by Gina Merys, Director, Reinert Center
There is something special about being on campus as it transitions from the relative quiet of summer through the rush of excitement of move-in, and then into the regular bustle of the fall semester. I enjoy the snippets of passing conversations I hear as students discuss their courses, homework assignments, and other projects as they walk down the mall together. Those expressions of excitement, fear, skepticism, and hope are candid assessments of students’ first impressions of whether and how they think they might be learning in any particular course. They are honest commentary on how students gauge their own investment in learning and how they perceive the effectiveness of the teaching that will occur.
This year, the Reinert Center’s theme, Engaging the Teaching Effectiveness Framework for Student Success, gives us an opportunity both to continue developing our teaching practice through the lens of the new Teaching Effectiveness Framework and to tune into how our students align their own learning to our pedagogical choices. Throughout the academic year, we will be offering a variety of workshops, courses, institutes, and other programming as well as our whole menu of services as a way to invite all instructors at Saint Louis University to engage with intentional choices about our teaching. We have coded all of the Center’s events and resources so that instructors can easily identify with which column of the Teaching Effectiveness Framework it is most clearly aligned.
Whether you are teaching a new course, a new level of student, are in your first year or your thirtieth, the Reinert Center is here to support you find authentic ways to be the instructor you want to be.
The Notebook 