Tools and Resources

The purpose of this activity is for participants or students to get to know each other as individuals with distinct histories, backgrounds, and traditions. Knowing something personal about others helps learning communities and teams function more effectively.

The Where I'm From icebreaker activity was developed based on a poem by George Ella Lyon (http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html). This teaching activity is described in: Christensen, Linda (1998) Inviting Student Lives into the Classroom: Where I'm From. Rethinking Schools, 12(2): 22-23. Available on-line at: https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/where-i-m-from/

This resource provides a definition of diversity and explores the rationale for advocating for diversity within educational settings. It serves as a guide to better understand the advantages of intentionally integrating diversity, in terms of representation, perspectives, and experiences into the learning environment.

Faculty testimonials about reasons why other faculty might want to work with the faculty consultants at the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, our teaching center.

A teaching philosophy is more than an instructor’s beliefs about teaching and learning and paints a picture of what it is like to be a student in the course. It explains why a faculty member does what they do in their courses. It can be a foundational document for course design, narrative statements, and self-reflection.

A teaching philosophy is typically a 1-2-page narrative. It describes how learning happens in a course through examples learning activities, instructor- and student-student interactions, assessments. See Writing a Teaching Philosophy.

This is an example of a rubric that can be used to grade writing assignments. It can be adapted to specific writing assignments. The use of a rubric helps to make grading more accurate and consistent and helps students to create higher quality assignments.