Teaching circles are small, informal groups of faculty and staff that engage in year-long study of a single pedagogical topic. Previous topics have included anti-racist pedagogy, AI in the classroom, and career readiness. You can see reports from all of our AY 25/56 Teaching circles in this Google Folder. 

This year the Teaching Hub will be funding five Teaching Circles. If you are interested in facilitating a Teaching Circle on a topic of interest to you. You can apply to be a lead facilitator using this Google Document. Facilitators receive extra service pay of $250 in December and another payment of $250 in May. 

Applications are due on Friday, September 4 by 11:59pm. Applications will be reviewed by the Teaching Hub Council by Friday, September 18. Applicants will be notified of the decision by Wednesday, September 30. 

AI in Teaching & Learning Workshop Series

This workshop series provides a space to learn, explore, ask questions, and share ideas about AI at St. Kate’s. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming higher education. This bi-weekly lunch-hour series is designed to help St. Kate’s faculty and staff explore AI’s impact on teaching, learning, and research. 

Our goals are to:

• Demystify AI and its educational applications.
• Provide hands-on opportunities to experiment with AI tools.
• Explore teaching strategies that foster learning and critical thinking in the AI era.
• Share concerns and practical solutions around academic integrity.
• Discuss how to prepare students for an AI-integrated future in their disciplines.

Questions? Contact Brad Thames, Instructional Designer, at bjthames913@stkate.edu

Join the AI Literacy Course on Canvas to learn more.

St. Catherine University has chosen to use the Constructive Dialogue Institute’s Perspectives program during the 26/27 academic year as one of several resources to help our campus community learn how to more meaningfully engage one another in meaningful discussion.

Founded in 2017, the Constructive Dialogue Institute aims to alleviate the rising division and distrust threatening to tear America apart. Their online Perspectives course is a blended learning program that distills rigorous behavioral science research into easily digestible concepts to foster openness to diverse perspectives and equip faculty, staff, and students with the skills to engage in conversations across lines of difference. The program includes six online lessons, which each take approximately 30 minutes to complete. There are also optional peer-to-peer activities that can be implemented.

To learn more about Perspectives, please visit their website. To sign-up to either take or facilitate a Perspectives course, please use this Google Form. To access additional resources for facilitating a Perspectives course, please access this Google Folder. 

The Teaching Hub offers four bi-annual Pedagogy Microgrants up to $1,500 to faculty and staff working on pedagogical projects that focus on academic inquiry, social justice, and reflection. Two are awarded in the fall and two are awarded in the spring. 

Applications for the Fall 2026 Pedagogy Microgrants are due by Friday, October 16, 2026 at 11:59pm. Please read this form fully before submitting the application.  

Congratulations to last year’s recipients:

Jennifer Biggs, Jessica Scholl, and Rachel Droogsma are using microgrant funds to expand community-engaged learning in the Doctor of Physical Therapy and Physical Therapist Assistant programs from short-term immersion to semester-long community partnerships.

Renee Colsch is using these funds to develop veteran-centered and rural health microlearning modules that strengthen academic excellence through experiential pedagogy while also promoting community engagement, integrity, ethical practice, reflection, and social justice. 

Amy Haynes is using microgrant funds to design a self-directed advising model blending self-determined learning and AI tools to foster reflection, integrity, academic excellence, and community within graduate occupational therapy education through equitable, mission-driven mentorship.

Bridget Sabatke is using these funds to hire a DeafBlind consultant to review the curriculum and find culturally-centered ways to better prepare students to serve the DeafBlind community in the Twin Cities, which is one of the largest in the country.

Each year the Teaching Hub awards three faculty with two course releases to research and develop projects that address issues of particular pedagogical importance to the St. Kate's community. These can be shared between two faculty members, each taking a single semester course release. This year’s Teaching Hub Fellows include: 

Carol Geisler will continue to serve as the Teaching Hub Fellow for Catholic Identity. She will focus on partnering with the Center for Spirituality and Social Justice to continue to engage with CSJ Charism to increase awareness, provide resources, and engage in dialogues about Catholic identities and how they influence our work.

Daron Janzen will serve as the Teaching Hub Fellow for Student Retention. He will focus on student retention in introductory Chemistry courses through collaboration with the Office of Academic Success. Daron will expand embedded peer-tutor initiatives: holding tutoring in-services, embedding foundational math skills into the curriculum, and implementing flipped classroom models to provide data for successful strategies to increase retention campus-wide.

Josie Christian and Katrice Ziefle will serve as Teaching Hub Fellows for Advanced AI Integration. Their work will bridge the gap between GenAI tools and faculty work to support academic departments in leveraging these tools to handle routine tasks and reduce administrative burdens, freeing up more time for student engagement. Together, their goal is to foster a culture of ethical AI literacy and academic excellence.

You can learn more about the current Teaching Hub Fellows by scrolling down this page. You can read about the work of previous Fellows by reading their end of year reports.

The Teaching Hub records as many of its events as possible; however, due to the sensitive nature of some topics, the speakers’ willingness to distribute their intellectual property, the comfort of our audience participants, and other factors, we are not always able to provide a recording. 

Below is a list of recordings, slides, worksheets, and other resources from this current academic year. Below that are resources from many of our past events, categorized by theme. 

Spring 2026

• Inclusive Teaching Visualization Project (4/27/26) slides + worksheet
• Lets leverage technology: Setting up Office Hours in Student Success video + slides (4/23/26)
• Culturally Sustainable Pedagogy, CSP interactive roadmap (4/22/26)
• Democracy Talks 3: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Contemporary  Public Discourse (video recording) + slides (4/20/26)
• Designing an Inclusive Syllabus (video recording) + resources (4/13/26)
• Academic Integrity and AI workshop (video) + slides (4/9/26)
• Communication for the Lay Audience (Advocacy Series) (4/2/26)
• Advocacy 101: Steps to Get Started and Be An Advocate (3/19/26)
• Submitting Midterm Grades and Managing Flags (2/26/26)
• Belonging Through Difference (video recording) + slides (2/10)
• Student Success Academic Check In: Why Does it Matter? (video recording)
• Democracy Talks 2: How Do We Do Democracy When Neutrality Isn’t an Option? (1/26/26)
• Mind/Body Responses to Fear, Stress, and Trauma (slide deck) 1/22/26
• Student Supervisor Support Session (slide deck) 1/21/26
• Guide for Designing Blendsynch Courses 1/13/26

Fall 2025

• AI Workshop Series: Session 3
• AI Workshop Series: Session 2 - AI and Academic Integrity
• NotebookLM + slides
• Teaching With AI

Additional resources by theme: 

• Democracy and Civic Education
• Inclusive Pedagogies
• Literacy, Reading, and Writing
• Online and Hybrid Pedagogies
• Public Discourse and Advocacy
• Student Success
• Teaching with AI
• Trauma-Informed Pedagogies