NUTSHELL NOTES "Teaching tips in a nutshell" - The University of Colorado at Denver's One-page Web-page Newsletter for Teaching Excellence

This is the first in a special series of Nutshell Notes. These are special because every issue will have a brief activity—each generating essential written reflections that will grow cumulatively into a teaching philosophy. We will then proceed further to develop an integrated teaching system built around your own philosophy. The outcomes you should anticipate will be (1) a generally improved practice of your teaching and (2) an unprecedented clarity in gearing up for reviews (RTP—Rank Tenure Promotion) or PTR (Post-Tenure Review).

A successful Teaching System is enacted when a sound philosophy is applied with consistence through every action of our teaching. Further, a System contains specific self-tests and benchmarks that monitor the consistence of application. The philosophy contains the core tenets we hold dear, and our Teaching System allows us to apply that philosophy with enough flexibility to best address the tasks at hand.

One of my core principles of practice in faculty development is to realize that faculty time is at a premium. This means I have to be confident that any activity that I involve your time in must be worthwhile in producing benefits. So, I have high confidence in this, so I'll ask you to participate by giving the activities a fair try. Later, if the final product doesn't prove worthwhile, tell me about it. This series is either going to produce a lot of benefit or leave me owing apologies to one and all!

We first must write a philosophy in order to have a blueprint for practice. A very normal response is "Why write it? Why not just do it?" To understand why, consider how a master carpenter or engineer, who is very adept at "doing," nevertheless must work from a blueprint or drafted plan. Teaching, like building, is a complex activity. Even for those who are exceptional at "doing," a written plan provides the clarity that promotes effective use of efforts to accomplish exactly what is wanted. Without such a plan, we have to clearly retain all aspects of the objective in our heads while we carry out detailed and perhaps difficult tasks—a risky approach to be sure! When we operate in that manner, we risk doing something that produces a result we do not want—a result that at best may require a "fix." Moreover, without a guiding philosophy, we may be unaware of specifically how we became diverted from our original intent and maybe started generating outcomes and reactions we did not intend.

This and the newsletters immediately following will help you to develop a written teaching philosophy. In order to retain continuity through this series, you'll need to make a file of these particular newsletters as we work through the process. Those with good paper filing practices can start keeping these in a folder. Others of us who tend not to deal well with paper filing can (a) refer to the web address below to copy the text to a word processor file where we can keep organized in our computers or (b) tape these to the back of your office door out of the usual circulating paper storm.

For our starting activity, simply flip this newsletter over. We are going to begin with some simple, but critical, reflections.

DEVELOPING A SYSTEM- STEP 1

A. Reflect on your choice of career, and in one sentence express why you gravitated originally, toward becoming a university professor. Consider what generated the greatest enthusiasm for you, and what provided the core attraction(s).

Don't Forget YUMPs !!

The next YUMPs (Young Upwardly Mobile Professors) activity is :
The RTP Process Revealed-- Departments, Primary Units, Colleges, etc.
Monday, October 5 and Tuesday, October 6
Noon-1:30 on both days
299 CU-Building (14th & Larimer)

Your Future Use of Computing at UCD

A Strategic Vision for Academic and Administrative Computing at CU-Denver has been developed by a very hard working Information Technology Policy Council. Two open forums remain to comment on the vision and ways to implement it.

Tuesday, September 29
10:00 - noon in GSPA Conference Room "C"
5th floor, Lawrence Street Center

Thursday, October 8
1-3 in Room 5018
North Classroom Building

Please phone Nancy at 6-3339 by Friday, September 11 and let us know which session you plan to attend.

The vision document can be found on the WEB at www.cudenver.edu/public/ITI/council.html.

Hard copies are also available in the Chancellor's office.

First TLTR of the Year!- With Lunch

Our first Teaching Learning Technology Roundtable (TLTR) will be on First-Class®-based conferencing systems CU-Virtual and CEO. If you use either for teaching, come prepared to share your experiences good & bad. If you don't use either, come listen and enjoy pizza with all of us. noon, OCTOBER 21, Exec. MBA Suite 150 at CU-Building 14th & Larimer.