The Teaching Seminar provides an opportunity for professional development focused on the best practices of teaching. It is our hope that all attendees will learn from the expertise of their colleagues and be in a state of continuous improvement in the classroom as an instructor. These talks will be especially helpful to those new to teaching, providing support and useful ideas for their classrooms. The Teaching Seminar meets once or twice a month at 4:00-5:00PM on Thursdays. If you have questions about the Teaching Seminar or are interested in giving a talk, please contact Matt Fahy.
The Department of Mathematics & Statistics takes pride in the overall quality of instruction and the amount of scholarly teaching that occurs. The department is engaged in a number of student-centered initiatives, which you can read about here.
Note that talks are listed in reverse chronological order.
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Speakers: Gina Nabours (NAU)
Abstract: Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) is a framework of 14 research-backed teaching practices for enhancing learning in the classroom. Sarah Watson and I were able to attend the BTC Annual Conference this summer with the goal of restructuring lessons in MAT 108. I will share some of the BTC practices and discuss how we’ve implemented them in LMC classes this semester.
Date: Thursday, November 7, 2024
Speakers: Misha Baltushkin (NAU)
Abstract: Gradescope is an online system for submitted, accepting, and grading assignments that Misha has utilized in some of his courses recently. He will be giving an overview of the features of Gradescope and leading a discussion of his experience with it.
Date: Thursday, September 26, 2024
Speakers: David Deville (NAU)
Abstract: In this session, Dr. David Deville will discuss the development of curriculum for our MAT 114 Quantitative Reasoning course. David will discuss the general philosophy of the course (which is pretty unique among our department’s offerings) and give details of his efforts in recent years to find, adopt, borrow, and create curriculum that aligns with that philosophy.
Date: Thursday, September 19, 2024
Speakers: Allie Berkman and Shannon Guerrero (NAU)
Abstract: This Teaching Seminar will be about Canvas (pause for applause!). Allie and Shannon will discuss ways to structure your Canvas shell in a pedagogically sound manner – from practical details that make it more navigable for students to principles from a Universal Design perspective that increase the accessibility of the resources we utilize.