Friday @ the Center
January 7, 2011
Ordinary Time
Last Sunday my pastor reminded us that the 12 days Christmas would continue through January 6, culminating in yesterday’s feast of three kings. I took that to mean that I still had some leeway to send out a few more Christmas cards...but alas, preparation for winter quarter has taken over.
As we now enter into the season of Ordinary Time, I am tempted equate this time with winter months of dreary rain and the doldrums that replaced my loved ones who departed with Christmas. However, as an entry on the website cyberfaith notes, in Ordinary Time “the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ not in one specific aspect but in all its aspects.” As Winter quarter begins, may we be reminded of the genuine fullness to be found in the upcoming weeks.
Teaching Essentials I & II
The Center will host two Saturday workshops on January 29, 2011, and February 12, 2011, from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. in the Library Seminar Room. Each workshop is limited to 20 participants, who will receive a $100 honorarium, morning refreshments, and lunch. In January we will focus on course development and classroom management (Teaching Essentials I) and in February (Teaching Essential II) we will focus on student assessment and course evaluation. Both workshops are open to all faculty and will be offered again in the fall. Please RSVP to Anna Miller if would like to attend.
FRG/SFG Grants and Workshops
Just a reminder that faculty research and senior research grants are due February 1, 2011. The Grant Center is sponsoring a workshop for those who would like another set of eyes to review their application and/or tips on how to successfully compete for these awards. The workshop will be held Thursday, January 13, 2011, from 1 p.m - 2 p.m. in the Library Seminar Room. Please RSVP to Laura Lundahl by Tuesday, January 1, 2011.
Lilly Fellows Book Award
The biennial Lilly Fellows Program Book Award honors an original and imaginative work from any academic discipline that best exemplifies the central ideas and principles animating the Lilly Fellows Program. These include faith and learning in the Christian intellectual tradition, the vocation of teaching and scholarship, and the history, theory or practice of the university as the site of religious inquiry and culture. Works under consideration should address the historical or contemporary relation of Christian intellectual life and scholarship to the practice of teaching as a Christian vocation or to the past, present, and future of higher education. Single authored books or edited collections in any discipline, published in 2007 to 2010, are eligible.
A Prize of $3000 will be awarded at the Lilly Fellows Program National Conference at Samford University, October 21-23, 2011. Nomination deadline is March 1, 2011. We can have more than one nomination. Authors or editors cannot nominate their own works. But you are welcome to nominate colleagues. Please contact me for further information or see the website above.
Guides for Student Team Work
Many of us use teams in our classroom and most of us have had the headache and heartache of watching student teams flounder. Whether in the boardroom or classroom, teams will have conflict. It cannot be avoided but it can be managed. A key way for students to manage conflict later in the quarter is to clarify goals, negotiate roles and responsibilities, decide how to use meeting times up front and learn how to deal with disagreements. Penn State has a valuable website that is student friendly for how to work in teams.
You may also wish to have your student teams do their own debriefing of the experience. Consider using the Team Diagnostic Survey which is based on 30 years of research by Harvard Business School professor, J. Richard Hackman. Team members individually fill out a questionnaire on their experiences of the team and then each member gets a summary report. This tool may be a bit sophisticated to use with younger undergraduates, but it would be a great resource for those of you working with advanced undergrads or graduate students.
Margaret Margaret Diddams, Ph.D. |
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