Kendall Center NewsletterNovember 1, 2015

Faculty Achievements Publication

As a way to promote and celebrate the professional scholarly, research, and creative accomplishments of the faculty, The John S. Kendall Center for Engaged Learning is publishing the fifth issue of Faculty Achievements. This edition will collect and celebrate the scholarship, research, and creative work presented, published, or awarded to faculty during January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2015. Only work that has appeared or been awarded during this time should be submitted. Please submit your achievements by Friday, December 4, 2015. You can find the submission form on the Kendall Center website:- https://gustavus.edu/kendallcenter/facultyachievements/

Faculty Writing Retreats at GAC and ASI

November Faculty Writing Retreats will be held on Saturday, November 14 at ASI and at Gustavus (Board Room). Faculty can sign up for a full day 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. devoted to writing. We’ll provide breakfast and lunch. Please visit the Kendall Center website for upcoming dates and info. Please reserve a space with Cathy Blaukat (cblauka@gustavus.edu) for one or all of the writing retreats.

Teachers Talking  11/5

Join us on Thursday, November 5 for Teachers Talking. Glenn Kranking will present the topic: Let's Get Digital!: Digital Humanities at Gustavus. Program at 11:30 am and 12:30 pm. Free lunch at Three Crowns buffet, then meet in the St Peter Room.

Teachers Talking 11/10

Join us on Tuesday, November 10 for Teachers Talking. Alisa Rosenthal will present the topic: Keeping Students Engaged. Meyers and Jones (1993) wrote "Active learning involves providing opportunities for students to meaningfully talk and listen, write, read, and reflect on the content, ideas, issues, and concerns of an academic subject." Sometimes, though, our efforts to provide exactly those opportunities seem to be met with reluctance or even resistance from students. Join us for a discussion of teaching strategies that help to transform the learning environment (both inside and outside of the classroom) from a passive learning experience centered around the faculty member to an active learning setting in which students feel responsible for their own learning. Program at 11:30 am and 12:30 pm. Free lunch at Three Crowns buffet, then meet in the Heritage Room.

New Faculty Orientation Session

Join us on Thursday, November 12 for New Faculty Orientation Session. Topic: What is a liberal arts college firmly rooted in the Swedish Lutheran tradition? Introducing the mission of Gustavus and our unique place in higher education. Free lunch at the Three Crowns Buffet, then meet in the St Peter Room, 12:30 to 1:20 p.m.

Faculty Shop Talk

Pamela Kittelson (Professor, Biology) will present at Faculty Shop Talk on Friday, November 13. Her talk entitled, "Global Change: Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Biodiversity " will be presented at 4:30 p.m. in the Interpretive Center. Feel free to arrive any time after 4:15 p.m. The abstract for this and future talks may be viewed at http://gustavus.edu/events/shoptalks/.

New Faculty Orientation Session

Join us on Thursday, November 19 for New Faculty Orientation Session. Topic: Cultivating Well-Being- strategies for attending to and cultivating well-being, broadly defined. Free lunch at the Three Crowns Buffet, then meet in the St Peter Room, 12:30 to 1:20 p.m.

Tech Bytes

These NEW interactive one-hour collaborative sessions will introduce you to different tech tools that we support here at Gustavus. We will mix up the class by having a hands on instructional piece, but also a time for discussion on why, how, and when we could use these tools in our class to help with engagement and retention. These sessions will be held in our Olin Technology Center Classroom (Olin Hall 124B) and are facilitated by different GTS technology experts. 

Dynamic presentations for teaching
Nov. 19 - 10:00am - 11:00am
We will discuss ways to engage your students in your presentations using different tools and strategies.

Meet online using Virtual Meeting Spaces
Nov. 30 - 11:00am - Noon
Come learn how you can use Google Hangouts or Skype to meet online in a virtual space. Virtual meetings are great for online office hours, meetings when others are out of town or great for student group work.