Today on Teaching & Learning Champions, we’re joined by Alexa Haverlah and Dr. Rachel Barrera from TLED’s Office of Faculty Communications as we preview the upcoming season of TLC @ ACC.

Thanks for listening to TLC @ ACC!

Episode Transcript

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[Matthew Evins:] Welcome to Teaching and Learning Champions, a podcast hosted by the Teaching and Learning Excellence Division at Austin Community College. I’m Matt Evins, Director of Academic Technology in the Teaching and Learning Division of ACC. If you’re listening to this episode as it comes out, you know that the 2021-2022 academic year is underway, and that means we’re ramping up for Season Three of Teaching and Learning Champions. This year, we’ll be focusing on the Power of Purpose and Belonging in Student Success. Everyone at ACC plays an integral part in the work being done to ensure students find and follow their pathway to success. Joining me today are two individuals that I want to introduce everyone to, as the hosts of this upcoming season. We’ll start with Alexa. Alexa, do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your role in the Office of Faculty Communications and what you want us to share with us about this season of Teaching and Learning Champions.

[Alexa Haverlah:] Sure, thanks, Matt. Hi, listeners. My name is Alexa Haverlah, and I am the Content Marketing Intern for TLED, the Teaching and Learning Excellence Division. So, I send out the TLED weekly newsletter, and I also write articles for faculty that go on the TLED blog and are featured in the newsletter. You might’ve seen our most recent three-part series about the upcoming changes to faculty evaluations here at ACC. This season, for our podcast, we’re going to be talking to different faculty members about their purpose and belonging, given the theme this year, The Power of Purpose and Belonging in Student Success. And we’re going to talk to them about how they incorporate purpose and belonging in their classroom. And these episodes are for you! So, we invite you to submit questions or submit recommendations for people for us to interview at TLEDcomms@austincc.edu, so that we can make this podcast relevant for you.

[Matthew Evins:] Great, well, thank you very much, Alexa. Appreciate that, and one thing I do want to point out about what Alexa said is while the theme for the year is Power of Purpose and Belonging in Student Success, these interviews that Alexa mentions are not only going to be about how faculty around ACC create this environment, allowing students to find their power of purpose and belonging, but also talking about the power of purpose and belonging among faculty themselves. So, we’re going to be talking about it from both standpoints, which is really exciting. Next, I want to introduce Rachel. Rachel, do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and your role in the Teaching and Learning Champions Podcast?

[Rachel Barrera:] Hi, Everybody, I’m Dr. Rachel Barrera, and I’m an Instructional Designer for Faculty Communications, and I help develop educational content for all types of mediums, including the web, and thank you, Matt, for the podcast. It’s been really great listening this past year, and I’m really looking forward to this new year and this new theme of purpose and belonging. And this year, for each episode of the Teaching and Learning Champions podcast will be accompanied by a blog post, and it’s going to be available in the TLED website, and it’s going to contain a transcript of the episode if you prefer to read that. And then, also, we’re going to be also sharing any resources of our friends during the episode, and we really encourage everyone to subscribe to the ACC District podcast on any of your preferred podcast apps or listening to individual episodes in the TLED website. Thank you for turning in, and we will chat next time on TLC@ACC.

[Matthew Evins:] Great, well, thank you very much, Rachel. It’s really exciting to have Alexa and Rachel joining us this coming season. We’ll be hearing more from them and less from me during season three. So, I always wanted to make sure that everybody was familiar and knew who Alexa and Rachel were prior to the first episode for season three coming out. So, thank you again, Alexa and Rachel, for both joining today and good luck with the season.

[Rachel Barrera:] Thank you, Matt.

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