Teaching & Professional Growth

Academic Writing Group

Teaching & Professional Growth is proud to host the weekly Scholarship and Writing group. Many faculty, staff & administrators would like to be more productive in their scholarship, but find themselves falling further behind as other duties take priority. T&PG to the rescue! Carving out an hour or two a week and finding peer accountability can help increase your scholarship productivity! Some therapists call this body doubling – having another person around engaging in the same task can help keep you on-track.

Where: Zeller Conference Room (Tower North, 2nd floor, next to COBHA offices)

When: Every Thursday from 10:30-1 This is a weekly open time to dedicate solely to academic writing. There are no presentation or expectations, just coffee and a quiet room to write or research. This offers faculty, staff and administration a time slot to devote to writing or researching, with the accountability of peers. Feel free to come and go as you please, this is a drop-in group. A zoom option is also available here: https://stfrancis-edu.zoom.us/my/melindahammond for virtual body doubling.

Introducing a Partnership with the Technology Support Center

Teaching & Professional Growth and the Technology Support Center have begun a partnership to provide a faculty-driven approach to raising digital proficiency and efficacy in the use of learning technologies. The TSC as you know supports Canvas for online and hybrid learning as well as technologies for the classroom. Through this partnership with T&PG, we should be able to identify and assess new tools to make teaching with technology easier and more effective. Through this partnership we hope to provide activities that are fun and effective in raising digital proficiency on the instructor’s terms in the use of tools for teaching.  You will see a few of these in the sidebar of upcoming events from time to time.  Activities can take several forms:

• Consultations with instructors arranged by appointment.
• At-your-own pace and time faculty development experiences through Canvas.
  • one week modules.
  • indefinite length Canvas resource modules.
  • Lab-based consultation and training arranged by appointment.
  • Scheduled demonstrations and activities.

These activities often generate resource materials that will be available through the parent LearnitNow website. Watch your campus email for further notifications. Melinda Hammond, Chair, T&PG Glen Gummess, TSC Educational Technologist

Latest News

Funding for Academic Conferences

T&PG has increased the funding for academic conferences to $1300 for those who are presenting and $1000 for those who are attending without presenting! Each faculty member is eligible for one funded conference per year. To apply for conference funds, on the portal go to “Committees and Organizations” then “Academic Assembly” then “Teaching and Professional Growth.” Under that menu, you’ll see a link for “Conference Funding Form.” Once you submit, this form will be automatically forwarded to the appropriate department chair (when applicable), dean, then the committee. You can also opt to request up to $500 in books in lieu of a conference. Conference and book requests are accepted every month.

Due October 1:

Applications for Spring 2023 Faculty Scholarship funds, 2023 Sabatticals, and Spring 2023 Peer Education are due (Forms are available on the portal)

Due October 31:

Strategic Professional Development applications are due (pending fund availability)

Upcoming October events TBA:

Technology Seminars Awards Ceremony for Faculty Awards Fall Faculty Forum St. Francis Week – (Sponsored by University Ministry)