2023 Program

9:00-9:15

Welcome and Introductions

9:15-10:30

Workshop: You As a Teacher

One of the most important and inescapable things you bring to your teaching is you. How does your unique perspective show up in the classroom? What will you choose to share with or withhold from students? This session will invite you to explore how to bring your strengths and values into your teaching to support student learning and your own wellbeing.

10:40-11:55

Information and Q&A: Meeting Students Where They Are

The ability to understand and connect with students is critical for the work of any teacher. But who are your learners? What characterizes the current generation of traditionally aged students? What perspectives, aspirations, challenges and needs do they bring into the classroom? What institutional resources are in place to support them when life outside the classroom impacts their ability to learn? This panel discussion will help you consider the wide range of student experiences, the resources in place to support them, and how you can effectively leverage these resources for your own and your students’ wellbeing.

12:00-12:45

Lunch

12:50-1:10

Presentation: Mead Endowment

The Mead Endowment supports student-faculty engagement initiatives for both new and seasoned faculty. Inspired by longtime UVA Professor Ernest "Boots" Mead and his unwavering dedication to teaching and student engagement, the Mead Endowment seeks to create longstanding connections between faculty and students both inside and outside of the classroom.

1:15-2:30

Workshop: UVA Acts First Impressions

Professors Timmons and Erickson teach different sections of the same large-enrollment introductory course. Step into a student’s shoes to observe their course introductions and reflect upon your own teaching habits for the first day of class. Learn about and apply the CARE framework to intentionally incorporate more inclusive practices in your pedagogy.

2:40-3:55

Workshop: Equitable Approaches to Common Teaching Challenges

Equity-focused teaching is a commitment to dismantling systemic barriers to ensure that all students have access to learning and feel supported in the classroom. Equity-focused teaching is also more easily said than done, so what does it mean in everyday practice? This session will introduce you to a few frameworks for thinking about equitable teaching and provide you with practical strategies that you can adapt to fit your particular teaching context.

4:00-5:15

Optional: Introduction to Canvas

UVACanvas is UVA's primary learning management system (LMS). This interactive session will provide an overview of the system and some of its most important elements—including signing in for the first time; locating sites; creating and uploading materials and assignments; and exporting grades—and outline some of the support resources available to you as you develop the digital elements of your courses.

9:00-10:15

Workshop: Leveraging the Science of Learning for Effective Teaching

Building on the evidence of how learning works, this interactive session will help you anchor instructional choices in how humans learn. You will learn about the intertwined nature of cognitive and affective learning through principles and strategies that can foster effective student learning and enrich your teaching. You will depart with ideas for integrating learning science into your course design and teaching practice.

10:25-11:40

Workshop: Principles of Effective Assessment

Assessment, when done well, not only evaluates students’ learning, but also drives it. In this session, we will explore different types of assessments and give you practice scaffolding and aligning assessments with your learning objectives to support student success. Together, we will also consider the evolving role of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in assessment and its potential to support and challenge our current practices.

11:45-12:55

Lunch and Roundtable Discussions

1:00-2:15

Workshop: Guided Learning and Educational Equity with Policy

Course policies may seem to be both necessary and unremarkable in their ubiquity. But a good set of course policies has the potential to do much more than describe the rules and logistics that govern a course. This session will show you how to craft a set of course policies that set the tone for the semester, foster positive relationships between students and instructors, support students’ learning, and promote students’ and instructors’ wellbeing.

2:25-3:40

Workshop: Promoting Learning and Belonging in Your Syllabus

Your syllabus is your course’s first impression. It is your first opportunity to excite students about what they will learn and reassure them, through explicit attention to transparency, that they can understand everything that is required of them for the course. This session will explore ways to use the syllabus to support students’ learning and sense of belonging.

3:45-5:00

Optional: Reception

Continue connecting informally with new colleagues over drinks and light snacks.