Last modified: Wednesday, March 26, 2008
IU offers workshop to help educators teach about timely events, manage difficult situations
Workshop to discuss impact of soon-to-be-released movie 'Dark Matter'
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2008
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Upsetting and sometimes tragic events that occur locally, nationally and internationally can leave educators at all levels to cope not only with their own emotions, but also those of their students. A workshop to help them prepare for managing the emotional aftermath of such events, when day-to-day teaching and learning is put aside, is being offered at IU Bloomington Wednesday (April 2), from noon to 1 p.m. in the Persimmon Room at the Indiana Memorial Union.
"Timely Events and Teachable Moments: The Release of the Movie Dark Matter" will provide educators with strategies and resources for teaching and learning concerns, including managing classroom conflict and safety, student mental health, setting expectations, campus climate for international students, and addressing timely events in class.
Educators may register for the workshop at https://www.iub.edu/~teaching/cic_event_full.php?coursesid=2269. Walk-in registrants also will be accepted.
A panel of IU Bloomington professors, including Melissa Gresalfi, assistant professor, counseling and educational psychology; Abdulkadder Sinno, assistant professor, political science; and Brenda Weber, assistant professor, gender studies, will share their perspectives on the intersection between the movie Dark Matter and their own teaching.
Dark Matter is based on the true story of Gang Lu, a Chinese graduate student at the University of Iowa who shot and killed several people in 1991. The film is scheduled to be released this April. For more on the movie, visit https://www.ropeofsilicon.com/movie/dark_matter/.
The workshop is sponsored by Campus Instructional Consulting, which provides assistance to instructors in and out of the classroom with the development, implementation and evaluation of teaching, technology and course innovations. For a listing of other workshops sponsored by the organization this year, see https://www.indiana.edu/~teaching/.
A summary of resources for responding to tragic events in the classroom and for managing conflict and other difficult classroom situations is available as part of the Indiana University Teaching Handbook, at https://teaching.iub.edu/finder/wrapper.php?inc_id=s3_1_difficult_01_tragedy.shtml.
Another important resource for every instructor at Indiana University is the IU Emergency Handbook, available at the Office of Risk Management's home page at https://rmweb.indiana.edu/orm/SiteMap2.cfm?todo=HandbookCover.
For more information about the workshop, e-mail teaching@indiana.edu, or call 855-9023.
