Join the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center for an informal conversation about teaching with the March Cordes Chairperson, Daniel Levine, from 1-2 p.m. Tuesday, March 30.

All faculty are welcome!  Please click here to RSVP, no later than 4:00 p.m. today, Monday, March 29.  Before the meeting we will send the Zoom link for joining the presentation.

The topic of discussion will be Learning From Our Students, and Learning About Our Students. This has happened to all of us. We are in a class discussion, and a student throws out a phrase or piece of information that all the other students seem to know, but the teacher has never heard. This happened to me just this week, and so I asked about the phrase and improved my knowledge (the same thing happened to me when my children were living at home. I learned a lot from my own kids). So now I say, let's think more about learning from our students.

On a 2015 blog in Edutopia, Joshua Block wrote:

Student voices matter. Hearing from and paying attention to students matters. Learning from students is a way for teachers to deepen their practice, recharge themselves and negotiate the complexity of teaching and learning. (https://www.edutopia.org/blog/learning-from-students-joshua-block)

George Couros has more recently (2019) emphasized the importance of learning about our students:

Learning about our students is about knowing those in front of us and adjusting learning to not only help our students grow, but to also tap into their strengths and passions. I always say that the most fundamental research we can do as educators is knowing the people we serve. (https://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/9034)

There is a difference between learning about our students (which is very useful), and learning from them, but both are worthy goals, and pay off in many ways. This month's conversation is an opportunity for us to share how doing both can improve learning for us all -- in our classes, and in our lives.

For those not ordering a meal, registration continues through 4 p.m. today, Monday, March 29.

All faculty are welcome! Before the meeting we will send the Zoom link for joining the presentation, as well as the time and location for you to pick up your lunch.

We look forward seeing you on Zoom!