Welcome to the The Faculty Development Center (FDC)
The Faculty Development Center provides a centralized place to support the teaching of all EMU faculty, lecturers, teaching GAs, and student success staff. The FDC promotes excellence in teaching, learning, and scholarly activities in accordance with the core values of respect, inclusiveness, care, and commitment. The Center grounds itself in awareness and support for cultural diversity and community-building.
Resources and Services
Teaching Spotlights
Read about our newest teaching spotlight and those from this past year. If you know an EMU instructor that you'd like to be recognized, consider nominating an outstanding faculty member!
Latest Newsletter
Take some time to read our weekly newsletter Happenings at the Faculty Development Center. Each issue features exciting FDC programming and events, blog posts, and much more.
Teaching Blog
We are excited to host the Teaching Blog as a platform for faculty to share their opinions and outlooks on teaching. Keep an eye out for upcoming enteries and check out some of our posts from last year!
Upcoming Events
Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming programs and events that the FDC provides in support of excellence in teaching, learning, and scholarly activities here at Eastern Michigan University.
Happenings at the Faculty Development Center
Teaching and Learning Together (TaLT)
The TaLT initiative begins with a learning community, composed of students and faculty, that will work together to identify ways to gain back what we have lost in terms of connection-building and mentorship. If interested in joining this community, please consider reading our calls for Student and Faculty fellows. To apply, please submit our Student application or our Faculty application.
Equitable Educators Learning Community
The Equitable Educators Learning Community intends to bring together a group of educators who want to develop cultural humility and commit to creating inclusive spaces and equitable outcomes for students. Participants in this learning community will engage in self-reflection and work together to identify and implement equity-focused teaching practices. For updates on this this community, keep an eye on our website and social media!
Mini-Grants to Support Student Wellness
The Faculty Development Center and the Office of Wellness and Community Responsibility are looking for applicants who want to support student wellness in their classroom through their teaching work. Recipients of this funding will receive up to $250 to introduce practices into their classroom during the winter 2023 term to support student wellness with a goal of sharing these innovations campus-wide.
Faculty Support Group
The Faculty Development Center would to invite you to join us for a chance to sit and talk to others about any concerns that you might have regarding job stresses and challenges. We envision honest and open discussion of the challenges we face, and also an opportunity to support each other, and rely on that support, as we deal with stress in our jobs and lives. To learn more about the Faculty Support Group, please read our Invitation for Participants.
General Education Professional Learning Communities
Our goal with this learning community is to put in place the infrastructure for three new communities; global Awareness, US Diversity, and Arts. Through the General Education Professional Learning Communities program, we hope to offer instructors the space for instructors in each GE to work collaboratively.
Inclusive STEM Teaching at EMU
This learning community is based on an NSF-funded free 6-week asynchronous online class for college instructors, the Inclusive STEM Teaching Project (ISTP) (here is its syllabus). Faculty, full-time lecturers, and part-time lecturer who completed thework of this learning community recieved an honorarium of $200.
Summer Research Award (SRA) Writing Workshop
Our first series of Internal Research Award workshops for the 2022-23 year focuses on the Summer Research Award (application due October 31st), intending to both inform attendees on the application process itself and provide feedback on any materials provided. If interested in attending any of the workshops, please register! Keep an eye out for upcoming workshops in this series!
Research Writers' Collaborative
The Writers’ Collaborative is an opportunity for EMU faculty to support each other while achieving realistic writing goals (i.e. developing a conference paper, drafting an article, revising a book chapter, etc.). In these meetings, we intend to provide space to keep attendees accountable for writing and to provide faculty with support on any writing needs that they may have. If interested in attending, please join us every Thursday from 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM on Zoom.
The Impact of Racial Microaggressions Workshops
Please join us for the upcoming Racial Microagressions Workshops on October 28th and November 9th. These workshops intend to provide examples of common microaggressions in faculty-student interactions and their impact on students’ sense of belonging, engagement, and overall success in institutions of higher education. If interested in attending this series of workshops, please consider completing the registration forms here.
Secondary Teaching Preparation Program
This is a series of workshops to inform participants about ways to engage and also integrate the anchor principles and core teaching practices in their activities and lessons. Faculty, lecturers and administration are invited to join one or more sessions. Faculty and lecturers will recieve an honorarium for participation in each session. If Interested please consider completing the registration forms.
Our Amazing Faculty
"What We've Learned" by FDC Student Workers Jessi Kewk and Hannah LaFleur
"What We've Learned" by FDC Student Workers Jessi Kewk and Hannah LaFleur
Two student workers at the FDC, Jessi Kwek and Hannah LaFleur, have had the chance to interview dozens of our most impressive educators who teach here at EMU. They have learned a lot from their conversations, and have noticed certain qualities that make these educators as great as they are. They compiled these qualities, and other lessons they have learned, into this document which offers insight into the teaching practices and philosophies of the most impactful faculty and staff we have at EMU.