Category: SIP Post

SIP 14.11 Engaging Students through 1 Book/1 Project/2 Transform: Lighting Fires and Opening Minds

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? William Butler Yeats famously said, “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” Regardless of our academic disciplines, as faculty members we hope the university experience sparks students’ curiosity, opens their minds and promotes the habits and values of lifelong learning. We strive …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-11_engaging_students_through_1_book-1_project-2_transform_lighting_fires_and_opening_minds/

SIP 14.10 Eliminate Ableism from Your Teaching

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? If you are like many faculty members at Metropolitan State University of Denver, you take pride in differentiating your instruction for students: taking care to integrate visuals into your lectures, making sure classes involve lecture and activities, being available during office hours and through other mechanisms outside of class …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-10_eliminate_ableism_from_your_teaching/

SIP 14.9 How to Incorporate Student Voice in Your Course Design

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Over the past few years at Metropolitan State University of Denver, we’ve increased our conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom. We are a diverse community of learners and educators committed to educational equity. One way we can work for educational equity is through incorporating justice principles in course …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-9_how_to_incorporate_student_voice_in_your_course_design/

SIP 14.8 Are Faculty Members and Students Languishing?

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Are either of these scenarios familiar? 1) Your students seem engaged in class and ask good questions, but when the first assignment is due, more of them than usual don’t submit any work. 2) You are preparing to teach a class on a subject you usually feel energized by, …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-8_are_faculty_members_and_students_languishing/

SIP 14.8 Are Faculty Members and Students Languishing?

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Are either of these scenarios familiar? 1) Your students seem engaged in class and ask good questions, but when the first assignment is due, more of them than usual don’t submit any work. 2) You are preparing to teach a class on a subject you usually feel energized by, …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-8_are_faculty_members_and_students_languishing/

SIP 14.7 What Your Contingent Faculty Colleagues Wish You Knew

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Over 50 years ago, MSU Denver (then Metropolitan State College of Denver) was founded by courageous temporary teachers who worked their professional jobs and then came to campus to share their experience and knowhow with students. Today, a significant percentage of MSU Denver faculty members are classified as affiliate or contingent and hold part-time, lecturer …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-7_what_your_contingent_faculty_colleagues_wish_you_knew/

SIP 14.6 ‘Queering’ Your Curriculum: Teaching and Learning Beyond the Binary

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Often in our attempt to simplify learning, we reduce concepts to either/or, this side/that side, traditional/nontraditional, black/white and other binary constructs. By simplifying complex relations, ideas and thought into two sides, groups or elements that are diametrically opposite, we are using dichotomous or binary thinking. Dichotomous instruction has often …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-6_queering_your_curriculum_teaching_and_learning_beyond_the_binary/

SIP 14.5 Ideas for Diversifying Your Course

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? According to the Oxford Dictionary, “diversify” means to make varied or to become more diverse, to be composed of unlike elements and to enlarge or vary a range of products or a field of operation. The way our educational system has diversified curriculum in the past has concentrated on …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-5_ideas_for_diversifying_your_course/

SIP 14.4 Tips to Combat Faculty Fear and Anxiety through the Return to Campus

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Since the beginning of the global pandemic and the shift to remote work in spring 2020, faculty members have had to continuously adapt and update pedagogical methods to meet the needs of students while following public-health protocols. On top of the typical challenges of workload and time management, faculty …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-4_tips_to_combat_faculty_fear_and_anxiety_through_the_return_to_campus/

SIP 14.3 Fear and Anxiety Part 1: Students

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Sixty-three percent of college students in the U.S. felt overwhelming anxiety in the past year, according to the Fall 2018 National College Health Assessment. In the same survey, 23% reported being diagnosed or treated for anxiety by a mental-health professional in 2017-2018; imagine what this figure might be for the …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip_14-3_fear_and_anxiety_part_1-students/