Dr. Karen Boroff
Faculty Lounge
3:30-4:30 p.m.
About ten years ago, Dr. Catherine Zizik offered a terrific teaching workshop on the beginning of the semester. At another institution where I visited as a professor, the entire university uses the word “formation,” relying on every person (the cafeteria worker, the reference desk librarian, the faculty member in the classroom, the people working on the facilities and grounds, and the like) to contribute to the student’s collegiate formation. Coupling these two notions together, I have experimented with extending my semester engagement with students, starting before the first day of class and ending after the final examination. I do this to further my ability to contribute to students’ formation at Seton Hall. I use an advance snail-mailing to students’ home, complete with a syllabus, a syllabus quiz, and an assignment due on the first day of class. Again using snail mail, after the semester concludes, family members receive commendation letters about their child (my now former student) from me. These small tactics, I have found, have helped me to set expectations, to start conversations with students before the semester begins, and also to continue relationships once the semester concludes. I look forward to sharing my materials, along with some successes, and some unintended consequences of my practice.
This event is sponsored by the Center for Faculty Development. Light refreshments will be served.