Jessica Birthisel | June 17, 2010
 |
| Photo by Jay Seawell |
| From left, Erin Gilles, Herbert Lowe and Laura Johnston work on developing a mock course plan by placing assignments listed on Post-It notes on a course planning worksheet during the Teaching Fellows workshop. |
Related |
The workshop, designed to prepare those transitioning to teaching journalism at the university level, welcomed 18 journalism professors from around the country and as far away as Canada and Australia to Bloomington this week.
“It was just the right time for me to attend,” explained fellow Nahed Eltantawy, an assistant professor at the Nido Qubein School of Communication at High Point University at High Point, N.C. “I was facing some challenges at the end of my second year of teaching. [Because of the workshop] I feel more confident. Now I’m equipped with new ideas and practices. I’m excited to go back and try some of this out.”
As workshop director and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Shannon Martin explained, this year’s workshop had a particular emphasis on helping the junior professors structure course outcomes and goals.
Angela Criscoe, a lecturer and adviser at George College & State University in Milledgeville, Ga., especially enjoyed the sessions on backwards course design.
“I just loved it,” said Criscoe of the technique, which entails building a course around the student objectives, then working backwards from there to determine how to collect evidence of those objectives being met and activities and instruction that will lead to such evidence.
Other fellows referenced the identification of course “bottlenecks” and brainstorming about how to address them as especially helpful.
In addition to using backwards course design to create a syllabus, another culminating project for fellows is to prepare and present a five-minute concept lesson.
Eltantawy said she plans to take one of her classroom bottlenecks, training students to write journalistically in the third-person, and use it for her concept lesson.
Another concept lesson by Laura Johnston of the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Mo., focuses on how to teach the proper use of the words “lay” and “lie,” a repeat problem she sees with students.
“If you have that figured out, you should bottle it up,” joked associate professor and workshop mentor Claude Cookman, talking with Johnston over dinner in Ernie Pyle Lounge on Wednesday. Other School of Journalism mentors for the week included associate professor Tony Fargo and visiting professors Marty Pieratt and Craig Wood.
More than just the scheduled sessions, most participants agreed that a high point, if not the high point of the workshop, was getting to spend a week with other new professors, discussing what works and doesn’t work in collegiate teaching.
“It was beneficial just to be hear other people’s experiences,” said Lucy Brown of Texas State University of the other fellows.
“I absolutely second that,” Danny Paskin, an assistant professor at California State University at Long Beach, followed. Turning to the other fellows at the table, he said, “One of the best parts of the week was just having you guys here to talk to.”
Many fellows heard about the workshop through word-of-mouth and recommendations from other faculty members. Such was the case for Paskin.
“I had a colleague who attended this workshop,” Paskin explained. “She kind of shoved the form in my face and said, ‘You have to apply. I went and it was amazing. You’ll learn a lot.’”
Paskin, after completing the workshop, was happy to report that his colleague was correct.
The School of Journalism will begin accepting applications for next year’s workshop in March of 2011.
Questions? Comments? Email the Web editor.
