20th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference
About the Conference
Teaching Matters is an interdisciplinary teaching and learning Higher Ed conference hosted by Gordon State College in Barnesville, Georgia. Individual Presentations, Panel Sessions, Workshops, and Posters focus on innovative and creative pedagogical methods, issues surrounding teaching and learning, and educational theories.
About this year's conference
We missed you last year! With a cheery optimism (and an eye to guidance from our system office), we are beginning to plan for 2022, and we are thrilled to invite you to join us in person on March 10 and 11 as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Teaching Matters. To commemorate this historic moment, we are planning three session threads that pay homage to popular past conference themes. We are also making plans for an e-publication of select conference proceedings. Please join us to celebrate the fact that teaching has always and still does matter!
Session Threads
Tradition & Innovation: Pandemic Takeaways
Some of us panicked at the onset of the historic "pivot"; some of us were thrilled because we've always been the department "techie." Regardless of the initial reaction, we all learned how to adapt to the new hybrid, hy-flex, and online landscape, gaining more and more expertise with technology. We even plan to keep some innovations when we return to more traditional approaches in the in-person classroom. In this session thread, you will share your pandemic takeaways, the ways in which you will leverage technology in your F2F classes in order to teach more effectively.
Discovering What Works: New Strategies for the 21st Century Classroom
You dream in acronyms, an alphabet of strategies leaping over your bed as you sleep: your class is HIP and TiLTed, a BYOD room all about JITT, SRS, and CATs, an overall perfect example UDL and UBD. You gamify and FLIP, you build GRIT, and you’re all about ungrading. You strive for inclusion and equity. Ultimately, you have found the secret sauce for motivating and engaging our ever-changing student body because you've tried it all. In this session thread, you'll share with us what you've discovered that really works to promote student success in the 21st century classroom.
The Inclusive Academic: Strategies for Maintaining Balance in a Changing Academic World
Some of us believed pre-2020 that the way to ensure that students flourish is to make sure that instructors are thriving. We believe it even more now. Presentations in this thread will help us avoid burnout and find ways to balance "it all" in a quickly changing Higher Ed landscape.
Registration opens November 1, 2021; Register before February 7, 2022 for Early Bird price.
Interested in submitting a proposal? Please complete our proposal form. All proposals must be received by January 7, 2022.
Direct questions to Dr. Anna Higgins-Harrell at a_higgins@gordonstate.edu or at (678) 359-5095.
Conference Resources
Use the following resources to enhance your Teaching Matters experience.