Tbers, 

I work a lot with many of our new faculty. Many are extremely overworked,
but I've never really known what, if anything, could be done for them.  When
I suggest technologies that might help, many worry about using technology to
streamline their course fearing it will be perceived as diluting quality.
Recently I received an email from Pete Dinardo on this issue (see below).

Is anyone on this list willing to coordinate a Teaching Breakfast meeting
around this idea?

As a reminder, our first TB get together is Sept. 6 in Morris hall at 8 am.
Dr. Terry Helser will be leading a discussion on "Promoting Learning in
Performance Classes/Labs."  In case you misplaced them, here are the dates
and times for our TB sessions this year.  All sessions are in Morris Hall at
8 am.  Please come if you can:

Sept. 6 
Oct 5 
Nov 1 
Dec 7 

Feb 7 
March 8 
April 11 
May 3  


Pete's post:

      I¹ve had some very disheartening conversations with some of our newer
faculty, and I have some poorly formed thoughts about them.   The main theme
is that they are overwhelmed by the heavy teaching load that they have. Some
of them have even considered passing up really interesting opportunities for
scholarly growth because of their course workload.  I realize that some of
this will abate as they develop a set of materials for their courses, and
are not faced with new preps every semester.  OF course, there is the bigger
issue of whether this workload is reasonable in the first place.    But part
of the problem is that it doesn¹t occur to them, (or they are fearful of
even thinking about) the possibility of reducing their workload by altering
assignments, tests, etc. in their classes.  This seems to be a taboo subject
because I think we all have a tendency to think that streamlining your
courses means that you are compromising on quality.  Anyway, as usual I
don¹t have any answers, but it might be helpful to have one or two of the
meetings focus on the issue of saving time and energy in your courses..I
think that lots of people have things that they do to make things more
efficient.


Jim Greenberg

P.S.  Thank you to Provost Dan Larkin for supporting the Teaching
Breakfast's efforts.