University of Michigan-Flint

Bring your environmentally friendly tote bag and locavore lunch and talk pedagogy with your colleagues at these fall events.  Beverages and light desserts provided.

What’s Love Got to Do with It?  Teacher Personality and Its Effects
Wednesday, September 29 - Tuscola Rooms, WSW

What is the role of a teacher’s charisma, or lack thereof, in the face-to-face classroom and in online classes? Do you have to be a “ham” to be a good teacher?  How do you use humor, anecdote and your own life in teaching your students?  And how does this facilitate or obstruct student learning? 

 “One Continuous Mistake”:  Classroom Debacles and Their Rewards
Wednesday, October 13 - Michigan Room B, UCEN

The process of changing our teaching in the name of improving it sometimes looks like a series of serendipitous mistakes. As zen writer Gail Sher suggests in her book One Continuous Mistake:  Four Noble Truths for Writers, “The risks of making changes are great…especially great changes.  Actually, the risk of not making changes are great.”   What fortunate mistakes have you made in your teaching?  And how have they benefited you and your students? 

Why Would You Want to Know That?  Is “Pure” Research Losing Its Grip?
Wednesday, October 27 – Tuscola Rooms, WSW

Is pedagogical research the only kind that we value?  What are the benefits, if any, of continued support for “pure” research at UM – Flint?  How does research help a teacher learn?  An invitation to debate, reconsideration and reflection.

Lord of the Flies or Walden Two?  Classroom Alchemy and Teacher Fear
Wednesday, November 10 – Ontario Room, UCEN

Every class is different.  And much depends on who is in the class, the content of the class, and the unpredictable chemistry of group dynamics.  Sometimes the teacher feels helpless, intimidated, annoyed and confounded.  What have you learned about responding to group dynamics and what do you know about maximizing group harmony?

Presented by the Thompson Center for Learning & Teaching