Staff
There are several new opportunities at Bryn Mawr College for staff members both to teach and to learn from others. Click on the links below to explore new opportunities.
Do you want to...
- Partner with a student in a mutually beneficial learning exchange?
- Learn to use email and the Internet?
- Participate in revising a course using and/or to integrate technology?
- Help to imagine, design, or teach a class for staff, students, or faculty?
Partnering With Students in a Learning Exchange
The staff-student partnerships are now made up of four parts:
The Empowering Learners Partnership (ELP) (www.brynmawr.edu/elp), the student-mentored introductory computing classes for staff, and the Reading, Writing, and Communication Program.
Members of all campus departments are eligible. Currently, participating departments include Housekeeping, Dining Services, Wyndham, Copy Center, Public Safety and Transportation, Athletics, and Facilities. Students from Haverford as well as Bryn Mawr (including the McBride and Post-Bac programs) participate.
For hourly staff, the College supports staff participation in the programs for up to 30 staff members per semester through two hours of paid release time per week. A Director’s Grant from the Mellon Foundation for the academic year 2006-7 supported an hourly wage for students, now supported by the College. Students may opt instead of paid compensation to use their program participation as fieldwork in selected Education courses.
Empowering Learners Partnerships
The Empowering Learners program pairs a student and a staff member as teaching and learning partners in a unique 4-14-week partnership. Participants are encouraged to think about their work history, life experience, avocations, and goals as sources of knowledge out of which they can teach and learn. They meet two hours weekly, one hour for each subject, and reflect on their activities, accomplishments, and questions as teachers and learners through meetings and assessments with Program staff. Topics have included cooking, woodworking, computer use, English as a second language, housepainting, an introduction to Islam, jazz appreciation, and career counseling. The project grew out of an Education course and was developed collaboratively with stakeholders across the community (a process discussed in Cohen, J., Lesnick, A., Himeles, D., “Temporary Anchors, Impermanent Shelter: Can the Field of Education Model a New Approach to Academic Work?” Journal of Research Practice, Vol. 2, Issue 2, 2007).
Contact Name: Alice Lesnick
Contact Email: alesnick@brynmawr.edu
Website: The "Empowering Learners Partnership" Program
Comments from Participants
“I have written about this in practically every reflection, but it never ceases to amaze me how much this partnership has made me feel like a member of a real, multi-dimensional community... The theme of community building in these partnerships is still very important to me, for I am constantly being reminded of how insular this campus really is. I am now quite thankful that I have been given a way to overcome this kind of isolation and to experience real community life once again, something which most of my peers probably won’t experience until they graduate.” – Shelley Nash, BMC ’07
Computing I
Computing 1 is a small-group, 10-week course co-designed by administrators, faculty, staff, and students with the goal of developing mutually respectful and educative relationships and experiences while ensuring that all members of the College community have access to and support in developing essential computer skills.
Designed to meet a need identified by both the Bryn Mawr staff members themselves and by the Bryn Mawr College administration that all staff members be able to access and use email and certain features of the Internet, the course meets once per week during each semester; students and staff meet for an additional hour per week for one-on-one mentoring in which the staff members practice, personalize, and extend their skills.
Computing II
This class is based in the same core principles and uses the same structures as Computing I. Staff learn how to create and maintain a weekly blog, as well as other "advanced" Internet skills: navigating complex web pages, identifying reliable sources online, and filling out forms with ease. They also learn about software; word processing; how to write a letter, a memo and a brochure in Word; how to name and save files locally, on a portable drive, and on a network; how to create a budget in Excel; and how to create a poster and a presentation in PowerPoint. Staff members also practice typing weekly and develop their presentation skills in teaching projects.
Computing III
This course enables staff members to do an independent study in a small group of other staff members, a staff member knowledgeable on the subject of study, and a student guide. Two housekeepers have piloted the program by studying web design and Contribute.
Contact Name: Alice Lesnick
Contact Email: alesnick@brynmawr.edu
Comments from Participants
“I feel very blessed to have been a part of this program. One of my favorite things (and the reason I want to teach) is sharing a learning experience with someone and growing in knowledge and passion together…Being able to navigate the web and feel comfortable with a computer is something I have always taken for granted; I grew up with it, and therefore I have always felt at ease playing around with a PC. Having to take a step back and break down those skills which I never formally learned, but acquired through years was a real challenge. I love what a supportive community of learners we became; many thanks to all those involved with this wonderful project.” - Maeve O’Hara, BMC ’08
Reading, Writing, and Communication
Many people on campus have worked over the years to meet the need of campus community members to develop literacy skills, and with the advent of the Teaching and Learning Initiative, this project has been re-energized and now is sponsored by the TLI, Human Resources, The Bi-College Education Program, and the office of the Chief Administrative Officer. For spring semester, 2008, we are supporting 4 staff-student, staff-staff, and staff-faculty partnerships focused on reading, writing, and communication skills. This program is designed to meet a range of learner needs and goals.
Contact Name: Alice Lesnick
Contact Email: alesnick@brynmawr.edu
Revising a Course With Technology
We can convene a team to help a faculty member revise his or her course to integrate technology in a pedagogically meaningful way. The team would consist of a member of the library staff with expertise in the faculty member’s field of study, a member of IT, and a student. This approach builds on the model of techno-pedagogy that informed workshops offered at Bryn Mawr College in the summers of 1999, 2000, and 2001 called “Taking toward Techno-Pedagogy” and supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. If you are interested in being a part of such a collaborative effort should a faculty request this kind of support, please refer all questions and comments to the individual(s) listed below.
Contact Name: Alison Cook-Sather
Contact Email: acooksat@brynmawr.edu
Website: Talking toward Techno-Pedagogy
Comments from Participants
“[What emerged in the workshop was] the recognition that emerged in the minds of different groups about what it is that the others do and what they have to offer each other.” -Librarian
“[O]ne of the things I thought I heard very clearly from both the librarians and from IT people was, ‘We’re teachers, too. And we want to be recognized as teachers, we want our teaching to be understood as teaching.” -Faculty Member
“[Our goal is] an evolved role on our campuses. . . over time, whether it's through our own actions or by changing other people's perceptions of us, that we could have more sophisticated involvement with teaching and learning issues.” -IT Person
“As a student. . . I am usually encouraged to give feedback about what’s working [in a class] and what isn’t and to develop ideas about what would work better, not to participate directly in making changes.” -Student
Helping to Imagine, Design, or Teach a Class
We encourage staff members to take proactive roles in collaborating with the Coordinator of Staff Education in imagining, designing, or even teaching classes for staff, students, or faculty. Past and forthcoming staff education opportunities co-created and taught by staff members include classes in Excel, Contribute, Word, PeopleSoft, and Photoshop Elements. Future opportunities for staff-designed and taught classes for students and faculty include workshops on money management (from basic skills through investing and buying property) and classes on theorizing web architecture and using Contribute. To learn how to participate in current programs or to help create new ones, please contact the Coordinator of Staff Education.
Contact Name: Darla Attardi
Contact Email: dattardi@brynmawr.edu
"People will take charge of their learning."
— Staff Member
"The purpose of the program is to build a sense of community amongst the people who bump into each other every day so it’s not a bunch of comfortable strangers."
— Staff Member
"I think too often staff here don’t get the chance to get to know very many students. We are often separated from one another, each busy with our own day-to-day responsibilities. By bringing us together, the Empowering Learners Partnership has given all of us the chance to get to know one another better and to see why we are all here."
— Staff Member