The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Academic Leadership offers structured instructional workshops that bring faculty together with the goal of engaging around focused topics on a variety of teaching practices. Workshops offer a low-commitment, high-impact opportunity to gain new knowledge and expand your teaching toolkit while also developing and/or strengthening professional relationships with colleagues across campus who share similar interests. Some of our workshops may be at various times and locations around campus, however most of them are considered Bear Bites luncheon events! These typically happen around the lunch hour (meal provided) and are held in the Executive Dining Room of the Christian Cafeteria (entrance through the black awning at the south-east corner). You will see this fun logo to designate each Bear Bites event!
Beat the Clock – Helping Students Plan for Success
Date: September 1, 2026
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Location: Christian Cafeteria Executive Dining Room
Facilitator: Amy Baldwin
“I didn’t have enough time” is something we’ve probably all heard from students. Learning to manage time in college isn’t always as simple as buying a planner.
Join us for a Bear Bites lunch focused on practical ways faculty can help students plan, manage priorities, and make more realistic decisions about their time. We’ll explore simple strategies you can incorporate into your courses to help students think about when and how they’ll complete their work, from estimating the time an assignment might take to using planning techniques that can make a busy semester feel more manageable.
Bring your own ideas, learn what colleagues are doing, and leave with a few strategies worth trying with your students.
Lunch provided. All faculty welcome!
REGISTER
Wellness that Works
Date: October 1, 2026
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Location: Christian Cafeteria Executive Dining Room
Facilitator: Shannon Riedmueller
College can be a lot. This is true for students and for the faculty who care about them.
How can we create classrooms that support student wellness while recognizing that faculty have limited time, energy, and responsibilities of their own? Join us for a conversation about realistic ways to make student well-being part of the learning environment without trying to be everything to everyone.
We’ll talk about small opportunities to check in with students, ways to normalize conversations about challenges, and how to connect students with campus resources when they need additional support. Come hear ideas and share ways to support students while taking care of you, too.
Lunch provided. All faculty welcome!
REGISTER
Helping Students Recognize Their Strengths
Date: November 12, 2026
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Location: Christian Cafeteria Executive Dining Room
Facilitator: Charlotte Strickland
By November, students have learned a lot — course content and about themselves!
This Bear Bites lunch will explore ways faculty can help students pause and make sense of what they are discovering. What are they good at? Where are they struggling? What strategies work for them? (And what doesn’t work for them!?) And how does what they are learning connect to their academic, professional, and personal goals?
We’ll consider simple opportunities for reflection that can fit into courses across disciplines, and ways to point students toward resources that can help them better understand their strengths and challenges. Join us for lunch, conversation, and ideas for helping students become more intentional about how they learn and where they’re headed.
Lunch provided. All faculty welcome!
REGISTER