Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Tag: Rachel Yoho

Workshop: Supporting Student Learning through Self-Awareness and Reflection to Navigate a Complex, Global Society

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

Are you interested in incorporating techniques to help students develop their own self-awareness and navigate a complex, global society in your field, discipline, and course?  Or are you (re-)developing a course for one of the new Mason Core designations of Just Societies or Global Contexts?  This workshop is designed to support your teaching around helping students develop their self-awareness, particularly related to your discipline.  This workshop includes the concepts of positionality and intersectionality broadly, but particularly for the new Core areas. At the end of the workshop, we will have explored the concepts and applied them to potential activities and assignments in our courses. 

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

Workshop: Feel Better, Teach Better:  Strategies for Supporting Faculty Mental Health

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

Teaching is difficult and often an isolating experience.  There are many mental health issues in academia, particularly related to the situation and the work.  Yet, only student mental health is well studied and discussed.  In this workshop, we explore faculty mental health, strategies for improving the environment, and address barriers to addressing concerns.  Please note that this is not a self-help or “yoga your way out of stress” workshop and does have discussions of mental health issues and self-harm.  While university resources are shared, this is an academic and professional development workshop, not medical or mental health advice.  Join us to create community and talk about one of the most prevalent, but under-discussed, issues in academia!

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

Workshop: Surviving to Thriving: Incorporating Trauma-Informed Instructional Practices

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

This workshop has been postponed.

Whether individual or collective, trauma can have a significant impact on lives and how students (and instructors) show up and are able to engage in the classroom.  In this workshop, we will explore the concept of trauma and how it applies to the classroom, recognize a few common trauma responses, investigate several educational best practices, expand our thinking with resilient pedagogy, and begin to apply these concepts to our own teaching.  Together we will move beyond minimum legal requirements or accommodations to design and implement evidence-based instructional strategies in university education. 

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

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.

Workshop: Fostering Engagement and Belonging with Inclusive Classroom Techniques

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

Are you ready to integrate inclusive teaching throughout your instructional spaces? Would you like to explore techniques and build tangible plans for your classes? This is where that journey begins. In this workshop, we will explore some of the definitions and terms often found in conversations about creating more inclusive classrooms. We will work together to advance our individual abilities in broadly inclusive teaching and learning to support all students. At the end of the workshop, we will have developed familiarity with concepts and terminology, explored deliberately inclusive classroom activities, and set one or two manageable goals for our classes. 

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

Accelerated AIEM-Teach Level 1 (Part 2)

Register here | Facilitator: Rachel Yoho

Would you like to earn the AIEM-Teach Level 1 credential?  Is it difficult to find time in your schedule and keep track of different workshops?  Consider joining this accelerated session, where participants engage with the full suite to earn the Level 1 credential in a shortened timeframe.  Come build community and earn a recognized teaching professional development credential!

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