Stay Engaged this Summer as Future Educators and Faculty
Written by Chris Pasion, graduate assistant to The Graduate School.
Summer tends to be a slow period for academia in a lot of ways, as the hustle of spring semester is far gone and many of us don’t have coursework to focus on. If you’re on track to become a teacher or future faculty, now is a great time to hunker down for some extracurriculars to learn more about the craft, to network, and to keep those teaching muscles sharp. Read on for some ways to stay engaged this summer.
CET&L Resources and Workshops
The Center for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning (CET&L) is a campus organization that works to foster excellence in teaching and learning for future educators. The provide a number of resources that are at your disposal, including prerecorded workshops and webinars, consultations on course design (including hybrid and online courses), and guides on how to create a user-friendly Canvas site for your students. CET&L will also be holding a synchronous online workshop later this summer, Implementing Social Justice In Your Pedagogy, that will take place on Thursday, August 5th from 9 a.m. to noon.
Many of CET&L’s workshops also earn you credit in the Graduate School’s Preparing Future Faculty program (PFF), which you should join if you plan to be a teacher and are looking for better ways to get involved and find community. Visit the PFF webpage and read our article from the GradCURRENTS archive to learn more about the program.
The National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity
Joining the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity is another great way to find a community of educators. You can join the organization for free through UC, giving you access to several external resources and events that can add value to your teaching education. The organization serves anyone from graduate students and postdocs to tenure track faculty and administrators, with webinars and workshops for you no matter which category you fall under. They also have a forum that is dedicated entirely to making a successful dissertation, so if that’s on your horizon, be sure to check it out!
Faculty Focus
Faculty Focus is another online resource that publishes articles about all aspects of the faculty experience. The Faculty Focus website is updated several times a week with new articles from teachers, faculty, and mentors on topics such as course design, online teaching, pedagogy, and philosophy. Their publications are academic scholarship made accessible; many of the pieces are short and to-the-point, while still offering deep insight on the subjects covered.
In addition to their educational articles, Faculty Focus also has a podcast that brings in teachers and authors to share their perspectives, and listening in is a great way to get your teaching content while also multitasking on something else. And if you’re looking for more podcasts to add to your library, there are a lot of great teacher-focused ones out there, including TED Talks Education, TED-Ed, and for the end of the workweek, Teacher Needs a Drink.