This Week for Grad Students: Join us for Teachers’ Lounge—Climate Cafe
Teachers’ Lounge: Climate Cafes
Teachers’ Lounges are a series of informal discussions about teaching practices and the culture of learning at Columbia. Our conversations often introduce participants to related educational models, research, and theory, and invite dialogue about their pertinence to day to day teaching. A light lunch is available to participants in Teachers’ Lounges.
In 2024–2025, Teachers’ Lounge is hosting Climate Cafes where instructors can gather to explore the interplay between climate change and learning. Join us to discuss how to leverage your teaching to build a just, sustainable, and resilient future, no matter the discipline!
Climate Cafe: Indigenous Knowledge and Interdisciplinarity | Register
Tuesday, November 19, 12:10-1:25pm, 212 Butler Library
In this session, we will discuss how the boundaries between disciplines can hinder climate justice, and how Indigenous ways of teaching and learning can help to break down those barriers. Participants will leave with concrete strategies and resources for incorporating interdisciplinary methods and materials into their teaching, as well as ideas for how to connect their students to Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing.
Teachers’ Lounge sessions count for the Pedagogy Workshop requirement in the Teaching Development Program.
CTLgrads Journal Club
Are you interested in creating an inclusive educational climate for all STEM learners? Join us for the CTLgrads Journal Club. This informal discussion community is an opportunity to discuss resources and research on teaching and learning with fellow grad students and postdocs. Each session will help you consider how you can use findings in education research—in your field and beyond—to inform your own teaching practices.
This semester, the CTLgrads Journal Club is open to graduate students and postdocs across the CIRTL Network. Sessions are being facilitated by CIRTL Fellows and will run online via Zoom. Upcoming session:
CTLgrads Journal Club sessions count towards completion of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
💡Resource Spotlight: Creating a High Trust, Low Stress Class Environment
For students to do their best learning, and to support a classroom environment that is inclusive for all learners, it’s important for instructors to create a high trust, low stress environment (Hammond, 2019). But what does a high trust, low stress environment look like in practice? Check out the Creating a High Trust, Low Stress Class Environment resource for several strategies that instructors can leverage throughout the semester.
Upcoming Lead Teaching Fellow Events
The 2024-25 Lead Teaching Fellows are running workshops and discussions in departments all around Columbia. These are generally advertised locally. Below is an upcoming event that is open to participants beyond the LTF’s home department.
Read more about the LTF program here, connect to an LTF in your department via the LTF directory, and discover more upcoming LTFs events on the LTF calendar.
LTF events count towards track completion in the Teaching Development Program.
Enhancing Accessibility in STEM Through the Arts
Science is most often communicated with equations and fancy plots. To the trained scientist, these methods neatly encapsulate information and convey scientific ideas and results. To the untrained, figures and equations can cause confusion, bring up past memories of evil math teachers, and ultimately do more harm than good. For some, viewing figures and equations is not even possible. There must be a better way. In this workshop, we consider the pedagogy used in both the arts and sciences to find a more inclusive and effective way to tell the stories of our science.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Max E. Lee (Astronomy). It is open to graduate students in the Arts and Sciences.
Date: Tuesday, November 12
Time: 4:00-5:00pm
Location: 1402 Pupin Hall, the Astronomy Library
Register: Email Max at max.e.lee@columbia.edu