New Partnership, New Opportunities for Humanities Doctoral Students
Jan. 8, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director We at the CFT are thrilled to be part of Vanderbilt’s new Mellon Partners for Humanities Education project to provide “specialized training for new Vanderbilt Ph.D.s in preparing students for teaching at liberal arts colleges and historically black colleges and universities” (HBCU). The program, supported by a $1.475 million...
What’s In Your Syllabus?
Jan. 7, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director I just posted my syllabus on YES (Your Enrollment Services, where students register online) as part of Vanderbilt’s effort to help students make informed choices about their courses, and I had a moment of anxiety. Like Anne Bradstreet in “The Author to Her Book,” despite my worries that it’s...
BOLD Fellow Zane Ricks Creates Interactive Learning Module for Biostatistics Course
Jan. 6, 2014—The BOLD Fellows program is designed to bring together graduate students and faculty members interested in blended and online learning. Graduate students develop online learning modules for implementation in a faculty mentor’s course and then gather data on the effects of the modules on student learning. BOLD Fellow Zane Ricks worked with faculty mentor Dr....
A (New) Plan for Lesson Planning
Jan. 6, 2014—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director I’ve been teaching my own courses since 1993, and I still experiment with how to manage my notes, preparations, To Do lists, readings, and lesson plans–not because I’m adventurous but because I’m dissatisfied. A Goldilocks of office and organizational supplies, I’ve rejected previous attempts as “too big,” “too messy,”...
GradSTEP 2014: Students as Producers – Sneak Peek at the Plenary
Jan. 2, 2014—GradSTEP 2014 will focus on Students as Producers: Developing dynamic learning in a virtual and real-world setting and will be held: Saturday, January 25th, 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. in Light Hall. The plenary session will feature Dr. Cynthia Cyrus (Musicology) and Dr. Joe Bandy (Sociology). This panel examines two examples in which Vanderbilt faculty...
Shelfies: The Bibliophile’s Selfie
Dec. 23, 2013—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director Oxford Dictionaries recently selected “selfie” as 2013’s word of the year, acknowledging the ubiquitous self-portraits snapped, then filtered, tinted, or boosted with a smartphone app, and then shared on social media. I look forward to my spring WGS 200: Women in Popular Culture class for a discussion of these...
Flexible Classrooms: Highlights from #Spaces4Learning
Dec. 19, 2013—by Derek Bruff, CFT Director. Cross-posted from Derek’s blog, Agile Learning. Last week Vanderbilt University hosted a group of architects and architecture faculty from the University of Melbourne for a series of presentations and conversations on the design of learning spaces. Melbourne is one of our “sister” schools, and faculty from its School of Architecture...
The Mindful PhD: 2013 Top 10
Dec. 19, 2013—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director I just realized this will be my last entry for 2013. As my social media feeds fill up with Top 10 Lists, I thought I’d pause at the end of the year and offer my own. Since my blog is still fairly new (this is just my 18th post),...
The Mindful PhD: Difficult Discussions
Dec. 13, 2013—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director Several recent campus conversations have focused on facilitating difficult discussions with students in and out of class. I’ve long taught multicultural American literature and women’s studies courses, so I appreciate how hard it is to effectively navigate these moments. As I prepare my syllabus for next semester, I’ve been...
CIRTL Coffee Hour: Constructing Your Teaching Portfolio
Dec. 10, 2013—Ever wonder exactly should be in a teaching portfolio….or perhaps, how you should go about getting the teaching experience that would let you construct one? Don Gillian-Daniel, Jenna Gorlewicz, and Mary Loveless addressed just these questions at a recent CIRTL Coffee Hour. Jenna Gorlewicz is in her first year as a tenure-track assistant professor of...