FALL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE AND SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

“These aren’t just good strategies (and they are!) but, when integrated systematically, they are transformative experiences for both students and instructors.” –Jim Kain, Neumann University, PA
The 2022 1-Day Fall Energizer conference will be held on October 28th
virtually through Zoom!
FALL ENERGIZER CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:
FRIDAY, October 28 | |
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7:00am-8:00am Pacific | Breakfast on Your Own (recipe suggestions will be shared) |
8:00am-9:00am Pacific | Session #1: Opening Keynote (60 Minutes) |
9:00am-9:15am Pacific | Energizer/Restoration Break |
9:15am-10:30am Pacific | Session #2: Plenary Session with Keynoter (75 Minutes) |
10:30am-11:15am Pacific | Meal Break on Your Own (recipe suggestions will be shared) |
11:15am-12:30pm Pacific | Session #3: Breakouts (75 Minutes) |
12:30pm-12:45pm Pacific | Reflection Break |
12:45pm-2:00pm Pacific | Session #4: Breakouts (75 Minutes) |
“Thank you for putting this together and having good presenters with valuable content.” –Sylwia Kulczak, Rio Hondo College, CA
“Thank you – this was an amazing conference!” –Nicole Adsitt, Cayuga Community College, NY
2021 Opening Keynote Session with Sarah Rose Cavanagh, PhD.
Author of The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with Science of Emotion and
Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge

Opening Keynote: Reviving Our Sparks: Energizing Higher Education with Learning Environments of Compassionate Challenge
Teaching is a vocation. When supported with resources and security, it is a constantly renewing source of excitement and richness. The last several years of disruption, uncertainty, and overburdened workloads have exhausted teachers and students alike. Indeed, students are experiencing an epidemic of mental health problems, especially of anxiety. As instructors, we can support and encourage student mental health through pedagogies of care. A pedagogy of care involves high-touch practices like frequent communication, flexibility, inclusive teaching practices, learning new technologies and techniques, and being enthusiastic and passionate. All these practices involve both a heavy investment of time and a high degree of emotional labor. How can we support our students without burning ourselves out? How can we revive our sparks? In this interactive keynote, Sarah Rose Cavanagh will present some research and food for thought based on her upcoming book on how higher education should respond to both faculty depletion and the student mental health crisis.
Plenary Session: Lessons For Building Community From Social Neuroscience
A sense of community in the classroom contributes to effective learning, likely through benefits to student motivation. While traditional pedagogical literature speaks to methods of building community within the classroom, we can also look outside our intellectual silos to other academic disciplines researching how human beings form and maintain effective collaborative groups. In this interactive session, we’ll consider powerful research investigating team dynamics in simulated space missions, the social neuroscience of how the brain embeds our social others in our very sense of self, and even how honeybees make collective decisions together. We will work together to understand and apply these lessons to the work of the higher education classroom.
Biography
Sarah Rose Cavanagh is the Senior Associate Director for Teaching and Learning in the Center for Faculty Excellence at Simmons University, where she also teaches in the Psychology Department as an Associate Professor of Practice. Before joining Simmons, she was an Associate Professor of psychology and neuroscience (tenured) at Assumption University, where she also served in the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence as Associate Director for Grants and Research. Sarah’s research considers the interplay of emotions, motivation, learning, and quality of life. Her most recent research project, funded by the National Science Foundation, convenes a network of scholars to develop teaching practices aimed at greater effectiveness and equity in undergraduate biology education. She is author of four books, including The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion (2016) and upcoming Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge (2023). She frequently gives keynote addresses and workshops at a variety of colleges and regional conferences, blogs for Psychology Today, and writes essays for venues like Literary Hub and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She’s also on Twitter too much, at @SaRoseCav.
2022 Fall Program COMING SOON!
Session #1 - Opening Keynote (60 minutes) 8:00AM-9:00AM Pacific Time
Session 1: Opening Keynote with Sarah Rose Cavanagh, PhD
Reviving Our Sparks: Energizing Higher Education with Learning Environments of Compassionate Challenge
Summary: Teaching is a vocation. When supported with resources and security, it is a constantly renewing source of excitement and richness. The last several years of disruption, uncertainty, and overburdened workloads have exhausted teachers and students alike. Indeed, students are experiencing an epidemic of mental health problems, especially of anxiety. As instructors, we can support and encourage student mental health through pedagogies of care. A pedagogy of care involves high-touch practices like frequent communication, flexibility, inclusive teaching practices, learning new technologies and techniques, and being enthusiastic and passionate. All these practices involve both a heavy investment of time and a high degree of emotional labor. How can we support our students without burning ourselves out? How can we revive our sparks? In this interactive keynote, Sarah Rose Cavanagh will present some research and food for thought based on her upcoming book on how higher education should respond to both faculty depletion and the student mental health crisis.
Session #2 - Plenary Session with Keynoter (75 minutes) 9:15AM-10:30AM Pacific Time
Session 2: Plenary Session with Sarah Rose Cavanagh, PhD
Lessons For Building Community From Social Neuroscience
Summary: A sense of community in the classroom contributes to effective learning, likely through benefits to student motivation. While traditional pedagogical literature speaks to methods of building community within the classroom, we can also look outside our intellectual silos to other academic disciplines researching how human beings form and maintain effective collaborative groups. In this interactive session, we’ll consider powerful research investigating team dynamics in simulated space missions, the social neuroscience of how the brain embeds our social others in our very sense of self, and even how honeybees make collective decisions together. We will work together to understand and apply these lessons to the work of the higher education classroom.
Session 3A: Coming Soon!
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Session 3B: Coming Soon!
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Session 3C: Coming Soon!
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Session #4 - Breakouts (75 minutes) 12:45PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
Session4A: Coming Soon!
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Session 4B: Coming Soon!
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Session 4C: Coming Soon!
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