Teaching & Learning Center: Professional Development

Transforming the Teaching and Learning Environment Virtual Conference, Feb. 5-16

Academic Affairs has provided access to this virtual conference to all faculty and staff! To view the virtual sessions, visit the conference website. To register for a session, click on the session link and register using your Vol State email address. Then, check your email for the direct link to that session. In addition, Vol State has access to all sessions from previous conferences through the Sessions Library. 

About the Conference: ​​​​​​The 16th annual Transforming the Teaching & Learning Environment virtual conference will be held February 5-16, 2024. Over the course of ten weekdays, 60 one-hour sessions will be delivered using Zoom. Each one will be live and interactive, giving attendees the opportunity to engage with education professionals from all over the world. Topics can range from gamification to mobile learning to flipped classroom to emerging technologies and many more.

TBR Advising Academy, Feb. 29-March 1

The 2024 Advising Academy is scheduled for February 29 – March 1, 2024 at TCAT Murfreesboro, Smyrna Campus. This year's theme is Reaching Peak Performance to focus on near-peer mentoring and at-risk students. Please visit the webpage to obtain more information about keynote presenters, conference schedule, etc. The deadline to register is February 5. 

Google Cloud Skills Boost generative AI learning path

• Virtual, asynchronous. Free. Ongoing, without a closing date.
• This learning path guides you through a curated collection of content on generative AI products and technologies, from the fundamentals of Large Language Models to how to create and deploy generative AI solutions on Google Cloud.
  

VSCC Creative Writing Seminars Spring 2024

Sponsored by the Thigpen Library

Contact: Becky Frank of Catherine Berresheim

This group is open to all faculty, staff, and students and will meet the 2nd Thursday of the month from 1:00-2:30 at the Thigpen Library.

Feb. 8, 2024, “On Reality and Fiction” presented by Jaime Sanchez, presented by Associate Professor of English.

More than two thousand years ago, Plato indicated that art is mimetic by nature, and it presents a distorted imitation of reality. This idea carries legal, aesthetic, and ethical implications that must be considered in creative writing. In this session participants will discuss and respond to prompts related to what constitutes reality and the points to consider when writing fiction, particularly in characterization, setting, and social context. The concepts of verisimilitude and logic within a writing piece will also be discussed.

Meet in Teaching and Learning Center room 224

March 14, 2024, “Words That Heal: Writing to Transform Trauma into Art,” presented by Catherine Berresheim, MFA, Associate Professor of English.

The psychological work incurred when someone is writing about a traumatic experience is daunting. As the writer writes about the event, she is also processing what happened and why. This is often healing. This feeling of well-being is not just simply because a burden has been lifted in the ‘dear diary’ confessional format. Certain writing techniques promote healing, thereby transforming trauma into literary art.

Participants will engage in a series of writing prompts, sometimes in combination with a visual art exercise. Each prompt is preceded by a short lecture on how to define trauma and ways it manifests in our work. Other topics include writing basics, like narration, description, dialogue, sense of place, and of course, what constitutes a healing narrative. This workshop is a balance of generative creative writing work, lecture, and a playful art.

Meet in Teaching and Learning Center room 224

April 11, 2024 TBA

Community Writing Seminars, Spring 2024

These two events are open to VSCC faculty, staff, students, and the community.

February 23, 2024, from 10-11:30, "Writing for Their Lives: Lessons Learned on Death Row,” presented by Catherine Berresheim, MFA, Associate Professor of English.

Ms. Berresheim has been in and out of a variety of prisons for more than decade. Even though she was accustomed to being in these penitentiaries, she wasn’t prepared for the foreboding atmosphere of Unit Two at Riverbend Maximum Security Institute—otherwise known as Death Row. Nor was she expecting to encounter the abundance of artistic talent within those cinder block walls and the lessons they held on teaching and practicing the art of creative writing.

In this workshop, she will share what she learned from teaching creative witting on the inside. The session will begin with a quick overview about this unique environment and prison literature as a genre. Then we will explore the writer’s purpose, read, and analyze a few examples of the prison student’s work, and see how writing offers a sense of well-being, even in the darkest of places. Meet in the Rochelle Center in the Thigpen Library. Refreshments will be served.

Creative Writing Showcase on April 16, 2024, from 6:00-7:30.

Join us for faculty, staff, and student readings showcasing the semester’s work. Meet in the Rochelle Center at the Thigpen Library. Refreshments will be served.