Volume 4, Issue 3--Published: Wednesday, October 2nd

The Center and You!

Collaboration–at the Center for Teaching Excellence this is one of our favorite words! The Center not only provides collaborative support to instructors when they need it, but we also actively create opportunities for faculty to collaborate and learn from one another. We incorporate collaboration and a growth mindset into our approach to professional learning, our offerings, and our supportive coaching communities. If you are looking for opportunities to collaborate with your colleagues, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We have some great opportunities to collaborate coming up in October!

We Love Professional Learning—
We Know You Love It Too!
The Center for Teaching Excellence has recently increased the amount of eligible reimbursement for Professional Learning. Many MATC faculty are presenting at conferences, and we want to acknowledge and support this hard work and advocacy for our students.  The Center is now offering up to $800 for presenters at conferences related to student success and teaching excellence or discipline-related conferences that relate to the college’s or your program /department’s strategic goals. If you attend a conference that is related to any of the prior items, you are eligible for a reimbursement up to $500.  As a recipient of this financial support from the college, you will need to agree to share the best practices you have learned, within one semester from the event,  in order to foster knowledge and skills obtained with your colleagues.

A Message from the Community Engagement & Service-Learning Team

Thank you for all you do to engage with our students and support our community, especially through courses involving community engagement and service learning. Your dedication makes a significant impact on both our students' learning and the communities we serve.

The MATC Community Engagement and Service Learning faculty have created a short activity sheet to help us better understand and highlight the work being done at our institution. Please complete the MATC Community Engagement and Service Learning Project/Activity sheet by October 31st. Your insights are invaluable in helping us continue to grow and support these vital initiatives.

Thank you again for your commitment to our students and our community. We truly appreciate your time and participation! If you have any questions, please contact us.

MATC Professional Learning Opportunities:

MATC offers a wide-range of professional development courses in a variety of delivery modes and durations as part of our efforts to design meaningful professional development that provides just-in-time training opportunities for you to explore what you need when you need it. All of our offerings are free to MATC faculty and eligible for FQAS hours, so that you can plan and develop your own professional development goals and outcomes.  

Join us for Survival Spanish for Educators
(FLANG-119)
Starting October 18
8 Fridays, 10-11:55 AM
Downtown Campus

Designed specifically for school personnel interacting with Spanish-speaking students and visitors, this one credit course provides tools to foster inclusivity and connection within our diverse school community. As we work towards becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution, everyone will benefit!

What You’ll Gain:

Functional Vocabulary and Phrases:
Learn practical language skills for everyday interactions in school settings.
Confidence in Communication:
Develop your ability to welcome students, give clear instructions, and address the needs of our Spanish-speaking population.
Cultural Insights:
Deepen your understanding of the customs and norms of Spanish-speaking communities, enriching your interactions with students and their families.

Be part of our MATC's commitment to creating a welcoming environment for all. Sign up on Self Service today!

Fees:  One of the classes will include a ‘field trip’ to the South Side, most likely to the UCC and El Rey. Students will cover transportation and food

The $170.05 course fee is eligible for tuition remission.

Yuja Workshop

Yuja is MATC's video creation and editing tool. In the Yuja workshop, participants will learn how to import, create, caption, and edit video content. They will apply what they learn by creating, captioning, and editing video during the workshop. This workshop is offered in M201 (Center for Teaching Excellence), and is limited to 12 participants.  

Thursday, 10/10/24, 10:30am-1:30pm, Face-to-Face Only (M201A)

Ally Workshop

Ally is a tool integrated with Blackboard Ultra that helps improve the accessibility of documents, images, text, and tables for students. In this session, you will learn how Ally benefits students, practice using Ally to address common file accessibility barriers, and explore Alternative File Download formats, such as speech-to-text MP3 audio, and text translation to over 71 languages. 

Monday, 10/7/24, 11am-1pm, Virtual or Face-to-Face (M 201A–Downtown)

Thursday, 10/17/24, 6pm-8pm, Virtual or Face-to-Face (M 201A–Downtown)

COS Reboot Workshop
This workshop is intended for those who edit the Course Outcome Summary (COS) in WIDS and would like to learn more about writing Learning Objectives, Course Competencies, and Criteria. The Center is hosting a workshop to address how to write these. Attend virtually, or you can attend in-person at the Milwaukee campus in M201 (CTE).
 
Friday, 10/11/24, 11:30am-1:30pm, , Virtual or Face-to-Face (M 201A–Downtown)

Teaching & Assessing Career Essentials

This workshop will provide guidance on how to teach and assess career essentials based on the current rubrics. Participants will learn how to find the assigned career essential(s) for their course, identify the correct rubric, and assign it to an assessment in their course in Blackboard. 

Wednesday, 10/16/24, 12pm-1pm, Virtual or Face-to-Face (M 201A–Downtown)

Collaboration Connection:

MATC Day: Workshop Registration is Open!

MATC Day is Tuesday, October 15. SumTotal registration is now open for the day’s workshops. Full agenda: 

  • General session with MATC President Dr. Anthony Cruz and members of the Executive Leadership Team
  • PACE discussions
  • Keynote by Dr. Terrell Strayhorn on “Building Belonging: Fostering Mattering and Connections on Campus & Beyond”  
  • A free box lunch with designated time to connect with colleaguesEight workshop options to support your growth and development (select two)

Friendly Reminders:

Progress Grades for 16 and 12 week courses are due on Thursday, 10/3/2024
 
8 Week sections (2nd set) begin soon! The second-set of 8-week classes begins on Sunday, 10/13 for many of us. If you are teaching an 8 week section, thanks for supporting this important initiative that is key to many of our students’ success!

Fast Fund Volunteer Opportunity

FAST Fund is looking for current and former MATC faculty to volunteer and assist with processing student applications for emergency financial assistance. This is a flexible, remote opportunity that allows you to contribute as much or as little time as you'd like, whether on weekends or a few days a week.

Volunteers will help ensure that student requests are handled quickly and efficiently. This is a great way to connect with students and see firsthand the impact the FAST Fund makes in their lives. With an easy-to-use application portal and streamlined process, it's never been easier to get involved!

Keeping You Posted:

Our goal with Center Connections is to keep you informed, not only about Center’s work, but to help you navigate other college-wide initiatives that directly impact faculty.

Withdrawal Appeal Process

To streamline the appeals process, a simple workflow is now created when the student makes the appeal request; the request then moves to the faculty member for feedback and recommendation of approval or denial, then to the AD /Dean for the final approval / denial and finally if approved to registration / financial aid or back to the student / & faculty if denied. This new process removes the need to manually send emails.

Hispanic Heritage Month: September 15 - October 15

Hispanic Heritage Month, a time of celebration of Hispanic and Latino culture, has begun. Use this time to educate, connect, and to cultivate appreciation and understanding of Hispanic and Latino culture with inspiration from the lesson plans at Share My Lesson.

Additional Professional Learning Opportunities:

2024 WTCS Faculty Summit Proposal Submission

The Wisconsin Technical College System Office is excited to host the second Faculty Summit! This fully virtual, free event is focused on innovations throughout the system, and is intended for faculty, presented by faculty, with topics that impact faculty!

We invite you to share new ideas that you've implemented in the classroom that resulted in positive impacts on students. Innovations may come from new classroom activities, integration of "take aways" from previous professional learning, trial & error experiences, faculty fellows projects, professional learning community activities, action research, scholarly research, etc.

We encourage sessions that connect to the core Faculty Quality Assurance System (FQAS) focuses of: Curriculum & Assessment, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Student Success, Teaching Methods

The summit is being held over two days, offering different times to support everyone, full and part time/adjunct faculty:

Wednesday, November 13, evening sessions

Friday, November 15, morning sessions

 Submissions for proposals to present are now open! Submit by October 4th

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Inspiration, Research, and Best Practices

Part of The Center’s mission is to keep you informed about current best practices and pedagogical approaches. Each issue of Center Connections includes links that are meant to be engaging, thought-provoking, and applicable to various classroom environments. For information on MATC's free access to Magna Commons publications, please see The Center's website.   Enjoy the rabbit hole!

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