“When things are taking their ordinary course, it is hard to remember what matters.”
– Marilynne Robinson
In recent weeks, the CTL staff have been reflecting upon what we have learned over the course of the inaugural year of our center. It goes without saying that the past twelve months presented us all with a host of obstacles and setbacks, but there have been bright spots as well. Significantly, each of us has expressed gratitude for the many friendships and partnerships that we have formed.
Thanks are due to the faculty, graduate students, and staff who contributed to our programming, to the many departments who invited us to deliver workshops, to the members of our learning communities, to folks who reached out for consultations, to colleagues who helped us spread the word about our events, to experts who shared their knowledge and pointed us to great resources, to our regular participants, to those who attended a single event, and to all who filled out surveys or otherwise provided us with invaluable feedback. It has been a true privilege to work with educators across our campus to advance the teaching mission of our university.
On behalf of the CTL staff, I wish you all a restorative summer and look forward to further collaborations in the coming academic year.
With gratitude,
Kirk Ambrose
Founding Faculty Director
The CTL will take a break from publishing this newsletter and offering regularly scheduled programming this summer, but we're not going anywhere! Check out some of our summer programs below, and book us anytime for consultations or department trainings. Keep an eye out for information about August offerings later this summer, including the Equitable Teaching Conference, Fall Intensive, and themed workshops.
Looking Back
Fostering Equity
AssessingU: Summer Assessment Tasks
Looking Ahead
Pause for a Poem
Excerpted from "The Path to the Milky Way Leads through Los Angeles," by Joy Harjo
I’d rather understand how to sing from a crow
who was never good at singing or much of anything
but finding gold in the trash of humans.
So what are we doing here I ask the crow parading on the ledge of falling that
hangs over the precarious city?
Crow just laughs and says wait, wait and see and I am waiting and not seeing
anything, not just yet.
But like crow I collect the shine of anything beautiful I can find.