Salons [2015 – 2016]

2015-2016 Salons

The second year of the Creative Teaching Salon program introduced numerous new voices to pedagogical discussions on campus and a new partner, UMass Dining.

Creative Teaching Salon Participants

• “The Most {Fill in the Blank} Aspect of Your Course” theme kicked off the year.  It illustrated the major commitment instructors make to facilitate conceptual learning in their class.

• “Unintentional Things We Teach” Participants engaged with Dan Lockton’s “Design with Intent Toolkit” in order to investigate the more subtle aspects of pedagogy that convey meaning to students.

• “UMass Teaching in 10 Years” participants brainstormed in groups about how they’d like teaching at UMass Amherst to look in 10 years. Each team created a poster, took a gallery walk to view the other posters, and then, as a larger group, discussed the range of ideas represented.

• “Digital Centaurs” was a fascinating examination of the digitally native student and the unique challenges and opportunities of engagement with this demographic.

• “Assessing Student Learning” The open conversation illustrated multiple ways to incorporate assessment, movies, performances, e-portfolios, and live performances into teaching.

• “Student Success” How to we help a myriad of students learn more at UMass and beyond?  This launched deep and meaningful conversations about diversity, talent, challenges and successes inherent to student development.