Teaching and Scholarship Hub News

Change is constant. In the span of about 18 hours last week, I attended a Sharp Viewpoint talk on AI and the future of work, listened to colleagues from our AI Faculty Learning Community share thoughtful, practical strategies for AI-supported assignments, and then joined a campus discussion that extended the questions raised in the keynote. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the long-anticipated LMS announcement landed in inboxes across campus.

It was a good reminder of how quickly our landscape can shift. New tools arrive, conversations evolve, and decisions crystallize. And yet, much of what matters most remains steady: our commitment to students, to thoughtful teaching, and to supporting one another through moments of change. I’m grateful to be part of a community that meets change with curiosity, care, and a willingness to move forward together.

Stop by the Hub this week for sweet treats, DIY candy bags, and a handful of Valentine’s-inspired activities.

Read on here.

It’s probably too much of a cliché to start a Feb. 2 newsletter by talking about the movie Groundhog Day, but so be it. If you are one of the rare folks unfamiliar with the storyline, Bill Murray plays a weatherman stuck in a time loop, reliving the same day again, with each day offering a new opportunity to make the right impression on his love interest. Through trial and error (mostly errors), he figures out what works to win her heart. While the movie could arguably be an extreme example of the way we all learn new skills, as we hunker down into this messy February, the teacher in me is even more drawn to thinking about a tension expressed so effectively by Murray’s snarky character: the vacillation between the tedium of the endless repetition of the same events and the promise of the eternal do-over, the chance to set things right, do things differently, and experiment freely with impunity. In our teaching lives, we often have the good fortune (?) of teaching the same class more than once—sometimes WAY more than just once. How do we keep a class we’ve taught over and over fresh and interesting—for us? (For me, include: how can I teach the verb être again in a way that won’t feel stale to me and will also help my students?) We’re always happy to brainstorm with you here in the Faculty Hub, but today, I’m also offering some ideas for renewal and experimentation in the resource section below.

Read more here.

I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately and listening to old songs I haven’t heard in years. Some songs are unbearably cheesy now…I did grow up in the 80s after all! There are still a lot of gems, though. I recently re-listened to the Bangles cover of Paul Simon’s “Hazy Shade of Winter” (very fitting at the moment) and think it has aged quite well. It definitely has some 80s moments, but fewer than many of its 1988 counterparts. Unfortunately, the video did not age as gracefully as the song itself 🤣.

If you would like to give one of your courses another “listen” to see if it is standing the test of time, this is a good time to consider scheduling a facilitated course assessment (FCA). This service offers faculty the opportunity to invite a consultant from the Faculty Hub into their classroom to gather anonymous student feedback through a facilitated conversation.

Keep reading here.

Congratulations on making it through the first week of the semester! As things move into full swing, so does activity in the Faculty Hub. We’re here to support you all semester long, whether it is by providing a hot tea and quiet space to work, connecting you with colleagues to talk pedagogy, or helping you identify strategies to enhance your research process. Wishing you all an excellent semester, and we look forward to seeing you in the Hub in the coming months!

Learn more here.

Happy first day of class! This is always an exciting and peculiar time, when breaks are always too short, and there’s a tension between wanting to hold on to unstructured time and the pull to prepare for everything starting up right now.

With my longtime love for the Muppets, I always hope that the start of the semester feels something like Kermit and Fozzie in The Muppet Movie on a road trip: light and fun, shaped by the simple act of moving forward together, with the sense that uncertainty is not isolation. There is something grounding here, particularly right now, for us when long-standing institutions, cultural reference points, and the ways we teach and learn feel increasingly in flux.

Holding anticipation and familiarity together—the energy of what lies ahead paired with the presence of a friend and compassion for one another, even as they face (in their case, literal) forks in the road—feels like the best way to start the semester. I hope it’s an amazing one!

Read more here…

As I approach my 25th semester at UR, I’ve been thinking about what changes and what endures. In those 12 years, we’ve seen digital trends like Digital Storytelling give way to the current ubiquity of AI. And, of course, Boatwright Library has been under construction for what feels like my entire career. Yet, despite the roughly 15,000 students who have passed through our doors during my time here, the core of what we do is unchanged. The heart of this university is still the human relationships that begin on the first day we walk into the classroom. As you step into yours next week, I hope you find those meaningful moments of connection that remind you why we do this work. Welcome back.

Keep reading here.

My colleagues and I in the Faculty Hub get to see—up close and every day — the creativity and care that UR faculty put into their teaching and scholarship. We are also well aware of the energy your work requires, especially in these final weeks. As we wrap up this semester, we hope the coming break offers you some time to rest and recharge. In recognition of the fact that each of you might be in a different headspace as the semester comes to a close, I thought I’d offer a choose-your-own-adventure prompt for my recommendations below. Sending you best wishes for the coming break, the end of 2025, and the beginning of the new year. See you in January!

Read about upcoming events in January here!

If you are reading this, congratulations, you made it to finals week! That final push can be a challenge, so we have a few things lined up that we hope will help. During this hectic time, we invite you to experience the Swedish tradition of fika, taking a bit of time out of your day for a warm beverage, a treat, and conversation with your colleagues. Let us know if you plan to join us anytime between 2 and 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10. We are also hosting two Writing AND Grading Retreats from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (or anytime in between that works for you). Sign up for a retreat either on Thursday, December 11, or Monday, December 15, to write and grade in community with your colleagues.

See what else is happening in the Hub here.

I’ve been rereading a lot of Calvin and Hobbes strips since its 40th anniversary a few weeks ago (apologies if that makes you feel old). The nostalgia of the comic strip is a comforting reprieve and a sorely needed invitation to take the world a little less seriously, but it’s also been a useful reflection on the passage of time. While this week is a time to congratulate yourself, your colleagues, and your students for nearing the finish line, it becomes all too easy to forget the smaller moments and insights that made this semester what it was. The payoff comes through a series of panels, one might say.

For myself, these moments happened in the weekly conversations I had with student and faculty partners in IP3, where we joyfully uncovered details that we only noticed when we reflected with others. I hope you have had some similar opportunities to laugh this semester, and if not, that December brings a chuckle or two.

Keep reading here.

As we near the end of term (!!!???), we’re in a place where everything risks feeling rote. You might think your students are tired of talking about the same subject all semester, because you might be feeling the same way. It’s downhill from here, but it’s still an exhausting ride, perhaps from just being residually exhausted from the term (or because it gets dark at 5 p.m.). This stretch makes it easy to lose track of what’s sustaining you. For this week, I hope you can pause and name one thing you’re grateful for, even if it’s small or fleeting.

I’m grateful to the organizers and participants who made the Faculty and Staff Mini-Symposium happen the other week, and grateful to have been able to attend both sessions. Hearing the amazing work people are doing across disciplines and watching those conversations spark connections in real time felt energizing in a way I think I needed. It’s easy to fall into disciplinary silos; it’s harder, and way more rewarding, to keep coming back to the cross-campus conversations that make this place what it is.

If you attended, I hope something from those sessions is still echoing for you. (I’ll be thinking about horses and amphetamines for a while.) And if not, I hope you have a moment that reminds you good work is happening all around you, and that you’re part of it.

See what is coming up here…