Upcoming CAE & Faculty Development Offerings - Early Fall 2024 Edition

We write to you as members of the Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) - Fairfield University’s Teaching and Learning Center. The CAE supports innovation and scholarship in teaching and learning across Fairfield University. Our vision of education assumes that all of the diverse members of our university community serve as both teachers and learners who engage the world. Drawing on the principles of Ignatian pedagogy, we encourage teaching that uses reflection on experience, action in the world, honest evaluation of results and awareness of context. Our objective is to create a community that promotes the strategic vision by focusing on integrating learning across university curricula, and connecting learning to life outside the classroom. As the central entity across all schools that addresses pedagogy and teaching effectiveness, we feel an obligation to continue to promote and improve upon what has developed as the university’s unique style of engaged teaching, across all modalities.

Below we provide information about upcoming faculty development offerings. We hope faculty will take advantage of these opportunities to be in community around our teaching and ongoing development:.

Mid-Semester Assessments of Teaching (MATs)
Request deadline: Tuesday, October 1, 2024 (10 AM)
MAT Window: October 16-October 29, 2024

What is an MAT?
A Mid-Semester Assessment of Teaching (MAT) is an informal and confidential way for you to get constructive student feedback on student learning and your teaching. MATs are offered midway through a term to provide time to make mid-stream adjustments or improvements based on student input. MATs are conducted during the first or last 20 minutes of a class session. MATs are not classroom observations but conversations with your students about your teaching so far.

To schedule an MAT for your course, please complete the MAT request form (below) by Tuesday, October 1, 2024 (by 10 AM). Note that MATs are limited to one class section per instructor each semester and occur during the weeks of October 16-October 29, 2024. Once signed up, a CAE liaison will follow up with you to schedule:

• The 20-minute class session where your assigned CAE liaison will collect data from your students, and;
• A follow-up debriefing conversation with your assigned CAE liaison outside of class.

Questions? Contact Emily Smith: esmith@fairfield.edu.
Schedule an MAT at: https://form.123formbuilder.com/6734436/fall-2024-mat-sign-up
More information about MATs and the process involved can be found at: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/odpcbxuwxo961siv3u3p0/MAT-Informational-Doc.docx?rlkey=bmxe5zsvhy89mlogrexkl06sh&dl=0

Writing Accountability Groups
Writing accountability groups are small groups that form to meet regularly in order to keep all participants engaged in creative activities, research, scholarly, and artistic production despite the busyness of the year. Many groups are ongoing, and often include members from varied disciplines and approaches. The CAE supports these groups simply by connecting small numbers of faculty (usually three or four) with one another, providing some suggested guidelines, and checking in now and then with those members. The structure, duration, and frequency is up to the members of the group. Let us know if you would like to be connected with a writing group, or if you have an existing writing accountability group that could use a new member. Please contact cae@fairfield.edu if you’d like to join a Writing Accountability Group for this semester.

Facilitated Teaching Circles & Peer Review of Teaching
Teaching circles meet regularly to engage in conversations about our teaching—discussing challenges, questions, and joys. A teaching circle could form around a particular focus (e.g., anti-racist pedagogy or A.I. in teaching) or discuss whatever topics emerge from the group. If you have an interest in joining a teaching circle, let us know. If you would like to engage in some Peer Review of Teaching (PROT), in which you and a colleague observe and discuss each other’s classes, let us know that, too, and we will aim to match colleagues across disciplines and schools.

In order to get these groups started and underway, please email us at cae@fairfield.edu specifying your preferred groups by Tuesday, October 1.

Upcoming NCFDD Offerings
The National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) provides many great workshops and resources to support faculty development and success in the Academy. We strongly encourage you to check out all of their resources on their website (ncfdd.org). It is free (and simple) for Fairfield employees to join. Below we highlight some of the upcoming workshops or offerings that you might want to check out. Registration links are included on the website with each offering (start with the “Events” tab).

14-Day Writing Challenge: October 7th - October 20th, 2024
“The 14-Day Challenge is an opportunity for you to experiment with daily writing, online community, and supportive accountability. It's very simple:

• You commit to write every day for at least 30 minutes.
• At the beginning of your writing time, you login to our online community, start the timer, complete your writing, and post your progress at the end.
• You take 5 minutes to support other writers in your group by commenting on their progress.”

Virtual Write-On-Site: Tue, Sep 17, 2024 (1:00pm - 2:00pm)
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81360289524?pwd=C9iNgm7yYPI4rcnZNTiCKmYaRciT9T.1
Meeting ID: 813 6028 9524
Passcode: 175969

“Join us for your daily writing session! We'll be live on Zoom to write together in community and reflect on how the session went. Professor Carlita Favero (Ursinus College) will provide a brief introduction, we'll write for 30 minutes, and we'll close out with reflections.”

From the Chair's Perspective: Insights on Academic Leadership: It's All About The Relationships: Wed, Sep 18, 2024 (1:00pm - 2:30pm)
“This workshop “provides an insider's look at the realities of serving as a university department chair. Over four sessions, veteran chairs will share their experiences and perspectives on this uniquely vital leadership role. The…session explores the various relationships chairs must cultivate with faculty colleagues, administrators across the institution, staff, and students. Topics covered will include building rapport, communicating effectively, setting an inclusive culture, and handling conflicts.”

How to Engage in Healthy Conflict: Thu, Oct 10, 2024 (2:00pm - 3:30pm)
“Do you often feel drained by departmental drama? Do feel unclear how to handle conflicts that arise in your department? Are you unsure when, where, and how to manage conflict with people who will be voting on your tenure? Academics are notoriously conflict avoidant and the inability to manage conflict can result in negative physical, emotional, and relational consequences for tenure-track faculty. So why not learn early in your career to master the SKILL of healthy conflict so that you can effectively manage conflicts as they arise and avoid carrying around all of the negative energy, anger, and resentment in your mind and body. In this webinar, you will learn: How conflict-management is an essential part of thriving in the Academy. How to decide when to push back and when to pull back in the face of conflict. The difference between healthy and unhealthy conflict. How to get clear about the role that power plays in resolving departmental conflicts. Ten tips for engaging in healthy conflict.”

How To Effectively And Efficiently Revise And Resubmit Your Manuscript: Tue, Oct 22, 2024 (2:00pm - 3:30pm)
“Receiving a “revise and resubmit” from an academic journal can be exciting… yet daunting. In this webinar, Dr. Haley Horstman will use principles of narrative theory to guide you in how to effectively and efficiently approach an “R&R.” You will consider how to tell “the story” of your revision and resubmission. We will discuss how to develop your own system to manage overwhelm, organize reviewers’ feedback, strengthen your manuscript for resubmission, and write a compelling letter to the editor/reviewers.”

“NCFDD provides on-demand access to the mentoring, tools, and support needed to be successful in the Academy. We focus on four key areas that help achieve extraordinary writing and research productivity while maintaining a full and healthy life off campus: strategic planning, explosive productivity, healthy relationships, and work-life balance.”

The CAE is available to all faculty year-round. We are happy to consult with you on any of your teaching and learning needs. Wishing you all success in Fall 2024!

The CAE Team,
Nick Kapoor
Christine Rodriguez
Jay Rozgonyi
Emily Smith
Debbie Whalley