Charles Brownstein, Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, moderates an all-star panel of experts to discuss the question of humor in comics from a variety of professional perspectives on Thursday, February 9, at 7:15 p.m., in Franz Hall room 120. Panelists include Diana Schutz (editor of Sin City, Grendel, and Usagi Yojimbo), Mark Russell (God is Disappointed in You, Apocrypha Now, Prez), Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), and MK Reed (The Castoffs, Americus). The event is co-sponsored by the Garaventa Center and the Beckman Humor Project, and is free and open to all. For more information or ADA accommodations: x7702 or garaventa@up.edu.
Karen Eifler
Don’t Miss Garaventa Center’s Holiday Thirst Friday, Dec. 2
Need a little holiday cheer before finals? Join us for Thirst Friday on December 2 in the Garaventa Center (Franz 330), any time from 4 to 6 p.m. You’ll find great conversation, holiday libations of all sorts, and best of all, a tasting menu featuring an astonishing number of Oreo options! Extra credit for bringing along someone new to the festive frivolities of Thirst Fridays. Come for 10 minutes or two hours, but please do stop by. Open to all staff and faculty. For more information, please contact Karen Eifler at eifler@up.edu.
TLC Tip of the Week: Early Alert
This week’s TLC Tip of the Week comes from early alert coordinator Gina Loschiavo, who has visited just about every department on campus this fall and fielded several recurring questions from faculty as they strive to implement Early Alert in their teaching and advising with students. We thought doing this in the form of an FAQ piece would be an efficient way to remind faculty about crucial aspects of the program.
- One Common Misconception: Early Alert is NOT just about grades. The Early Alert program is a referral program for all faculty, staff, students, and parents who are concerned about the physical, emotional, academic, or personal health of a University student. The Early Alert team can assess the situation, offer support to the student and reporting party, and provide referrals to the breadth of resources on-campus.
- How do I submit an Early Alert? Simply go to up.edu/earlyalert and click the “Submit an Early Alert” button. You will be taken to a form where you can provide information about the student you are concerned about.
- What happens after I submit an Early Alert? Early Alert reports are received by Loschiavo and reviewed by the Early Alert team to offer support to the reporting party and the student. After submitting the report you will be contacted to see if you have additional information to share or if you need guidance to support the student of concern. At any point if you have information you would like to share, please contact Gina.
- What should I do if I want to learn more about the Early Alert program? If you have questions about the Early Alert program or simply want to learn more, please reach out to Loschiavo at x7709 or loschiav@up.edu, or visit the Early Alert website at up.edu/earlyalert.
TLC from the TLC: Rethinking How Office Hours Are Kept
This week’s selection from the Teaching and Learning Collaborative comes from Zachary Simmons, psychological sciences. Like many UP professors, he does his best to carve office hours in stone, held invioalate for the good of his students, but life always seems to do its best to wreak havoc on his best laid plans. Sound familiar? If so, be sure to read his piece on exploring the possibility of keeping virtual office hours on days he cannot be on campus at this link.
A reminder: these weekly tips from the Teaching and Learning Collaborative are meant to be taken in during the time it takes to enjoy a cup of coffee or kombucha at your desk. They are also archived at sites.up.edu/tl. If you have a teaching dilemma for which you’d like some insights or resources, please contact TLC coordinator Karen Eifler, eifler@up.edu, or x8014.
TLC Tip of the Week: Using Failure as a Chance to Teach
The Shepard Academic Resource Center supports the learning of all students, and staff are always alert to news of promising classroom practices that get students to take responsibility for their learning. Learning assistance counselor Br. Tom Giumenta, C.S.C., assembled a brief essay that combines emerging insights from neuroscience with the Holy Cross charism of Hope. “So You Failed the Exam,” available at this link, describes the possibility of helping students cultivate a “growth mindset,” a conviction that grades are the consequences of effort and perseverance, rather than merely fixed ability. The strategy? Carefully orchestrated second chances. You can read the informal piece in the time in takes you to enjoy a cup of coffee.If you have a teaching tip or conundrum you’d like to share with UP’s generous community of committed teachers, please contact Karen Eifler at eifler@up.edu.
Order ReadUP Books by Friday, Nov. 4
This year’s Read UP selection is Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See, according to Karen Eifler, Garaventa Center. Students and the entire UP community will have access to the book and several discussion groups will take place in residence halls and the Clark Library. The author will be on campus for a free public lecture on Monday, February 27, 2017, as a guest of the Schoenfeldt Series. Doerr’s best selling World War II novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction in 2015.
Those who wish to obtain a copy of the book must make their orders by Friday, November 4, at this link. Books can then be picked up from the Clark Library starting Monday, November 14, any time between 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m., at the main circulation desk.
More information regarding upcoming book discussions and other highlights can be found at up.edu/readup or by contacting Eifler at eifler@up.edu.
TLC Teaching Tip of the Week
Many faculty look for ways to get students to read assignment requirements more carefully and take opportunities to revise seriously. This article from Faculty Focus provides four straightforward strategies for getting college students to use annotation of their own work to show differences among drafts, links to assignment requirements, promote a growth mindset (practice can make perfect, or at least make better), and create a sense of agency or self-responsbility. The end result, according to the authors, is fewer surprises at grade time, and better learning of course material. Adding to the appeal of those promises is their contention that using annotation, even when scaffolded by the professor, does not add to the assessment work of the professor. Definitely worth a try.A reminder: these weekly tips from the Teaching and Learning Collaborative are meant to be taken in during the time it takes to enjoy a cup of coffee or kombucha at your desk. They are also archived at sites.up.edu/tl. If you have a teaching dilemma for which you’d like some insights or resources, please contact TLC coordinator Karen Eifler, eifler@up.edu, or x8014.
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TLC Tip of the Week: Making Group Work Work
As the term unfolds, many professors will be asking students to work productively in groups. While there’s lots of evidence to support collaborative learning, both in terms of knowledge gained and essential work skills honed, many professors are also faced with groups that don’t gel or fall under the dominion of one hyper-achiever, and the occasional student who is willing to ride on colleagues’ coattails. Then there’s the question of group versus individual accountability.
Nikki Schulz, engineering (pictured), and Ross Hanig, business, suggest checking out the teacher-designed web site CATME.org, which offers many suggestions for overcoming obstacles that can keep learning groups from functioning optimally. The site provides quick inventories that allow professors to form groups which are more likely to be productive, tips from the trenches for managing the noise and extra movement groups generate, keeping track of individual contributions, working through personality conflicts, and getting students to make equitable contributions to their final course projects. Like any tool, it can’t answer every possible problem, but it is field-tested and a good place to start if you find yourself up against the same issues and complaints regarding group work. And as with most TLC tips, pursuing CATME.org for the length of time it takes you to drink a cup of coffee at your desk may pay some excellent dividends.
For more information contact Karen Eifler at eifler@up.edu.
Toast The Start of the School Year: Thirst Friday, Sept. 9
All faculty and staff are warmly invited to the first Thirst Friday of the year on September 9. Haven’t been before? Expect great conversation, tasty treats (don’t miss our new Cheetos tasting menu) and libations of all sorts to toast the start of the year, not to mention the best view on campus. Thirst Friday regulars – 17 extra credit points if you bring along someone new to the UP community! Join us in the Garaventa Center (Franz 330) any time from 4-6 p.m., for 10 minutes or two hours. Like to plan ahead? Future Thirst Fridays are 12/2, 2/10, and 4/21 (note the new April date if you received a Save the Dates napkin).
For more information, please contact Karen Eifler at eifler@up.edu.
New Podcast: Fr. Tom’s “The Sacredness of the Ordinary”
Several people who attended Fr. Tom Hosinski’s final UP lecture, “The Sacredness of the Ordinary” (and many who weren’t able to attend) have asked if it would be available as a podcast. A downloadable podcast of the lecture is now available at this link, along with a transcript.
For more information, contact Karen Eifler (eifler@up.edu) in the Garaventa Center, which sponsored the lecture.