Sessions

Marshall Room 103 is in the center of the building on the first floor with no windows. Even when it is nice out,  you wouldn’t know it. Through a mini-grant from the Faculty Development Center, Dr. Silander integrated elements of nature into the classroom environment to enhance students’ physiological and psychological well-being. Research has shown that exposure to nature can significantly reduce anxiety and stress (Hunter et al., 2019; Bratman et al., 2015), enhance mood, and increase focus (Berman et al., 2008; Bratman et al., 2012). By incorporating nature sounds, imagery, and plants, this project sought to create a calming and restorative classroom atmosphere, particularly beneficial in a windowless classroom setting. By integrating nature into the classroom, students can potentially improve their well-being and academic performance. Results from data over the Fall 2025 semester will be shared. 

This workshop explores how the principles of Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead can be practically applied within higher education institutions to significantly improve staff/faculty success and student support. Unproductive committee work and unclear student communication are major contributors to burnout; this session offers actionable strategies to address both.

Participants will learn how to shift their teams and committees from conflict-avoidance to "rumbling with vulnerability." This is a key skill for building resilient intra-institutional teams and fostering psychological safety. We will examine how the BRAVING trust inventory can be utilized to hold clear, empathetic, and boundary-focused conversations with students, promoting academic success and wellness. Attendees engage in interactive exercises to practice language for giving and receiving constructive feedback, leaving with a framework for establishing a culture of courage and clarity in their departments and in their daily interactions. 

Community colleges and four-year schools face shared pressures and have opportunities to respond with shared strategies. This panel explores connections between Art & Design programs at Henry Ford College, Washtenaw Community College, and Eastern Michigan University. We’ll describe how two-year programs view the potential benefit of Bachelors degrees; propose ways that four-year schools can support—and benefit from—robust course offerings in community colleges; and speak to the advantages and limits of articulation agreements. Join us for the conversation: we’re looking for more partners as we build connections.

Peer review activities can be a constructive learning opportunities for students if well-structured by the instructor. In this presentation, we review existing research on peer review processes in higher education, consider the key factors of effective peer assessment, and discuss some challenges and instructional considerations, as well as some practical issues. Though peer review processes can be applied to diverse learning contexts, the context for this presentation is an online asynchronous course in Canvas. 

Let's explore how to make higher education courses come alive by blending learning theory, real-world leadership experiences, storytelling, and generative AI. In this session, participants will explore practical strategies using Bloom’s Taxonomy, Social Learning Theory, and Adult Learning Principles to design engaging lessons, connect with students, and foster critical thinking. Let's discuss how to bring your own experiences into the classroom to inspire participation, deepen understanding, and create meaningful learning moments. 

We talk a lot about how to make our students feel welcome and part of a collaborative environment; as scholars such as Peter Felten and Vincent Tinto argue, this is a key determinant of student satisfaction and retention.  But how do we achieve this goal?  Join us to discuss techniques for building connections between faculty and students, and between students and students, both inside and outside our classroom. We'll consider how this can increase our students' retention, satisfaction, and success, and how valuable this would be for all of our institutions.  

In “Mindfulness and Meditation,” participants will explore grounding breathwork, guided meditations, and practical strategies for managing stress in real time. This session is inspired by WCC's Yoga course offerings that teaches various nervous system regulation tools and practices that can be easily integrated into meetings, classroom environments, and day-to-day routines to help enhance our quality of life. Together, we’ll discuss how prioritizing wellness & stress management contributes to improved student engagement, retention, and success while experiencing these powerful practices ourselves.

This session will explore practical approaches to embedding career readiness into both classroom instruction and academic advising. Drawing from ongoing research on student retention, attachment, and career transparency at Eastern Michigan University, the session will highlight how intentional conversations about post-graduation goals can deepen students’ sense of purpose and belonging. Participants will examine ways to connect academic content to real-world skills and outcomes, creating stronger alignment between curricular experiences and career pathways. Through examples, discussion, and shared strategies, attendees will leave with ideas for weaving career readiness into advising sessions, class projects, and department-level initiatives. The goal is to help students not only persist to graduation but also understand how their education translates into meaningful work and lifelong success. 

This presentation will demonstrate how incorporating semiotic activities (visual mapping, emoji-based interactions, and gestural conversations) can encourage multilingual students’ classroom participation by expanding the idea of communication beyond the verbal. Situating the discussion within Critical Race Theory and its application in a transnational classroom setting, the session will argue that the silence of international/multilingual students is shaped by established linguistic hierarchies in monolingual classrooms, thereby challenging deficit theories and re-envisioning “semiotics” as not mere scaffolding tools but anchors of empowerment. The session will propose a simple emoji-based classroom activity that encourages students to represent their feelings by aligning verbal with images. This will demonstrate how allowing students to choose from non-verbal multimodal tools reduces stress and facilitates communication without necessitating language fluency. The presentation will provide participants with a semiotic-integration framework that can be incorporated into their course materials to enhance inclusivity and student engagement with classroom literacies. 

This presentation will focus on how to use students' experiences to transform the classroom and teaching methods. The presentation will look at teaching today's students, classroom and teaching transformation, students' life experiences and student surveys. The goal is to make students feel more apart of the classroom and become more involved with the lessons. As students are included in the lecture, they will less likely withdraw or drop out. 

This dynamic technology demonstration will showcase how Microsoft Teams can be leveraged to foster classroom community and enhance student support in various educational settings. Participants will explore integrated tools such as Reading Coach, Reflect, and AI-powered features that promote engagement, personalized learning, and emotional well-being. The session will highlight practical strategies for using Teams to create inclusive digital spaces, facilitate meaningful interactions, and support diverse learner needs. Attendees will leave with actionable insights and ready-to-implement ideas for integrating these tools into their own teaching practices. Whether you're new to Teams or looking to deepen your tech toolkit, this session offers a fast-paced, hands-on look at how technology can transform the learning experience. 

This session will explore EMU’s Math Leap program, funded by the Rouch Gift, with a focus on student placement, math tutoring, and equity. Panelists from surrounding community colleges and EMU will share how their institutions are addressing math foundational courses, corequisite offerings, gateway courses, and placement, with the goal of bringing new ideas back to our own campuses. 

Using our experience in the classroom and after-school settings, we will share strategies to make students in K-8 settings feel like part of a community where they are valued and respected. This presentation will include tips for building relationships and community based on commonalities, as well as how to diffuse conflict when it arises. Our goal is to offer participants a chance to share with us strategies they have used in order to grow our collective knowledge. 

Attendees will be greeted with a short presentation on the physiological underpinnings of holistic learning. The presenter, Christina Marie Sears, continues to imagine higher education and other spaces such as community arts centers, prisons, and schools as spaces for personal growth and liberation. With this orientation toward education, as informed by the pedagogy of Paulo Friere, brain-friendly learning will be the center of this workshop. Brief active learning activities energize, and humor provides stress relief. Fun pro-social break-outs such as “Vote with Your Feet” will be “tried on for size.”  Physical experiences stimulate agency, critical thinking, and student engagement. Finally, reflective writing prompts and physical check-ins will be experienced by attendees. These elements rest and restore the central nervous system, providing respite during moments high-stress or student overload. Music accompaniment follows the slide show. Participants should be willing to participate and bring a sense of humor.

This interactive workshop explores the power of mentoring to foster inclusive and supportive environments within educational institutions. Participants will engage with innovative mentorship models, learn strategies for building meaningful connections across disciplines, and discover how effective mentoring can empower individuals from diverse backgrounds. The session provides practical tools and insights for creating a culture of belonging that benefits both mentors and mentees.

Jonah will help us understand what’s happening in the brain and body when our students grapple with the content & skills of our disciplines. Topics will include a little bit of science that helps us understand the biology and psychology of safety, community, and optimized learning.  We will focus on topics that include learning in today’s fast-moving and technology-heavy environment, ways that learning has changed across time, and how we can support our students and each other in the good work of serving students of all ages. 

In this session we explore the presumed "objectivity" and "fairness" of grading. We will then offer some concrete and accessible suggestions for how to rethink grading in your classroom.