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Grand Valley State University

Faculty Fellow Position Announcement

The Pew FTLC seeks a tenured faculty member to serve as Faculty Fellow and support their colleagues in the practice of scholarly teaching. The Faculty Fellow will join a team dedicated to providing a full range of services and learning opportunities and thus will be expected to dedicate time and effort to learning about the scholarly work of faculty development. The Faculty Fellow will participate in ongoing Pew FTLC activities and take a leadership role in two areas: the Strong Start Initiative and Part-time Faculty Support.

The Strong Start Initiative, launched in Fall 2014, promotes faculty engagement in 100-level courses. The Faculty Fellow will facilitate a Faculty Learning Community, supporting individual course improvement projects, and disseminate evidence-based practices and resources for working with first-year students.

In support of part-time faculty, the Faculty Fellow will facilitate new part-time faculty orientation, develop an online orientation, collaborate with the Adjunct Advisory Council and the Part-time Faculty Liaison, plan and deliver professional development activities, and consult as requested, disseminating best practices for supporting part-time faculty.

An interest in faculty development and a willingness to learn are of greater importance than knowledge of specific pedagogical approaches or learning theories. The work is varied and strong planning and organization skills are necessary. Effective teamwork and interpersonal skills are essential. This position begins August 2015 and requires a two-course reassignment per semester; commitment to a three-year term is preferred. Summer commitments are also possible. Workload as it relates to disciplinary scholarship will need to be considered on an individual basis. Interested applicants should submit a letter of interest to Christine Rener (renerc@gvsu.edu). Review of applications will begin March 25.

Equity Conference Reminder: Free Registration

The Equity Within the Classroom Conference
provides a forum for higher and postsecondary education personnel (faculty, administration, staff), along with community supporters, to come together to present and review current research findings including annual retention outcome data, best practice strategies, and specific KCP developed retention strategies positively impacting equality of opportunity and degree achievement for Michigan’s academically and economically disadvantaged students. For details and to register...

Community-based Teaching in a Wicked World

Friday, March 20, 10-11:30am
Register here
Discover strategies for preparing students to confront dynamically complex, interdependent, high-stakes issues through an experiential, collaborative learning model. For more information...

What Kinds of Questions Encourage Student Interaction?

Christine Rener, Pew FTLC
Wednesday March 25, 11 - 11:45am, 3068 JHZ
Wednesday March 25, 3 - 3:45pm 107D DEV
Register here

The types of questions you ask students can model those that they in turn ask of themselves, each other, and you. Learn the subtle things you can do to make your questions more powerful and your classroom interactions with students more fruitful.

In this session, we will watch a 20 Minute Mentor Commons video presentation by Maryellen Weimer and then engage in a lively discussion. Registrants will be provided with the presentation handout and supplemental resource materials. 

Power, Privilege, and Difficult Dialogues
The Second Annual Teach-In

Thursday, April 2
8am-10pm

The second annual Teach-in will be held on Thursday, April 2nd. Sessions will be held both in Allendale and on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. The Teach-in is intended for the purpose of mutual education among students, faculty and staff of the GVSU community and intended to address topics related to inequality and systems of oppression, as well as social justice and liberation.  Recognizing the multi-faceted dimensions of these topics, this Teach-in will be a daylong event. The learning objectives of Power, Privilege, and Difficult Dialogues are to raise awareness, inform, create dialogue, and document suggestions for action. While the program is still being finalized, we invite you to visit the Teach-in website.

Making Synergy Count at GVSU

Friday, April 17, 10-11:30am
Please register at https://www.gvsu.edu/sprout/
Learn ways to structure your work to efficiently manage issues related to teaching, research, and the service portion of service learning. Listen to faculty members who are successful in creating teaching projects that translate into research and service. For more information...