Dear Colleague,
I am writing to offer you and your colleagues a unique and exciting professional development opportunity. The OBTS Teaching Society for Management Educators hosts the Early Educator Institute each year, prior to the OBTC Teaching Conference for Management Educators, and we would like to encourage any early educators (1-5 years of teaching experience) to apply for a competitive scholarship to attend.
The mission of the OBTS Teaching Society for Management Educators is to enhance the quality and promote the importance of teaching and learning across the management disciplines. We understand the investment early educators make in preparing and furthering themselves to be excellent scholars, and we want to help you prepare to be exceptional teachers as well.
The OBTC Early Educator Institute is a one-day, pre-conference workshop dedicated to providing promising early educators with professional development in the area of teaching excellence. Early Educator Institute participants will experience close interpersonal interaction with prominent management scholars who have been successful in balancing the demands of teaching, research, service, and personal life.
When: Beginning Tuesday, June 7 at 5PM and ending Wednesday, June 8 at 5PM. EEI scholarship recipients are expected to attend the entire general conference which begins on Wednesday, June 8 and concludes on Saturday, June 11.
Where: OBTC 2016 will be held at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. Walsh University is conveniently located just minutes from Akron-Canton Airport.
Who: The EEI is intended for "Early Educators", defined as those individuals already in a tenure-track, instructor, or contract/adjunct position whom have 1 to 5 years teaching experience. (If you fall outside of this category but think you are a good fit and want to apply – do. We'll consider issues on a case-by-case basis.)
Why: Those who are attracted to OBTC typically report the desire to be a great teacher. Many of us with experience recognize that being a "great teacher" is harder than it looks! Especially in institutions that also emphasize research, service, and teaching evaluations, finding time to focus on pedagogy is difficult. Because the struggles faced by Early Educators can be daunting, we hope to provide a forum for discussion and development specifically focused on this population.
What: The goal is to help the Early Educator transition the "teaching philosophy" presented in an application packet into a "teaching philosophy" for a T&P packet. This may seem that it is just about promotion, but it isn't. It is about practice. We will help early educators explore:
- Turning the "teaching philosophy" they prepared as an applicant into a "teaching philosophy" that is realistic and useful given the goals of the institution.
- Using the "teaching philosophy" to create a simple "teaching mantra" to guide decisions about curriculum, policy, and student interactions.
- Shaping syllabi and course assessment to align with accreditation standards and departmental goals, while also remaining focused on effectively delivering content to students.
- Other challenges typically faced by early educators, including managing classroom policies, peers, and committees that determine promotion, will be discussed. The group will learn from one another's successes and failures.
A final benefit of the EEI is to help participants form a tight-knit cohort of peers for the overall OBTC experience year-after-year. We want to see those who participate in the EEI continue to come back to OBTC.
Scholarship recipients receive the following:
- Registration for the one-day Early Educator Institute and the following four-day Teaching Conference
- All meals, dormitory housing, and social activities for the EEI as well as the Teaching Conference
- Membership in OBTS for one year to OBTS.org
- A one-year subscription to the award-winning Journal of Management Education and Management Teaching Review
- There is a limited, albeit substantial, number of competitive scholarships to be awarded.
Apply soon! The deadline for applications is March 1st.
Carrie Blair Messal, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Management and Marketing
School of Business
College of Charleston
Director, Schottland Scholars Program
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