On May 8th, 2017, the Teaching and Learning Center will be hosting the second Teach@CUNY Day. This event is scheduled for 9am-4pm on the Concourse Level of the Graduate Center. Teach@CUNY Day is open to the entire CUNY community, but we especially encourage attendance by students at the Graduate Center who are or who will be teaching in Fall 2017.

Teach@CUNY Day 2017 will be opened by CUNY’s Executive Vice Chancellor Vita Rabinowitz, and will feature two keynote addresses in the morning: one by Maura Smale (New York City College of Technology) and Mariana Regalado (Brooklyn College) drawing from their book, Digital Technology as Affordance and Barrier in Higher Education; and a second by Natalia Ortiz, a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Graduate Center’s Urban Education Program.

The morning presentations will be followed by a series of workshops that will explore what it means to teach at CUNY, and that will immerse attendees in a range of pedagogical approaches. It will be a terrific opportunity to join and help further build a community of practitioners who are committed to making CUNY’s classrooms inspiring and transformative spaces. Breakfast, lunch and coffee will be served.

We are grateful to the CUNY Office of Student Affairs for supporting this event. Click here to see the schedule for last year’s Teach@CUNY Day.

You can register for Teach@CUNY Day at cuny.is/tcuny. Please plan to join us.  The full schedule is below:

Schedule
9:00-9:30 Registration and Breakfast
9:30-11:15 Morning Plenary
11:30-12:30: Workshop One
12:30-1:15: Lunch
1:15-2:15: Workshop Two
2:30-3:30:  Workshop Three
3:30-4:00: Coffee and Mingling

Morning Plenary (9:30-11:15)

Welcoming Remarks:


Luke Waltzer, Director, Teaching and Learning Center, The Graduate Center
Chase Robinson, President, The Graduate Center
Vita C. Rabinowitz, Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost, City University of New York

Keynote Addresses:

“Understanding the Whole Student: CUNY Undergraduates’ Lived Experiences”
Maura Smale, Chief Librarian, New York City College of Technology &
 Mariana Regalado, Head of Information Services, Brooklyn College

“‘We are the ones we’ve been waiting for… ‘: Perspectives from a Mother Scholar Educator Activist”
Natalia Ortiz, Doctoral Candidate, Urban Education, The Graduate Center

Workshop Session One (11:30-12:30)

Collaborative Learning: De-Centering Class Discussion and Encouraging Group Work — C205 

Cheryl Smith, Baruch College
How can you get students working together in groups to build better relationships and enhance their engagement? We’ll try out two exercises to explore how collaborative learning encourages risk, animates discussion, and empowers student and teacher creativity.

Working with English Language Learners in the Classroom: Effective Strategies & Best Practices — C204

DJ Dolack, Tristan Thorne, and Kimberly Edmunds, Baruch College
In this workshop, representatives from the Tools for Clear Speech program at Baruch College will share strategies for effective assignment design and lesson planning to help English language learners interpret assignments more easily and empower them to participate more confidently in classroom discussion.

Low-Stakes Writing in the STEM Classroom — C203

Jonas Reitz, New York City College of Technology
In this workshop participants will explore the use of easy to implement, low-barrier-to-entry writing assignments in STEM disciplines. These assignments can have a large and varied impact, building community, engaging students, and developing metacognitive skills in addition to content knowledge. Examples will be provided from mathematics, and participants will engage in assignment design in their own disciplines.

Overcoming Nerves and Public Speaking in the Classroom — C202

Mei Ling Chua, The Graduate Center and John Jay College
This workshop will explore strategies for dealing with and calming the nerves that often accompany public speaking and interaction in the classroom. We will consider approaches to allaying instructors’ anxiety and also explore ways to help our students be less nervous and more comfortable in the classroom.

An Introduction to Hybrid and Online Teaching and Learning — C201
Robert Robinson, The Graduate Center
Join us as we think through the affordances and limitations of hybridity. Collective brainstorming and conversations will hopefully serve as a useful springboard for planning in a hybrid context.

The Theory and Practice of Game-Based Learning — C198
Robert Duncan, York College, and Maura Smale, New York City College of Technology
Game-based learning is a highly effective pedagogy that improves learning outcomes. Attendees will be introduced to the rationale behind game-based learning and learn how to design game-based learning strategies for their own courses.

The Accessible Classroom in Context — C197

Jessica Murray, The Graduate Center
Teaching at the largest urban university in the country requires attention to the environmental context of New York City. This session will focus on physical accessibility in the context of transportation disparities, physical access to buildings, and features of accessible classrooms, as well as considerations for information access in multicultural and socioeconomic contexts.

Workshop Session Two (1:15-2:15)

Digital Pedagogy: Creating Problem-Based Learning Assignments — C204

Lisa Rhody, The Graduate Center
Assignments that require students to engage with digital technologies as they craft authentic, thoughtful responses to complex, open-ended questions require instructors to articulate expectations carefully. This session will consider a variety of unique digitally-inflected assignments and present tips for setting students up for success as they begin their work.

Learn to Play, Play to Learn — C203
Allison Lehr-Samuels and Zoe Sheehan, Baruch College
How can faculty embrace playing and experimentation in the classroom? In this workshop we discuss strategies and examples of how uncertainty and risk can lead to a collaborative learning environment.

Anti-Ableist Course Design — C202
Jennifer Polish, The Graduate Center and LaGuardia Community College
In this interactive workshop, attendees will learn about and discuss the ways that ableism — particularly assumptions surrounding mental health — shapes our course design. Each attendee will leave with concrete anti-ableist pedagogical practices to integrate into their own classrooms.

Active Learning for Scientific Literacy — C201
Lisa Brundage and Kelly O’Donnell, Macaulay Honors College
Science Forward is an active classroom experience that focuses on the common ways that scientists think and work in the context of different fields of science. In this workshop, we will explore the Science Forward open educational resource and discuss active learning techniques that are applicable to a broad range of life, physical, and quantitative social sciences, as well as writing and communication courses that deal with scientific information. We will also breakout into groups to explore different types of classroom activities that foster understanding of science and the practice of scientific thinking skills.

Opening Our Eyes to CUNY’s Classroom Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities — C198

Ernesto Cuba, The Graduate Center and Brooklyn College
This workshop will start a conversation about the gender, ethnic, and cultural diversity among CUNY students, and will explore the challenges and opportunities that such richness means for public college teachers.

Workshop Session Three (2:30-3:30)

Knowing the Terms: Ethical Use of Commercial Digital Tools in Diverse Classrooms — C204

Jade Davis, LaGuardia Community College
In this workshop we will explore how CUNY instructors can make ethical use of tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google by engaging with their terms of use. We will also develop draft documents to help us as educators guide our students to use these tools safely.

Openness and Accessibility: A Critical Distinction — C203
Patrick Smyth, The Graduate Center and Queens College
Open educational resources and open-source software platforms have presented a way to avoid depending on (often predatory) commercial interests in the classroom. However, does open always mean accessible? This workshop explores the differences between openness and accessibility, and attendees will learn a more holistic approach to evaluating pedagogical tools and platforms.

Use Universal Design for Learning in Your Classroom — C202
Louis Olander, The Graduate Center and Hunter College
Become familiar with Universal Design for Learning, an innovative framework for meeting the learning needs of diverse students. Practice applying UDL concepts to your teaching practice, and identify resources for further learning.

Practicing Feminist Pedagogy — C201
Alexandra Juhasz, Brooklyn College
Feminist pedagogy is a developed body of practices that center and make visible power, participation, and process. Feminist teaching is place-based, situated, personal and political. We make it our own—something we will do together in this workshop.

Neutral or Political? Wrestling with Your Role as an Educator in Complex Times — C198
Jodie Barnhart, The Graduate Center and Hunter College
In times of discord, as challenging and charged issues filter into our classrooms, teachers must consider their own viewpoints and how much of their politics to reveal. Attendees at this workshop will explore the challenges teachers face in honestly representing their politics in the classroom while avoiding shutting down avenues of discussion. This session will help teachers grapple with how to manage such situations.

Register at
http://cuny.is/tcuny (please register even if only planning to come for part of the day!)

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