2020-21 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS
The Showcase ePortfolio: Documenting Learning to Career & Transfer
In many of LaGuardia’s academic programs, ePortfolio practice sits at the center as a tool to scaffold learning along the academic map. Through the efforts of 200 faculty over the past four years, half of our programs have designed and implemented a core ePortfolio that students begin building in their First Year Seminar through their Capstone courses, where many of them work on a culminating project that synthesizes their learning over the degree path.
With funding from our recent Title V grant, Conexion, we are offering a seminar that helps guide students in the move from a learning ePortfolio to a showcase ePortfolio. Participants will consider questions, such as: What is the signature work that the discipline/program/area builds over time, and how is this represented it the ePortfolio or other learning platform? How do we help students make the choices that help them transition from a learning to a showcase (or professional) ePortfolio? Which courses are considered key for foundational and mastery learning? Who is the initial audience for ePortfolio? The final audience?
Seminar sessions will focus on the relationship among courses and assignments in the degree program and career and transfer pathways. Sessions will include group discussion, hands-on design/development, and reflection and feedback on student examples. Working with CCPD, we will also explore opportunities provided through the Title V grant for inviting industry and higher ed partners to meet with your students and provide feedback on their developing Showcase portfolios, as well as coordinating industry site-visits for our students.
Meetings will be a mix of online and face-to-face, with a kick-off in the fall, regular Friday meetings, a winter institute, and spring sessions.
Click here to apply
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ELIGIBILITY
Faculty representing departments or programs in Academic Affairs. Staff and instructors in Student Affairs and ACE.
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SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $1,250.
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DATES
Fridays (9:30 t0 12:30) unless noted - Fall 2020: 9/25, 10/23, 11/13, 12/4
- Winter 2021: 1/29 Mid-Year Institute: 9:30 - 3:30
- Spring 2021: 3/12, 4/16, 5/14, 5/28
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INQUIRIES
Language across the Curriculum
LaGuardia students represent broad diversity—of geographic and cultural backgrounds, lived experiences, academic histories, and other characteristics that create a classroom ecology of pedagogical opportunities and challenges. CTL seminars that focus specifically on the dynamics of the diverse LaGuardia classroom are Language across the Curriculum; Ableism and Access: Equity in the Classroom; and Women, Gender, and Sexuality: Integrating a Feminist Pedagogy and Process.
LaGuardia embraces the cultural and linguistic diversity of students who collectively speak more than one hundred different languages and a range of Englishes. Yet for faculty and students alike, rich linguistic diversity is not free of struggle. Many of our “new majority” students attend classes and read in English, which may not be their dominant language; and faculty who wish to assist multilingualstudents may lack the increasingly necessary training in language acquisition.
In recognition of these challenges, the year-long Language Across the Curriculum seminar (LAC) places language at the center of interdisciplinary teaching and learning and defines two primary goals. First, participants will gain familiarity with evidence-based theoretical frameworks of language development. Selected readings and faculty discussion will prompt teaching strategies that engage students’ prior knowledge and linguistic resources, and encourage student acquisition of discipline-specific academic language. Second, participants will be guided to create and share innovative and integrative classroom practices that combine evidence-based approaches to language and trans-languaging with pedagogies of discovery. These practices will draw from the expertise, insights, and methods of Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing in the Disciplines, and ESL writing instruction. To achievethese goals, Language across the Curriculum structure is designed in two phases:
During Fall 2020, participants will
- Review current language development research and practices;
- Explore academic language characteristic of specific disciplines; and
- Identify the multilingual and translingual pedagogical approaches that may strengthen acquisition of disciplinary content knowledge.
During Spring 2021, participants will
- Design, implement, and evaluate classroom activities and assignments, and
- Contribute to the multilingual ecology of the LaGuardia campus by participating in a variety of onsite and digital platforms.
- Identify the multilingual and translingual pedagogical approaches that may strengthen acquisition of disciplinary content knowledge.
Language across the Curriculum commits to the principle that students and faculty alike benefit from explicit teaching and learning strategies that support the knowledge and practice of diverse linguistic repertoires and choices in the classroom and beyond.
Co-led by Leigh Garrison Fletcher (ELA), Lucy McNair (ENG), Michele Piso (CTL).
Click here to apply
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ELIGIBILITY
Faculty representing departments or programs in Academic Affairs. Staff and instructors in Student Affairs and ACE.
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SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $1,250 or 1 hour of reassigned time. Regular adjunct faculty may receive non-teaching pay if eligible or a PD fund.
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DATES
- Fall 2020: Thursdays 3:30-5:30 Oct 1 & 22, Nov 12, Dec 3
- Winter Workshop: Thursday Feb 4 10am-3pm
- Spring 2021: Thursdays 3:30-5:30 March 25, April 22, May 6 & 27
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INQUIRIES
Faculty Scholars Publication Workshop
In this year-long seminar, designed to assist LaGuardia faculty with their scholarly writing, faculty scholars seek to complete current academic writing projects and place them in external, peer-reviewed journals. LaGuardia faculty scholars from various disciplines—ranging from Accounting to Communication Studies, from Mathematics to English, from Library Science to Sociology—come together to read, critique, and support one another’s writing within their respective fields. Past FSPW participants have benefited from the peer support structure of this seminar and have successfully revised and submitted work subsequently published in peer-reviewed journals.
Depending on COVID19-related circumstances, the workshop may meet remotely via Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate rather than in person. Should this scenario occur, workshop members will decide on the structure and platform that works best for everyone. Workshop participants will be kept informed of any such changes as they arise.
The seminar will be led by Nancy Berke (ENG) and Charity Scribner (ENG).
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Focus Seminar: Digital Communications
Supported through recent Title V funding, next year’s CTL Focus Seminars are designed to support faculty teaching assignments designated for assessment deposit in academic programs or in Pathways Common or Flexible Core courses. We will discuss effective ways to scaffold assignments and curricula to ensure that all students have opportunities to deepen their learning in our college-wide Learning Competencies and Communication Abilities. Focus Seminars incorporate conversations and activities grounded in the specific Learning Matters rubric, defining practical ways to design assignments for key courses from any program at the College. Participants will collaborate in an assignment charrette and share their revised assignment with colleagues before incorporating it in their classes the following semester and sharing their experience with their colleagues.
We encourage faculty interested in these offerings to discuss their interests with the program director or course coordinator.
Digital Communication Focus Seminar: What does it mean for students to communicate effectively in the 21st century? How will they communicate with power and fluency using new and evolving media and genres? Current events have demonstrated greatly the importance of communicating our ideas in digital formats in order to engage our audiences effectively. The Digital Communication Focus Seminar will support faculty who want to experiment with new practices for assignment design and classroom activities that help students to communicate with purpose using multi-media. We'll experiment with ways to use at-hand platforms—ePortfolio, PowerPoint, and other digital tools—in order to scaffold digital communication design into existing assignments.
The seminar will be facilitated by Jessica Boehman (Humanities), Kevin Mark (Natural Sciences) and Rejitha Nair (Academic Affairs).
Click here to apply
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ELIGIBILITY
Faculty representing departments or programs in Academic Affairs.
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SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Regular adjunct faculty may receive non-teaching pay if eligible or a PD fund.
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DATES
Fridays in Spring 2021: - March 5, 19, April 9 (9:30a-12:30p) and
- a November day in the following Fall 2021 TBD
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INQUIRIES
Focus Seminar: Inquiry & Problem Solving
Supported through recent Title V funding, next year’s CTL Focus Seminars are designed to support faculty teaching assignments designated for assessment deposit in academic programs or in Pathways Common or Flexible Core courses. We will discuss effective ways to scaffold assignments and curricula to ensure that all students have opportunities to deepen their learning in our college-wide Learning Competencies and Communication Abilities. Focus Seminars incorporate conversations and activities grounded in the specific Learning Matters rubric, defining practical ways to design assignments for key courses from any program at the College. Participants will collaborate in an assignment charrette and share their revised assignment with colleagues before incorporating it in their classes the following semester and sharing their experience with their colleagues.
We encourage faculty interested in these offerings to discuss their interests with the program director or course coordinator.
Inquiry & Problem Solving Focus Seminar: Inquiry, analysis, and problem-solving combine to form a habit of mind critical to academic and career advancement, thoughtful citizenship, and sustained, life-long learning. What do these process look like in different disciplines? What issues or questions—and what evidence or data—help students build the competencies necessary to engage critically in a complex world? How might current events motivate students to develop the dimensions of inquiry and problem solving that will empower them to participate around increasingly-complex matters? We will discuss effective ways to scaffold assignments and curricula to ensure that all students engage in inquiry learning processes. Participants will also examine possibilities and implications of revising curricula to incorporate more inquiry and problem-solving activities.
The seminar will be facilitated by Bede McCormack (Education and Language Acquisition) and Rejitha Nair (Academic Affairs).
Click here to apply
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ELIGIBILITY
Faculty representing departments or programs in Academic Affairs.
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SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Regular adjunct faculty may receive non-teaching pay if eligible or a PD fund.
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DATES
Fridays in Spring 2021: - March 5, 19, April 9 (9:30a-12:30p) and
- a November day in the following Fall 2021 TBD
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INQUIRIES
Motivational Interviewing
This six session seminar will engage participants in the practice of motivational interviewing (MI) with a focus on student engagement and advisement. The practice of MI supports the LaGuardia strategic plan goals and objectives of advancing communication and interaction, linking students with faculty and administrators and focusing on students as active agents of their own education. The workshop will also focus on strengthening FYS and Advisement 2.0 by supporting faculty and advisors with professional development to build student success. MI can be particularly effective at helping faculty and staff in advisement roles in leading to students becoming more informed and independent decision-makers around their short- and long-term plans for success. The workshop will be practice-intensive, with opportunities for “real play” and “role play,” and include feedback on a recorded practice encounter.
The workshop begins with four online two hour sessions of training using Blackboard Collaborate Ultra in Motivational Interviewing for student engagement and advisement. One week after the fourth session, each trainee will complete a 15 minute sample recording of their MI practice (role play or real play). The samples will be coded using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI 4.2) coding system and each trainee will receive personalized feedback during the first of two Advanced MI sessions that concludes the series. The samples will also inform the design of the Advanced MI curriculum to tailor the learning activities to areas where trainee skills could benefit from additional practice. The two two hour Advanced MI sessions take place approximately 4 weeks following the introductory four session MI workshop. Facilitated by Juline Koken (HEA).
Click here to apply
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ELIGIBILITY
Faculty representing departments or programs in Academic Affairs. Staff and instructors in Student Affairs and ACE.
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SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $750. Regular adjunct faculty may receive non-teaching pay if eligible or a PD fund.
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DATES
Mondays and Fridays during Fall2, 2020 on the following dates: - Session 1: January 4th 10am - 12pm
- Session 2: January 8th 10am - 12pm
- Session 3: January 11th 10am - 12pm
- Session 4: January 15th 10am - 12pm
- Recording date: January 28th (each trainee is paired with another and recording appointment set)
- Session 5: February 22nd 10am - 12pm
- Session 6: February 25th 10am - 12pm
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INQUIRIES
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Across Curriculum and Campus
This semester-long seminar provides a foundation for campus-wide efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Through directed discussions and activities, participants will explore readings, engage in dialogue and reflections to develop strategies and best practices in their classrooms, departments, and offices to enhance DEI work.
LaGuardia’s mission is “to educate and graduate one of the most diverse student populations in the country to become critical thinkers and socially responsible citizens who help to shape a rapidly evolving society.” By encouraging all members of the community (faculty and staff) tobecome more steeped in the language and practices of DEI, we will be helping to create a more inclusive community that not only acknowledges the existing diversity, but whose practices create equitable experiences that allow all members to feel respected and valued.
Faculty participants will closely examine their syllabi and curriculum to determine how they can develop more inclusive content and practices. Staff participants will be supported to develop more inclusive practices for their programs, so that diverse students know they are welcome in the college’s offices and departments.
Faculty will explore ways to acknowledge contributors to the discipline who are traditionally left out, and topics that allow for greater inclusion of diverse populations. Reflective pedagogical practices that encourage enhanced dialogue, and bring more diverse voices into the room will be explored. Faculty will be guided in facilitating “difficult dialogues” utilizing best practices including Reflective Structured Dialogue (RSD), an approach designed to help communities and organizations hold open, honest, constructive conversations about potentially divisive topics. This strategy was used at LaGuardia in a training offered by Essential Partners in 2016. Our goal is to build on this work, continue developing a supportive community of staff and faculty, and to improve communication in order to enhance curiosity, mutual understanding and respect.
The seminar will be co-led by Vanessa Bing (SOC), Wendy Nicholson (Student Affairs), and Priscilla Stadler (CTL).
Click here to apply
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ELIGIBILITY
Faculty representing departments or programs in Academic Affairs. Staff and instructors in Student Affairs and ACE.
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SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Regular adjunct faculty may receive non-teaching pay if eligible or a PD fund.
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DATES
3:30 - 5:30 pm on Thursday Feb.25 (Opening Institute), and Mondays from 3:30 - 5:30 on 3/15, 4/12, 4/26, 5/10, 5/24
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INQUIRIES
Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open educational resources (OER) are open access learning materials that anyone is welcome to use and/or remix. As textbook prices soar and online instruction is a new reality, free OER alternatives are one effective tool in reducing the price of higher education and increasing access to learning materials. OER also present a unique opportunity to further develop a college-wide practice for collaborative, cross-disciplinary learning at LaGuardia. By incorporating open and critical pedagogical practices, faculty can better meet students’ needs with greater control over teaching materials. The seminar will address six key areas related to OER selection, adoption, development, and implementation:
- Finding high-quality OER
- Selecting the right platform/LMS
- Accessibility/ADA compliance
- Copyright & licensing
- Open pedagogy
- Assessment
Faculty members who attend this seminar will revise a syllabus to include OER, which can be a textbook, assignments, homework management system, or other ancillary materials. Attendees are encouraged to teach their course with adopted OER during Fall 2021. This seminar is co-led by Associate Professor Alioune Khoule (MEC), Assistant Professor Joshua Tan (Natural Sciences), and Associate Professor Ian McDermott (Library), all of whom have experience developing and teaching with OER.
Click here to apply
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ELIGIBILITY
Faculty representing departments or programs in Academic Affairs. Staff and instructors in Student Affairs and ACE.
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SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $750. Regular adjunct faculty may receive non-teaching pay if eligible or a PD fund.
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DATES
Mondays from 3:30 - 5:30: - March 15
- April 5
- April 19
- May 3
- May 17
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INQUIRIES
Beyond the Pandemic: Sustaining the Pedagogy of Online and Hybrid Pedagogy and Practice
This seminar is intended for faculty who wish to engage in the discussion of how to design courses that take advantage of the best features of remote online learning. Utilizing the college-wide distance learning experience of Spring 2020, the expressed goals of the seminar are, on the one hand, to explore important questions about learning and teaching online and, on the other hand, to engage first-rate student-centered classroom practices.
The emphasis of the seminar will be on adult pedagogy (andragogy) as opposed to technology; asynchronous mode of delivery that emphasizes cognitive engagement with content; intensive reading, writing, and oral communication approaches to literacy that result in independent college learning; ways to document student learning; and rigor in course execution. The seminar will also help instructors to focus on emotional engagement with students, including the topics of balanced and frequent communication with students, setting emotional and time boundaries and managing deadlines and the scope of feedback. Seminar participants will refine and develop their courses, units, and activities.
This seminar is co-led by Monika Ekiert (ELA), Joni Schwartz (HUM), and Priscilla Stadler (CTL).
Click here to apply
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ELIGIBILITY
Faculty representing departments or programs in Academic Affairs. Staff and instructors in Student Affairs and ACE.
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SUPPORT
Contingent upon attendance and active participation in all seminar activities, each Academic Affairs full-time faculty participant will receive a stipend of $600. Regular adjunct faculty may receive non-teaching pay if eligible or a PD fund.
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DATES
Thursdays from 3:30 - 5:30: - March 18
- April 8
- April 22
- May 13
- May 27
- June 3
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INQUIRIES
Women, Gender, and Sexuality
LaGuardia’s students represent diversity broadly—of geographic and cultural backgrounds, lived experiences, academic histories, and other characteristics that create a "classroom ecology" that provides opportunities and challenges to our pedagogies. The Language across the Curriculum, Ableism and Access: Equity in the Classroom, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality: Integrating a Feminist Pedagogy and Process seminars focus specifically on the dynamics of the diverse LaGuardia classroom.
The current public climate and socio-political dynamics necessitate an urgent call for LaGuardia faculty to re-conceptualize pedagogy and teaching methods that consciously address issues related to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies (WGS). The https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/seminars_app_20-21metoo movement has raised more public awareness about gender discrimination, and calls for public figures to be held accountable for gender justice initiatives. How do faculty address these concerns in their curriculum and teaching practice? How can we identify our own unconscious bias to create a more inclusive classroom?
Throughout the seminar, faculty will:
- read and discuss scholarly and student-friendly texts that introduce foundational feminist theorists and gender studies concepts (i.e. gender, sex, media, eco-feminism, queer theory, and transnational feminisms);
- engage in interactive activities that allow them to process and practice relevant theories; and;
- receive support as they share and develop curricular materials, assignments, and projects.
This seminar was interrupted by challenges arising due to Covid19 in Spring 2020; we will continue our meetings in Fall 2020 but are unable to accept additional participants at this time.
Co-led by Allia Abdullah-Matta (ENG) and Anita Baksh (ENG).
Workshop: Africana Studies: Critical Practices for the Classroom
Responding to Interim President Arcario’s invitation to foster “equity and inclusion,” initiatives across the college have created student-centered events to illuminate the African diaspora. This workshop responds directly to this imperative by equipping participants with approaches to integrate Africana Studies into the classroom across a variety of fields. As a much needed supplement to these efforts, each meeting of the Africana Studies workshop will guide participants in discussion of the field’s foundational texts and contemporary pieces that may challenge our assumptions of the discipline’s parameters. We will reflect on the ways these core texts have contributed to establishing and shifting the purview of Africana Studies, and we will consider how key concepts will be applicable to student engagement. In addition to the co-facilitators’ introduction to Africana Studies, the workshop series will ask participants to identify areas of the discipline that intersect with their own work in the classroom. Drawing on their interests, the Africana Studies workshop series will offer theoretically rigorous yet pedagogically relevant cross-disciplinary readings.
While the spring 2021 workshop constitutes the first iteration of a college-wide discussion of Africana Studies, the organizers view it as a theoretically informed building block for future work. In future semesters, we plan to engage texts that illuminate the field’s commitment to bridging the classroom and community. With this understanding, our Africana Studies group will support each other to create discipline informed community service projects for students to engage within the college, New York City, and beyond. Participants may have the opportunity to collaborate on future grant proposals to expand this work and contribute to a reflective publication in a scholarly journal.
This workshop series is co-facilitated by Jason Hendrickson (ENG), Misun Dokko (ENG), and Paul Fess (ENG).
Click here to apply
Workshop: REMOVING BARRIERS! Making OER (Open Educational Resources) Accessible
Through hands-on techniques, brief readings, and group discussion, this three-session workshop series will help participants develop inclusive pedagogy by examining questions such as: why are students with disabilities often marginalized? What hands-on techniques can ensure that OER (Open Educational Resources) learning materials are accessible for students with limited vision, hearing, or mobility? How can Universal Design guide educators? What does accessibility mean for online learning?
By attending the 3 workshop sessions and doing the reading, participants will be able to:
- identify ableist practices and assumptions in education
- contribute to developing an inclusive learning environment for students by using Universal Design concepts
- ensure that the Open Educational Resources they use or develop are accessible
If CUNY approves face-to-face meetings, we plan to offer this series as a hybrid workshop with some sessions in person and some online. Otherwise, we’ll meet virtually.
Co-led by Derek Stadler (Library) and Priscilla Stadler (CTL)
Click here to apply