Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Tag: AIEM-Teach

Workshop: Helping Students Learn in Difficult Classroom Conversations and Situations

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

This event has been postponed; please check back for a future offering.

Are you ready to take your next steps in engaging successfully in difficult classroom conversations and situations?  In this leveled-up workshop, we will explore the elements of free speech in an educational context, investigate types of disruptions and situationally appropriate teaching responses, and analyze scenarios with colleagues. This workshop is applicable to instructors across all disciplines for facilitating important conversations, whether or not their designed course topics include socially pressing issues (like race, gender, religion, politics).  Please note, this is the third in a four-part workshop series on important conversations. Participants are encouraged – but not required – to engage with parts 1 and 2 before joining this session. 

*Adding to your calendar will not register you for the event; please register using the link above.

Workshop: How to Handle Difficult Classroom Discussions and Situations in the Moment

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

Are you prepared to handle difficult discussions and charged situations in the classroom in the moment? Do you usually think of things later that you wish you would have said or done?  In this workshop, we will prepare and practice how to handle important and potentially tense classroom conversations in the moment.  Our focus will be on how to support everyone in the classroom – including yourself – during tense times.  We will discuss and practice several teaching approaches.  This workshop is applicable to instructors across all disciplines for facilitating important conversations, whether or not their designed course topics include socially pressing issues (like race, gender, religion, politics).  Please note, this is the second in a two-part workshop series on important conversations.  However, participants are welcome and encouraged to attend this session even if they were not able to attend part one. 

*Adding to your calendar will not register you for the event; please register using the link above.

Workshop: ChatGPT, AI Text Generator Tools, and…Inclusive Teaching?

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

Access to artificial intelligence (AI) text generators has upended education – and many other sectors – as much or more than past technology advancements and innovations. Join us in this workshop as we discuss how we continue teaching with impact and to support all students in this new reality. We explore instructional approaches, considerations, and methods to help us teach with less stress and more strategy. 

*Adding to your calendar will not register you for the event; please register using the link above.

Workshop: Preparing Your Course and Yourself for Difficult Classroom Discussions and Situations

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

Do you have strategies to prepare yourself and your students to handle difficult conversations? This could be when you are having difficult conversations about topics like race, sexuality, religion, politics, or similar. These situations also could result from a discussion comment that makes a student or group uncomfortable or might even be about grades. In this workshop, we will discuss how to design (or redesign) your course and prepare yourself to facilitate important or “hot topic” conversations in the classroom.  Background information on how to design the course and prepare for facilitating important conversations in the classroom will be provided.  This workshop is applicable to instructors across all disciplines for facilitating important conversations, whether or not their designed course topics include socially pressing issues. This workshop is part of a four-part series for Mason faculty to engage in broadly inclusive education across all disciplines. 

*Adding to your calendar will not register you for the event; please register using the link above.

Workshop: Supporting First Generation College Students

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

Did you know that 20-30% of Mason students are considered first generation college students?  These students come from a variety of backgrounds, identities, and experiences.  Supporting first generation college students in the classroom is a way to create more inclusive learning spaces and broaden participation – and retention – in higher education.  Integrating these strategies is also an impactful way to support all students, even if they are not the specific audience of being the first generation to college.  In this workshop, we will define what it means to be “first gen,” discuss some common obstacles to success in higher education, explore approaches that can be used in the classroom and overall course design, and identify one or more applicable strategies that we might apply in our own teaching.

*Adding to your calendar will not register you for the event; please register using the link above.