Lindamichelle Baron In Celebration of BHM

"Building Our Academic Practice During a Pandemic" By Lindamichelle Baron

"I have often had the distinct belief that there were techno-demons hovering over my every attempt at using technology. The problem was not just my ineptitude with computers, but it was with my lack of capacity with anything that was not a book. Perhaps that statement is an exaggeration, but during this pandemic, I discovered that a strong will, a growth mindset, supportive colleagues, and access to opportunities for training has helped me evolve. No, I didn’t become an expert in any aspect of technological competence, but I became more comfortable in using technology in my educational practice."

"This journey led to my collaborating with one of the members of the Department of Teacher Education faculty, who is also one of the most technologically savvy individuals I know, Dr. Xin Bai. In fact, we used the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the crisis to strengthen one of the courses we both taught and then to document that process with a book chapter we have recently submitted for publication called, “College Professors Turning Chaos into Collegial Collaboration.” The chapter discusses some of the challenges we faced after an abrupt shift to online instruction during the pandemic of COVID 19. It also identified opportunities that arose through our collegial collaboration to help our students make smooth transitions to the remote learning setting. Both of us reflected on the experiential strategies over varied topics including: course design; student engagement and empowerment; and socioemotional support needed by both our students and ourselves as instructors during the process of collaboration and mutual mentoring. We documented our discussions, and reflected on our evolving pedagogy. We believe that our collegial collaboration illustrates the importance of growing the personal wellbeing of both students and professors during times of crisis and chaos."

Thank you for the insight into your work LindaMichelle and sharing those inspiring words!