A quick note of congratulations to Brett Gray who is now working in the Advising Hub full-time. He will no longer be providing administrative support for Crown.  We thank him for all he has done for The Crown Center. We will miss him but wish him all the best in his new role. Stay tuned for a future announcement about who will be supporting the Crown Center.  

Summary of services and programs presented in this email.

*Block Visitor Orientations & Professional Development
*Visting Faculty Community Building
*Instructional Coaching Program
*Pedagogy Development
*Crown Center Forums
*Mentoring Development
*Conversations about Health & Well-being 
*Learning Circles
*SWARGS (Scholarly Writing and Research Groups)
*Crown Manuscript Workshop Call
*Save the Date for January Workshop on “Ungrading”

Drop-in Office Hours for Peony Fhagen (Director of The Crown Center) and Heidi Lewis(Crown Coordinator of Early Career Faculty Development Programs)
Please direct questions about this announcement to Peony Fhagen.

  1.Block Visitor Orientations & Professional Development
(1st Thursdays, 3:30-5, Tutt Library 105)
During Blocks 1 & 5, sessions will focus on an orientation to teaching on the Block Plan.  For Blocks 2-4 and Blocks 6-7, the first 45 minutes will focus on teaching on the block and the remaining 45 minutes will focus on a professional development topic. All sessions, EXCEPT Block 2, will take place in Tutt Library 105. The Block 2 session will be remote, and the zoom link is provided below. Block visitors can attend as many sessions in this program as they need. 

Facilitator: Heidi Lewis, Crown Coordinator for Early Career Faculty Development Programs, Associate Professor of Feminist & Gender Studies at Colorado College 

Program Orientation and Professional Development Schedule
Block 1: Teaching on the Block Plan 
Block 2: Teaching on the Block & Research and Scholarship (Zoom link: https://coloradocollege.zoom.us/my/heidirlewis)
Block 3: Teaching on the Block & The Job Market
Block 4: Teaching on the Block & Colorado College Culture and Antiracism
Block 5: Teaching on the Block Plan 
Block 6: Teaching on the Block & Research and Scholarship
Block 7: Teaching on the Block & Colorado College Culture and Antiracism
Block 8: Teaching on the Block & Work-Life Coexistence

  2.Visiting Faculty Community Building (1st Tuesdays, 3-4, Cossitt Lounge)
An informal coffee hour to create space for community building where new and returning visitors can exchange experiences and connect with others. 

Host: Andrea Bruder, Associate Dean of the Faculty, Associate Professor of Math & Computer Science

  ​3.Instructional Coaching Program
After a successful first year, the instructional coaching program is back! The goal of this program is to build collective capacity for using anti-oppressive, inclusive, and equitable pedagogies. As far as we know this program is one of its kind in the nation! The program provides coaching support that is non-evaluative and not tied in any way to department/program review processes. 

Master teachers for AY 22-23 are Tina Valtierra and Santiago Guerra. They provide the following services:

*Co-facilitate instructional coaches’ development workshops
*Collaborate with instructional coaches to develop instructional development plans
*Meet with instructional coaches and their coachees twice per academic year
*Collaborate with other master teachers to ensure the program runs smoothly
*Assign faculty interested in instructional coaches to coaches 

Instructional coaches for AY 22-23 are Howard Drossman, Kristi Erdal, Maybellene Gamboa, Natalie Gosnell, Olivia Hatton, Scott Krzych, Mike Taber, Rebecca Tucker, and Habiba Vaghoo. They provide the following services:

*Provide tailored instructional coaching to a single faculty member (regardless of career stage, but within their division, if possible) 
*Collaborate with their assigned coachee and the master teachers to develop an instructional development plan 
*Provide supportive resources/information to their coachee as necessary
*Conduct a minimum of 4 informal teaching observations throughout the year, utilizing anobservational rubric on which they will be trained 
*Facilitate pre and post observation meetings with their coachee 
*Participate in a collaborative meeting with their coachee and a master teacher at the beginning and end of the academic year 

Please direct inquiries about coaching services to Tina Valtierra and/or Santiago Guerra.

  4.Pedagogy Development (1st Tuesdays & 2nd Tuesdays, 3:30-5)
These sessions or workshops are designed to support and enhance your classroom teaching. Do you have an idea for a topic, would you like to facilitate a session or workshop, or would you like to organize a session or workshop with external experts? If yes, please contact Peony Fhagen. 

Note: The Liberatory Pedagogy Series and Equity & Power Course Development Series offered last year have been converted to individual sessions for convenience and subsumed under this category of programming. Spring semester sessions will be announced later. 

Block 2
Making the “implicit”, “explicit”: Helping students connect competency development with their coursework.
September 27, 3:30-5pm, in McHugh Commons (Above the Preserve in the John Lord Knight Apt Building)
During this interactive workshop, participants will dynamically engage in the identification and integration of competency development in current courses.  After a brief overview of competencies and the research in which it is grounded, attendees will participate in idea generation and action planning for their upcoming courses. Additional resources and examples will be provided.

Facilitators: Leslie Templeton, Ph. D., Professor of Psychology & Associate Provost for Faculty Development and Leigh Lassiter-Counts, M.Ed., Director of Career Services. Both are from Hendrix College

(A partnership between The Crown Center and Career Center)

The Intersections of Racism and Ableism on the Block Plan: Rethinking Rigor, “Smartness”, and “Goodness” as Properties of Whiteness in the Colorado College Classroom
October 4, 3:30-5, in Tutt Library 238

The goal of this session is to examine the ways in which “ableism acts as the polite face of racism” (Bornstein, 2022, personal communication). In this session, we will explore how course expectations, assignments, and norms can uphold a “white supremacy culture” (Okun, 2022) or, alternatively, dismantle it. Using a tool developed on the tenets of Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) (Annamma et al., 2013), participants will examine our own syllabi to look for ways in which long-held norms of higher education may act as barriers or supports for students with multiply marginalized identities in our classrooms.  

Facilitator: Nickie Comer, PhD., Assistant Professor of Education at Colorado College, Managing Editor of Multiple Voices

Key Readings: 

Annamma, S.A., Connor, D., & Ferri, B. (2013). Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): Theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 1-31. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2012.73051 

Leonardo, Z. & Broderick, A.A. (2011). Smartness as property: A critical exploration of intersections between whiteness and disability studies. Teachers College Record, 113(10, 2206-2232.  

Okun, T. (2022). (divorcing) White supremacy culture: Coming home to who we really are. https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info

Block 3 
Creating Safer Classrooms for LGBTQ+ students
October 25, 3:30-5, in Tutt Library 238
This development workshop is an opportunity for educators to learn about LGBTQ+ identities, gender, and sexuality, and examine our prejudice, assumptions, and privilege. There is a pressure to already know how to be LGBTQ+ inclusive, but what that looks like in practice can be hard to know. And while many of us want to be inclusive, we don’t necessarily feel comfortable with the language, with our own level of understanding, and may not know where to go to learn more. This workshop offers a space for educators to learn together how we can best support our LGBTQ+ students. 

Facilitators: Cayce Hughes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Christina Leza is an Associate Professor of Anthropology. Both are at Colorado College. 

Making the Most of “Third Space”: Rethinking Instructor-Student Power Relationships through Relational Pedagogies
November 1, 3:30-5, in Tutt Library 238

The goal of this session is to examine how to maximize Third Space through making visible classroom culture and the way power operates within and through it. By explicitly examining how students’ and instructors’ cultural and social capital is exchanged in learning spaces, we will discuss how Third Space provides an opportunity to examine the contestation of competing (and sometimes hidden) narratives in classrooms. We will also discuss how to make this theoretical orientation to learning clear for students so that students—across disciplines— can better understand their role in the sociocultural process of learning.  

Facilitator: Nickie Comer, PhD., Assistant Professor of Education at Colorado College, Managing Editor of Multiple Voices

Key Readings:
Gutiérrez, K.D. (2008). Developing a sociocritical literacy in the third Space. Reading Research Quarterly, 43(2), 148-164. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.43.2.3 

Noddings, N. (2012). The caring relation in teaching. Oxford Review of Education, 38(6), 771-781. 

Block 4
Tik Tok, Language, and Liberation: Moving beyond “Race Talk” at a Selective Liberal Arts College
December 6, 3:30-5, in Tutt Library 238
The goal of this session is surface, discuss, and interrogate the ways in which the language of antiracism is promoted, but also appropriated, through discursive moves of white civility (Coleman, 2008). In this workshop, we will work together to better understand how antiracist language— that is often circulated in and by corporate, social media entities— surfaces in classrooms, but may or may not be actualized in interpersonal, departmental, institutional, and even cultural relationships, policy, and action.  

Facilitator: Nickie Comer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education at Colorado College, Managing Editor of Multiple Voices

Key Readings: 
Hayes, C. & Juárez, B.G. (2009). You showed your whiteness: You don’t get a ‘good’ white peoples’ medal. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22(6), 729-744. doi: 10.1080/09518390903333921 

Zuo, H. & Wang, T. (2019). Analysis of Tik Tok user behavior from the perspective of popular culture. Frontiers in Arts Research, 1(3), 1-5. doi: 10.25236/FAR.20190301

  5.Crown Center Forums (2nd Wednesdays, 3:30-5, Tutt Library 238)
These forums are opportunities to come together to discuss how faculty and academic staff are advancing campus-wide initiatives and strategic plan goals. 

For AY 22-23 the focus will be on Antiracism Implementation Plan Goals.
FEC and Crown come together to host these forums.

Block 2: Goal 2, Establish Antiracism, Equity, and inclusion as Foundational to Our Community Expectations
Block 3: Goal 3, Invest in Student Antiracism Resources and Efforts
Block 4: Goal 4, Support & Engage all Faculty & Staff In Antiracism Work
Block 5: Goal 5, Make Antiracism A Central Value in CC’s Academic and Co-curricular Programs
Block 6: Goal 6, Increase Compositional Diversity of CC Community

  6.Mentoring Development (3rd Tuesdays, 3:30-5, Tutt Library 231)
Many of us often assume senior colleagues can substantially and effectively support their early career colleagues’ professional development simply because they have been at the institution for a long time. Similarly, we often assume early career colleagues are best understood primarily as people who have much to learn and a lot to achieve rather than as people who also have much to offer, and who are already accomplished in several ways. During the first session, we will discuss these and other things we assume regarding professional development, focusing especially on the ways traditional mentoring models and practices disempower early career colleagues and do not create opportunities for senior colleagues to develop their capacity for robust, intentional, and collaborative mentoring. The second and third sessions are interactive workshops designed to encourage active listening and providing meaningful feedback, respectively.  

Block 4 
Mentoring 101
December 15, 3:30-5, Tutt Library 231
Formal and informal mentoring relationships are critically important. In this workshop, participants will discuss evidence-based and modern mentoring practices presented in Columbia University’s guidebook and reflect on their own mentoring experiences. Mentees and mentors are welcome. 

Facilitator, Heidi Lewis, Crown Coordinator for Early Career Faculty Development Programs, Associate Professor for Feminist & Gender Studies

Block 5
Mentoring and Active Listening
February 16, 3:30-5, Tutt Library 231
Active listening is a key mentoring skill that is easier said than done. During this workshop, participants will learn active listening skills through engaging and fun activities that also involve opportunities to practice active listening skills. Participants will also discuss what active listening looks like during 1:1 and group mentoring sessions. 

Facilitator, Heidi Lewis, Crown Coordinator for Early Career Faculty Development Programs, Associate Professor for Feminist & Gender Studies

Block 6
Mentoring and Providing Feedback
March 16, 3:30-5, Tutt Library 231
One of the most challenging aspects of mentoring can be providing feedback that is helpful.  During this workshop, participants will learn how to provide critical feedback that is useful, particularly in a mentoring relationship.  

Facilitator, Heidi Lewis, Crown Coordinator for Early Career Faculty Development Programs, Associate Professor for Feminist & Gender Studies

  7.Conversations about health & well-being (2nd Thursdays, 3:30-5, Location TBA)
These sessions are designed to be supportive and to offer strategies for maintaining health, well-being, and sanity. Below is the list of topics we will cover.  If you are interested in facilitating, or co-facilitating, any of these sessions, please contact Peony Fhagen. 

Block 2: Health & well-being on the block
Block 3: Being marginalized and minoritized people at a predominantly white and wealthy college
Block 4: When teaching becomes a drag. . .
Block 5: Pursuing a new research idea, even if it is scary
Block 6: I just earned tenure, now what?
Block 7: Don’t tell anyone, but I like administrative work. . .

8.Learning Circles
Learning Circles acknowledge the long-standing and varied Circle practices of Indigenous Peoples of North America as foundational to this endeavor. Learning Circles ask participants to benefit from all members of the group, recognize their different experiences and expertise, and collaboratively cultivate awareness, knowledge, and skills as a group. If you are interested in forming a learning circle, please contact Peony Fhagen. 

We currently have one learning circle for AY 22-23 being run by Aaron Stoller. The Academic Staff Learning Circle will meet once a block and focus on the text The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education: Studies in Third Space Professionalism. If you are academic staff and interested in joining this learning circle, please contact Aaron Stoller. 

  9.SWARGS (Scholarly Writing and Research Groups)
We currently have one writing SWARG being run for AY 22-23 by Heidi Lewis. This SWARG will meet from 9a to 11a on the second Friday of each block to discuss scholarship, set goals, develop plans, hold each other accountable, and reflect on experiences. Then, from 9a to 11a on the third Monday of each block, participants will meet to work quietly on their scholarship projects. Location, Tutt Library 238. 

A SWARG is a group of faculty members focused on mutual support for creative work, research, and writing. This kind of interaction has been shown to be highly effective at increasing individuals’ productivity, as well as their overall satisfaction as teacher/scholars. Groups often form themselves from mutual interests, career stages, or departments, but an individual may apply and ask to be assigned to a group as well. Once accepted, each group may receive reimbursement for expenses up to $200 (per group) per year to cover lunches or meeting refreshments, copying papers, etc. To apply, contact pfhagen@coloradocollege.edu.

10.Crown Manuscript Workshop Call
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