Welcome!
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about the professional development opportunities available this Spring for faculty across the Washington CTC system. The RISE Learning Institute at Bellevue College has been working hard the past four years to build faculty capacities in high-impact practices – undergraduate research, project-based learning, and service-learning. And we are excited to collaborate with you for the same.
The workshops and learning communities below are for instructors interested in community-engaged and reflective pedagogies. You will learn practical skills to integrate into course design, build community with other similarly-minded instructors, and feel more confident in implementing high-impact teaching practices. Details, dates, costs, and registration are given below. Questions? Reach out to Sapan Parekh, Associate Director, Service-Learning & Community Engagement.
Looking forward to working with you!
What is RISE?
The RISE Learning Institute works across Bellevue College and with the surrounding community to provide opportunities for students to learn through experiences, with the goal of helping them identity, articulate, build, and apply strengths. Through experiential learning, students develop skills that can help them succeed after leaving Bellevue College. In order to support these learning opportunities, RISE additionally provides professional development for faculty and builds relationships with the community. The RISE Learning Institute brings together the college’s Center for Career Connections, the STEM to Stern and Neurodiversity Navigators cohort programs, the RISE MakerSpace, the First Year Seminar (launching Fall 2021), and faculty and student support in high impact practices such as Community-Engaged & Civic Education (CECE), Undergraduate Research (UGR), and Project-Based Learning (PBL).
Fall Professional Development Offerings
The RISE Learning Institute is excited to offer these workshops and learning communities to help with your professional development. All the opportunities below have been previously offered to Bellevue College faculty. In the future, RISE hopes to provide professional development to you in the areas of project-based learning and undergraduate research.
Before registering, check with your department or division about the following:
- PD & Promotion: The Professional Development Hours – as per Bellevue College’s system – you can earn for attending the workshops are given below. Check with your institution whether these workshops can count for your promotional needs, and whether the PD hours earned would match the amounts given below.
- Payment: There are two ways to pay, via credit card or paper check. Talk to your department about the best way to pay, and whether you can apply for reimbursement if you pay. The preference is credit card, though if you pay by check, make it out to “Bellevue College” with RISE/CCC in the Memo, and mail it to c/o Lana Yakupova, Bellevue College, 3000 Landerholm Cir SE, Mail Stop N258, Bellevue WA 98007. The check must be received before the start of the first workshop or session.
Project-Based Learning in Asynchronous Courses
Thursdays, October 14 and 21, 1:30-3:00pm
Project-based learning (PBL) requires students to work in small teams to address open-ended, authentic issues. This requires coordination among students, which is inherently challenging in asynchronous classes. But challenging is definitely not impossible. Several Bellevue College faculty in multiple departments use PBL in online courses, and BC is actually something of a national leader among community colleges in this regard. In this two-part workshop, you’ll have time to revamp an assignment sequence and get feedback from colleagues across the CTC system. You’ll also investigate approaches like:
- Creating synchronous “moments” vs. wholly asynchronous methods of coordinating teams
- Providing structure and scaffolding for projects in the online environment
- Strategies for creating team-based deliverables
Cost: $75 | 6 PD hours | Registration Deadline: October 11, 9:00am
If you or your department plans to pay by credit card (preferred method), please register at Brown Paper Tickets.
If you plan to send a check, complete the registration form below (make sure to mail the check immediately so it reaches before the first session):
Civic Action in the Classroom Learning Community
Fridays, October 22, November 5, November 19, and December 3, 1:30pm-3:30pm
As we as a society and a nation engage with the repercussions of 2020 – The Pandemic, the Elections, the Protests, and the Census – there are plentiful reasons for Bellevue College students to see the connections between their coursework and the world around them. Though it is no longer 2020, the need for civic engagement and action continues, and the importance of building a civic voice in our students is ever pressing.
I appreciate having this space to engage with theories and tools of bringing in real-life civic issues into my English composition class projects, and to discuss ways of facilitating challenging conversations in the classroom with my colleagues.
Dr. Zhenzhen He-Weatherford, English
Through the four two-hour sessions of this learning community, you will plan a civic action component for an upcoming course. The topics will include:
- Civic Engagement
- Civic Action and the Remote Environment
- Critical Reflection
- Deliberative Dialogue
You may have some minimal pre-readings, and you will work on your course between sessions, as needed. The hope is you will feel prepared to offer this civic component in an upcoming quarter. As this learning community is collaborative, you will engage with, learn from, and support faculty from across the community and technical college system. Included in this learning community is a one-on-one advising conversation with the program facilitator.
Cost: $200 | 12 PD Hours | Registration Deadline: October 15, 9:00am
If you or your department plans to pay by credit card (preferred method), please register at Brown Paper Tickets.
If you plan to send a check, complete the registration form below (make sure to mail the check immediately so it reaches before the first session):
Facilitating Productive Struggle: A Faculty Panel on Building High-Rigor, High-Support Environments
Monday, November 8, 2:30-3:30
Scholar Zaretta Hammond argues that “productive struggle” is a key element of culturally responsive teaching. Creating a high-rigor, high-support environment is one of the common elements that happens across multiple high-impact practices that shrink equity gaps. . . and such environments can exist all sorts of different courses. But these environments definitely vary from discipline to discipline.
Join a panel of Bellevue College faculty who have built productive struggle into their courses in a variety of different ways. Learn what has worked for them, the challenges they faced along the way, and how they continue to challenge–and support–their students.
Free | 1 PD hour | Registration Deadline: November 8, 2:30pm
Stepping Out & Stepping Into: Ethical Community Engagement for a More Equitable World
Tuesday, November 9, 1:30-3:30
So, you want to make a difference in the world around you? Perhaps you want to encourage your students to do the same? But maybe you feel uncomfortable, unprepared, and uncertain. Join us as we examine how to engage with, learn from, and contribute to the community in an ethical manner. We will examine how bias, anti-racism, privilege, storytelling, and more fit into how you step into new community situations, so you have more confidence to step out and make the world a better, more equitable place.
This interactive workshop has been designed with inputs from the community and from other academic institutions. It is open to anyone associated with Bellevue College, as well as to the broader community. Please consider sharing with students.
Free | 2 PD hours | Registration Deadline: November 9, 1:30pm
Last Updated April 8, 2022
