Purpose of the Program
The Second Friday Teaching Talks is a monthly gathering of Rider faculty willing to share their knowledge and explore collaborative solutions to issues around teaching and learning. Faculty will talk about teaching and learning, and students’ success and engagement. We will have scheduled discussions led by colleagues on specific topics.
Outcomes of the Program
Provide opportunities and space for faculty to collaborate on a project that improves teaching and student learning, to discuss effective practices in teaching and to enhance collegiality among faculty.
Program Schedule
Fall 2024 – Spring 2025 (Second Friday)
Friday, October 11, 2024 12:40 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Topic: LGBTQ+ Competence and Humility!
Join us for an engaging discussion, and opportunities to learn how we can all become better allies supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and queer (LGBTQ+) students. Dina Castillo (She/They), Healthy Relationships Coordinator and Kaleidoscope Advocate, and Carson Eckard (He/Him/His), Community Resource Coordinator at the PRIDE Center will guide us to explore terminology, the importance of affirming pronouns and care, the need to invest in safe spaces, and how to effectively engage in allyship!
Past Talks
Friday, October 13, 2023 12:30 P.M. to 1:30 P.M.
Topic: Academic Integrity in the Era of ChatGPT: Navigating the Challenges of AI-driven Teaching and Learning
Presenter: Sharon Yang (University Libraries)
Faculty are recommended to set very clear guidelines and expectations about ChatGPT, but Rider has no universal policy for or against ChatGPT. It is up to individual instructors to determine how it can be used or not used in your courses. Please join Sharon Yang's presentation on the issues of academic integrity regarding ChatGPT and other AI applications, as well as how educational institutions are adapting to this innovation. The discussion will encompass the guidelines and policies implemented by other colleges and universities when dealing with AI applications, along with the steps taken by faculty to preserve academic integrity. Please join us for an important discussion.
Friday, February 17, 2023 12:40 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Topic: Slower is Faster: Strategies to Support Student Mental Health and Engagement Part II
Panelist: Terry Pertuit (Graduate Education, Leadership and Counseling)
The January TLC Forum attendees have requested to bring Dr. Terry Pertuit back to continue the dialogue and collectively discuss to raise awareness of students' mental health issues in the aftermath of the pandemic, to provide practical approaches to supporting students' mental health to promote learning and engagement, and to provide direct guidance on how to help those students in need. Participants will be asked to review the previous workshop recording offered on January 18, 2023 prior to the Teaching Talk.
Friday, November 11, 2022 12:40 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Topic: The Faculty Affiliate Program
Panel: Barbara J. Lawrence (Chief Diversity Officer) and Sarah Trocchio (Faculty Affiliate for the Chief Diversity Officer and Department of Sociology and Criminology)
The Division of Justice, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (JDEI) launched the inaugural Faculty Affiliate program to provide support and visibility for Rider faculty that are engaged in work that aligns with the mission and aims of the new division. The establishment of the Faculty Affiliates Program provides infrastructure to and resources toward creating a sustainable capacity-building model for diversity and inclusion at Rider. Please come to learn about the structure and purpose of the Faculty Affiliate Program, and highlights of the current initiatives and how to get involved.
Friday, April 8, 2022 12:40 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Topic: Learning More About Your Students through EAB Navigate System
Panel: Shane Conto (Academic Success Center), Brooke Hunter (College of Arts and Sciences' Dean's Office), Bryan Spiegelberg (Chemistry and Biochemistry), and Maria Villalobos-Buehner (Languages, Literatures and Cultures)
Thank you to those who submitted a Progress Report. Have you wondered what happens after you alert in the report? Please come to learn the "EAB Navigate" platform, which is the home of our Progress Report and many more features. Please join our panelists to learn about how EAB Navigate improved their processes and transformed the lives of our students, how Navigate helps faculty learn more about a student to better inform one-on-one interactions, and how we all can positively and proactively identify and support students.
Friday, November 12, 2021 1:00 P.M. to 2:30 P.M.
Topic: The Black Male Student Experience at Rider Part II
Panel: Kevin Baggett (Athletics), Kendall Friedman (Academic Success Center), Brad Litchfield (Provost office), Judge Marc A. McKithen (Board of Trustees), Nicholas McLeod (History), Charles Ray (Accounting), Reggie Walker (Educational Opportunity Program), and Matthew West (Academic Success Center)
What is it like to navigate the reality of being a black male at Rider, and what do they need to thrive on campus? Panelists shared the results of focus group sessions and the narratives of black male student's overall campus experiences during the TLC Forum in August, 2021. Over 100 faculty and staff attendees have requested to bring the panelists back to continue the dialogue and collectively discuss ways to better support this group of students.
Friday, November 8, 2019 12:40 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Topic: Importance of Teaching Creativity
Panel: Roberta Clipper (English), Nathan Hurwitz (Theatre and Dance), and Elizabeth Radziszewski (Political Science)
Is creativity teachable? Can students learn to be more creative? Please join the panelists to learn about how to help students develop creative thinking skills in the classroom, and help students apply this in their own learning contexts. Faculty panelists will discuss the importance of developing students' creativity, and share how to foster students' creativity.
Friday, October 11, 2019 12:40pm to 2:00 pm
Topic: Teaching and Mentoring International and Multilingual Students
Panel: Mary Amato (Director of International Auxiliary Services), Amy Atkinson (Writing Studio Coordinator), Iwona Ionescu (ESL specialist tutor at Writing Studio), Megan Titus (composition Coordinator) and Sara Young-Singh (Director of the Center for International Education)
Come and learn about Rider's international and multilingual student populations. During this Teaching Talk, we will discuss how our international and multilingual students experience Rider's campus, the resources and supports the University has in place, and how faculty can further offer support in the classroom.
Friday, April 12, 2019 12:40 pm to 2:00 pm
Topic: Strategies to Help Our Students Become Efficient, Active, and Critical Readers
Panel: Marty Beilin (College Reading), Kendall Friedman (Academic Success Center), Shane Conto (Academic Success Center), Martha Higginbotham (Academic Success Center), and Kyle Houser (Academic Success Center)
Please join the Coordinator of the College Reading courses and the Academic Success Center professional staff and tutors in a discussion of the impact that modeling and applying interactive reading strategies in the classroom and in tutoring sessions has on student learning. Panelists will share information regarding incoming students' reading proficiency as well as strategies that can enhance comprehension and analysis of difficult texts.
Friday, March 8, 2019 12:40 pm to 2:00 pm
Topic: Enhancing Students' Learning through Self and Peer Assessment
Panel: Laurel Harris (English), Megan Titus (English), and Todd Weber (Biology)
Developing metacognitive habits of mind is key to sustained learning. If we assume that metacognition is key to deep learning, what can we do as educators to help develop these skills? Faculty panelists will examine the role of self-assessment and peer assessment as one pathway for supporting the development of metacognition, and share how to empower students to take responsibility for and manage their own learning through self-assessment and peer assessment. We invite you to join faculty panelists to learn about how to engage students a deeper understanding of the material and further insight into their own work through the evaluative process, and allow students to actively construct their learning.
Friday, February 8, 2019 12:40 pm to 2:00 pm
Topic: Reflective Journaling as a Metacognitive Tool to Deepen Student's Learning
Panel: Kathy Browne (GEMS), Heather Casey (Teacher Education), and Susan O'Sullivan-Gavin (Marketing, Sport Management and Legal Studies)
Developing metacognitive habits of mind is key to sustained learning. If we assume that metacognition is key to deep learning, what can we do as educators to help develop these skills? Faculty panelists will examine the role of reflective journaling as one pathway for supporting the development of metacognition, share activities, explore strategies for integrating reflective journaling into courses, and discuss issues in teaching and learning that may be addressed by making students aware of their cognitive processes. We invite you to join faculty panelists to learn about and share ideas regarding specific strategies, assignments, and tools that can be used to facilitate learning in the metacognitive dimension.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Topic: Maximizing Engagement in Online Synchronous Sessions and Online Office Hours
Panel: Emre Yetgin (Information Systems, Analytics, and Supply Chain Management) and Trevor Buser (Graduate Education, Leadership and Counseling)
There may be times during the semester when classes are cancelled due to inclement weather, conference presentation, or personal illness. One way to conduct classes and connect with students during a disruption (without scheduling a make-up course) is by moving your class online. In addition, moving office hours online may get students to show up. However, synchronous sessions in online teaching and online office hours can be a challenge to manage. Faculty panelists will share tips and best practices for leading an effective sync session and online office hour as part of your course.
Friday, October 12, 2018
Topic: Strategies to Helping Disengaged Students with Unexpected or Disturbing Behaviors
Panel: Magui Pérez-Garrido (Languages, Literatures and Cultures), Kathleen Pierce (Graduate Education, Leadership, & Counseling), Richard Zdan (Sociology and Criminology), and Barbara Blandford and Chris Psolka (Student Accessibility and Support Services)
Faculty members are sometimes faced with student behavior that is troublesome to them in their role of maintaining an effective learning environment. While no one set of strategies offer a students with unexpected, distracted, or disruptive behaviors, some pedagogical approaches might work better when managing class and responding to students. Please join us to learn how faculty panelists adapt or adjust their pedagogical approaches to support all kinds of learners and maintain student engagement. The Office of Student Accessibility and Support Services will offer additional ideas and guidance.
Friday, April 13, 2018
Topic: Creating Safe and Supportive Classrooms for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Students
Educators are often unsure how to address bias around sexual orientation and gender identity, and support their lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and queer (LGBTQ+) students in a meaningful way in the classroom. Through inclusive practices, we can create a respectful and welcoming environment for all students in safe, empowering classrooms. Our faculty panel will share practices and strategies for creating supportive and inclusive spaces that welcome all students.
Panel: Justin Burton (Music), Melissa Hofmann (Moore Library), and Erica Ryan (History)
Friday, February 9, 2018
Topic: Strategies for Developing Students' Group Work Skills
Even when faced with well-structured group work, students frequently struggle because they lack the skills necessary for working successfully in a team or group. Training students in group management skills helps them avoid many of these problems. Please join us to learn about strategies for developing students' team and group work skills. Our faculty panel will share practices and strategies for developing students’ skills in leadership, followership, communication, and conflict management, to ensure that their projects are done well and on-time.
Panel: Quinn Cunningham (Management), Myra Gutin (Communication), and Peter Hester (Teacher Education)
Friday, December 8, 2017
Topic: Globalization Into the Curriculum
One of Rider University’s learning outcomes is for students to develop Global/multicultural perspectives. What are we doing to foster global awareness in our classrooms? Please join us to learn about ways to engaging students to think historically, communicate effectively across culture, and utilizing critical thinking skills that take globalization issues into consideration. The faculty panel will share teaching strategies for integrating globalization into the courses.
Panel: Joel Feldman (Philosophy), German Cardenas-Alaminos (Theatre and Dance), and Frank Rusciano (Political Science)
Friday, November 10, 2017
Topic: Cross-Over Learning: Learning Beyond the Classroom
The concept of cross-over learning refers to connecting students’ experiences gained in diverse learning events, and help to transfer learning and experience across settings. Please join us to learn about ways to engage our students in work that extends beyond the classroom boundaries. This faculty panel will discuss how to link classroom learning with events and experiences outside of the classroom. Panelists will share their successes and challenges in a format that allows for audience engagement.
Panel: Tami Musumeci-Szabo (Psychology), Allison Weidhaas (Communications and Journalism), and Nancy Wiencek (Communications and Journalism)
Friday, October 13, 2017
Topic: Getting to Know First-Year Students: From Freshman Seminar Leaders
Join colleagues who have taught Freshman Seminar for many years as they discuss how the seminar is designed to help freshmen transition to college and provide a foundation for their success both academically and socially.
Panel: Melissa Anderson (University Advancement), Kendall Friedman (Academic Success Center), Ira Mayo (Student Affairs), and Debbie Stasolla (President's Office)
Friday, April 14, 2017
Topic: Service Learning: A Discussion on Engaged Learning
Service Learning enriches the student's life by engaging him/her in meaningful hands-on service to address real-life needs in the community while also gaining valuable knowledge and skills that connect with classroom studies. In addition, Service Learning (Civic and Community Engagement) is a one of key categories of Rider’s Engaged Learning Program. Please come and join us as the participants from TLC’s Summer 2016 Course Design Institute discuss their Fall 2016 service learning projects. Learn how faculty setting up service-learning courses and the specific challenges and rewards of service-learning. Also, the Engaged Learning Committee will be there to introduce the program.
Panel: Brooke Hunter (History), Kathleen Pierce (Graduate Education, Leadership, and Counseling), Joan Liptrot (Student Affairs), Susan Dougherty (Teacher Education), and Jan Friedman-Krupnick (Student Affairs)
Friday, March 10, 2017
Topic: Pedagogies in Teaching a Master Class
A master class is a unique pedagogical situation in which a professor or performer is entrusted to teach one student in front of an audience, with all in attendance expected to learn from witnessing the exchange. A master class involves the class group auditing an individual's detailed consultation with a 'master' on work in progress. In this way, general points are demonstrated and iteratively developed through worked examples. Please join us for discussion on recognizing what a master class teaching looks like, how to give public feedback and how to keep the attention of all of the students while you are working with one student.
Panel: Mariann Cook (Theatre and Dance), and Nova Thomas (Voice)
Friday, February 10, 2017
Topic: A Conversation on Flipping the Classrooms
The flipped classroom has become a popular term in higher education during past few years. What does “flipped” mean? Is the term related only to leveraging technology (i.e., videos of lectures) or active, student-centered, collaborative learning strategies? Please come and join us as the participants from TLC’s 2016 Summer Course Design Institute discuss what they are doing now, how they’ve evolved and how they each learned to teach in the flipped learning environment. Learn how faculty can help students to contribute more to class discussions.
Panel: Polly Dell'Omo (Mathematics), Jamie Ludwig (Chemistry), and Helen Sullivan (Psychology)
Friday, December 9, 2016
Topic: Culturally Responsive Teaching
What is culturally responsive teaching? What can I do to create an inclusive environment for a culturally diverse student body? How can I effectively engage all students within a classroom? The notion of culturally responsive teaching is premised on the idea that culture is central to student learning. The culturally responsive teaching recognizes, respects, and uses students' identities and backgrounds as meaningful sources for creating optimal learning environments. Please join us for discussion on recognizing what culturally responsive teaching looks like, and how your own cultural background may affect your perceptions of what students know and are able to do.
Panel: Tracey Garrett (Teacher Education), Stephanie Jacobs (Counseling Services), and Maria Villalobos-Buehner (Languages, Literature and Cultures)
Friday, November 11, 2016.
Topic: Meaningful Education
What makes education meaningful? What were your best educational experiences and what made these valuable to you? Please join us in an important conversation about what makes education meaningful. This session will begin with a discussion of our educational experiences, and will broaden and deepen the conversation with some of the themes that impact the meaningfulness of educational experiences for our students.
Panel: Kendall Friedman (Student Success Center), and Gene Kutcher (Management)
Friday, October 14, 2016
Topic: Engaging Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom
Teaching with technology can deepen student learning and get more students engaged. However, it can be challenging to select the “best” tech tools while not losing sight of your goals for student learning. Please join us as panelists will highlight some great ways to best utilize technology in the classroom to enrich students learning. Please come to learn from the panels and share what creative and constructive ways to integrate technology into your class.
Faculty Panel: Janet Cape (Music Education), Michael G. Curran, Jr (Teacher Education) & Susan A. O'Sullivan-Gavin (Marketing, Advertising and Legal Studies)
Friday, September 9, 2016
Topic: Faculty Roles in Students Crises
What are warning signs of disruptive student behavior? How should you respond to a student who is troubled and showing signs of distress? How should you respond to a disruptive student? What are some signs a student may be in distress? Faculty members are increasingly confronted with challenging situations and student crises that require effective responses and timely action. Join us for an informal question and answer session designed to help you recognize students in distress and make appropriate referrals for assistance to campus and community resources.
Panels: Jim Castagnera (Academic Affairs), Nadine Marty (Counseling Services), Ira Mayo (Student Affairs) and Susan Stahley (Alcohol/Drug & Sexual Assault Prevention)
Friday, March 11, 2016
Topic: A Conversation on Flipping the Classrooms
The flipped classroom has become a popular term in higher education during past few years. What does “flipped” mean? Is the term related only to leveraging technology (i.e., videos of lectures) or active, student-centered, collaborative learning strategies? Please come and join us as the participants from TLC’s 2015 Summer Course Design Institute discuss what they are doing now, how they’ve evolved and how they each learned to teach in the flipped learning environment.
Faculty Panels: Tricia Nolfi (Graduate Education, Leadership, and Counseling), Betsy Haywood-Sullivan (Accounting), Magui Pérez-Garrido (Languages, Literatures, & Culture) and Nancy Weber (Chemistry)
Friday, February 12, 2016
Topic: Building Relationships with Students to Support Academic Success
Research has shown that instructor-student rapport is important for class attendance, student attention, student effort and student interest in the course material. How do you develop positive relationships with your students? Do you feel it is difficult, or that students don't appreciate your effort to deliver course material? Please join us for a discussion of strategies that can help you build positive relationships with your students in support of their academic success.
Faculty Panels: Julie Drawbridge (Biology) and Shawn Kildea (Communication and Journalism)
Friday, November 13, 2015
Topic: Facilitating Classroom Discussions
Do you find it difficult to get students to participate in a classroom discussion? How can you begin to elicit meaningful student discussions? Then, join us as former winners of the Distinguished Teaching Award share their tips and strategies for facilitating effective and meaningful classroom discussions. Each panelist will share some thoughts about his or her own practice. Then, there will be time for questions and answers and more discussion so that attendees can leave the session with some ideas to incorporate into their teaching practice.
Faculty Panels: Robbie Clipper (English), Tracey Garrett (Teacher Education), Betsy Haywood-Sullivan (Accounting), Joel Phillips (Music Theory and Composition), and Jim Riggs (Biology)
Friday, October 9, 2015
Topic: Transfer of Learning from Composition to the Disciplines
Do you have a writing assignment for one of your courses? Are you teaching an upper-level course or a research course? Are you wondering how the composition courses are going? Then, please come and learn about the composition courses curriculum and course activities. Faculty members from the Composition program will share what CMP students are learning, and how faculty would be able to take those skills and transfer them to discipline-specific courses.
Faculty Panels: Megan Titus (Director of the Composition Program), Vanita Neelakanta (Chair of the Composition Program Committee), Mary Amato (Instructor), and Joy Allingham (Instructor)
Friday, September 11, 2015
Topic: Discussing difficult topics in the classroom
Please come to discuss the challenge of leading classroom discussions on difficult topics, such as issues of social justice, race, class, gender, sexuality, politics, and so forth. It is very challenging to foster a classroom environment safe enough that students feel comfortable engaging in discussion, yet risky enough to challenge them to explore new perspectives. Please come to share what strategies could be used to manage difficult conversation in the classroom.
Faculty Panel: Richard Burgh (Philosophy)
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Topic: High Impact Practices at Rider
Learn how faculty members empower students to take ownership of their learning using high impact practices. This forum will focus on examples of how high-impact practices — such as undergraduate research, common intellectual experiences, service learning and learning community — can be integrated into students’ learning experiences from the first-year through graduation at Rider.
Faculty Panels: Michael Brogan (Political Science), Hope Corman (Economics), Margaret Cusack (Voice), Brooke Hunter (History), Tamara Musumeci-Szabo (Psychology), Anne Osborne (History), Victor Thompson (Sociology), Barry Truchil (Sociology), and Todd Weber (Biology)