Block 1 Session Descriptions and Presenter Bios

Below is a description of all Block 1 sessions, as well as a short bio of each presenter.
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Canvas 1 \| Basics
Canvas 1 (Concurrent Session Block 1 – 10:40 – 11:55 am)
Session Description and Learning Objectives
Full Session Description and Session Resources are available here This introduction to Canvas will prepare participants to teach with the following Canvas tools: Canvas navigation Modules Announcements Assignments Gradebook Basic settings Inbox Publish feature
Presenter \| Ed Price
Ed Price is a Teaching, Learning and Technology Consultant with the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. He really likes the Brewers and Bobbleheads.

Teaching with Zoom
Teaching with Zoom 1 (Concurrent Session Block 1 – 10:40 – 11:55 am)
Session Description and Learning Objectives
This workshop (a duplicate of that found in block 2) focuses on how to set up and facilitate synchronous online meetings using Zoom. By the end of the workshop, participants should be able to: Set up Zoom meetings in Canvas Configure Zoom settings Download the Zoom app Invite guests to present in Zoom Set up audio and video Share a presentation, application, files, and the desktop Create polls ahead of a session Create and conduct polls during a session Facilitate breakout rooms for small group discussion Manage participant permissions Record and access recorded sessions
Presenter \| Amy Mangrich
Amy Mangrich, Senior Instructional Design Consultant, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and Senior Lecturer, Visual Arts. Her areas of interest include rich media, open educational resources, interactive learning materials, synchronous tools, and the pedagogy of online and blended courses. She is coordinating instructional design vendor alignment with campus standards for UWM’s Online Growth Initiative.

Bridging the Gap for Students with Existing Barriers to Learning
Teaching Focus 1 (Concurrent Session Block 1 – 10:40 – 11:55 am)
Session Description and Learning Objectives
Many students arrive in class with personal challenges such as family conflicts, relationship issues, financial struggles, and mental health challenges that create barriers to their learning. Furthermore, many of these students quickly come to believe that their teachers will not understand their struggles. Thus, they do not disclose their challenges to their teachers, making it difficult for them to get help. In this session, we will explore some of the most significant barriers to student success and examine strategies to support students and improve their learning outcomes. This session will provide practical steps to empower TAs to become excellent supporters of their students. By the end of the session, attendees will be able to: List various issues impacting students’ learning ability within and outside the classroom Identify key student mentoring strategies Utilize effective pedagogical styles to motivate students with existing learning barriers Employ resources they can use to improve their teaching to support students with learning barriers.
Presenter \| Gabriel Ezema
Gabriel Ezema is a fourth-year doctoral student in counseling psychology at UWM. He obtained a dual master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling/Theology and Ministry from Boston College, and was ordained a Catholic priest in Nigeria before he moved to the USA for his graduate studies. He has provided pastoral care and mental health counseling services to diverse communities and college student populations in Nigeria and the USA. His research interest revolves around college students’ mental health and career development, peer mentoring, and how the family, individual identity, and social contexts affect youth and young adults’ psychosocial and career development and access to decent jobs. He likes spending his free time with friends and family, regular exercise, and meditation. Gabriel chose UWM for his doctoral studies because of the program’s emphasis on cultural diversity and excellence in research and clinical practice.

How Do We Learn to Write? Guiding Principles in the Pedagogy of Writing
Teaching Focus 2 (Concurrent Session Block 1 – 10:40 – 11:55 am)
Session Description and Learning Objectives
How do students learn to write? In this session, we will work to de-mystify how to teach writing by focusing on four guiding principles from the field of writing pedagogy – each supported by research and scholarship. We will discuss classroom-ready teaching strategies: from scaffolding in course design to student-centered classroom activities that can fit into small pockets of time. We will also experiment with useful classroom technologies like Hypothesis and Padlet. Developing as writers and rhetors is an ongoing process that continues in every class, across all disciplines, and throughout a student’s academic career. In this session, the goal is to equip you with high-impact tools for supporting student writers in any class. By the end of the session, attendees will be able to: Define and share with others 4 guiding principles of Writing Pedagogy: 1) Everyone is a writer. All writers have more to learn. 2) Writing is a social and rhetorical activity. 3) Reading and writing are connected activities. 4) Writing is an iterative process. Understand strategies for incorporating these writing pedagogy principles into teaching practices in any field. Use classroom technologies like Padlet and Hypothesis.
Presenter \| Danielle Harms
Danielle Harms is a dissertator in English, concentrating on creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She was a Distinguished Graduate Student Fellow, a Distinguished Dissertator Fellow, and a Digital Humanities Teaching Fellow. Her writing has been published in Conjunctions, Mid-American Review, New Letters, and American Literary Review. She earned her MFA from George Mason University, where she was an Assistant Term Professor. She is the winner of a 2021 AWP Intro Journals Prize in fiction and is a 2023 Staff Scholar in the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference.

All sessions will be recorded

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