Professional Development

Taught by Dr. Carolyn M. Jones Medine. This course focuses on developing practices in teaching religious studies for new teachers. We looked at foundational topics such as professionalism and course building, but also explored methods for online teaching and issues specifically related to teaching religion.

QPR is the CPR equivalent for mental health, focused on building techniques to prevent suicide by recognizing the signs, asking questions, and persuading/referring people to the proper resources. Given the crisis of mental health on college campuses, this training was personally important for me to ensure we are caring for our students and proactive about preventing suicide. 

Given by Andy Mink, this workshop introduced the work of the National Humanities Center through the framework of "Humanities Moments"—times when we encounter a cultural element (art, architecture, literature, etc.) that resonates with us. Reflecting on our personal "Humanities Moment" and how we communicate it with others became an opportunity to consider their impact on how we see ourselves in relation to our community and why we act certain ways. We then explored how we can incorporate "Humanities Moments" into our classrooms as a skill set to navigate an ever-complex world. This included a special attention to "quick-reads" of text, images, videos, etc. and geo-literacy as opportunities to push beyond root memorization of information to begin considering relationships and how we process information. The idea of "Humanities Moments" greatly impacted my philosophy of Humanities education, and throughout my course design I attempted to great room for students to reflect on what elements of the content resonated with them and why that matters.

This full-day seminar focused introduced faculty and graduate students to methods for incorporating research as part of their teaching practice. The workshop's focus was on helping instructors utilize pedagogical research to design their courses while also designing their own research projects within their classrooms.

This was a self-paced, online certificate program that offers an introduction to digital learning. This included going over key terms, introducing best practices, highlighting challenges, and outlining disability accessibility. One of the most beneficial elements of the certificate was hearing more from professionals about how they approached incorporating digital learning into their classrooms, including specific examples and techniques. For instance, there was an element about how to incorporate activities into Zoom synchronous sessions that resonated with activities I have used from the "Humanities Moments" workshop. I also appreciated the focus on formative assessments and how to use digital learning as a pathway to create adaptive formative assessments. Another element of the course that I found valuable was its early introduction to major theories of pedagogy and andragogy. While I was unconsciously using much of the techniques advocated by learning theory, it was very empowering to see several of my approaches supported by the research.

Premiere Pro 2022 Essential Training

By Ashley Kennedy; Completed September 28, 2023

Learning Articulate Rise

By David Rivers; Completed September 26, 2023

Articulate 360: Interactive Learning

By David Anderson; Completed September 26, 2023

Instructional Design: Creating Video Training

By Garrick Chow; Completed September 26, 2023

iMovie 10.1.16 Essential Training

By Garrick Chow; Completed September 21, 2023

Creating Illustrator Infographics

By Tony Harmer; Completed June 30, 2023

Illustrator 2023 Essential Training

By Nigel French; Completed June 28, 2023

Designing an Infographic

By Nigel French; Completed June 23, 2023

Photoshop 2021 Essential Training

By Julieanne Kost; Completed September 27, 2022

This workshop focused on overall digital course design and content creation, with special attention to the structure and communicating expectations/outcomes with students. The most important element I took from this training is being deliberate about the WHY in my design decisions, bringing every element back to a learning objective/outcome. As I designed my own online course, I paid special attention to how I structured the content to ensure that students were comfortable moving through the space and understood my expectations.

This workshop offered an overview of how to use video lectures to increase teacher Social and Teaching Presence in the digital classroom through asynchronous video lectures. Part of this was attention to the multimedia design and how it can impact presence and student engagement, including attention to lighting, audio quality, background setting, and the incorporation of visuals/PowerPoint slides. This workshop influenced a lot of how I structured my asynchronous content during the COVID-19 pivot. My design utilized short video lectures to introduce content and activities for students to apply the information.

This workshop offered an introduction to the basic elements of online learning with attention to Structure, Dialogue, and Learner Autonomy. It focused on practical steps for designing digital courses, such as how to design discussion boards that prioritize learning goals and student peer interaction or how to build video lectures that are based on student behavior. Coming out of this training, I was thinking a lot about how to create a digital community for my students where they felt a connection with me as an instructor. In response, I incorporated a "Daily Music Video" and weekly mental well-being checks for my students to increase the personalization of the learning space.

Taught by Dr. Lindsey Harding. This course explored strategies for providing effective feedback on student writing. We focused on helping students connect large themes and adding clarity to their writing, as opposed to correcting minor grammar mistakes. This goes to the root of student writing difficulty. A strategy I took from this course was responding to student writing in a letter-format, similar to a book review, which allows us to treat students as writers we are helping, not students we are correcting.

Coming out of this experience, I wrote a blog post for the WIP website that you can see here.

Presented by Dr. Mike Palmquist from Colorado State University, this workshop introduced the Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse Resource Center, which focuses on how we incorporate writing throughout the disciplines as a practice in critical thinking. Palmquist reminded us of the practices of Writing in the Disciplines and Writing to Learn, which I had previously learned about as part of my WIPP 7001 class. He, however, wanted to go a step further to think about Writing to Engage, a practice that falls between Writing to Learn and Writing to Communicate/Publish. Writing to Engage focuses on using writing as a critical thinking practice by encouraging students to consider the meaning and implication of course content. Sample assignments might include reflections, critiques of previous writing, or project proposals. The Writing to Engage model influenced many of the assignments I utilized in my RELI 1003 and RELI 4600 courses where I focused on creating space for students to reflect on their learning process and how our course content intersected with their personal contexts.

Taught by Dr. Rosemary Jackson. In Teaching and Diversity, we explored how diverse material and diverse students affect how we teach and how to be more aware of plurality and intersectionality in our classrooms. This course was important for me as I prepared to enter religious education due to the wide range of diversity in both the subject matter and in how students experience religion, which is often a very personal issue. A key theme that influenced my thinking in the course was having awareness of our own identity and how that is communicated to students in relation to their identity and our course material. The interactions with the professor in this course had an important impact on my Diversity Statement.

This 2-hour training explores gender and sexual identity and the resources available to support UGA students in the LGBTQ community. I took this training while I was teaching in the field of Religion, and I entered wanting to learn more about how I could structure my courses and present the material in a way that was informed by the religious trauma LGBTQ students often face. I found especially valuable the chance to become more familiar with UGA’s Pride Center and the resources they offered so that I could better connect students with them.

The Certificate Program in Diversity and Inclusion at UGA focuses on increasing awareness of diversity as an institutional objective. It includes a core course about diversity generally at UGA, and then five electives across a range of identities and policies at the university. Being a graduate teaching assistant when I took the training associated with this certificate, its primary benefit was familiarizing me with how diversity and inclusion are reflected at an institutional level.

Courses:

• Diversity and Inclusion: Diversity at UGA, Beyond the Numbers (February 3, 2020)

• Diversity and Inclusion: Global Dawgs (October 16, 2020)

• Diversity and Inclusion: Identity and Social Location (February 24, 2020)

• Diversity and Inclusion: Best Practices for Accommodating Students and Employees with Disabilities (February 6, 2020)

• Diversity and Inclusion: UGA's Non-Discrimination, Anti-Harassment (January 28, 2020)

• Diversity and Inclusion: An LGBTQ Primer, Creating an Inclusive Community (January 21, 2020)