WRITTEN BY: Dr. Ann Whaley Scholarship Teaching of Conferences and organizations like NOSS are great opportunities for both full-time adjunct faculty for continuing professional development and building community with other educators at all levels across the country and world. They are great venues for fostering community, inspiring educators, and introducing new techniques that can be implemented in any classroom, from English Composition to Math to general Student Success. Whether at a national, regional, or local level, all faculty and staff should be encouraged to participate in these conferences and professional organizations whenever possible. On the other side as an adjunct, Danielle spent time in sessions involving discussions of supporting neurodiversity in the classroom, empowering faculty with service leadership, and implementing a morning routine called Power Hour as a form of continual professional development and connection. The variety of sessions and keynotes of the event were inspiring in how to reengage a diverse student population with several techniques to implement in her personal and teaching routines.
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The 2024 Midwest SoTL Conference, held at the Indiana University South Bend campus for the “Teaching Everyone Everywhere” conference. Two Ivy Tech Community College faculty members presented unique perspectives on creating connections with our students. Dr. Michelle Clemons, assistant professor of psychology in Sellersburg, Indiana, presented on how to amplify, elevate, engage students by fostering student connections. Dr. Ann Whaley, associate professor of communication in Indianapolis, discussed how personalizing your communication to each student can support and retain students. During the conference, attendees were treated to a lively presentation on “Connections are Everything: Relational Teaching for Everyone, Everywhere,” by keynote speaker, Dr. Peter Felten, professor of history at Elon University. This lecture focused on his latest release of his book highlighting the need to make those connections and foster inquiry in students. As an added treat, all attendees were provided a link to share his stimulating stories and theories of creating meaningful connections to our students in this new publication. This book is offered for free: Connections are Everything: Relational Teaching for Everyone, Everywhere One interesting presenter, Amal Khalifa, from Purdue University Fort Wayne, highlighted the importance of using Team-Based Learning (TBL) and considering incorporating the opportunity for students to summarize a class session of learning with one-minute papers, having them make predictions of outcomes or case studies, using worksheets to check reading comprehension of assigned chapters/modules, a module take-away writing assignment, and having writing assignments peer graded, all to measure knowledge acquisition (from reading), readiness accuracy process (testing), and knowledge application (applied learning exercises). However, the most impactful information came from Dr. Clemons, where she strongly suggests informing students of “imposter syndrome,” especially those who feel they don’t belong in college. This was shared by many professors in the room, who mentioned how they, too, once felt out of place.
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