AUGUST 2009

New Faculty Orientation Day 1
Monday, August 17

8:00 – 4:30pm, Lumpkin Hall

New Faculty Orientation Day 2
Tuesday, August 18

8:00 – 4:30pm, Lumpkin Hall

New Faculty Orientation – Mentoring & Thriving Through Teamwork
Wednesday, August 19

8:00 – 12:00noon, Univ. Ballroom             

SEPTEMBER 2009

Maximizing the Potential of Millennial Learning
Tuesday, September 1

1:30pm, Charleston-Mattoon       Presenter: Dr. Melinda Mueller

Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. Known as millennial students, these students are making up the fabric of our courses as we go into the 21st century. This session will begin by addressing the challenges that millennial students-older, younger, traditional, and non-traditional, well-prepared and under-prepared-and their teachers face in participating in a college learning environment and provides a point of departure for discussion about how best to reach and teach these students in the classroom.

Faculty Mentoring Circles Connection Launch/Up & Link-Up & Educational Training
Wednesday, September 9 

2:00pm, Arcola-Tuscola Room   

The Faculty Mentees session is designed specifically to discuss the needs of the Mentees. It is time to set aside to assess their needs and progress as they navigate

in the academy.

Research & Sponsored Programs: Electronic Searches for Grant Opportunities

Monday, September 14 

3:00 – 4:00pm, 4450 Booth Library
Several search engines on the Research and Sponsored Programs web site are useful for seeking grant opportunities.  Participants will learn important search techniques and methods of conducting regular, automated searches for external funding.

New Faculty Reception
Tuesday, September 15

5:00pm, Tarble Arts
The Annual Wine & Cheese Reception will provide new faculty and their families an opportunity to meet the Administration at EIU.

Faculty Appreciation Day
Friday, September 18

6:00 – 9:00pm, IM Fields           

We celebrate you! Faculty Appreciation Day is a day to celebrate ALL faculty and their families. Come join us in games, food, and much more.  There will be lots of activities for the entire family (i.e. Dunk Tank, Moon Walk, Softball, Cage Ball), and these games will be manned by Campus Recreation's graduate assistants & building coordinators.  This event will take place at the Intramural Fields/Pavilion located on the old golf course, 250 yards west of parking Lot W, which is across 4th street from Taylor and Lawson Hall.  Look to the western sky for the IM light poles.  It is also located directly south of the observatory and SE of the University Barn. After the activities and games, take your family to the observatory and make it a night of education and fun.

Thinking Critically & Writing Well: Shaping Assignments to Impact  Student Learning
Monday, September 28  

1:00pm, Charleston-Mattoon        Presenter: Dr. Tim Taylor

Writing assignments are excellent vehicles for promoting critical thinking and helping students grow as thinkers and writers. And strong writing assignments require students to use the writing process in order to plan and organize their thoughts and know their topics thoroughly. In this interactive session, the speaker and participants will discuss how to create and plan writing assignments that meet the needs of your students, discipline, and subject matter.

OCTOBER 2009

Mentoring Undergraduate Research
Monday, October 5

1:00pm, Charleston-Mattoon       Presenter: Dr. Bonnie Irwin

A moderated panel discussion regarding mentoring undergraduate exploration and inquiry will address universal concerns as well as discipline-specific challenges. Mentoring often draws on different skills and offers different rewards from teaching in a traditional classroom. Panelists will address helping students brainstorm topics, acquire investigative skills, and produce original work.

Research & Sponsored Programs: Introduction to Proposals for External Funding
Wednesday, October 7 
3:00 – 4:00pm, Greenup Room           

Anyone who is relatively new to submitting proposals to external agencies will benefit from this seminar.  The presentation will include:  (1) a description of major sections of typical proposal;  (2) a brief description of how to construct a budget;  (3)  Eastern’s internal requirements for approval of proposals before they are submitted;  (4) Eastern’s internal procedures for handling money after a grant has been approved, and (5) regulatory issues such as protection of animals and human subjects.

Faculty Mentoring Circles Connection Program First Quarter Check-Up: Mentors
Wednesday, October 14

 3:00pm, Effingham Room            Presenter: Dr. Mildred M. Pearson

This session is dedicated to mentors only, and will include discussion and feedback on the mentoring process thus far. Strategies for creating and developing a successful mentoring relationship will be discussed, as well as discussions on mentoring in problem situations.
This session has been postponed. Future date to be announced shortly.

Teaching Professor Panel
Tuesday, October 20 

12:00noon, Oakland               Presenters: Dr. Mildred M. Pearson, Dr. Kathryn Bulver, Dr. Jon A. Oliver & Dr. Rigoberto Chinchilla

The Teaching Professor panel consists of recipients who were afforded the opportunity to attend The Teaching Professor Conference. The recipients will share teaching tips and practices discussed at the conference and reflections about their experiences. Several left the conference with a renewed energy for his or her discipline. Panelists will also discuss ways in which we may improve our learning community.

Room has been changed to Oakland.

Cardio respiratory Fitness: The Foundation of Physical Fitness
Thursday, October 22 

11:30am, Booth Library 4440     Presenter: Dr. Mark Kattenbraker

This session will educate participants on the basic function of the human heart, and how the heart responds to cardio respiratory exercise. Additionally, participants will design their cardio respiratory exercise program. Benefits of regular exercise will also be discussed. This session is created in light of the prevalence of heart disease and the fact that it is the no. 1 killer of men and women alike.

Research & Sponsored Programs: Getting that Grant: A Panel Discussion of Real Experiences
Wednesday, October 28

3:00 – 4:00pm, Greenup Room
A panel of winners of external funding will discuss successes and failures.  This forum will encourage interaction between panel members and the audience.

NOVEMBER 2009

External Speaker: Evidence-based Learning
Thursday, November 5

8:30 – 11:30am, Arcola-Tuscola   Presenter: Dr. Laurie Richlin

Practicing doctors and teachers are applied professionals, practical people making interventions in the lives of their clients in order to promote worthwhile ends – health or learning. Doctors and teachers are similar in that they make decisions involving complex judgments. Many doctors draw upon research about the effects of their practice to inform and improve their decisions; most teachers do not, and this is a difference. (Hargreaves 1997, p. 200)

One reason to turn to evidence-based education is that doing so would make it less vulnerable to “political ideology, conventional wisdom, folklore, and wishful thinking,” not to mention “trendy teaching methods based on activity-based, student-centered, self-directed learning and problem solving” (Davies, 1999, p. 109). But what constitutes evidence?  The dictionary (m-w.com) says that evidence is “something that furnishes proof.” To be able to provide proof that a teaching activity works it is necessary both to measure the outcome of the activity in question, and to describe how the measured outcomes relate to the activity. This presentation will discuss 1) how instructors do or do not use evidence; 2) how instructors contribute to the knowledge base about effective teaching, and 3) the process of teaching and learning with evidence.

References

Davies, P. (1999). What is evidence-based education? British Journal of Educational Studies, 47, 2, 108-121.

Hargreaves, D. (1997). In defence of research for evidence-based teaching: A rejoinder to Martyn Hammersley. British Educational Research Journal, 23, 4, 405- 419.

External Speaker: Getting Credit for What You Do- Designing Courses to Facilitate, Assess, and Document Learning
Thursday, November 5
1:00 – 3:30pm Arcola-Tuscola Room      Presenter: Dr. Laurie Richlin  

In order to get credit for what you do, it is very important that you be able to describe and explain your professional decisions to others in your program, university, and disciplinary community. This session will facilitate your progress from ideas to products.  How can you turn your good teaching ideas into publishable scholarship? How can you demonstrate that your ideas help your students learn? How do you get credit for your scholarly teaching? This session will include guidelines and support for designing teaching projects, creating course and teaching portfolios, and turning your work into publishable scholarship.  Participants are encouraged to bring a syllabus for a course they are considering redesigning.

DECEMBER 2009

Research & Sponsored Programs: How to Write a Proposal to the Council on Faculty Research
Wednesday, December 2

3:00 – 4:00pm, Greenup Room           
Eastern’s internal funding for research and creative activity is awarded on a competitive basis by the Council on Faculty Research.  There are two rounds of funding, one in the fall and one in the spring.  This presentation will include suggestions for making a proposal competitive, as well as examples of recent funded proposals.

JANUARY 2010

Preparing Students for the 21st Century: Espoused Theory vs. Theory in Use
Wednesday, January 20
11:00am, Arcola-Tuscola Room  Presenter: Dr. Teshome Abebe

The aims and outcomes of a 21st century college education have been articulated well by the American Association of Colleges and University. At the same time, what should characterize effective teaching in the 21st century, and how do we, as professors, create an environment that promotes the development of abilities necessary for success as well as produce genuine learning, rather than merely reinforcing prior views?  

Faculty Mentoring Circles Connection Program Final Stretch: Mentees
Tuesday, January 26

2:00pm, Charleston-Mattoon      Presenter: Dr. Mildred M. Pearson

The Faculty Mentees session is designed specifically to discuss the needs of the Mentees. It is time to set aside to assess their needs and progress as they navigate in the academy.

FEBRUARY 2010

Diversity in America & Its Impact on Education
Wednesday, February 3 

1:00-4:00pm, Univ. Ballroom       Presenters: Dr. Mildred M. Pearson (Facilitator), Dr. Jinhee Lee, Dr. David Butts

The Office of Faculty Development at EIU has consistently provided diversity workshops each year to assist our campus with the AACU’s mission whereby we should develop, implement, assess, and continually learn from the experience of fostering diverse learning environments in which all students develop, in increasingly sophisticated ways, critical knowledge, skills, and capacities for work and citizenship. In 2008, we began with a workshop entitled “Teaching while Black & Brown,” and last year, our workshop was entitled “Diversity in America and Its Impact on Education.”  This year, our goal is to continue our conversation since response was overwhelmingly positive, and this will ensure that a healthy dialogue will continue.  We want to encourage campus wide conversations about the desired roles of diversity and multiculturalism on an inclusive campus where we are preparing faculty, staff, and students for a diverse and global world.

• Educational institutions should equally enable all students to learn and excel.

• Educational institutions should help students understand how knowledge and personal experiences are shaped by contexts (social, political, economic, historical, and so on) in which we live and work.

• Educational institutions should help students acquire the social skills needed to interact effectively within a multicultural educational community.

• Educational institutions should enable all students to participate in extra-curricular and co-curricular activities in order to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enhance academic participation and foster positive relationships within a multicultural educational community.

• Educational institutions should provide support services that promote all students’ intellectual and interpersonal development.

• Educational institutions should teach all members of the educational community about the ways that ideas like justice, equality, freedom, peace, compassion, and charity are valued by many cultures.

Reference

Higbee & Barajas (2007, July-August). Building Effective Places for Multicultural Learning.

Engaging Students through Integrated Teaching & Learning
Tuesday, February 23

12:00noon, Charleston-Mattoon   [Panelists – AACU Recipients]

This panel consists of recipients who were afforded the opportunity to attend the Integrative Learning: Addressing the Complexities Network for Academic Renewal Conference of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The recipients will share tips and practices discussed at the conference to deepen students’ ability to integrate and to apply learning, as well as reflections on their experiences. Panelists will also discuss ways in which we may improve our learning community.

Scholarly Databases
Thursday, February 25

1:00pm, 4450 Booth Library        Presenter: Mrs. Karen Whisler

The Library has been acquiring scholarly databases that provide full-text access to a wide range of books and periodicals previously available only to those working at major research institutions. The aim of this workshop is to ensure that faculty takes full advantage for these resources in both research and teaching. Mrs. Karen Whisler, of Booth Library, will give a brief presentation on these treasures. Faculty from several departments will share their experiences of how they have used databases and successful strategies for students’ assignments.

MARCH 2010                          

Thesis & Graduate Student I
Monday, March 1                      

11:00am, Arcola-Tuscola         Presenter: Krishna Thomas  

As a new graduate student, it is relatively easy to experience some anxiety about conducting independent research and definitely not uncommon to think that as a graduate student, one is not sufficiently prepared to accomplish the tasks ahead, be it in a research paper or a master’s thesis. This workshop is not intended to replace frank dialogue within respective graduate programs and is geared towards new graduate students interested in thesis work.  This session will provide an introduction to thesis-writing and graduate research.

Thesis & Graduate Student II
Tuesday, March 2

1:30pm, Arcola-Tuscola             Presenter: Krishna Thomas

This session is geared towards graduate students in the process of researching and writing their theses. This workshop is intended to help graduate students approach independent research and the formal academic experience systematically and without fear. During this workshop, the organizers intend to provide tips and strategies, as well as bibliographic information for other resources.

APRIL 2010

External Speaker: Dr. Pat Hutchings Integrative Learning
Thursday, April 8 

9:30 – 11:00am                         

1:00 – 3:00pm                            

Charleston-Mattoon Room         
According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, “fostering students' abilities to integrate learning--over time, across courses, and between academic, personal, and community life--is one of the most important goals and challenges of higher education.”

One of the goals of Academic Affairs at EIU is to offer students a personal learning experience, integrating their personal and academic growth, through a commitment to teaching and to an infrastructure that supports multiple opportunities for integrating experiences. Dr. Pat Hutchings, Vice-President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, will join us as part of President Perry and Provost Lord’s university-wide initiative on integrative learning.

Reference:

"Integrative Learning: Opportunities to Connect." Public Report of the Integrative Learning Project sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Edited by Mary Taylor Huber, Cheryl Brown, Pat Hutchings, Richard Gale, Ross Miller, and Molly Breen. Stanford, CA, January 2007.

Faculty Mentoring Circles Connection Program Mentoring Faculty Reception
Tuesday, April 20

6:00pm                                

Hilton Garden Inn

Effingham, IL