New Format

This year, TeachECC will be held as an in-person, Friday morning format. The shorter, focused schedule allows participants to engage deeply in professional conversations and community building without disrupting the rhythm of the semester.

Dates: Friday, March 6

Time: 8:30- Breakfast available

9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. sessions

Location: Building E

Please reach out to Heather Martin, Assistant Dean of CETAL, at hmartin@elgin.edu if you have any questions.

Sessions

Sessions will be offered throughout the morning. Each timeslot has three concurrent sessions. The schedule and presentations can be found below.

Session 1: 9:00am- 10:00am

Session 2: 10:15am- 11:15am

Session 3: 11:30am- 12:30pm

Using Cognitive Load Theory to Bridge the Gap Between Novice Learners and Subject Matter Experts

Presenter: Richard Karnia (Psychology)

The goal of the presentation is learning how to use the research of cognitive psychology to improve student outcomes.  The application of Cognitive Load theory will be explained to show the Relationship between: Mental Effort to acquire knowledge Transferring information from Working Memory to Long-term memory Application of Knowledge from Long-Term Memory (Schemas) to connect to working memory and how overlearning can increase recall/knowledge in all learners.  Strategies will be shown on how to support novice learners through fully guided instruction, guided practice, and then independent work.  After the session professors will have to tools to evaluate their classes and see how to balance the intrinsic and extraneous load to find a Germaine load for their classroom/students. 

The Prompt Party: Create AI Prompts That Actually Work

Presenter: Mark Krukowski (CIS)

Ever wish AI could read your mind? This workshop won’t grant superpowers—but it will help you get much closer! Using a playful, fill-in Google Doc toolkit, we’ll explore how the right prompts can teach AI to generate better explanations, smarter activities, and friendlier feedback. Think of it as learning the “magic words” that turn AI tools into classroom sidekicks.

We’ll try out prompts, remix them, laugh at the unpredictable ones, and celebrate the gems. Bring a teaching task you want help with, and you’ll leave with your own custom set of prompts, ready to save you time and spark creativity all semester long.

Supporting Students who are Neurodivergent in Your Courses

Presenters: Pietrina Probst (Student Access & Disability Services), Katie Simpson (Student Access & Disability Services), Chiquita Hallom (Student Access & Disability Services), and Greg Wheaton (Mathematics)

Think of a student in your course who experiences challenges with processing verbal and non-verbal cues, time management, and organization, but also benefits from routines, is highly creative in approaching tasks from multiple angles, and has a strong ability to hyper-focus on a task or project for long periods of time. Some of these students may have disclosed their need for accommodations based on a disability of autism, ADHD, a learning disability, etc.; whereas, other students have not. During this workshop, learn practical tips on how to support students in your courses and foster an inclusive classroom that capitalizes on the strengths of students who are neurodivergent. 

What We Expect Students to Read: Insights Across the Curriculum

Presenters: Alison Douglas (English) and Tina Ballard (English)

The presenters interviewed instructors from a range of content areas to better understand their expectations for student reading, the challenges they see, and the strategies they use to support learners. This session will share key findings from those conversations and highlight practical, motivating approaches to help students engage with reading in any discipline. Attendees will leave with cross-curricular insights and simple strategies they can apply in their own courses to foster stronger, more consistent reading practices.

Building Community in the Classroom: A Personal Reflection

Presenter: Vincent Gaddis (History)

This paper examines the issue of creating community in the classroom.  Building on themes presented in the CETAL workshop on “liberatory outcomes” and the work of Paulo Freire, and Pope John Paul II, the paper asks the question; what is community and how do we make the classroom a community? Here, the work of Pope John Paul II, writing as Carol Wytola in his piece “The Person: Subject and Community” lays a foundational definition of what we mean by community, which is more than people gathered together in a physical or virtual location. In other words, just being “together with others” is not enough to call a class a community. The paper will lay out a definition based on Wytola’s work and examine if that definition is applicable to the college classroom.

Secondly, the paper explores the pedagogical implications of the first questions, in particular, giving analysis to the dynamics of authority in the classroom. How do liberatory outcomes, and particularly Freire’s philosophical positioning of education as collaborative, transformative and revolutionary demand a pedagogy that encourages the building of community in the classroom. Finally, a personal reflection of now 30 years of teaching places in dialogue the experiences of a professor who has taught in a four-year, small liberal arts university context and the community college experience. 

Faculty Equity Research Community Panel 

Presenters: Manuel Salgado (Psychology), Sara Baker (English), Amanda Hirsh (English), Liddy Hope (Human Services)

This paper examines the issue of creating community in the classroom.  Building on themes presented in the CETAL workshop on “liberatory outcomes” and the work of Paulo Freire, and Pope John Paul II, the paper asks the question; what is community and how do we make the classroom a community? Here, the work of Pope John Paul II, writing as Carol Wytola in his piece “The Person: Subject and Community” lays a foundational definition of what we mean by community, which is more than people gathered together in a physical or virtual location. In other words, just being “together with others” is not enough to call a class a community. The paper will lay out a definition based on Wytola’s work and examine if that definition is applicable to the college classroom.

Secondly, the paper explores the pedagogical implications of the first questions, in particular, giving analysis to the dynamics of authority in the classroom. How do liberatory outcomes, and particularly Freire’s philosophical positioning of education as collaborative, transformative and revolutionary demand a pedagogy that encourages the building of community in the classroom. Finally, a personal reflection of now 30 years of teaching places in dialogue the experiences of a professor who has taught in a four-year, small liberal arts university context and the community college experience.