Tools and Resources

Teaching at Clark

About Clark and Clark County

Clark College is the oldest and largest public institution of higher education in Southwest Washington. We are an open-enrollment community college and welcome students of all ages and backgrounds and support them on their educational and career goals. Our students pursue a wide variety of certificates and degrees. Clark continues to strive towards equitable outcomes for our students and being a welcoming workplace for our colleagues. We are a learning, growing community of educators, support staff, students, and community members.

Clark has multiple locations and campuses, so here are maps and directions if you need them!

Here is some information to provide some context around Clark College and Clark County:

New Faculty Orientation Resources

The TLC offers new faculty orientation to incoming full time and adjunct professors. We host a Canvas shell with information and resources for faculty, and we hold a new faculty orientation lunch each fall the Friday before Orientation Week. This is an opportunity for new faculty to get to know each other, meet existing Clark faculty and staff, familiarize themselves with the Canvas shell and resources available, and enjoy lunch! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at tlc@clark.edu

Here is the Faculty Resources shell.

  Community and Support

There are multiple ways to engage in community and lots of faculty support available.

Here are some options for faculty community.

Here are some options for faculty support.

If you don't see what you are looking for here, we are happy to brainstorm with you. Get in touch at tlc@clark.edu.


A Focus on You

Mindfulness and Rest Resources

Faculty can encounter stress as they balance providing feedack with planning and design, as they work with students who may be facing distress in their own lives, and, particularly for adjunct faculty, as they work to put together a full schedule and career as an academic.

Mindfulness activities such as coloring can help with ridding the brain of cortisol and improving mental and physical health. We have some mindful coloring pages at the Teaching and Learning Center (Gaiser Hall, room 206) for faculty, staff, or student use, and here are some links:

Mindful Coloring: A Simple & Fun Way to Reduce the Stress in Your Life

Mindful Coloring

For people who may not enjoy coloring or who need a non-visual way to practice mindfulness, check out the mindfulness curriculum from the California State School for the Blind for scent and tactile options:

Mindfulness Curriculum

Rest is also an essential component of our lives. Here are some rest resources:

The Nap Ministry is a website run by Tricia Hersey, author of Rest is Resistance. Check out a discussion of rest as a form of social justice on Hersey's NPR All Things Considered interview.  You can also listen to the Nap Ministry's Lay Back/Relax mix on Spotify

Here is a trio of articles on The Elemental Guide to Napping from Maya Kroth. 

If you need a place to relax and have a snack or some coffee or tea on campus, come visit us at the TLC Commons in Gaiser Hall 206E. We also have headphones available to check out if you would like to listen to music.

Professional Development

There is a wealth of professional development for faculty at Clark! 

The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) hosts communities of practice, accessibility trainings, universal design for learning (UDL) workshops, active learning and community based learning (CBL) workshops, guest speakers, and more! You can find our offerings on our TLC Canvas Site as well as the Training and Development Calendar

Clark's eLearning team provides training in best practices in online teaching and course design as well as one on one assistance with instructional designers. They also offer the following certification paths: eLearning Professional, Universal Design for Learning, and Active Delivery. You can reach them at instdesign@clark.edu

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) provides numerous workshops on power, privilege, and inequity themes, with an emphasis on antiracism. They also host an annual conference - the Northwest Regional Equity Conference (NWREC) and a leadership program - BUILD (broadening understanding, intercultural leadership, and development ). 

Clark faculty can also apply for funding to attend academic conferences. If you have questions about professional development opportunities, feel free to reach out to the Teaching and Learning Center: tlc@clark.edu

Learn more at our Professional Development at Clark workshop!

 Sharing Your Work

There are various ways to share your work with colleagues at Clark! If you have an idea to collaborate with the Teaching and Learning Center to offer a workshop, event, or presentation related to your teaching and learning at Clark, please fill out the following form, and we will get back to you: TLC Collaboration Form 

If you are a current faculty member, we can also help with applying for funds to present at an outside conference related to your work at Clark. Feel free to email us at tlc@clark.edu

New workshop coming soon at the TLC: Creating a Professional Portfolio - tell your story to potential employers, colleagues, or collaborators through an engaging portfolio that showcases your strengths as an educator! 

 
Teaching and Course Design Tools

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for creating inclusive learning environments that remove barriers through offering a variety of learning materials of diverse modalities and perspectives, numerous ways to engage in class and find relevance in course content, and many options for showing learning and expressing growth. UDL can improve outcomes for all students! Here are a few of our favorite UDL resources:

The UDL Guidelines from CAST

The Center for Universal Design in Education from University of Washington's DO-IT program

Universal Desgn of Instruction from University of Washington's DO-IT program 

UDL flow chart from Novak Educational Consulting 

We have numerous books on UDL in the TLC Library, such as Andratesha Fritzgerald's Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning, Katie Novak's and Mirko Chardin's Equity by Design, and Novak's UDL Now! (and lots more). We also have handouts like UDL course design templates. Visit us in Gaiser Hall 206. 

Culturally Responsive Teaching

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is an approach to instruction that uses students' customs, characteristics, experiences, and perspectives as tools for more effective teaching. It includes gaining awareness of one's own cultural references and positionality, building relationships with learners, and using high quality teaching strategies to build intellective capacity and grow independent learners. Here are a few of our favorite CRT resources:

Companion website to Zaretta Hammond's Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, including links to figures from the book:

Harvard's Implicit Association Tests (IAT): these can help with reflecting on our perspectives.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Toolkit from Diverse Educators - this page contains links to several great resources, inlcuding videos, articles, and case studies. 

We have books on culturally responsive and inclusive education in the TLC Library! We also have handouts and CRT templates. Feel free to come browse in Gaiser Hall 206. 

Trauma Responsive Education

Trauma responsive teaching considers how trauma impacts people and their ability to learn. It provides caring, consistent environments that treat all people with dignity and respect. Trauma repsonsive learning environments make use of restorative justice and relationship building, being careful to avoid causing harm. Here are some of our favorite trauma responsive resources:

We highly recommend the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion's trainings for help with recognizing harm in the classroom. Look for a "PPI" (power, privilege, and inequity) or "EDM" (equitable decison making) prefix. 

Trauma-Informed Teaching: A Primer by Portland State University's Office of Academic Innovation 

Trauma-Informed Practices for Post-Secondary Education: A Guide - by Education Northwest

The TLC Library has emareena danielle's book Building a Trauma Responsive Education Practice. Feel free to browse library materials and trauma responsive handouts in Gaiser Hall 206. 

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT)

TILT is a framework that helps students become consciously aware of how they learn. It creates clear, navigable assignments that provide all the information students need to begin work and succeed in meeting outcomes. 

TILT website, which includes:

You can find TILT handouts at the TLC - visit us in Gaiser Hall 206. 

Community-Engaged Learning

Community-engaged learning (CEL) is learning that takes place in and with communities. It can improve student engagment and motivation; provide multiple ways to show, share, and apply knowledge; and better prepare students for career success and civic life. Here are some CEL resources to explore:

All Together Now card deck by Celine Fitzmaurice and Jenninfer Alkezweeny - check out this deck for lots of ideas for active learning and relfection for students in CEL courses! This deck is also fantastic for planning activities for courses that aren't perceived as CEL. The TLC has the decks available for check-out at the TLC Library in Gaiser Hall 206. 

Benefits and Things to Consider by the Morgridge Center for Public Service at the University of Wisconsin. This page covers many of the benefits of CEL for students, educators, schools, and communities. 

Feel free to browse our library and handouts in the Teaching and Learning Center for more! 

Accessibility in Teaching

Accessibility means that things are usable, perceivable, and able to benefit people equitably. Accessiblity is of key importance to inclusive design and good teaching.
We are required to provide our students with accessible learning materials and environments to be sure of their equal opportunities for success. The Teaching and Learning Center is always happy to chat about accessibility issues, and here are some resources to explore:

Tre Sandlin, Instructional Accessibility Specialist - reach out to Tre if you need some one-on-one support working on accessibility in your teaching and learning at Clark - email: wsandlin@clark.edu

There is a wealth of accessibility professional development and support at Clark! The eLearning team offers workshops on screencasting, captioning, and more. View their upcoming workshops on the employee training and development calendar, and remember to register through Eventbrite (links on the calendar). The Teaching and Learning Center also offers accessibility programming.

Visit us in Gaiser Hall 206 to find accessibility resources, like books and handouts. New books at the TLC Library related to accessibility: Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing with Accessibility in Mind by Regine Gilbert and Neurodiversity and Education by Paul Ellis, Amanda Kirby, and Abby Osborne. 

 

Teaching and Learning Center Resources

TLC Commons

The TLC Commons provide a lovely space for a small meeting! There are adjunct faculty workspaces, a small kitchen with coffee, tea, and and snacks, a rotating art show featuring artists from the Clark community, and friendly TLC staff happy to help you find what you need. Visit us in Gaiser Hall 206 on Clark's main campus. 

TLC Library

The TLC Library houses hundreds of books on education! Please feel free to browse and borrow what you like. We also have a teaching materials library, including LEGO bricks, games, crafting supplies, globes, card decks, fidgets, and more! Come check it out: Gaiser Hall 206. 

TLC Programming

The Teaching and Learning Center offers a wide variety of programming, including communities of practice, active learning and UDL workshops, guest speakers and events, Teaching and Trek, accessibility training, and more! 

TLC Canvas site

Employee Training and Development Calendar