Teaching Highlights
The Crown Center supports and celebrates the excellent teaching of our colleagues from across campus. We’re excited at the outset of this year to share two such examples. If you have an item to share, please let us know!
- Associate Professor Christina Rader and Executive-in-Residence Lora Louise Broady from the Department of Economics and Business published an essay in the Journal of Block and Intensive Learning and Teaching. Titled “Client Consulting Projects on the Block: Understanding Sources of Tension,” the essay showcases how the benefits of work-engaged learning outweigh the challenges of such work.
Current & Ongoing Opportunities
Mark your calendars! Crown programming for the year will take place throughout the academic year. Formal lunch gatherings on the second Tuesday of each block will engage a range of relevant topics. Informal breakfast conversations will take place on Thursdays following the conclusion of each block.
The Block 1 lunch takes place on Tuesday, September 3 from 12:15-1:30 p.m in Tutt 317. As part of CC’s participation in the 2024-25 AAC&U Institute on “AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum,” we invite you to a lunch discussion on the evolving landscape of teaching and generative AI at our college. Faculty and staff from the institute team will share insights on current pedagogical strategies and considerations for the implementation of AI in the specific context of our CC classrooms. This will also be an open forum to hear your experiences, insights, and concerns as we navigate these technologies together on our campus. Click here to RSVP.
The Crown Center for Teaching Instructional Coaching Program plans to pilot Departmental/Program Instructional Coaching next academic year. Driven by our institutional anti-racism commitments, our goal is to facilitate opportunities for a team to collaboratively set instructional goals and support continuous pedagogical improvement. If your department or program is interested in exploring this opportunity, please complete this form no later than the end of Block 1 (September 18). Please reach out to Lead Instructional Coaches Tina Valtierra or Santiago Guerra with questions.
This year Crown is piloting a “Faculty Fellows” program. The first of these endeavors will be led by Assistant Professor Sofia Fenner and is called The Crown Conversation Project. This initiative emerges from the conviction that we already have the tools to work through our conversational impasses. Powered by a core group of committed participants, we encourage applications from those who are especially excited to seek out and speak with colleagues and convey those colleagues’ ideas to the group. For more information on this project and how to apply, please visit the Crown Center’s website.
Crown’s Educator Learning Community (ELC) program allows small groups of faculty, staff, and student educators to gather regularly around all things teaching and learning. This might be applying a new pedagogical approach, discussing a new text, or focusing on an established or emerging educational development topic. ELCs receive funding to support and enhance meetings such as lunches, snacks, books, etc. To formalize an ELC for AY24-25, email Crown Director Ryan Bañagale, with the name, purpose, and goals of your ELC as well as the names of participants.
Resources & Opportunities for Community-Engaged Teaching
Are you interested in incorporating community-engaged learning into your courses this year? The Collaborative for Community Engagement (CCE) can be a partner and support system, offering:
Re-Introducing Jessica Hunter, Associate Director of Crown
“As part of Creativity & Innovation’s move to the Crown Center, I have joined the Crown Center as its inaugural Associate Director. In addition to supporting Crown’s mission to bolster and amplify teaching across campus, I will focus on helping develop and providing access to opportunities for faculty across disciplines to teach using the arts. Part of this work involves collaborating with NEH Professor Rebecca Tucker’s three-year project on objects-based learning. Look for programs under this umbrella and please reach out by email if you’d like to learn how you can get involved.”
