Short Courses

Several short courses are offered each year. Short courses require a time commitment of about one hour per week and typically meet throughout the semester.

Gaining Retention & Achievement for Students Program (GRASP). Want someone to come to your class and give you feedback on your teaching weekly? GRASP staff work with faculty on a weekly basis to implement a variety of teaching strategies that are proven to support the success of their diverse students. The purpose of GRASP is to make faculty aware of the diverse ways students learn and to give faculty alternative teaching strategies to provide effective learning opportunities for all students. GRASP is a faculty development program offered by the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium. This semester-long program is offered each fall and spring semester. To participate, contact Dr. Judy McShannon, 575.646.6414, jmcshann@nmsu.edu, the semester before participation (so we can begin on the first week of class).

What participants say about GRASP.

Peer Coaching: Teachers Helping Teachers in Classroom or Distance Education. Peer Coaching is a process in which teachers work in teams to learn how to observe one another’s teaching and practice giving meaningful feedback. After teaching “slices” of class to teammates and practicing giving each other feedback (microteaching), teammates visit one another’s classes (whether in classrooms, via ITV or online) and interview one another’s students using a time-tested protocol. Later, they meet to discuss the students’ comments as well as their own observations and expertise. Peer Coaching is offered in the spring semester of even years (2006, 2008,…).

What participants say about Peer Coaching.

Publish and Flourish: Become More Prolific helps faculty and graduate students greatly increase their productivity by writing 15–30 minutes daily; keeping records of time spent writing daily; sharing records weekly; and exchanging feedback on drafts with others. In one study, the control group wrote the way they had always written, and the experimental group wrote 30 minutes daily, kept records of time spent writing, and were held accountable to others. The experimental group wrote more pages by a factor of nine (Boice 1989:606). Publish and Flourish is offered in the spring semester of odd years (2007, 2009,…).

What participants say about Publish and Flourish.

Writing Groups are made up of 3-4 scholars from different disciplines. These groups give structured feedback on a manuscript to one member each week. The structure used was developed by author Elizabeth Rankin who presented a workshop at NMSU in March 2003, based on her book, The Work of Writing: Insights and Strategies for Academics. Comments are shared in “rounds”: one in which readers share positive comments about something specific they liked; one in which readers respond to the writer's stated question; and, one in which other issues are addressed.

What participants say about Writing Groups.

Team Mentoring is a short course developed to help faculty new to NMSU get the information they need to progress professionally and establish enduring relationships with peers in their cohort and with a mentor or pair of mentors. Each fall, untenured faculty members are invited to join one of the two available peer mentoring teams led by Teaching Academy director, Tara Gray. Those who join will then systematically interview several senior faculty of their choosing. Each protégé then invites one or two of those interviewed to serve as a mentor during the first six monts of the next year. During that time, mentors and protégés exchange syllabi, curriculum vitae, drafts of research papers, and classroom visits, and exchange comments at a series of free lunches (paid for by each protégé’s dean). This year-long program opens each fall.

What participants say about Team Mentoring.

Team Mentoring for Graduate Assistants Who Teach a Class or Lab. In this program, you would meet regularly with a team of your peers and a more experienced facilitator; treat a mentor of your choice (not a friend!) to lunch twice, ask him or her the questions you and your team members have generated about teaching; and, share their answers with your team. The time commitment is about two hours per week throughout the term. This semester-long program is offered each fall and spring semester.

What participants say about Team Mentoring for Graduate Assistants Who Teach.