Building Community in the Classroom

Sarah Rose Cavanagh (Simmons University) is a professor, psychologist, and Senior Associate Director for Teaching and Learning at Simmons University, where she teaches classes on affective science and mental health, researches the intersections of emotion, motivation, and learning, and provides educational development for faculty. Cavanagh was the keynote speaker at the 2022 Reimagining the Classroom Symposium, where she emphasized the importance of building community in classrooms both online and face-to-face. 

In this episode of CITL's Podcast, Teach Talk Listen Learn, Cavanagh reiterates the highlights of her speech, particularly the need for classroom community-building in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our conclusions were that students feeling invested in the work of the classroom and each other, like they are working with the instructor on shared goals can be really powerful for teaching and learning... I think a lot of our students are coming to us not having had those experiences, so we will need to be even more intentional than ever before in building community and scaffolding and modeling those sorts of behaviors,” said Cavanagh.

Please Join Us for Access Illinois

Access Illinois is a hybrid event celebrating accessibility and inclusion at the University of Illinois. The event will take place April 6 at the Beckman Institute, with the option to attend virtually. Lunch will be provided to in-person attendees. Registration ends Friday, March 31, 2023. For details, including registration and event schedule information, please see the Access Illinois website.

Certificate Deadline is April 17

If you are pursuing one of CITL's teaching certificates, the deadline for finishing the requirements this year is Monday, April 17. If you don't submit your application by April 17, all of your progress still counts and you have until next April to finish the remainder of the requirements. Click here for more information that may answer questions you currently have.

Certificates will be awarded digitally, but we do plan to hold an in-person certificate awards ceremony on Friday, May 5, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm. Save the date now; more details to come.

Teach Access Faculty Grants: Call for Proposals

To accelerate the creation and delivery of accessibility-infused college curricula, Teach Access will be providing faculty grants to full-time, part-time, adjunct faculty, or instructional staff at US-based institutions (including US Territories) of higher education (community colleges, two-year colleges/universities, and four-year universities). Awards of $1,000 - $5,000 each will be given to faculty to develop modules, presentations, exercises or curriculum enhancements or changes that introduce the fundamental concepts and skills of accessible design and development into their existing courses. The application deadline is Sunday, April 16, 2023.

Make 'Em Laugh (And You Should)
Using Humor in the Classroom
Monday, March 27
3:00 - 4:00 pm, Armory Room 428, registration required
Presenter: Lucas Anderson, CITL Teaching & Learning Consultant

Course Design
Foundations
Thursday, March 30
5:00 - 6:00 pm, Zoom, registration required
Presenter: David Favre, CITL Teaching & Learning Consultant

Art of Teaching Lunchtime Seminar Series
Yvonne Redman (School of Music): Pursue Peer Review
Thursday, April 6
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm, Zoom, registration required
Host: Emily Forbes, CITL Teaching & Learning Consultant

Stay tuned for this semester's events! Bookmark the CITL Event Calendar for all upcoming workshops and the Training Services (formally FAST3) Calendar for additional training opportunities.