Institute for Faculty Development

Advancing teaching excellence at Vanguard University through culturally-responsive teaching

Events

belonging graphic
Gathering

2020 Faculty Gathering

We gather and are reminded of the importance of belonging. Bill Dogterom engages our minds and hearts in a devotional in the morning. Then we meet new faculty and are encouraged as we look to the start of a new (and entirely different) year.

Departments may choose to circulate a Zoom link for colleagues to gather together, informally, over lunch. No agenda. Just conversation and reconnecting. Optional.

The afternoon brings a set of three breakouts. When you register for the faculty gathering, you will be asked to indicate your choice of which breakout you will attend, so we can send you a Zoom link.

18Tuesday, Aug 18 - Tuesday, Aug 18Various Times
Multiple LocationsCheck the event description for specific locations.
register
Distracted book club
Book Club

Book Club: Distracted, by James Lang

Why is it so hard to get students to pay attention? Conventional wisdom blames iPhones, insisting that access to technology has ruined students’ ability to focus. The logical response is to ban electronics in class.

But acclaimed educator James M. Lang argues that this solution obscures a deeper problem: how we teach is often at odds with how students learn. Classrooms are designed to force students into long periods of intense focus, but emerging science reveals that the brain is wired for distraction. We learn best when able to actively seek and synthesize new information.

In Distracted, Lang rethinks the practice of teaching, revealing how educators can structure their classrooms less as distraction-free zones and more as environments where they can actively cultivate their students’ attention.

Brimming with ideas and grounded in new research, Distracted offers an innovative plan for the most important lesson of all: how to learn.

Our Spring 2021 book discussion group on Distracted will be led by Dr. Laurie Hatch. Dates and times will be determined as we get closer to 2021.

  • Day 101/2512:00 pm - 1:00 pm
  • Day 2 -
27Monday, Jan 25 - Wednesday, Mar 31Various Times
Multiple LocationsCheck the event description for specific locations.