campus
The Tacoma campus planning will address the 2009-10, 2010-11 and 20011-12 academic years, issues of space, facilities, MIT program in 2011 and the planning for science and math in the curriculum for the entire Tacoma faculty. We will also plan for collaboration with community partners around internships, joint community-based programs, and faculty research and development opportunities. This institute includes faculty compensation for 2 days of team planning pay..
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Title: Drawing Across the Curriculum
Convener: Susan Aurand & Lucia Harrison
Dates: August 3 & 4
Location:Sem 2 D2107
This institute would give faculty the opportunity to improve their own drawing skills, gain confidence in incorporating drawing as a tool for learning in the context of their programs, and plan specific creative drawing projects for use in their upcoming programs. Faculty would gain a vocabulary for discussing art images that students make and would learn strategies for supporting students' creative work in the context of their own disciplines.
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Title: Sustainability: Community and Curriculum
Convener: Karen Gaul, Martha Henderson, Elizabeth Williamson & Ellen Short Sanchez
Dates: August 11 -1 4
Location:
A key aim of this institute will be to support faculty who want to design new curricular materials in sustainability and justice (with support from The Curriculum for the Bioregion: Sustainability Across the Curriculum program). We aim to have concrete exercises for developing curricula and opportunities for program planning, including joint planning for a possible multi-program symposium series or other connected experience(s). This institute will combine learning opportunities with Growing Places (supported by the President's Fund for Innovation) in Lewis County and other local field experiences to consider ways to develop curriculum based on local community need. An important theme will be "doing more with less."
Daily Schedule
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
9:00 Opening; Introductions, opening remarks; organizers share examples and/or new opportunities to integrate sustainability and community into our teaching; bioregional quiz
1:00 Report Back from Community Planning: The Future of the Organic Farm students and discussion of local food (Sharon Goodman and Martha Rosemeyer)
3:00-4:00 Discussion with Russ Fox about Black River Farm; continued discussion about local food sourcing and curricular opportunities
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Field Trip to Lewis County
Morning: Learn about Growing Places
Afternoon: Service
Thursday, August 13, 2009
9:00 Sustainability and contemplative Practice: report and contemplative experience with Karen Gaul and Jean MacGregor
10-12: Discussion of integration of contemplative practice, consciousness studies into sustainability curriculum.
1:00 panel of speakers from the community including possibly Alltogether Farming, Lewis and County Flood Relief, Growing Places, etc.
Friday, August 14, 2009
9-11:00 Group Planning for joint symposium series
11-12:00 Begin workshops on curricular planning
1:00-4:00 Workshops on curricular planning; some variation of the Big Ideas plus sustainability plus community work; some program planning/experience/curriculum planning/something wild and innovative
Anticipated Outcomes
- Curriculum opportunities in local sustainability and community development
- Sharing information on sustainability
- Working across the campus with faculty new to sustainability
- Increased awareness of place/local knowledge
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Title: Sound Learning Communities
Convener: Sarah Pedersen, Paul Butler & Frederica Bowcutt
Dates: August 18 - 20
Faculty will be compensated for only 2 days of this institute.
Explore the San Juan Islands as a site for interdisciplinary teaching, using the Schooner Zodiac as transportation, teaching laboratory and home for about 24 faculty from all disciplines. The San Juan archipelago encompasses complex and highly varied ecological niches created by, among other things, microclimates and the confluence and interaction of several major bodies of water. An international boundary adds to the mix, offering an opportunity to study a wide array of cultural and natural systems.
The three-day voyage will begin in Bellingham and proceed to several locations for the study of geology, botany, history and literature of the islands. In addition, faculty who enroll will be expected to provide additional disciplinary approaches to teaching about the area. Potential areas of study: marine science (the vessel is equipped with an underwater robot, nets for sampling and lab facilities); physics of sail power; Puget Sound sustainability; leadership training; basic quantitative and symbolic reasoning used in piloting and navigation; marine flora and fauna; fisheries resource management; land use planning; native cultural studies; ethnomusicology; climate and weather studies, etc.
Zodiac is an extremely comfortable 85-year-old, 127-foot schooner http://www.schoonerzodiac.com/ which provides educational and pleasure cruises to the public. Funding for the vessel charter will come from private funds raised to support Evergreen's interdisciplinary on-the-water programs involving sailtraining. The purpose of the institute is to help faculty plan ways to connect students with the region and will culminate with discussion of potential future academic programs on and around Puget Sound and the San Juans.
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Title: Natural History of the Wonderland Trail at Mount Rainier National Park
Convener: Jeff Antonellis-Lapp
Dates: September 1-4 - Dates have been confirmed.
Faculty will be compensated for only 2 days of this institute.
Built in the 1920's, the Wonderland is the 92-mile trail encircling the Mountain. With a total elevation gain exceeding 29,000 feet (more than Mount Everest!), the trail's combination of challenge and scenic vistas places it among the most spectacular backpacking experiences in the US. While the record for completing the trail (less than 24 hours) will not be challenged by our group, we'll undertake a 30-40 mile section of trail over the duration of the trip. Although exact locations and details will be determined by permit availability, we will plan to hike up to 10 miles per day of the west side's "Pie Crust," so named because of the trail's constant up and down features not unlike the edges of a pie crust. An on-campus pre-trip planning meeting will allow us to plan tenting and cooking groups, inventory our natural history and wilderness first aid skills, and discuss the route and logistics. During the course of the trip we'll share information about geology, flora and fauna, stargazing, the use of the area by First Peoples, and other interesting tidbits.
This trip is an great opportunity for experienced backpackers who wish to complete the Wonderland Trail over the course of three seasons (this being season one), and a fabulous setting in which to meet and network with colleagues.
The institute is limited to 12 people, the maximum number allowed in the backcountry in a single group. Costs will be modest, particularly if participants own or borrow all needed equipment.
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Title: Curricular Websites using Moodle
Convener: Academic Computing Staff
Date: August 25
Location: Computer Center
This hands-on institute will give faculty the skills and support necessary to create and manage their program website in Moodle. This 1 day institute will be divided into two parallel sessions - one for those new to Moodle and another for seasoned users. No prior knowledge is required to participate and faculty are encouraged to bring as much content and material as they want to build their curricular site. During the daylong session, we will be addressing topics of web design best practices, questions on copyright and developing accessible content among others.
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Title: Curricular and Personal Web Workshop using Wordpress
Convener: Academic Computing Staff
Date: August 26
Location: Computer Center
Your personal web presence at the college is something you may or may not be aware of. You may also want to create a curricular site that's visible to all the world, not just your current students. This hands-on institute will give faculty the skills necessary to create and manage front-facing websites (curricular or personal) using a common open source tool - Wordpress. No prior knowledge is required to participate and faculty are encouraged to bring as much content and material as they want to build their curricular or professional site. This institute you can build a program site as well as review your college personal web presence so you can update or change completely how you or your program are seen by the outside world. We will be reviewing best practices for posting accessible, pertinent information safely as well as reviewing overall personal web presences.
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Title: Mapping Hacks: Integrating Spatial Reasoning in the Curriculum
Convener: Peter Impara, Rip Heminway
Date: August 27
Location: CAL
This hands-on institute will be an exploration into the tools and techniques for integrating spatial thinking and analysis into the curriculum. Using freely available applications such as Google Earth and MSN LiveSearch and then moving towards integrating with more complex GIS software such as ArcGIS, we will be looking into how to access tools and data sets that pertain to a range of disciplines. All those who wish to include spatial reasoning into their program but don't necessarily want to take on becoming a GIS expert to do so are welcome.
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Title: Conversations: How does Race, Class, and Gender Enter our Teaching?
Convener: Michael Vavrus
Dates: August 31 & September 1
Location: Sem 2 A2107
The purpose of this 2-day workshop is for faculty to share and learn from one another through experiences in which issues of race, class, and/or gender arise in the programs we teach. These issues may be purposefully placed in our curriculum, emerge unexpectedly in relation to our curriculum, or surface from the diverse perspectives and identities of our students. Teaching materials such as texts, films, and faculty-created materials will be presented in conjunction with our collective sharing of successes and challenges along with our hopes as to how we might increase our clarity in explicitly locating places in our curriculum to address race, class, and gender in ways that genuinely connect with our students and the multicultural world in which they live.
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Title: Students with Disabilities: How to Teach, How to Reach
Convener: Jules Unsel and Meredith Inocenio
Dates: August 31 and Sept 1
Location: Sem 2 D2107
Currently, one in twelve students at Evergreen informs the Access Services office that they have some kind of disability. The disabilities reported every year are increasingly diverse, as are the students that report them, and may involve impaired mobility, dexterity, sensory function, learning, physical health, or mental health. Some students don't report their disability. Some have more than one disability. Disabilities can be seen or unseen. Chances are that one or more students with disabilities, whether they report through Access Services or not, are sitting in every program we teach.
This institute will provide opportunities for faculty to learn to recognize and respond to a range of disabilities likely to be encountered among our students. Faculty will receive information on how to engage and accommodate students with disabilities, and help them learn and participate to their greatest potential.
We will focus on curriculum planning and classroom strategies to equalize opportunity for program participation for all students, regardless of dis/ability. We will work with staff in SASS, Academics, and Registration to understand and comply with our legal obligations in this area while maintaining equal parts sensitivity and academic rigor. We will read and discuss a brief introduction to the theoretical field of Disability Studies.
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Title: Helping Students Read & Write
Conveners: Nancy Koppelmann, Chuck Pailthorp & Andrew Reece
Dates: September 3 & 4
Location: Sem 2 A2107
Faculty have devised many ways to help our students read and write better. We need opportunities to exchange the best of them, particularly those that work well when we're outnumbered twenty-five to one. We plan to explore writing at Evergreen in light of the values we claim in the Six Expectations and Five Foci. We want to do so with faculty from all areas of our curriculum. We start with the premise that learning to write well is promoted by, and in turn promotes, strong reading, thinking, and study habits. Our discussions will include standards for writing, writing across the curriculum, peer and faculty support, how good writing demands good reading, and the importance of writing as a virtue.
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Title: Text Talk: Great Seminars Need Great Texts
Conveners: Kathleen Eamon & Sarah Pedersen
Dates: September 8
Location: Sem 2 A2107
As we all know from personal experience and faculty institutes, good seminar don't just happen. They require a certain amount of planning, practice and support. But what about the shared subject-the text? In some programs, seminar texts form the very backbone of weekly or even year-long thematic structures. Their careful choice is critical to the success of the program. In others, seminar readings are more peripheral, providing only a little decoration or entertainment.
We would like an informal conversation about topics such as:
- 1) What was the best seminar reading you ever assigned?
- 2) What works well for different kinds of programs or students?
- 3) Do your students actually read the assigned texts? How can you tell?
- 4) Do your students like the texts which provide the best seminars?
- 5) How important is pleasure in seminar readings?
- 6) What seminar strategies work well with which kinds of texts?
- 7) What is the role of fat books versus short reads in your selections?
- 8) What kinds of media other than print texts do you use for seminars and how are those seminars different from book seminars?
- 9) How do you balance reading the text with the program themes in mind with treating the text as an autonomous work?
- 10) What kinds of reading skills do you believe we need to develop in our students, and what kinds of practices have you developed in order to cultivate these skills?
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Title: Teaching in the Center for Creative and Applied Media (CCAM)
Convener: Peter Randlette
Dates: September 9
Location: 1st floor Library CCAM studio.
Social networking and web media are rapidly changing contemporary tools which many students use or want to use for both personal and academic communication. This institute will be held in the college's Center for Creative and Applied Media (CCAM), our remodeled and modernized facility for video, audio and network based media. In this space faculty have the opportunity to work with students using modern television, animation, video, teleconferencing and audio production systems in a studio and/or classroom environment. The studio and associated spaces allow many types of productions to be supported, including video recording which can be high resolution for projection in A/V classrooms or at resolutions all the way down to web video which can be streamed to cellphones or be shared on web pages.
This institute is designed to explore how the technology can be used for supporting program activities and what faculty need to know to apply the resources. From Electronic Media staff producing the work to incorporating the learning of the technology into your curriculum with Electronic Media staff co-developing your program there are many ways to apply the new facility in all levels of curriculum. This institute will demonstrate thru a day of hands-on production how the systems can be used, and program structures and possible integration of use will be the focus of the second day. Interested faculty can send questions and/or suggestions which will help create applicable examples of how general curriculum can benefit by incorporating some of the now available technologies.
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Title: Greener Gardens
Convener: Frederica Bowcutt and Steve Scheuerell
Dates: Sept 10-11
This summer institute will involve two-days of visiting gardens to learn about sustainable horticultural practices for our area. Special attention will be paid to learning about edible landscaping. Participants will learn about productive varieties of fruit trees and berries for our area and how to grow them. The group will also learn about how to garden with deer. Composting and use of worm bins and rain-barrels will be covered. Potluck lunches of mostly locally grown food will be enjoyed each day of the institute in different garden settings. Tours of our campus Organic Farm and Teaching Gardens will be included. Through virtual field trips to each participant's garden we will discuss how to apply what's been learned to addressing people's horticultural challenges in their own yards (Please bring a short PowerPoint presentation on your garden for the last day). A list of resources for teaching sustainable gardening practices will be shared including books, films, websites, etc. After the institute, we hope that participants will continue to support each other and the Evergreen community by planning projects and doing work parties together.
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Title: Creating a Reflective Teaching Portfolio: Make the faculty portfolio work for you
Convener: Sonja Wiedenhaupt
Dates: September 9 & 10
Location: Sem 2 A2107
A portfolio is purely a collection of work. What I decide to put in the portfolio, and how I organize, analyze and ultimately reflect on the work determines the type of a portfolio it is. Is it a presentation portfolio where I am trying to convince someone else that I have the skills and knowledge to do the work? Is it a learning portfolio, where I am trying to notice both how my work has evolved and become more sophisticated over time, and how it could stand to become more sophisticated? If it's the latter, what am I trying to notice and learn? -- How to teach my discipline more effectively in an interdisciplinary way? How to refine my skills in teaching research methods? How to support group work better? How to work with themes related to equity? How to refine my ways of capturing what it is that students are learning and need extra support with? How my workshops created learning opportunities for the students that are relevant to one of Evergreen's six expectations for student learning? These are among the questions that I personally continue to chew on. Of course, you might have very different questions on your list.
The purpose of this working institute is to explore how to make the portfolio a tool that will help you explore and address questions that you have about your work; be it something about your teaching or something about student learning. Above all, the goal is to envision a way to make the portfolio something fertile for our individual learning as teachers and to create invitations for collegial investigations and deliberation that will support our collective development as a faculty at Evergreen. The portfolio can be something other than a passive filing system that involves punching holes and putting things in binders. The link below is to my last 5 year review portfolio as an example (rather than a model) for how I've tried to make it work for me
(http://academic.evergreen.edu/w/wiedenhs/portfolio).
We will work individually and collectively to examine possible questions, as well as analytical and organizational strategies for developing a meaningful portfolio. Bring with you resources such as your syllabi, workshops, lectures; self-, student-, and faculty evaluations and faculty evaluations, and student work as fodder to support a personal reflection into your practice and work.
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Title: Using blogs or e-portfolio for the faculty portfolio.
Convener: Rip Heminway & Sonja Wiedenhaupt
Date: September 11
Location: Academic Computing Classroom
A third day to this institute is for faculty who are interested in using blogs or e-portfolio for organizing and communicating their work.
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