This newsletter covers what happened in October and will give you a heads up on what to look for in November and the months following.

In this issue (please note the links below will only work when viewing this newsletter in a browser):

As a member of the Academy of Process Educators, I know that you are with us (and still with us!) because you’ve have found value in what Process Education offers to educators.

This is a great time to share that with others.

Maybe you do that already. Maybe it’s explicit, like sharing resources like the 25^th Anniversary of PE issue of IJPE, or the Faculty Guidebook. Perhaps your campus uses their institutional membership to let new faculty access the electronic version of the Faculty Guidebook.

Or maybe you’re a little more covert, slipping techniques from PE into conversations without referencing PE outright: giving requested feedback as SII assessment instead of evaluation, giving suggestions to colleagues who ask for advice about challenging students, slipping team roles into committee or departmental working groups.

So you know the value that sharing PE can offer to other educators.

So here’s my question: What are the needs of faculty and of campuses right now? Which are about persevering in the time of COVID, combatting issues that have been ongoing during the pandemic? Which are needed because of continual shifts in the landscape? And which support teaching at any time?

Or in other words, what are the “nuggets” or “secrets” of PE that could we reveal in a 45-90 minute session from which they’d walk away with a new strategy that can move them from drowning to surviving, or surviving to thriving, this semester or this academic year? What would spur you to invite them to this free session?

Drop me a quick line at Ingrid.m.ulbrich@gmail.com and let me know your thoughts!

Recent Board Meetings

Remember, you can find out the Board’s current work by checking the Academy Board Meeting Agendas and Minutes posted on the Academy members’ page:

September 2021 minutes (approved)

October 2021 minutes (not yet approved)

Summary of March Board meeting work:

In October, the Board

• Discussed the clarification of some financial policies passed in 2020-2021.

• Received a summary of outcomes of the conversations President Ingrid Ulbrich had with board members regarding the work of the Academy

• Received updates on conference Planning for the Summer Conference

• Received updates on plans to create attendance certificates for Conference attendees

The Next Board Meeting is scheduled for Friday, November 12, 2021 (at Noon CDT).

All Academy members are welcome to participate. You will be able to find the agenda for the meeting as well as the needed information to attend through Zoom on the Academy Member site.

Part A – The Different Flavors
Part B – The Barriers

The purpose of this workshop is to challenge academia’s reliance on grades. It is fair to say that most faculty have received end-of-term emails and grade appeals from students asking to be rounded up to (at least) the next letter grade. Most of us have become frustrated after spending hours providing feedback finding our work in the trash can outside the classroom. What if there is a different way? The intended outcome of the workshop is to plant some ungrading seeds in your gardens and see what happens.

If you plan to attend, here's how to prepare:

1. Please take time to read Ungrading by Jesse Stommel: https://www.jessestommel.com/ungrading-an-introduction. (Note that other blogs at the end are very good reading too!)

2. Answer these Exploration Questions on the forum for the session before the session begins. (If you do not have an account on the Workshop site, create one! Simply click on the link, "If you are new here..." and follow the instructions.)

• Dr. Stommel states that during the pandemic, grades measured how well students were able to pivot online and adapt to online learning. Please comment on how well this does or does not overlap with your experience.
  
• In his foundational questions about assessments, Dr. Stommell makes a statement that we are evaluators (judgers) of student work. What percentage of your grading is assessment versus evaluation?

3. Review the plans for both parts of the session, and prepare to contribute to the discussion and play one or more team roles noted in the full facilitation plan.

Please invite any non-Academy friends and peers!

They can easily create their own account on the Academy Workshop site (without joining the Academy)! It will take them only a few minutes. Simply share the workshop information (available at www.processeducation.org/2021_w5.html) and let them know to register for the workshop and complete the preparation tasks.