Faculty Newsletter

FEBRUARY 21

ANNOUNCEMENTS

GRADUATION

Graduation is fast approaching and if you have students in your cohort who are graduating, you have an important role to play. Please mark your calendars for May 13th 1pm-4pm. In the weeks leading up to graduation, you will be asked to nominate each graduate in your group for a Big10 you feel they most exhibited using 1-2 sentences.

IMPORTANT DATES

February 29 & March 1: Exhibitions
March 3: Last Day of Classes for Session 1
March 10: Final grades due for 8 week classes & Midterm Feedback due for 16 week classes

OFFICE OF LIP

Welcome to the NEW Big10 process!

Starting today, student will use this form to submit a Big10! This allows a faster assessment process that students can track all the way through!

Please feel free to come to our office hours to get all your LIP portfolio and Big10 questions answered. And, encourage your students to come as well!

Join Our Virtual Office Hours:

Tuesdays 12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
Fridays 4 - 5 p.m.

April 8 - Big10/LIP Credit Deadline for any students who intend to graduate in May.

You can also reach out to Lizz or Deborah via email.

- Lizz

TEACHING &

TECH RESOURCES

Spring 1 Faculty:

Be sure to start scheduling your 1-1s for the end of Spring 1 sessions (how did we get here so fast!?!?)

Be sure to update students this week about where they are at in the course and if there is any missing work they still need to complete.

Towards the end of this week and beginning of next, don’t forget to nudge students to complete the final evaluations (link is in the final week of your course).

Spring 2 Faculty:

By Wednesday, March 1, be sure to complete the following to get ready for Spring 2 session which has a Moodle-class opening on Monday, 3/6/2023 and course start date on Monday, 3/13/2023:

Your course in Moodle should be ready for review. This includes:

A welcome message
The updated syllabus (the required syllabus template to use)
Major assignment guidelines
Guidance on the structure and flow of the course
Agendas, activities, materials, & assignments for Weeks 1-3 in Moodle

This video (12:26 minutes) walks you through how to get Moodle up and ready. You can use this checklist.

- Lance

LAB FACULTY

Exhibition Information:

Exhibition Guide B-Z
Expect Visitors! Zoom links sent out to CU staff & potential visitors (no more than 2 people visiting)

The New Big10 Process begins today! Please follow the directions in the email or watch this video (4min52sec) to understand the new system. You, as lab faculty, are the first assessor!

Key takeaway: You decide when each portfolio in your cohort is ready to be assessed by another faculty member. Students can revise and resubmit back to you in this process. Office of LIP is there to support you as you navigate. The student submission form is here, on Digication, and will be emailed to students who try to submit by email.

From Sage:

College Unbound is an inclusive institution that also supports students with disabilities. We are developing training to help faculty and staff improve knowledge and skills in supporting students with disabilities. We are seeking your input as we develop this learning experience.

Have you had situations or instances where you were assisting a student and you either knew that they have a disability, or have thought that may be a possibility, but you were not sure how to best support them?

LAB FACULTY CONTINUED...

Please s end us situations you may have encountered or questions that you have. Please do not include identifying information about a student so that we have only general information about the situation where you had a question. This information will help us to design the training to best meet your needs towards supporting students with disabilities at College Unbound.

If you have any questions for us about this please let us know.

TA2BA CORNER

We have so many amazing TA2BA students already making an impact in the lives of students, their schools and communities. I am often asked for students' stories to highlight, and while I have had the good fortune to get to know many of our students, there are so many students who I don’t know. And that’s where you come in!

Is there a TA2BA student in your cohort or course who has really impressed you? If so, I’d love for you to nominate them to be highlighted (in this newsletter, as well as potentially other CU communications). All you need to do is send me an email with their name and why you are nominating them. Then I’ll reach out to the student directly.

To get this process started, I’d love to highlight a recent graduate of our program: Courtney Price. Courtney spoke last week at Equity Institute’s Re*generation Event. She shared that what our students really need are teachers who look like them, who come from their communities and therefore understand them on a deeper level. And they need love, unconditional supportive love.♥️

A big thank you to Courtney for being that teacher for so many students!

- Aubrey

PA & NJ CORNER

Hello Amazing Lab Faculty, Exhibitions are upon us and students are surely feeling anxiety whether it is their first or their 5th/7th/final! Please see the Exhibition Guides provided, in Moodle for Semester A and in this newsletter for B-Z. It is vital to schedule time with each student to practice technology sharing and presenting. This is their time to shine, let’s help them in shining brightly!

Faculty, feel free to schedule time with Melina to discuss, debrief, chat!

Lab Faculty Spotlight: Meet Rana Walker!

Rana is an Emmy Award winning life coach and experienced mental health therapist. She has her B.S. in Psychology and M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology. Rana comes from a long line of healers and has experience creating wellness venues. She has studied alternative medicine ranging from nutrition to shamanic healing; is an American KickBoxing instructor and trains in Muay Thai. She starred as one of two life coaches on Season 1 of NBC’s groundbreaking program, “Starting Over” which aired daily and garnered an Emmy for her role as life coach.

Rana’s coaching system is dedicated to total personal development – mind, body and spirit.

Rana has co-produced television programming and writes a column Self Love...Mind, Body, Spirit in a publication celebrating Africa and the Diaspora and another focused on high end fashion. Rana recently published her first academic chapter, I Can Breathe: Transforming the Mind, Body and Spirit of Black Males found in “The Research Handbook on Black Males” published by MSU Press. She is a certified yoga instructor and mindfulness teacher who has taught students from two to ninety years of age guiding them through the art of yoga. She has translated her zest for life into her life’s passion – helping others to reveal who they are in truth.

- David & Melina

ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Culture Remix, a free Spring Community Workshop facilitated by Sage Morgan-Hubbard (College Unbound) and Shirine Saad (Brown University) is open for registration! We are hoping to gather with a dedicated cohort for all six modules to produce a collaborative zine reimagining our city. Register here.

Calling all artists! Interested? Fill out this form.

#TURNUPRI will take place at 360 High School in Providence to give R.I. youth a chance to have fun and explore wellness, personal and professional development, future educational and career opportunities while improving student relations and college readiness, all for free.

Volunteers needed! Learn more: http://turnupri.com