CTL Workshops Offer Neighborly Advice to Faculty

Second of a series

By Rick Vacek | September 5, 2024

Center for Teaching and Learning workshops often are like wellness checks that help University of Texas at Dallas faculty care for themselves and their students.

But one session last March made for a particularly therapeutic day in CTL’s neighborhood.

The CTL director, Dr. Karen Huxtable-Jester, cited 10 takeaways from Fred Rogers’ iconic television show – listed in the Rogers biography by Gavin Edwards – and applied them to higher education in Teaching with Kindness and Wonder: Lessons from Mister Rogers.

“The main ideas were to see the best in others and accept people for who they are,” she said. “This means we truly listen to what they are telling us and respect what they bring to what we are offering. It’s about making meaningful connections with students as we help them connect with what they are learning.” 

CTL strengthens faculty connections with a steady stream of workshops, both in-person and online and conducted by speakers from inside and outside the University. It’s not uncommon at UT Dallas to see another CTL email notification and think, “Another one?”

“That’s what everybody says first: ‘How do you do so much?’” Huxtable-Jester said. “But it is a matter of trying to offer at least something each week.”

Huxtable-Jester and her two associate directors, Dr. Salena Brody and Dr. Carol Cirulli Lanham MA’09, PhD’11, also teach at the University and devote 50% of their time to CTL. And yet, after finalizing their calendar for this fall, Brody was stunned to see how packed it is.

“Our calendar looks like we have a staff of 42,” she said. “When we have an idea, we are three people whose attitude is, ‘Well, let’s make it happen!’ Especially when we get enthusiasm from faculty who have benefited from it – then we think, ‘Obviously, we have to keep offering that. It’s helping faculty, and ultimately it’s helping our students learn.’”

What’s in a Name? A Lot of Content

The trio endeavors to make the workshop names as creative as the sessions themselves. A sampling:

• Faculty Stress, Burnout and Compassion Fatigue: We Need to Take Care of Ourselves, Too!
• Teaching for a Changing World: Helping Students Navigate Complexity, Thrive with Change and Promote Well-Being
• Bursts of Joy: Short-Term Approaches to Enhancing Your Well-Being and the Well-Being of Students

Note the theme of self-help and, in turn, helping students. For faculty, it can be the healthiest of pick-me-ups.

“I find it invigorating every time I go to one of these events,” said Dr. Ben Porter MS’08, PhD’11, associate professor of instruction in the Department of Bioengineering and a regular CTL customer. “It keeps me interested in improving constantly in what I’m doing, for seeking the newer, better practices, for finding better ways to reach the students, for not just resting on what I’ve already established and for trying to help the students more and more.”

Webinar Wednesday, scheduled for the second Wednesday of each month, offers another benefit: It’s recorded. “It’s great for saying, ‘Here’s some information you can act on,’” Huxtable-Jester said.

The in-person workshops, coordinated by administrative assistant Beverly Reed, are “a very different sort of event,” Huxtable-Jester added. “We’re providing food, and there’s a lot of camaraderie, a lot of socializing, a lot of sharing and building community.”

Said Porter, “You keep seeing the same faces over and over. You learn the people who are really interested in trying to do better, and you start swapping ideas and trying new things.”

Kindness and Compassion in the Classroom

Curious about what Mister Rogers’ 10 lessons are and how they apply to teaching? Here’s the list, with Huxtable-Jester’s talking points:

1. Be deep and simple: “How our words are understood doesn’t depend just on how we express ideas,” Rogers once said. “It also depends on how someone receives what we’re saying.” Huxtable-Jester considers this lesson one of the most important. She urged attendees to listen to students, learn who they are and listen to what they learned from you. If they did not receive it, she said, find another way … and plan time for that.
2. Be kind to strangers: Replace empty platitudes with meaningful action.
3. Make a joyful noise: Have students share what they have learned with someone other than the instructor.
4. Tell the truth: This lesson tends to be misunderstood, she said. The point for teachers is to be authentic and consistent in what they say and do. As Rogers put it, the greatest gift you can give someone is “the gift of your honest self.”
5. Connect with other people every way you can: Create opportunities to connect with students and help them connect with each other.
6. Love your neighbors: Rogers’ most famous lesson is about building community. Huxtable-Jester said you create community by making students feel as if they all belong and by building structure into the class. Students who don’t need as much structure won’t be held back by it, but too little structure leaves some students behind.
7. Find the light in the darkness: Maintain a sense of purpose, helping students get in the spirit of contributing to the world – both inside and outside the classroom.
8. Always see the very best in other people: Another important lesson, in Huxtable-Jester’s view. In academics, it means holding students to high expectations and delivering critical feedback that builds trust without making assumptions or relying on stereotypes.
9. Accept the changing seasons: Death and loss sometimes are part of a student’s life and require reflection.
10. Share what you’ve learned. (All your life.): You’ve had mentors. Pass on that knowledge.

Brody thought the Mister Rogers session perfectly encapsulated what Huxtable-Jester brings to her role … and what CTL strives to do.

“The inspiration, kindness and care she brings to work makes it so that everything we do in CTL has that tone to it,” Brody said. “I think we have a reputation for providing excellent content but in a way that is kind and compassionate and patient.”

Mister Rogers would no doubt approve.

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Also in this series:

CTL’s ‘Pedagogical Magic’ Shares Tricks of Good Teaching

Value of Provost’s Teaching Fellows Is Beyond Words

When Faculty Share CTL Ideas, Students Benefit, Too

From Far and Near: CTL Is the Best of Both Worlds