This week you're getting a mix of high- and low- tech tips to help you on your teaching journey: celebrate diversity, try a new tool, and boost your breakout group skills.

Celebrate diverse scholarship all year long

Black History Month is almost over - but celebrating a diverse group of scholars can keep going. So many of our students do not see themselves reflected in higher education; heritage months are a great opportunity to diversify our heroes. This month, profile a Black luminary, theorist or inventor in your field - or better yet, have your students research and share for extra credit.

Polls

In our previous email, we mentioned Zoom polls. Learn to set up your own with this tutorial from Zoom. If you're looking for something more sophisticated, you could try SSU's subscription to Poll Everywhere.

Finally, 3 tips to make breakout groups more effective

These were written with virtual teaching in mind, but they'll also help with face to face groups (credit to Aaron Johnson ).

1. Preparation Tweak existing homework to help students get ready to work with their group - without adding more work. For example, ask students to ponder a reflection question or jot down notes after doing a reading.
2. Guidance Provide groups instructions for their time together, as well as what to do if they run into trouble. Make sure it's available in a way students can still access once they join their groups, either face to face or in Zoom.
3. Deliverable Make sure there is always a concrete deliverable and a requirement to report back to create accountability for groups. Collaborative documents like Google docs are a great place for groups to record and share their work.

Read more:

SSU Black History Month resources
Aaron Johnson: Teaching Online with Zoom: How to Increase Student Engagement - 30-minute podcast episode Barbi Honeycutt, Ph.D. Lecture Breakers Podcast.
Teaching with Groups at Salem State's Online Teaching Professional Development Resource
Tools You Can Use at Salem State's Online Teaching Professional Development Resource. Learn about Poll Everywhere and other free-to-you tools.

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