Dear friends and colleagues:
If you haven’t yet had a chance to go outside and take a quiet, purposeless walk yet this month, now might be a good time. This e-mail can wait.
For the rest of you, a few opportunities in the coming weeks that are important to our work as faculty and staff at a small liberal arts college that prides itself on the learning and well-being of its students.
First, please go immediately and sign up for one or the other of Dr. Sarah Rose Cavanagh’s talks on Tuesday, March 22 (at either 12:15 or 3:30).
A specialist on the science of emotion and its consequences for our teaching, Dr. Cavanagh’s noon talk will focus on motivating students in times of uncertainty. Her later session will focus more on student vexation when faced with ambiguity, particularly in quantitative fields–or, more accurately, in any class that uses quantitative reasoning. If you’ve ever worked with students who shut down when the usual algorithms won’t work, you don’t want to miss this session.
Indeed, if you’re anyone who cares about providing our students with the skills and aptitudes they’ll need in order to face the complexities of life after graduation, you don’t want to miss these events!
Second–and on a related note–the AIM program is sponsoring a series of events focusing on helping our students develop resilience and growth mindset.
The series will feature Dr. Afiya Fredericks, the former Director of Professional Learning, Implementation & Research at Mindset Works, co-founded by Dr. Carol Dweck. Dr. Fredericks has supported the implementation of Growth Mindset practices in K-12 Schools, Institutions of Higher Education and Organizations. During her visit on the 11th and 12th of April, she will lead interactive discussions and workshops on understanding and implementing Growth Mindset and Social and Emotional Learning.
Prior to and after Dr. Fredericks’ visit, the AIM Program and the Harte Center will join to lead discussions on resilience and growth mindset designed to help all of us consider ways we can deliberately, equitably, and productively support our students.
Please go here to see the full list of events and to sign up.
Finally, our colleagues at Lafayette University have invited all who are interested to attend a virtual event entitled “It’s Showtime!: How to Use Creative Dramatics Teaching Techniques in Your Courses.”
I can’t imagine this event will be nearly as good as a similar event last year run by Dr. Jemma Levy and James Dick (😉–Scroll down to 9 March 2021, “Building a Collaborative Community in the Classroom”), but on the off-chance you missed that event, I’ve included the Lafayette details and a sign-up link below:
It’s Showtime!: How to Use Creative Dramatics Teaching Techniques in Your Courses. Thursday, March 24, 2022, 12:15 – 1:15 pm EST
During this session, 2021 – 22 CITLS Distinguished Faculty Fellow Mary Jo Lodge will engage participants in a sample creative dramatics exercise and then brainstorm how instructors can use Creative Dramatics lessons in their own courses. In preparation for the session, participants will be asked on the registration form to list courses/subject areas in which they are interested in using Creative Dramatics techniques, and a few specific topic areas within a course where implementing Creative Dramatics might seem particularly promising.
That’s it for now. If you have events or information that you think might be of interest for future Harte Center Newsletters, please reach out to me direction. In the meantime, be well.
Paul