PFF

Preparing Future Faculty: May Seminar Applications Invited

CRLT is accepting applications through February 25 for the May PFF Seminar, which you can learn more about here. In this guest post, English and Women’s Studies joint Ph.D. student Cat Cassel reflects upon her experiences in the seminar last spring.

Every May, Rackham and CRLT co-sponsor the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) seminar, providing graduate students from across campus important information about preparing for a faculty career trajectory. I participated in the seminar last year and came away with several valuable insights:

  • a deeper understanding of the role of faculty in the context of higher education
  • an arsenal of knowledge, tools, and tips for effective teaching, and
  • a broader sense of the different kinds of faculty career paths available.

Below I highlight two facets of the seminar that were especially useful in helping me feel equipped to face the rigors of future faculty life.

CAMPUS VISIT:  Seminar participants have the option of visiting Albion College, Eastern Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, and University of Toledo. I chose to visit Kalamazoo since both my undergraduate and graduate educations have been at large R1 institutions and I wanted to see what campus life at a small liberal arts college looked like. Read more »

Submitted by tbraun on Sat, 02/09/2013 - 12:52pm
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Teaching Development Opportunity: May Seminar on Preparing Future Faculty

CRLT is now accepting applications for the May 2013 Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Seminar. See this page for full information about the program and application requirements. This will be the fourteenth year of this Rackham-CRLT program devoted to preparing advanced graduate students for faculty positions.

Graduate students often ask, "If I attended the fall PFF Conference, is it worth my while to apply for the Seminar, too?" The answer is, yes! Unlike the fall conference, the May PFF Seminar primarily focuses on teaching. Participants will have the opportunity to talk with faculty members about their teaching, learn about integrating a range of pedagogical techniques and technologies, participate in conversations about multicultural teaching and learning, and prepare a teaching philosophy statement and course syllabus. Because of its extended focus on teaching, the five-week Seminar entirely fulfills requirement "B" for the Rackham-CRLT Graduate Teacher Certificate. 

Recent participants have praised the seminar for supporting their professional development as both scholars and teachers.  One writes, "I had a wonderful experience in PFF. It got me inspired and excited about a career in academia. Actually, I credit it with lighting a fire under me to finish my dissertation, as I realized what I really wanted was to be a faculty member, not a student! Well, it has worked, and I will be defending my dissertation in July."

Another credits the seminar for helping her win a national award for teaching and learning: "I think a major reason why I won it was that PFF gave me the tools to write about my teaching with greater sophistication and purpose. Thank you for putting together such an amazing program!"

 
You can find all the details about the program here. 
Read more »
Submitted by tbraun on Wed, 01/09/2013 - 2:33pm
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Exploring a Career in Higher Ed? Tools for Learning More about U.S. Institutions

Are you currently searching for academic jobs or planning a higher ed job search in the future? Beyond exploring individual schools' websites, do you know how to find good information about the institutions you're applying to? Or how to find similar institutions in a given geographic area? Or how to research salary ranges for the kinds of positions you're seeking? 

This screencast prepared by CRLT's Rachel Niemer highlights web-based resources that can answer a range of questions you might not have even known you had. The 7-minute presentation provides introductions to search tools from trusted sources like the Carnegie Foundation, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Department of Education to help you pursue a more fully-informed job search. 

For other resources for job seekers, click on the "PFF" (Preparing Future Faculty) tag below. 

Submitted by tbraun on Thu, 11/15/2012 - 4:41pm
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PFF Seminar Application 2013

To be eligible for the PFF Seminar, applicants must be advanced graduate students who have achieved candidacy by May 2013 and have college or university teaching experience.  Please complete the following web form and upload a copy of your curriculum vitae and your cover letter.  Your cover letter should answer the following questions (limited to 2 single-spaced pages):

  • At which type of academic institution would you like to be a faculty member (e.g., research-oriented, teaching-oriented, or a mix) and why?
  • What are your core values regarding teaching? Please provide examples from your own teaching as a GSI and/or learning as a student.
  • How will the Seminar enhance your previous training and experience as a college-level teacher?
  • What else do you hope to gain from the PFF Seminar?
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Are You Productive, or Just Busy?

As one participant at the recent Preparing Future Faculty conference had heard from her faculty mentor, "Everyone is busy. Not everyone is productive." What can you do to make sure you fall into the latter category? The conference session on Strategies, Tools and Resources for Productivity focused on developing habits while in graduate school that will lead to greater success as a faculty member.  

At the session, I presented research showing that success in most endeavors begins with creating the right habits so that you are consistently making progress toward your goals. For college faculty, one crucial habit to develop is regular writing. But knowing this fact does not always mean acting upon it. Developing a new habit requires creating the right environment for it to grow (a regular trigger, engaging in the desired behavior, and a "reward" or sense of accountability for completing the behavior), and much of the discussion at the conference session was about how to nurture the environment for regular writing.
 
If you read on, you can see the Prezi presentation from the session and learn more about resources for productivity. 
Read more »
Submitted by rkniemer on Wed, 10/24/2012 - 4:26pm
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