Greetings,
We are now in our ninth week of classes. Time flies when you are having fun! We have all of our CETL programs going now and it is so exciting to see just over 300 MSU faculty either enrolled in one of our initiatives or part of our volunteer staff.
The Teaching Certificate Program with 71 faculty and graduate teaching assistants, meeting in seven different groups, once each month. Our first meetings dealt with syllabus construction. Next week the groups will work through active learning strategies for the classroom from enhancement of lectures to team based learning for students.
The Certificate II groups have come up with their own curriculum for the year. It will be very interesting to see how these groups move ahead in working with teaching/learning issues and topics.
Our new Department Chairs Learning Communities had their first sessions where they too decided how to proceed throughout the year. We are nearly ready to define what each of the three groups of 23 chairs will be doing this year and next. At least one group plans to create a "new chairs" manual to help faculty who move to being chairs.
We have nearly 30 peer faculty consultations going on right now. Faculty who volunteered for this service are working with a trained observer who visits the classroom, talks to students and presents finding to the faculty member. There will be at least 40 more next semester.
The mentor program is well underway with 29 new faculty members working with 29 tenured faculty members in learning "the ropes" of this new place. This program will continue throughout the year.
Please look around our CETL website for interesting information on these and other programs and helpful resources too. If there is anything we can do to aid you in your teaching don't hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Stewart Ross
Director, CETL
