Welcome!
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about the professional development opportunities available this Winter for faculty across the Washington CTC system. The RISE Learning Institute at Bellevue College has been working hard the past five years to build faculty capacities in high-impact practices – Undergraduate Research, Project-Based Learning, and Service-Learning (now called “Community-Engaged & Civic Education“). And we are excited to collaborate with you for the same.
The workshops below are for instructors across the Washington CTC system who are interested in integrating experiential practices into their courses. You will learn practical skills to integrate into course design, build community with other similarly-minded instructors, and feel more confident in implementing high-impact teaching practices. Details, dates, costs, and registration are given below. Questions? Reach out to Sapan Parekh, Associate Director, Service-Learning & Community Engagement.
What is RISE?
The RISE Learning Institute works across Bellevue College and with the surrounding community to provide opportunities for students to learn through experiences, with the goal of helping them identity, articulate, build, and apply strengths. Through experiential learning, students develop skills that can help them succeed after leaving Bellevue College. In order to support these learning opportunities, RISE additionally provides professional development for faculty and builds relationships with the community.
The RISE Learning Institute brings together the college’s Center for Career Connections, the STEM to Stern and Navigators (Neurodiversity Navigators and Disable Students Navigating STEM) cohort programs, the RISE MakerSpace, and faculty and student support in high impact practices such as Community-Engaged & Civic Education (CECE), Undergraduate Research (UGR), and Project-Based Learning (PBL).
Winter Professional Development Offerings
The RISE Learning Institute is excited to offer these workshops and learning communities to help with your professional development. All the opportunities below have been previously offered to Bellevue College faculty. In the future, RISE hopes to provide professional development to you in the areas of project-based learning and undergraduate research.
Before registering, check with your department or division about the following:
- PD & Promotion: The Professional Development Hours – as per Bellevue College’s system – you can earn for attending the workshops are given below. Check with your institution whether these workshops can count for your promotional needs, and whether the PD hours earned would match the amounts given below.
- Payment: There are two ways to pay, via credit card or paper check. Talk to your department about the best way to pay, and whether you can apply for reimbursement if you pay. The preference is credit card, though if you pay by check, make it out to “Bellevue College” with RISE/CCC in the Memo, and mail it to c/o Vicki Kazachenko, Bellevue College, 3000 Landerholm Cir SE, Mail Stop N258, Bellevue WA 98007. The check must be received before the start of the first workshop or session.
Fostering Team Dynamics
Two Tuesdays, January 18 and 25, 2:30-4:00pm
Have you wondered how you can incorporate teamwork and collaborative learning into your curriculum? When you have students work together on projects, should they pick their own teammates or should you place them into groups? How do you design and implement team assessments to ensure that tasks are divided equitably and that voices aren’t marginalized?
In these two sessions, we will investigate:
- Strengths and limitations of different approaches to team formation
- The role of assessment in fostering positive team dynamics
- Methods to encourage teams to solve their own problems
Cost: $75 | 6 PD hours
Registration Deadline: January 18, 9:00am (register earlier if paying by check)
If you or your department plans to pay by credit card (preferred method), please register at Brown Paper Tickets.
If you plan to send a check, complete the registration form below (make sure to mail the check immediately so it reaches before the first session):
Stepping Out & Stepping Into: Ethical Community Engagement for a More Equitable World
Wednesday, February 9, 1:30-3:30pm
So, you want to make a difference in the world around you? Perhaps you want to encourage your students to do the same? But maybe you feel uncomfortable, unprepared, and uncertain. Join us as we examine how to engage with, learn from, and contribute to the community in an ethical manner. We will examine how bias, anti-racism, privilege, storytelling, and more fit into how you step into new community situations, so you have more confidence to step out and make the world a better, more equitable place.
This interactive workshop has been designed with inputs from the community and from other academic institutions.
Free | 2 PD hours | Registration Deadline: February 9, 1:30pm
Reflection Micro-Workshops
Dates Below, Mondays & Thursdays 3:00-3:30pm
The ability to reflect on experience is key to transformational and enduring learning. Reflection can be particularly powerful in experiential learning courses, though it is a useful skill for all students to develop, no matter their field of interest. This series of half-hour micro-workshops will help faculty learn techniques and develop skills to strengthen the impact reflection can have on student learning. Participants are expected to attend all six sessions. For those who cannot, they will have access to the workshop videos and materials.
“This micro-session series allowed me to take a step back and question my purpose for assigning them [reflection journals] in the first place. I learned why, how, and when to assign and assess reflections other than journal writings that also can help balance my workload.”
– Donna Miguel, English
The micro-workshop topics and dates are (see descriptions below):
- Bringing out Depth through Reflection | Thursday, February 17, 3:00-3:30pm
- Creating Connections using the 8Cs | Thursday, February 24, 3:00-3:30pm
- Unleashing the Power of Reflective Journals | Monday, February 28, 3:00-3:30pm
- Reflecting Beyond Writing | Thursday, March 3, 3:00-3:30pm
- Planning Your Quarter Using Reflection Mapping | Monday, March 7, 3:00-3:30pm
- Assessing Reflection | Thursday, March 10, 3:00-3:30pm
“I found so much to use in this series! [RISE] provided us with a reflection framework and many examples of reflection approaches and assignments. This series opened my eyes to a different teaching/learning approach that I believe will add relevance to course content and help students see why their voices in the discipline are important.“
Betsy Zahrt Geib, Economics
Thursday, February 17, 3:00pm-3:30pm
Reflections often have a bad reputation; they are seen either as overly touchy-feely or as objective observations, neither of which create opportunities for meaningful student learning. In this session, participants will learn a few simple structures to move from reflection to critical reflection, and thus deepen the impact of the reflective practice.
Thursday, February 24, 3:00pm-3:30pm
When designing questions that prompt reflection, we often leave them broad. However, to deepen learning and guide students to essential learning, it is important to allow them to build connections between coursework, experiences, and the world around them. In this session, we will explore how RISE’s 8Cs of Reflective Connection can strengthen the questions you ask.
Monday, February 28, 3:00pm-3:30pm
The most common form of reflection is the journal. It can be easy to pose a few questions on Canvas for student response. However, journals can also encourage students to think from different perspectives, build connections to their community, and plan actions. In this session, you will learn how journals can be designed to draw out new meaning for students.
Thursday, March 3, 3:00pm-3:30pm
Written formats – journals, online discussion posts, exit slips – are the most popular ways to build reflection into courses. However, these tend to cater to those for whom writing is a strength. Class discussions, movement, and team activities can help reflections reach more students while making the practice more enjoyable. This session will introduce a few of these formats and techniques.
Monday, March 7, 3:00pm-3:30pm
You have decided to build multiple reflections into a course, but you are uncertain how to distinguish them in meaningful ways for you and your students. This workshop will cover Reflection Mapping, a simple technique for organizing topics, formats, and contexts into your different reflections. This technique can be applied to discussion or other activities, as well. Attendance at any of the previous workshops would be beneficial, though not required.
Thursday, March 10, 3:00pm-3:30pm
While not all reflections need be graded, it is likely that you will want to assess student learning and expression through assigned reflections. This final micro-workshop will introduce participants to grading rubrics and to the ABC method for assessing reflections.
Cost: $75 | 1 PD hour per micro-workshop (6 PD hours total)
Registration Deadline: February 17, 9:00am (register earlier if paying by check)
Contact the facilitator, Sapan Parekh, for more information.
If you or your department plans to pay by credit card (preferred method), please register at Brown Paper Tickets.
If you plan to send a check, complete the registration form below (make sure to mail the check immediately so it reaches before the first session):
Last Updated January 29, 2025
