Overview

We are so excited to host you for the Spring 2025 Semester Spark, which will take place on January 14-15, 2025, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., at Rocky Top Student Center on York Hill. Each day will focus on meaningful changes you can make in the spring 2025 semester to care for your students, care for yourself, and level up your syllabus and assignments.

The event will conclude by kicking off the One Book, One University initiative with a keynote address by Catherine J. Denial, author of A Pedagogy of Kindness. 

Day Breakdown

Day 1: "Care"

The first day of Semester Spark will center care as a necessary tool for teaching success. Sessions will be focused on building relationship-rich educational dynamics with students and colleagues, mental health and the classroom, self-care and personal wellbeing for faculty, and tools for work-life balance.

After participating in Day 1 of Semester Spark, you should be able to:

• Discuss the relationship between care, community, and learning
• Explain ways to support student mental health
• Identify mechanisms for faculty self-care
• Deploy time management tools to sustain yourself and your pedagogical practice throughout the semester

What you’ll need: Laptop, phone, preferred note-taking mechanism

What we’ll provide: Lunch & beverages

Schedule:

10:00 a.m.: Welcome

10:30 a.m. - Noon: How to Support Student Mental Health as Faculty with Penny Leisring, Professor of Psychology

12:15 - 1:15 p.m.: Lunch

1:30 - 2:30 p.m.: Breakout Sessions

1. Time Management Tech Tools for Faculty
2. Introduction to Transparent Design with Sara Rzeszutek, Director for Faculty Advancement in Teaching Excellence

2:45 - 4:00 p.m.: Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab: Reflection and Planning with Jennifer Dauphinais, Assistant Teaching Professor of Education

Day 2: "Change"

The second day of Semester Spark will focus on changes you’d like to make to your course materials before the start of spring 2025 classes. Whether you’d like to update your syllabi to reflect new ideas, upgrade your assignment design, or level up your use of artificial intelligence in your teaching practice, day two will give you the opportunity to make some of those changes.

After participating in Day 2 of Semester Spark, you should be able to:

• Apply components of day one’s focus on care to your spring 2025 courses
• Revise assignments to ensure transparency, equity, and improved processes for you and your students
• Create an AI policy for your syllabus that aligns with your needs
• Discuss themes from A Pedagogy of Kindness that support student and faculty wellbeing

What you’ll need: Laptop, phone, preferred note-taking mechanism, a syllabus you’d like to workshop, an assignment you’d like to workshop

What we’ll provide: Lunch & beverages; guiding documents for sessions

Schedule:

10:00 a.m.: Welcome

10:15 - 11:45 a.m.: Transforming Your Student Instructions and Policies for the AI Era with Adam Nemeroff, Alex D'Adamo, and Joel Vanner

Noon - 12:45 p.m.: Lunch

12:45 - 2:15 p.m.: Breakout Sessions

1. Using AI to Build Rubrics with Caitlin Hanlon, Associate Professor of Biology and QUWACT Fellow
2. Assignment Charette with Sara Rzeszutek, Director for Faculty Advancement in Teaching Excellence

2:30 - 4:00 p.m.: One Book, One University Kickoff - Keynote Address by A Pedagogy of Kindness author Catherine J. Denial - Thanks to a generous grant from the CT Office of Higher Education to provide comprehensive training for faculty, staff, and students in culturally sensitive and inclusive mental health support.

View the full program for Day 1 & Day 2 on our website: QILT.qu.edu/SparkSP25

Email Sara Rzeszutek sara.rzeszutek@quinnipiac.edu with questions.

Learn more about Innovations in Learning and Teaching: qu.edu/QILT.