I've been in Washington DC for the last few days, here for a convening of faculty and department chairs to talk about improving teaching for undergraduate STEM fields. (Don't yawn, it's super interesting!) My assistantship provides travel funds for me to join in on things like this, which means I get an insider's view on what people talk about when they talk about trying to make deep, systemic change within a university department. And, since I'm an org-loving and faculty-leaning interested grad student, this is right up my alley. Jim, who is my supervisor, knows my interest in this area and has been extremely supportive and encouraging. Plus, I got to see another side of Jim, a very social and beloved individual by many of his peers. Have I mentioned that I will miss him? Because he's the best. This trip came at a very good time (but depending on your perspective, a very bad time) because it was during the last week of the semester before finals. It just meant that I had to shove all of my due dates up a week because there was no possibility of me doing any school work while I was here. My days were jammed packed with discussions about teaching strategies, organizational change, cultural barriers to change, faculty roles, and student success. So many rich conversations.
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| Scenes from the AAU, and the workshops |
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