Teaching and Learning at John Jay College -- Podcasts from the TLC Teaching and Learning Center

 In this conversation, Kim Liao, John Jay Lecturer and Co-Director of the Writing Across the Disciplines Program, models a multi-step (scaffolded) technical writing assignment, discusses the value of learning through teaching someone else’s curriculum, and the need for students to become revision diagnosticians. Liao provides multiple examples of connecting real-world needs with student writing activities and reminds that our own student personas stay with us throughout lifelong learning engagement.

Credits: Casino Blue, Guitarista (album), Mr. Smith (composer/performer), 2023

In this interview, John Jay Lecturer and Director of the First Year Writing Program Christen Madrazo shares her approaches to writing to learn, outcomes assessment, SSQ methods of generating student research questions, and decolonizing the hybrid classroom. Throughout the conversation, Dr. Madrazo reminds us that stories are always with us and defining us.

Music credits: Credits: Casino Blue, Guitarista (album), Mr. Smith (composer/performer), 2023

In this episode, Jerry Lim, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art & Music, asks "How do you get past the surface?” as he reflects on his own teaching and learning experiences and his journeys with students. Listen as Lim explores wrestling with biases in terms of content and style and the idea of permission in responding to student work and asking for their feedback. “I want to be as vulnerable as possible in the class,” he says, because “I have a feeling that my students can ask me anything." Join Jerry Lim in getting past the surface to immerse yourself in great student-centered teaching.

In this episode, Madhura Bandyopadhyay, Doctoral Lecturer in English and 2023 Winner of the John Jay College Distinguished Teaching Prize, shares her experiences in learning from colleagues, keeping a teaching journal, discovering reciprocity from students during the pandemic, digital writing and the impact of AI, and the importance and practicality of continuing to learn while dealing with trauma. “It’s good to wander a little,” advises Bandyopadhyay, with a further reminder that “Teaching is not individual.”

In this episode we celebrate the teaching of Nina Rose Fischer, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department. Teaching at John Jay for seven years, Dr. Fischer came to John Jay having spent twenty years as a licensed social worker supporting adjudicated and incarcerated youth, among other things. She explains her teaching as focused on facilitating student discovery and collaboration, and talks about how to maximize the strengths of technology-enhanced teaching for leveling the classroom. A TLC Faculty Fellow in Social Justice Pedagogies, Dr. Fischer also shares the work she and the other social justice faculty have been doing that truly embrace John Jay's Seven Principles for a Culturally Responsive, Inclusive and Anti-Racist Curriculum.

In this episode we celebrate the teaching of Marie-Michelle Strah, Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Crime and Justice. Teaching at John Jay for just three years, Dr. Strah brings a wealth of military and private sector experience to her teaching about international cybercrime, cybersecurity, and complex financial crimes. She explains her teaching as focused on working from student strengths, building skills in collaboration, and encouraging fierce advocacy for algorithmic, data and design justice. A TLC Faculty Fellow in Online Teaching, Dr. Strah also focuses on how discrimination is embedded in online systems and can be avoided through universal design principles. She is particularly attuned to ensuring visual communication as an essential 21st century skill.