Teaching Circles

What is a Teaching Circle?

At UCCS, Teaching Circles are groups of 4-8 faculty who meet at least two times across the semester to discuss readings and activities related to their teaching.

Would you like to join a Teaching Circle?

• Complete the registration form to RSVP by Friday, February 19.
• A copy of the book is provided.
• Mark your calendar and be available for sessions.
• Prepare for meetings by reading the chapters selected by the Team Lead.
• During each meeting, the Teaching Circles will discuss the readings and share strategies and activities to integrate into courses.

What is the Spring 2021 Schedule?

Choose one of the following Teaching Circles that works for your schedule and please plan to attend all sessions.

1. Small Teaching Online with Gina Baldoni-Rus, Department of English

Would you like to discuss ways to implement small but strategic changes in your teaching practice to improve student learning online? In Small Teaching Online, Flower Darby and James Lang address practical strategies to help students learn in an online environment. Topics include student engagement, media/technology tools, building community, giving feedback, and motivating students. Please consider joining colleagues from across campus to discuss the challenges and successes of teaching online.

• Thursday, March 11, 10:50 – 11:50 AM
• Thursday, March 25, 10:50 – 11:50 AM
• Thursday, April 8, 10:50 – 11:50 AM
• Thursday, April 22, 10:50 – 11:50 AM

2. Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How to Do It with Heather Fester, Department of English

Join a group of committed faculty who want to work on recognizing race issues in everyday life and in the classroom. We’ll read a segment of Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How to Do It by Shelly Tochluk for each meeting and will discuss the text together.

This group will also have a practice focus, following some of the author’s suggested curriculum for applying the chapters’ contents to our lives and our work with students. One of the main purposes of Tochluk’s book is to help white people critically examine their attitudes around whiteness, white privilege, race, and racism sparking dialogue among those with diverse backgrounds.

• Friday, March 12, 12:15 – 1:15 PM
• Friday, March 26, 12:15 – 1:15 PM
• Friday, April 9, 12:15 – 1:15 PM
• Friday, April 23, 12:15 – 1:15 PM

3. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom with Catherine Grandorff, Department of English

“The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created” (hooks, 1994, p. 207).

Amid larger social justice conversations like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, many educators are reflecting on pedagogy’s role in shaping a more equitable world. In what ways do we replicate power structures in our classrooms, and what are ways we might veer away from traditional hegemonies to better engage with learners? Teaching to Transgress explores means of constructing educational communities that address this question and endeavor toward freedom.

This Teaching Circle will meet twice: on April 15, we will discuss the first half of the book and its implications for teaching at UCCS in the 21st century, and on April 29, we will consider the second half and how to apply the concepts to our classrooms individually and collectively.

• Thursday, April 15, 3:15 – 4:15 PM
• Thursday, April 29, 3:15 – 4:15 PM

Last updated February 9, 2021
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