2018 is off to a pretty amazing start. I’m settled into the familiar rhythm of a new semester and excited to be planning work with new and familiar institutions.

I’ll be taking the Teaching and Learning Project in some slightly different directions this year, as well as sticking to my long-standing goals for the work. In just a few weeks, I’ll be heading to Brown University to work with staff at the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. I’m delighted to be photographing, among other things, faculty involved in a number of their certificate programs – including reflective teaching. 

In April, I’ll be working with staff at Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation. I’ll also be collaborating staff at Penn Stat University’s Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, curating an exhibition of photographs I made on their campuses in 2014 and 2015. The prints will be featured at a celebration of teaching and learning later this fall.

I’m also looking forward to co-facilitating a workshop on the Teaching and Learning Project at the International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED) conference in June. Cassandra Horii, my longtime partner in the project, and I will be talking about the use of photographs in educational development and institutional change.

I’ve been working on the Teaching and Learning Project for about 12 years now, and it’s been pretty exciting to see the work grow and evolve in this time. Every institution I’ve worked with has had a slightly different use for the photographs – from faculty consultation to promotion of programs to more meta reflection on the importance of teaching and learning on their campuses. The University of Michigan, one of my most recent visits (and the location of the photograph above), first put their photographs to use in training for learning assistants – to identify “the importance of non verbal behaviors like smiling, eye contact, acting out visualizations, etc., as key to building rapport and trust with students”.

I’m looking forward to the next stage(s) of this project, and working with more institutions as the year progresses.