1/14/21 Academic Affairs Brief
Faculty & Academic Staff Email Updates Sent Bi-Weekly
This Brief Includes:
- Advice for an Initial Announcement in Spring Courses
- More CLT Faculty Development and Spring Sign-Ups
- Google Groups Per Course Section
- IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction dates: April 12-23
- Spring Semester Access To Generator and Champlain Flex Space
- Preliminary Return to Campus Information
ADVICE FOR INITIAL ANNOUNCEMENT IN SPRING COURSES
Every faculty member should post an initial Canvas announcement for your students. You should include information about how to connect to the first class of the semester, including a hyperlink. You may want to include a video message to help start to make a personal connection with your students.
A sample template is below to give you ideas:
I am looking forward to our course. Our class’s first class meeting will be on _(day)_ at _(time)_ Eastern Standard Time. We will be meeting using _(Google Meet / Zoom)_, please use this link to connect to our class webinar.
For class, please be prepared with _(edit to fit your class’s needs)_ and a working microphone. If you don’t have a microphone that works well, you can find the information for calling into the webinar here. I am encouraging everyone to enable their video camera on the first day of class, it will help you in both meeting your peers and forming a classroom community where we can support and get to know each other this semester.
CLT SPRING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND SIGN-UPS
Spring Professional Development Flier
New CLT Group With Limited Space - Faculty must Sign-up in Advance:
- New & Advancing Faculty Learning Community:
- Developing Your Philosophy of Education and Your Reflective Teaching Practice. This learning community is valuable for all faculty who are interested in tracking their development as educators, especially those new to teaching or those who are working toward a promotion. Sign up by contacting leo@champlain.edu with the subject line “Faculty Learning Community”
- Description: Reflective practice helps us find the inner ground on which we stand firm and feeds our capacity for personal and professional growth. Parker Palmer, The Courage Way
This learning community is a three-part series that will meet once a month. We will explore how reflecting on practice can help us articulate our own core values, beliefs, and biases related to teaching and learning. Through discussion and exercises, we will develop an ongoing teaching philosophy statement and ultimately ongoing practices that over time will help you to better design course outcomes, syllabi, assignments, and engaging classroom
GOOGLE GROUP PER COURSE SECTION
A custom google group for each course you teach has been set up and is being maintained by Information Systems. This means you can simply email or share with XXX-123-01-2021SP@champlain.edu and it will email or share with your whole class. For instance, you can utilize this google group for a calendar invite for your class and the calendar invites will automatically update if students add or drop the class. The security of the group restricts communication to only the members of the group.
IDEA SRI DATES FOR SPRING 2021
For those of you mapping out your semester teaching plan, it may be helpful to know that this spring the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction survey period for traditional undergraduate full-semester courses is scheduled for April 12-23.
SPRING SEMESTER ACCESS TO GENERATOR AND CHAMPLAIN FLEX SPACE
The Generator and Champlain Flex Space will be open to faculty, students, and staff who are members for the Spring 2021 semester once campus classes resume on Feb 8, following the two week campus quarantine period.
Champlain/Generator Membership Request Form - Faculty, students, and staff should use this form to apply for a free semester-length membership to Generator available through the Generator/Champlain College Partnership. You will be contacted about next steps in processing and activating your semester membership. Memberships must be renewed every semester. First time members will need to complete a New Member Orientation prior to using the space, and returning members may be required to complete a reorientation.
Champlain FlexSpace Use Request Form - Use this form to book the use of the space for particular dates and times, once on campus classes have resumed.
If you would like more information about this resource, please see the Champlain College & Generator Makerspace Partnership page. Ian Treu, Flex Space Manager, will be available to answer questions on or about the week of January 25.
Until then, please contact Paula at pwilloquetmaricondi@champlain.edu.PRELIMINARY RETURN TO CAMPUS INFORMATION
Some initial information as the campus gets ready to open this spring with virtual instruction:
Campus Access: Faculty ID cards will be turned on starting Monday, 1/18/21. Faculty are welcome to come back to campus if needed to plan for classes, use campus office spaces or teach from an empty classroom. The assumption during this time is all employees are having a contactless experience during the period of pre-semester prep and the first two weeks of virtual instruction.
Testing: Faculty who plan to teach on-campus must participate in our weekly testing program. Faculty are welcome to enter the testing pool as early as the week of January 25th. Faculty are required to get a negative test result prior to their first in-person class. Testing will be located in Perry Hall, Monday-Friday 8:30 AM-4:30 PM. Any faculty who are teaching on-campus and will have difficulty accommodating this testing schedule should get in touch with Danelle Berube (dberube@champlain.edu) to discuss next steps.
Health Pledge: The Community Health Pledge has been updated, and will be available soon. Employees do not need to re-submit the updated Health pledge if they had completed it last semester. Any new faculty teaching this semester on-campus must submit the Health Pledge prior to their first in-person class.
- Daily Health Screen: Remember, each day that you come to campus you must fill out the employee Daily Health Screen. The link to that google form is embedded in each Faculty Brief for your convenience.