Ever wonder what people mean when they say they're a teacher-scholar? Join us for a conversation with three successful teacher-scholars on our campus, UNK's Interim Chancellor, Dr. Charlie Bicak; Dean of Graduate Studies and Academic Innovation, Dr. Mark Ellis; and former Dean of Arts and Science, long time faculty member in political science, and undergraduate research mentoring guru, Dr. Peter Longo. Hear how they have embraced opportunities within academia, and specifically programs at UNK, to connect with students, improve their teaching, have an impact on the community, and also advance scholarship in their fields.

Join Jennifer Harvey (Director of Thompson Scholars Learning Community), Dr. Amber Alexander, and Dr. Krista Forrest in a discussion about setting up your office to be a welcoming and student-centered space.

Are you looking for something fun and different to have students do today in your class? Why not give them a pop quiz where they have to draw or sketch the answer and then explain it to you? We're taking Photo Voice into the Classroom in less than 10 minutes in this Flash POD! Thanks to Nadine Saylor, UNK's professor of Glass for talking about how this has worked for her.

Megan and Shannon briefly discuss what Blooms Taxonomy is and consider how it can help us create activities in our classes that draw from all levels of the model. We also touch on some ideas for integrating AI and scaffolding - all in under 20 minutes.

Useful links if you'd like to look at images of Bloom's Taxonomy:

Pyramid visual: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

Side by side visual: https://www.teachthought.com/learning/what-is-blooms-taxonomy/

Dr. Maha Younes joins our discussion about merging teaching and research as college faculty. She shares her insights about how reflecting on her students' experiences during an assignment led her to look at existing literature where she found space for her own research contributions. Lots of great reminders of how our teaching can inform our research and our research can inform our teaching.

Citations from articles noted in the episode

Younes, M. N., & Vanlaningham, J. L. (2017). In the hot seat: Teaching students through experiences with self-help groups. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 22(1), 163–179. https://doi.org/10.18084/1084-7219.22.1.163

Younes, M. N., & Asay, S. M. (2003). The world as a classroom: The impact of international study experiences on college students. College Teaching, 51(4), 141-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567550309596429

Asay, S. M., Younes, M. N., & Moore, T. (2006). The cultural transformation model: Promoting cultural competence through international study experiences. In R. R. Hamon (ed.)., International family studies: Developing curricula and teaching tools (pp. 85-99). New York: Haworth Press, Inc.

Flash POD = Quick Info!

In this episode, Megan and Shannon give examples of strategies that get students talking during class about your content. They share examples for both face-to-face and online course formats. Specifically, we're talking bout Kagan Strategies used in education. We are not associated with their site, but you can find more examples at www.kaganonline.com

This is a fantastic discussion with Dr. Ted Rupnow about how his research has connected to and benefited his teaching and visa versa. This is a great strategy to help those who are looking to collect data and present or publish, but it also provides insight into how researching our classes can help our teaching even if we aren't interested in publications.

Selected publications from Dr. Rupnow:

Green, E., Rupnow, T. J., Bracewell, L. N. (2024). Creating a space for them through autoethnography. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-024-09643-5

Barker, D., Winsor, M., Kirwan, J. V., & Rupnow, T. J. (2020). Searching for the key to knowledge integration: A lens to detect the promotion and use of integrated knowledge. In T. Lehmann (Ed.), International Perspectives on Knowledge Integration. Brill | Sense.

In this discussion, we hear about the importance of having a sense of community among faculty. This is the second part of our conversation with Drs. Roger Davis, Bill Wozniak, and Daryl Kelley. Dr. Mark Ellis (who instigated the episode) also joins to talk about how the actions of these three individuals have had a continued effect across the university.