As faculty prepare to meet their new students, they are working diligently to finalize their course syllabi, design their Canvas sites, consider how to best leverage technology, establish an inclusive learning community, and many other considerations.

The Center for Teaching and Learning invites you to our annual Fall Teaching Kickoff for New and Returning Faculty! At this signature event, you'll attend sessions that address the issues that are most pressing as you prepare to meet your students. We especially invite new faculty to join us and get to know the supportive community around teaching you are joining at Georgia Tech. Our goal is to help all faculty, new and returning, feel energized, inspired, and uplifted so that you are ready to begin the new academic year.

In 2024, Fall Teaching Kickoff for New and Returning Faculty is expanding! The event will feature concurrent sessions, including workshops especially suitable for new faculty, a mix of 90-minute and 40-minute workshops on a range of topics that will appeal to both new and returning faculty, a plenary session, lunch, and opening and closing sessions. Join us all day or select individual workshops to attend. 

Join us for our 2024 Fall Teaching Kickoff on Tuesday, August 13th in the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons. We can't wait to welcome you back to a new academic year!

REGISTER

Fall Teaching Kickoff for New and Returning Faculty

2024 Schedule

Location: Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons

9:00-11:30 am:           Opening and Syllabus Clinic

11:45 am-1:15 pm:    Networking Lunch and Plenary Session on Teaching with AI

1:30-3:00 pm:             Concurrent Sessions, 1:30-3:00 pm
                                           -Teaching Effectively with Canvas

                                           -Transparency in Learning and Teaching/Small Teaching

                                           -Addressing Common Teaching Challenges: Creating and Maintaining a Supportive Learning Environment

3:10-3:40 pm:             Closing Session

Fall Teaching Kickoff for New and Returning Faculty 
Session Descriptions

Opening and Syllabus Clinic (9:00-11:30am, Carol Subino Sullivan, facilitator)

Learn about Georgia Tech students, including their incredible strengths and unique challenges. This information will be useful background knowledge as you go on to engage in the other sessions throughout the day.

Then...Polish up your syllabus for the first day of classes! During the Syllabus Clinic, you will work with colleagues to review your course syllabus. CTL will guide you through a backwards design process to ensure all your course elements are aligned to support student learning and success. You’ll also learn about the new University System of Georgia Core IMPACTS areas for the core curriculum and hear experienced colleagues share their reflections about shaping course syllabi. 

Networking Lunch and Plenary Session on Teaching with AI (11:45 am-1:15 pm, Vincent Spezzo, facilitator) 

The incorporation of AI into pedagogy holds immense potential to enhance the teaching and learning experiences for both students and faculty. In this session we will explore three different ways you can incorporate AI usage into your classroom including; AI as a tool for instructors, AI as a student learning tool, and AI as the subject of student learning. We will dive into each of these areas and provide examples from actual Georgia Tech instructors on how they have sought to use AI in these ways.

Concurrent Sessions, 1:30-3:00 pm
  • Teaching Effectively with Canvas (Lauren Barbeau, facilitator)

  • Jumpstart your Canvas course development in this hands-on workshop! Participants will learn to use features of Georgia Tech's LMS, Canvas, to best support student success. We will explore the basics of navigating Canvas, building Canvas sites, and managing students in Canvas.

  • Small Teaching/Transparency in Learning and Teaching (Laura Carruth and Karen Franklin, facilitators)

  • In this two-part session, participants will learn about Small Teaching and Transparency in Teaching and Learning.

  • Drawing from James Lang’s Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, this session will focus on small teaching principles you can incorporate into your course. Small Teaching focuses on practices around knowledge, understanding, and inspiration. 

  • Transparent teaching methods help students understand how and why they are learning course content in particular ways. During this workshop, we will focus on making assignments transparent by addressing the purpose, task, and criteria of example assignments.  Come with an assignment in mind that you would like to TiLT as you prepare for the fall semester. 

  • Both Small Teaching and TILT can be easily incorporated into your course design without a major reimagining of your course. These simple practices can have big impacts on student learning, motivation, and engagement.

  • Addressing Common Teaching Challenges: Creating and Maintaining a Supportive Learning Environment (Amanda Nolen, facilitator)

  • Together, participants will explore ways of addressing common challenges faced in the classroom. Topics will include how to design course policies that invite student engagement, how to respond to students' requests for flexibility, working with students who require accommodations, and how to work with your TAs to manage the workload and the physical environment of large classes.

Closing Session (3:10-3:40 pm)

Reflect on the key insights from Fall Teaching Kickoff and identify ways to apply them to your teaching. Also, learn about approaches to ongoing reflection and other CTL programs that you can use to support your teaching throughout the semester.