[Faculty] Faculty resources for returning to the classroom in Fall 2021

[Staten, Michael E - (statenm)]

CALS faculty colleagues,

We are fast approaching the first day of classes, Monday, August 23.   Many of you will be teaching this semester and will confront the challenge of keeping yourself safe, along with your students, colleagues and families, while doing the most effective job possible in the classroom.  With this email I'm offering some UA resources to help you manage these tasks.

First and foremost, the following link will provide you comprehensive and continuously updated information about the University's recommendations for managing through the coronavirus era.   The page is the product of the ongoing work of the Pandemic Academic Coordination (PAC) working group.   Keep this link handy.

https://provost.arizona.edu/content/pac
Pandemic Academic Coordination (PAC) | University of Arizona Provost<https://provost.arizona.edu/content/pac>
Upcoming Information Session . Please join members of the Pandemic Academic Coordination (PAC) workgroup for an information session for faculty and instructors to assist in planning for Fall 2021 teaching.. Monday, August 16, 2021, from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm. REGISTER HERE. Session Description. This fall we plan to resume most of our regular in-person operations, such as classroom-based ...
provost.arizona.edu
You will notice a registration link for the upcoming faculty information session, Monday, August 16, 2021 that is specifically designed to help instructional faculty plan for Fall 2021.  I expect that we will hear the latest information about class sizes, instructional environment, safety and cleaning protocols, etc.

In addition, the PAC link also has a section labeled Academic Instruction Resources.   This contains a treasure trove of information related to teaching on campus during the pandemic.  I strongly suggest spending some time on this site to review categories of information.  You will discover many useful resources, including the latest communications from the President and Provost regarding campus re-entry conditions.  And, these are continuously updated, so if you are wondering about the latest announcements or whether you've missed a key memo, check here first.

One of the challenges that teaching faculty will confront this semester is the prospect of teaching with a mask.  Most of you have never done it for a full semester.   This week I contacted Lisa Elfring, Associate Vice Provost in the Office of Instruction and Assessment to get her advice.  Lisa indicated that OIA doesn't have any particular videos or materials on the topic, but she did offer the following information about the availability of microphones, etc.

Here is what Lisa had to say:

"1. Most large classrooms are equipped with microphones. If you visit https://ctsrooms.arizona.edu/rooms, and click on the room, you’ll get a list of the equipment, which will indicate if microphones are available. Big rooms often have more than one—a lavaliere model for the instructor, and a hand-held or more than one for class participants.

2. For those rooms, the microphones are at the teaching station—often in a drawer. If there are concerns about operation, Classroom Tech Support is available at 520-621-3382.

3. In my experience ( I have a loud teacher voice), clipping to the collar/top of my shirt picks up the voice perfectly well. I have one colleague with a tiny voice who needed to use the hand-held version to consistently get her voice to be heard.

I completely understand the concerns you lay out in your message. Nuance is definitely lost when half your face is covered! If one were to mask yourself, I wonder if one could talk about that with your students and involve them in developing an alternative nonverbal system that conveys meaning in the classroom? That sounds like a nice community-building exercise, especially when coupled with a conversation about why it’s important that others be able to see the nuance in our responses during a class meeting. I imagine that would resonate with students who have had to do the exhausting work of figuring this out over Zoom for the past 3 semesters."

​I hope you find this information helpful as you prepare for the semester.  As we all know too well, conditions are fluid and the University may need to pivot on short notice.  We've been down this road before.   Please try to stay flexible and not be dismayed if conditions shift and we must once again make last-minute changes to instructional delivery.  We know that our students are greatly looking forward to a semester that gets them closer to "normal" than they've experienced in the past 18 months.  I know that collectively we'll do our absolute best to provide them with that experience, subject to the constraints of the pandemic.

Good luck with your preparations, and stay alert for updates. As always, don't hesitate to contact me if you have additional questions.

Best regards,

Mike


Michael Staten | College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Bart Cardon Associate Dean for Career and Academic Services
Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics
The University of Arizona
Forbes Hall, Room 211
The University of Arizona
PO Box 210036
Tucson, AZ 85721-0036
PHONE: 520.621.1932
statenm at email.arizona.edu<mailto:statenm at email.arizona.edu>
www.mikestaten.com<http://www.mikestaten.com>



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