Fall 2004 Workshops

Below is a chronological listing of workshops from Fall 2004.

SEPTEMBER

F2P2 Orientation
For any graduate student, professional student or post-doc who is interested in a career in academia and wants to learn about the F2P2 program.

Facilitator: Jeff Johnston, Assistant Director, Center for Teaching
Date: Wednesday, September 8th
Time: 4:00pm-5:00pm
Location: Sarratt 116

Herstory: Life as a Tenured Professor at Vanderbilt
Students will have the opportunity to hear and ask about the journeys of tenured women faculty from a variety of disciplines at Vanderbilt University.  Questions that will be answered include: How did you get to where you are?  Why did you go into this field?  Is this everything you thought it would be?  Would you advise us to do the same?

Facilitators: Panel of Vanderbilt Women Faculty
F2P2 Track: World of University (1.25 hrs)
Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Time: 4:00-5:15pm
Location: Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Room 118

Teaching Portfolio: Tips and Samples
It is time to apply for jobs! What do you need to have in your teaching portfolio?

Facilitator: Mozhgan Mirani
Date: Wednesday, September 15
Time: 4:00pm-5:15pm
Location: Sarratt 110

The Productive Discussion
All too frequently, our students come to class not having completed the week's reading or being none too sure of what they have read, which may mean that class time is spent reviewing, rather than processing, information and ideas. In this workshop, we will develop strategies for folding reading instruction into classroom instruction and motivating our students to read for class. 

Facilitator: Patricia Armstrong, Assistant Director, Center for Teaching
Date: Monday, September 20
Time: 4:00pm-5:30pm
Location: Alumni Hall 117

Conversations on Teaching: Moral / Ethical Reasoning – What’s College For?
What is moral reasoning, and how is it developed? What programs and curricula exist or are being developed to support the teaching of moral and ethical reasoning at Vanderbilt? These and other questions will be explored in this conversation, facilitated by James Hudnut-Beumler, chair of the Provost's Committee on Moral Reasoning.

Facilitators:  James Hudnut-Beumler, Dean of the Divinity School and Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious History
Date: Tuesday, September 28
Time: 12:15--1:30 p.m.
Location:  Sarratt 116

OCTOBER

Personal Response Systems (PRS)
Personal response systems allow instructors to receive real-time answer and assessment data from students using hand-held remote control units. The PRS workshop will bring together PRS users from a variety of disciplines and introduce the technology and related pedagogy to those interested in employing it in their courses. Experienced PRS users may also attend to share their insights with new users.

Facilitators:  Jeff Johnston and Jonathan Blake
Date:  Monday, October 4
Time:  4:00-5:30
Location: TBA

Achieving Balance in Graduate School
This session, facilitated by Gina Frieden of the Department of Human and Organizational Development, will focus on how to maintain balance--psychologically and intellectually--while in graduate school.  Issues of depression and drop-out, and their relationship to gender, will be addressed.

Facilitator: Gina Frieden, Assistant Professor of the Practice, Human & Organizational Development
F2P2 Track: World of University (1.25 hrs)
Date: Thursday, October 7
Time: 4:00-5:15
Location:  Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Room 118

Part of the Women in Academe Series, co-sponsored by the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center. This series explores issues pertinent to women in the academy and aims to foster dialogue between women in varying locations within the academy.  Sessions are open to all Vanderbilt graduate students, professional students, and post docs.

Classroom Assessment Techniques
Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) promote active learning while also giving the instructor information on what students are learning.  This workshop will showcase select CATs and will highlight library and online resources for teachers using CATs.
F2P2 Track: Teaching and Learning (1 hr)

Facilitators:  Mozhgan Mirani, Graduate Teaching Fellow; Peter Felten, Associate Director, Center for Teaching
Date:  Thursday, October 14
Time:  12:00–1:00
Location:  Learning Commons room 304, Peabody Library

Avoiding Student Pitfalls when Designing Research Assignments
Librarians are in the unique position of working with large numbers of students as they complete their research assignments. This workshop will cover common problems students have during the research process and how to avoid or mitigate these problems when constructing course assignments. Feel free to bring any "problem" assignments to review during or after the workshop session.
F2P2 Track: Teaching and Learning (1.5 hrs)

Facilitator:  Melinda Brown, Instruction Coordinator for Central Library
Date:  Tuesday, October 19 (during Fall Break)
Time:  1:30–3:00
Location:  Central Library Electronic Classroom, GLB 211
Sponsored by the Central Library.

Lab Management
Research skills are only part of what it takes to succeed as an academic researcher.  During your first few years as a tenure track faculty scientist, you will also be asked to hire and manage staff, obtain grants, administer budgets, generate collaborations, and resolve conflicts, among other things.  This mixed bag of competencies can be loosely characterized as “scientific management” skills. Intended primarily for graduate students and post-docs in the laboratory sciences, this workshop will explore some of these issues with active participation from several faculty members from the lab sciences.

F2P2 Track: Professional Development (1.5 hrs)
Facilitator:  Jeff Johnston, Assistant Director, and Mozhgan Mirani, Graduate Teaching Fellow, Center for Teaching
Date:  Monday, October 25
Time:  4:00-5:30
Location:  Nursing School Annex Room 162

Can Letters of Recommendation Be a Form of Teaching?
Writing letters of recommendation for students is a routine and time-consuming part of university teaching.  Sometimes, however, student requests for letters pose dilemmas – when a student who performed poorly in a class asks for a letter, for instance, should the teacher simply refuse to write it, quietly send a lukewarm recommendation, or take the opportunity talk openly with the student about the situation?  This session, drawn from Howard Sandler’s honors seminar (“What Makes a University Tick?”), will use a case study to prompt discussion about teaching, evaluating, and recommending.
F2P2 Track: World of University (1.25 hrs)
Facilitator:  Howard Sandler, Professor of Psychology
Date:  Thursday, October 28
Time:  12:15–1:30
Location:  Sarratt 189

Paving the Way: A Conversation Between Established Women Faculty and Women Graduate Students
This session will be a dialogue between Vanderbilt women faculty and women graduate students comparing the experiences of each group and highlighting the landscape of graduate school then and now.  Issues of mentoring and graduate students’ expectations of women faculty (and vice versa) will be explored.     

Facilitators: Panel of Vanderbilt Women Faculty and Graduate Students
F2P2 Track: World of University (1.25 hrs)
Date: Thursday, October 28
Time: 4:00-5:15
Location:  Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Room 118
Part of the Women in Academe Series.

NOVEMBER

Lectures That Motivate Learning
This workshop will address both the theory and practice of lecturing.  To start, we will consider how people learn from lectures—how this particular pedagogical practice can foster student understanding.  Then we will explore pragmatic strategies for effective lecturing, including demonstrations of exceptional lecturing and tips on audience assessment, content organization,

presentation and delivery. 
F2P2 Track: Teaching and Learning (2 hrs)
Facilitators: Kat Baker, Graduate Teaching Fellow, and Allison Pingree, Director, Center for Teaching
Date:  Monday, November 1
Time:  3:00-5:00
Location:  Alumni Hall 117

Being a Woman TA: Issues of Identity and Authority
This workshop will explore the overarching question, What does it mean to be a woman and a TA?  Issues that will be addressed include authority in the classroom and how others’ perceptions of you influence your sense of self and how you teach.
Facilitators: Linda Manning, Director, Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center, and Allison Pingree, Director, Center for Teaching

F2P2 Track: Teaching and Learning (1.25 hrs)
Date: Tuesday, November 9
Time: 4:00-5:15
Location:  Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Room 118
Part of the Women in Academe Series.

Talking about Teaching in Academic Job Interviews
While graduate students receive ample opportunity and encouragement to present their doctoral research in forums such as departmental colloquia or national conferences, they rarely talk about teaching and pedagogy in such public settings. As a result, many graduate students lack the preparation for speaking about their teaching in compelling terms when it counts the most: the job interview.  This workshop will give participants the chance to begin--or refine--that preparation and provide tools and resources for continuing that preparation up to the campus visit.

F2P2 Track: Professional Development (1.25 hrs)
Facilitator: Patricia Armstrong, Assistant Director, Center for Teaching
Date: Wednesday, November 17
Time: 4:00-5:15
Location:  Alumni Hall 117

Related Programs 

Physics 302: Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn
This is a seminar course focusing on college teaching in the sciences. The course is primarily aimed at first-time teaching assistants, and other graduate students who are interested in improving their teaching skills. Through readings, the course provides an introduction to science education research, cognitive science, and education theory. Through group discussions, the course provides an opportunity for reflection on teaching techniques that promote learning in the classroom. Finally, the course provides an opportunity for development of a teaching portfolio, which is becoming increasingly important in the academic job market.

Facilitator: Keivan Stassun, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
F2P2 Track: Teaching and Learning
Time: Wednesdays from 11:10-12:00
Location: 6638 Stevenson Center
For more information (including registration), contact Professor Stassun, Keivan.stassun@vanderbilt.edu.

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