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Upcoming Teaching. Writing. Learning: Conversation with Amanda Benson

Jan. 14, 2014—Sponsored by the Center for Teaching, the Writing Studio, and the Heard Library; “Teaching. Writing. Learning.” is a series of monthly lunchtime conversations for anyone who teaches writing at Vanderbilt to gather and discuss specific issues, hear an invited colleague briefly introduce a relevant best practice, hear a bit about other research-based practices, share one’s...

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GradSTEP 2014: Students as Producers Sneak Peek at Session 1

Jan. 9, 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 ttttt Service Learning Joe Bandy, CFT Assistant Director Service learning is a pedagogy that combines the learning goals of your courses and the...

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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...

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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...

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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....

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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,”...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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“Inviting Genius”: Students as Producers in African American Studies

Nov. 18, 2013—by Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director The CFT’s theme this year, “Students as Producers,” has given me the opportunity to talk with some talented and thoughtful colleagues across campus. On October 24, I brought together three of them to have a conversation on teaching about “Producing, Performing, & Creating Learning across the Humanities: Models of...

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