The Center for Teaching and Learning Presents:
Transformative Teaching and Learning Symposium:
Teaching for Neurodivergent Learners
April 18 – 19, 2024
The Center for Teaching and Learning eagerly returns to our Transformative Teaching and Learning Symposium. This year’s event will focus on enhance engagement for neurodivergent learners through various speakers, panels and communities of practice.
Please join us on April 18th (9:30 – 1:00) and April 19th (9:30 – 1:00) to collaboratively share, generate, and implement strategies to better engage all students – and especially neurodivergent learners – in the many different learning spaces we co-create across campus.
On Thursday, April 18th, we will collaborate with Dr. Alice Batt and Iana Robitaille of the University Writing Center to discuss strategies for offering more effective feedback on students’ drafts and final submissions and brainstorm ways we can reframe how we facilitate structured writing and study groups to improve accessibility and diversify approaches to improved productivity. Then, we will hear from a fantastic panel of UT undergraduate and graduate students to celebrate and learn from the perspectives of current members of our community who identify as neurodivergent thinkers to consider how we can better design, redesign, and facilitate courses to empower all students.
On Friday, April 19th, we will explore the galleries of the Blanton Museum. During this guided, interactive tour, participants will connect with themselves and with other members of the UT community to center healing, wellness, and hope. After listening to a guided meditation in Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, participants will explore the current Marie Watt: SKY DANCES LIGHT exhibition and select artwork throughout the Blanton gallery with artist and museum educator Siobhán McCusker. There will be opportunities for free-writing, guided discussion, or any type of engagement that feels productive in the moment. This will be a space for processing, questioning, and focusing on self-care through community and art. All are welcome and encouraged to join us!
Then, on Friday, April 19th from 1:00 - 2:00, our fantastic 2022-2023 Instructor Learning Community Grantees will share innovations and revelations that have defined their collaborative work at a roundtable hosted by the CTL (PCL 3.120).
We hope you will join us for all or part of these events! Please register below to receive session links for the program, as well as to request any accommodations.
Join us at the 2024 Transformative Teaching and Learning Symposium
RSVP
RSVP for Thursday, April 18, 2024
RSVP for Friday, April 19, 2024
Schedule:
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Time | Speaker(s)/Facilitator(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 9:30 – 10:00 | Check-in & Breakfast | |
10:00 – 10:45 | Dr. Alice Batt, Assistant Director of the University Writing Center (UWC) | Improving Responses to Student Writing In this session, we will discuss strategies for enhancing the clarity and efficacy of our responses to all of our students' writing, with a special emphasis on how to carefully consider the modality, scope, and types of feedback when we consider how to best support neurodivergent learners. |
11:00 – 11:45 |
Iana Robitaille, Graduate Services Coordinator of the University Writing Center (UWC)
| Supporting Neurodivergent Writers: Building Community and Accountability through Writing Groups" UWC Grad Services has an often-requested presentation on time and project management for graduate student writers. As one of its many "tips," this presentation encourages writers to schedule a time to write and treat it as a regularly recurring, non-negotiable commitment; e.g. 9am-12pm on Mondays is dissertation writing time. We've received feedback that this kind of highly structured approach may not work for neurodivergent writers, so we're interested in group workshopping this presentation for ways to improve accessibility and diversify approaches to improved productivity. |
12:00 - 1:00 | Facilitator: Alexander Holt, Graduate Teaching Consultant (CTL) and Doctoral Candidate, Sociology Student Panelists: Nicolas Saliani, Santiago Sanchez, and Samantha Treviño | Lunch & Learn: Celebrating Neurodiversity Student Panel During this panel, current UT students will generously share their perspectives, needs, and desires in learning spaces with participants so that we can better redesign our courses and the learning opportunities to support all students. Guiding questions will include:
|
Friday, April 19, 2024
Time | Speaker(s)/Facilitator(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|
9:30 – 10:00 | Check-in & Breakfast | |
10:00 – 11:30 | Siobhán McCusker, Museum Educator, University Audiences Kaitlyn Farrell Rodriguez, Educational Consultant, Center for Teaching and Learning | Meditation · Connection · Reflection Opportunity at Blanton Museum |
1:00 – 2:00 | Facilitator: Dr. Molly Hatcher (Director of Center for Teaching and Learning) Panelists: Rasha Diab, Jo Hurt, Autumn Reyes & Jade Shiva Edward (Rhetoric) Laura I. Gonzalez (Biology) Hannah S. Rempel, (Marine Sciences) Di Wang (College of Liberal Arts) | ILC Grantee Roundtable (PCL 3.120) |
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Kaitlyn Farrell Rodriguez or Sarah Schoonhoven.