It's Fall and it's time for a new season of the podcast! Listen in to hear about our new focus and some of the stories and voices you'll hear as we once again work our way deeper into the web of our community. 

We're at the end of our FSL Common Read year together and next week we'll have our final Zoom event! We'll discuss the "Postscript in a Pandemic" that the authors added in Spring of 2020. In this episode, we think about how the pandemic was so challenging for higher education relationships. Text from page 162. 

It's time for the April Zoom to discuss Chapters 5 and 6! In this micro-episode, we consider two examples of what other colleges have done to enact relationship-rich principles. We can't replicate them exactly but we can adapt and transform them to be a great fit for the way we teach and the way our students need us. Text from pages 118-119. 

Ahead of our March Zoom about our FSL Common Read book, this episode begins Chapter 4: Relationship-Rich Classrooms. We hear the story of Imad Mays at Pima Community College. Faced with a choice between curriculum and connection, she chose relational connection. What is your choice in these moments? Text from page 81. 

We've wrapped up Chapter 3 for the FSL Common Read so we'll take a little break before we begin Chapter 4. Listen in to hear about the new season of Instructional Ecology that's currently in production! We'll reveal our season topic and tease a few stories you'll hear from professors and staff around the college.  

We wrap up Chapter 3 as the authors end by thinking about two very challenging elements an institution might change: climate and culture. Both must shift in order to fully implement relationship-rich education in every part of an organization. Text from pages 62 and 79. 

Further into Chapter 3, the authors lay out what actions a teaching community can take to go from "valuing" relational principles to actually  "developing" practices that demonstrate that value. What does it mean to guide our own culture of work? Text from pages 62, 69, and 71.

We continue with Chapter 3, looking at a part we didn't examine in our recent Zoom discussion. Here, we consider the importance of an institution valuing highly effective instruction by investing in excellent and effective professional development for those doing the teaching. Text from pages 61-62 and 68. 

We're midway through our book and the year's Common Read program. After a refreshment of our goals and purpose, we begin Chapter 3: Making Relationships a Cultural Priority. We'll open with the author's meditation on how change happens at higher ed institutions and then begin to explore problem solving on a large scale. Text from pages 58, 59, and 60. 

In this first episode for 2023, we wrap up chapter 2 thinking about all of the work that's already being done and how making that work visible could have a huge impact on our culture of work and student success. Text from pages 56 and 57. 

This episode looks at seemingly small issues of assumptions and jargon that can become important barriers to students. What even are "office hours"? Text from pages 45, 47 and 48-49.

This episode begins Chapter 2 and faces head-on the challenge in higher education with seemingly baked-in discouragement not only for students but also for faculty and staff. Text from pages 41, 42, 44 and 49. 

This episode explores the uses of questions of meaning and purpose that the authors have found greatly strengthen student skills, success and purpose. Text from pages 18, 36, 37 and 38. 

This episode looks deeper into the foundational concept of the "web of student relationships." Text from pages 15 and 17 of the ebook.

This first episode considers two foundational concepts in Chapter One: "relentless welcome" and "inescapable relationships." Text from pages 14 and 16 of the ebook.