January 14, 2020
Volume 4, Number 9
How to Teach a Good First Day of Class:
Advice Guide
I was 21 years old when I first stepped into a college classroom as an instructor. My master’s program had assigned me to teach a composition course and gave me a brief orientation to teaching the week before the semester began. I was so close in age to my students, so nervous about how they would perceive me, and so uncertain about what I was doing that I had precisely one goal for the first day of the semester: Get through it.

I managed to achieve that modest goal. But over the course of the next couple of decades of full-time teaching, I have become much more aware of the extent to which the first day of class sets the tone for everything that follows. In  her book , The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom With the Science of Emotion, the psychologist  Sarah Rose Cavanagh  explores how humans quickly make initial judgments of people, on the basis of thin slices of evidence. “On the first few days of class,” she explains, “students will be forming their impressions of you, and this impression may be more important than much of what you do later.”

On that first day, I would argue, your students are forming a lasting impression not just of you as a teacher but of your course, too. Their early, thin-slice judgments are powerful enough to condition their attitudes toward the entire course, the effort they are willing to put into it, and the relationship they will have with you and their peers throughout the semester.

So that first class meeting is a big deal. You want to give students a taste of the engaging intellectual journey they will undertake in the coming weeks — and you have great flexibility in how you go about it. Helping you to make that opening session as effective as possible, whatever your discipline, is the goal of this online guide. What you can expect to find here:
  • I’ll start, as we academics so love to do, with a little bit of theory — specifically, four core principles that can help shape your planning for the first day of your course.
  • Next, I’ll cover the logistics of a successful first day, including managing the space and technology as well as getting to know your students. 
  • To show you how to put the principles and the logistics into practice, I will provide examples of what a good set of first-day activities might look like in four disciplines. 
  • I’ll finish with some suggestions for how to support the good work you have done on the first day with some follow-up activities.

To continue reading, please click here ( https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/advice-firstday).

– by James M. Lang, Professor of English and Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, Assumption College
Gather & Share
Student Engagement - Do They Know You?
The FCTL is offering "  Gather & Share  " events on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, from 3:45pm - 4:45pm in ADUC 310. The objective is to have a "topic" area and share a some tools, tips and strategies.

The Next Gather & Share Event:
Topic: Student Engagement - "Do they know you?"
When: Tuesday, January 21, 2019; 3:45pm – 4:45pm
Where: ADUC 310
Educator: FCTL
Synopsis: Join FCTL in exploring “Student Engagement - Do they know you”. Come ready to “chat it up” with your colleagues on this important topic. Refreshments will be served.
Registration: To register click here

Blackboard Buzz
How to Import a Course Package
Do you know that you can save a lot of time to build a new course by utilize the Course Package on Blackboard ? Instructors can use the Import Package utility to copy course materials from one course to another.

This tutorial video on YouTube  will shows you how to import an existing course package into another course, and then select the material to copy. Email msuonline@moreheadstate.edu for additional information and on-campus support.
In-The-Know
What I Love About Teaching Campaign
Hello Educators!

Okay, We are looking for your response to this magical question:
"What do you love about teaching?"

Click the link below to share your response:
12th Annual Conference on

Higher Education Pedagogy

 February 5-7, 2020  

Virginia Tech / Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

REGISTRATION:

For information about conference registration and associated fees, visit the conference website:  https://chep.teaching.vt.edu/

If you have an interest in attending this conference as part of an MSU cohort, send an email identifying your interest (why), what you hope to gain from the conference, and what you will be willing to share with the MSU community upon your return to fctl@moreheadstate.edu
Call for Proposals: The 2020 Pedagogicon
May 15th, EKU
Proposals Due: February 16th

The conference theme, “ Students as Partners in Teaching and Learning,” encourages us to examine and promote students-as-partners strategies for teaching and learning that encourage deep, transferable academic experiences.
Do you have an exceptional strategy to share? Do you have a new theory or practice that might enhance teaching and learning, faculty development, educational practices, or student engagement at your institution and beyond? Presenters are encouraged to engage their audience, so preference will be given to those submissions that specify how this engagement will be provided. The conference will host an opening session on transparency in learning and teaching.
Threads might include but are not limited to:
  • Use of technology to enhance students-as-partners in teaching and learning
  • Creative instructional techniques that engage students in partnership experiences
  • Faculty development initiatives, programs, and processes that promote students-as-partners in teaching and learning
  • New ways to use Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) to enhance student partnerships in teaching and learning
  • Strategies for incorporating diversity, culturally responsive pedagogy, and/or inclusive excellence into students-as-partners teaching and learning models and designs
  • High-Impact Educational Practices that enhance students as partners in teaching and learning
  • Student perspectives on partnerships in teaching and learning.

Presenters will also have the opportunity to submit their work for consideration in the annual Proceedings, to be published in late 2020. 

Submit proposals online at  https://studio.eku.edu/pedagogicon-proposal-form.
 
19th Annual  Posters-at-the-Capitol
March 5th, Frankfort

Posters-at-the-Capitol  an event hosted collaboratively by Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University, is intended to help members of Kentucky’s legislature and the Governor better understand the importance of involving undergraduates in research, scholarly, and creative work. It provides undergraduates with the opportunity to engage in scholarship, research, and creative work that is important to their educational experience and professional development. We encourage faculty to have their students participate in  Posters-at-the-Capitol to help those in Kentucky who fund higher education understand why these experiences are so important. 
 
 
Ambassadors for Excellence in Teaching
Morehead State University