Mindful Teaching Summer Series

Workshop 1: Contemplative Pedagogy for the Online & Hybrid Classroom

Wednesday, June 9, 2021
11:30 am–12:45 pm
Online (Zoom)

This workshop will provide an introduction to a field in education known as Contemplative Pedagogy (CP), with a special focus on Online and Hybrid teaching environments.

CP prioritizes reducing stress in the teaching environment for both students and teachers, incorporates mindfulness elements, increases creativity, and cultivates a deeper sense of knowing. It provides access to alternative ways of learning and understanding that is complementary to approaches found in most traditional liberal arts education. By teaching to the whole human, CP addresses the challenges of a global pandemic context.

This workshop will cover:

• CP practices and its benefits in online and hybrid teaching contexts
• Examples of application across disciplines
• Importance of culture, audience and setting
• Guidance for applying CP in your specific classroom setting
• Recent developments in CP related to social justice and the inclusion of indigenous wisdom

Come prepared to enjoy yourself, and relax into an atmosphere of mindful teaching and learning, even online!

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Workshop 2: Keeping Calm In a Technology Firestorm: Navigating Technology Melt-Downs in the Classroom

Wednesday, June 23, 2021
11:30 am–12:45 pm
Online (Zoom)

In this workshop, participants will learn practical tips and proactive techniques for avoiding technology failures in the classroom by creating a personalized checklist for success ahead of time. This will go a long way to helping reduce anxiety and return a more balanced state of emotional wellbeing to course instruction. That said, technology failures will still occur, even with the best of preparation. Thus, we will also learn skills for keeping our nervous systems calm even when technology does fail so we are able to navigate these inevitable surprises with a little more humor and a little more grace.

This workshop will:

• Include contemplative practices, drawing from the educational field of CP
• Draw from Carol Dweck’s work on cultivating a growth mindset
• Highlight recent advances with a special application for online teaching and technology use

Participants will experience a mini technology melt-down during this session and see how they do with their new skills! This will invite more empathy for ourselves and be a lot of fun as we navigate this brave new world of teaching in 2021!

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Presented by:

Miku Lenentine, CTE Affiliate Faculty

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These events are sponsored by the OFDAS Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE)