Pause for Teaching

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Today on the podcast, Sarah Mountz, Associate Professor in the School of Social Welfare, describes her trauma-informed pedagogy as well as the centrality of relationship building and teacher vulnerability in her classroom. Sarah describes how she gets her students into the community, and brings joy, fun, play and humor into the classroom. Students develop a deeper awareness of their own experiences and the ways that they can develop agency as learners in and outside of the university. 

Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik

Host: Aviva Bower

Editor: Nyssa Knarvik

Music: Ursula Wolfe

For more teaching resources, visit our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠.

Read a transcript of this episode.

Today on the podcast, Kristen Hessler, Professor of Philosophy, shares how her work with first‑year philosophy students in a Living Learning Community pushed her to rethink what it means to teach with structure, vulnerability, and curiosity about, as Kristen puts it, the “three dimensional world” her students live in. By combining intentional course design and a relationship rich approach to her students, Kristen and her students uncover the ways in which philosophy and ethics are already a key in her students’ lives. Her story reveals how a deep engagement with her students’ lived experiences has helped her experience teaching as both a privilege and a labor of love. 

Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik

Host: Aviva Bower

Editor: Nyssa Knarvik

Music: Ursula Wolfe

For more teaching resources, visit our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠.

Read a transcript of this episode. 

Today on the podcast, Hillary Weiner, shares the story of the surprising amount of deep satisfaction she derives from teaching. Hillary’s use of backward course design, project-based learning, and community-engaged teaching has resulted in courses that allow her students to connect with their learning, their community, and the potential of marketing research to do good in the non-profit world. As her students forge these connections, teaching has connected her more fully to her own community in the Capital District.  

Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik

Host: Aviva Bower

Editor: Nyssa Knarvik

Music: Ursula Wolfe

For more teaching resources, visit our ⁠website⁠.

Read a transcript of this episode.

Today on the podcast, Joe Creamer tells us the story of how he came to understand his students in his Writing and Critical Inquiry courses more fully. Joe’s discoveries led him to team-based learning, a highly reflective teaching practice, and labor-based grading. The balance of higher structure and greater student choice has allowed both him and his students to experience vulnerability, joy, community, and the reflection that, as Joe says, “develops us as humans.”  

Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik

Host: Aviva Bower

Editor: Nyssa Knarvik

Music: Ursula Wolfe

For more teaching resources, visit our website.

Read a transcript of this episode.

Today on the podcast, we speak with Marc Watkins, director of the AI Institute for Teachers and an Assistant Director of Academic Innovation at the University of Mississippi, where he is a Lecturer in Writing and Rhetoric. His writing on AI appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education and in his Substack Rhetorica. He suggests that institutions of higher education need to slow down and make spaces where faculty and students can reflect on how AI is affecting us; and he shares his deep concern that AI is removing what he calls the friction that is an essential element in learning.  

Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik

Host: Aviva Bower

Editor: Nyssa Knarvik

Music: Ursula Wolfe

For more teaching resources, visit our⁠⁠⁠ website⁠⁠⁠.

Read a ⁠transcript⁠ of this episode. 

Today on the podcast, Dr. Jon Mandle, Professor of Philosophy, shares how he has students work with generative AI to develop their writing and argumentation skills, while simultaneously gaining an understanding of the limitations of AI in relation to philosophical and ethical thinking.  

Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik

Host: Aviva Bower

Editor: Nyssa Knarvik

Music: Ursula Wolfe

For more teaching resources, visit our website.

Read a transcript of this episode.

Today on the podcast, Dr. Lauren Bryant, Lecturer in Communication, shares how she gets students thinking critically about the limitations of generative AI, the importance of writing in their own voices ... and all this in a large lecture class with over a hundred students! 

Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik

Host: Aviva Bower

Editor: Nyssa Knarvik

Music: Ursula Wolfe

For more teaching resources, visit our⁠⁠ website⁠⁠.

Read a transcript of this episode.

Today on the podcast, Dr. Jason D’Cruz, Associate Professor of Philosophy, helps us explore the idea of a genuine conversation with our students about AI, how to make productive pedagogical decisions about AI, and how thinking through these big issues helps us recognize our value as teachers and as humans. 

Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik

Host: Aviva Bower

Editor: Nyssa Knarvik

Music: Ursula Wolfe

For more teaching resources, visit our⁠⁠ website⁠⁠.