Project Initiatives

Educator Learning Communities

An ELC is a small group of educators that gather regularly to support each other in learning and applying a new pedagogical approach, discussing a new text, or focusing on a professional development topic related to roles and responsibilities.

Educator learning communities receive funding to support and enhance meetings such as lunches, snacks, books, etc. Funding is based on the number of participants in an ELC at a rate of up to $20 per person per Block. To get reimbursed for ELC expenses, please provide Cindy Santiago with receipts.

Application process for 2024-25: email Ryan Bañagale, rbanagale@coloradocollege.edu, with the name, purpose, and goals of your ELC and the names of participants.

If you are interested in organizing an ELC and would like assistance with recruiting participants, we can help.

Current ELCs by Topic

Teaching A Foreign Language Using Inclusive Approaches

Arts-Based Pedagogies

STEM Assessment

Generative AI

Past ELCs by Topic

AI/ChatGPT

Athletic Coaching as Teaching

Teaching A Foreign Language Using Inclusive Approaches

Academic Staff and Third Space Professionalism

UNgrading

Scholarly Writing & Research Groups

A SWARG is a small group of faculty and staff that provides mutual support for creative work, research, and writing. This type of support is highly effective at increasing motivation, making progress on scholarship, and improving overall job satisfaction as teachers/scholars.

Groups often form themselves based on interests, career stages, or disciplines. Funding is based on the number of participants in a SWARG at a rate of up to $20 per person per Block. To get reimbursed for SWARG expenses, please provide Cindy Santiago with receipts.

Application process: email Ryan Bañagale, rbanagale@coloradocollege.edu, with the names of participants in your SWARG and whether the SWARG is semester long, academic year long, or a full year long (academic year plus summer).

The Crown Manuscript Workshop

The Crown Manuscript Workshop supports and promotes productive scholarship at CC. The Crown Manuscript Workshop brings together a CC scholar member and up to two external colleagues who are knowledgeable about the project topic for an intensive two-day seminar discussing and revising the scholar’s manuscript. Over the past eight years, the Manuscript Workshops have supported scholars in producing excellent publications in a variety of fields.

This workshop is for scholars who have a book project, major dissertation revision in the form of a nearly completed manuscript, or significant creative work.

Scholars may arrange for a seminar with up to two external colleagues (one of whom may be a publisher) working intensively on the full manuscript with the author. Honorarium for knowledgeable scholars is $500 each, plus additional travel expenses and lodging and meal costs.

Application process

Completed applications and supporting materials (in PDF format, please) should be sent by email to Ryan Bañagale (rbanagale@coloradocollege.edu).
Proposals must include:
- a letter of application including a brief description of the project
- a justification for the workshop and its timing
- a list of proposed attendees and their qualifications
- an itemized
Projects that are contracted and close to publication will be prioritized.
Awards will be transferred to research
Awardees schedule their own workshops and complete the paperwork for the
Within the calendar year following the workshop, each recipient must submit a detailed report about progress and publication

Deadlines:

Fall: Due the third Wednesday of Block 1

Spring: Due the third Wednesday of Block 5

Summer: Due the third Wednesday of Block 7

The Crown Conversations Project

What makes a conversation work? What sets an effective conversation apart from one that leaves its participants confused, frustrated, or disillusioned? Do important conversations have to be difficult? And how can we experience even difficult conversations as valuable?

The Crown Conversations Project starts from the conviction that we already have the tools to work through our conversational impasses. We facilitate and participate in conversations every day: in the classroom, among colleagues, and with our broader community. Many of us know what makes for a successful class discussion, but struggle to apply the same principles outside the classroom. All of us can learn from each others’ expertise and experience.

The Crown Conversations Project aims to gather that individual expertise into a collective resource. This fall, we will interview educators across campus to learn how they define good conversation and what they do to facilitate it. We will observe conversations happening around us and have our own conversations about what we’re seeing and learning.

The first tangible result of this process will be a user-friendly collection of practices and perspectives housed on the Crown Center’s website. The collection will serve as a resource for all members of the CC community and showcase CC faculty expertise for an outside audience.

Join us! The Conversations Project will be powered by a core group of committed participants. We encourage (short!) applications from those who are:

Able to commit to a two-hour kickoff session in Block 1 and subsequent blockly meetings during AY 2024-2025. We understand that things happen, but expect that participants will make a good-faith effort to prepare for and attend sessions.

Excited to seek out and speak with colleagues and convey those colleagues’ ideas to the group. This is a chance to gather and learn, not to impose our own views.
Interested in building their own capacity for effective conversation and creating a supportive atmosphere within the group.

Click here to apply to be a part of the Crown Conversations Project.

Please direct any questions you may have to Professor Sofia Fenner.

Alternative Assessment Strategies in STEM

What does it mean to assess student understanding in STEM courses? How effective are assessments at demonstrating a students level of understanding and competency towards the learning goals of a course? How can an assessment strategy on the Block Plan foster an inclusive and supportive classroom environment that values learning, growth, and conceptual mastery?

This Crown Center project on Alternative Assessment Strategies in STEM run by Faculty Fellow Dhanesh Krishnarao seeks to face these questions through a collaborative, year-long effort to discuss, develop, implement, and assess the effectiveness of different styles of formative assessments on the Block Plan.

Towards this goal, we are forming an Educator Learning Community (ELC) on Alternative Assessment Strategies in STEM - open to all STEM faculty at CC. Through this community, we will plan and workshop through different assessment methods that will be implemented in the Spring semester with a means to collect data and formally assess the impact of these strategies.

This group is designed to be a space for anyone interested in sharing their assessment strategies, learning from others ideas, and developing new formats together. As an example, I have been developing and testing a continuing assessment strategy, where a closed-book, closed-note, and timed assessment is spread out over multiple class sessions. This allows students not to worry about memorization and focus on genuine attempts at conceptual understanding interspersed with the ability to study and learn material to fill gaps between class sessions.

If you are interested in joining this ELC, please complete this form.

We plan to meet at least once each block, with an initial meeting of this group in Block 2.

Fostering an inclusive and supportive community in the classroom, even with how we assess students, is a necessary step to move towards an antiracist STEM classroom. We hope that this ELC will promote this shift at CC and improve the STEM experience for students.

Please direct any questions you may have to Professor Dhanesh Krishnarao

The Crown Center For Teaching