This week I participated in an hour-long talk and reading as part of the Eastern Campus Teaching and Learning Center, which is one of three "faculty-managed facilities designed to enhance teaching and learning excellence for full and part-time professional staff," according to the Eastern TLC web page. In this session, Adam Penna and I gave a delivered a short presentation titled "To Poem or Not to Poem," based on professional development work we did over the past summer at the Southampton Writers Conference and International Theatre Festival.
Our presentation fulfilled our obligations to the Faculty Development and Retraining Committee (which is co-chaired by our FA Secretary, Marie Hanna) for funds we were granted for summer professional development. Next week, I'll post more about Conference Reimbursement and Faculty Development and Retraining. For now, let's just get familiar with the TLCs.
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Over the past month and a half, you may have noticed a few (or more) emails about the TLC on your campus and the events held there. The description of the TLC above is eloquent, but it can't quite capture all of the wonderful opportunity that your campus TLC can offer you.
Ultimately, the TLC is similar to the Professional Development Workshops held on Fridays by the Office for Faculty and Professional Development, but a little less formal. Also, TLC presentations typically require less of a time commitment, and reduce the need to travel to another campus, because each campus has its very own TLC. Thus, each TLC calendar is tailored to the needs of its immediate community, and may feature sessions that are unique and distinct from the kinds of sessions held on the other campuses.
Each campus TLC offers a chance for us to learn from others outside of our immediate disciplines about a myriad of topics via various modes. Each coordinator for the TLCs attempt to cover a range of topics, but you can expect that many sessions will cover technical aspects of software that faculty use frequently, such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Blackboard Learn or apps that can supplement your YouTube videos and/or PowerPoint Lectures. Other times, you'll find talks or lectures presented by faculty who may be trying to fulfill a grant requirement (like my colleague and I did) or by faculty who have an interest in sharing the results of their research and/or writing projects with the greater campus community.
Because faculty schedules are so varied and we often face conflicting commitments, sometimes attendance at these TLC workshops and lectures can be a little smaller than those at Professional Development Workshops -- but honestly, I find this kind of environment more useful. Smaller groups allow for more personalized presentations, and in the workshops, this usually means more time for you to ask your questions and receive individually-tailored guidance.
The TLCs do attempt to keep the campus community aware of their presentations on a regular basis through weekly emails, but it's a good idea to bookmark the TLC website for your campus just in case you can't find the TLC notice among all the other emails you receive from students and committees and colleagues.
They are:
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