West Texas A&M University Centennial Logo

Faculty Focus

This page will spotlight some of our outstanding faculty for their achievements in teaching as well as give information about opportunities for faculty development grants, conferences on teaching and learning in higher education and other faculty opportunities.

Recognizing Teaching Excellence

University Awards
Each year, WTAMU recognizes faculty across the university for the quality of their teaching. In the spring of 2009, each college chose their outstanding faculty in the area of teaching. Then one faculty member was chosen as the overall recipient for teaching excellence. Those honored in 2009 are as follows:

College of Agriculture, Science and Engineering: Dr. Matthew Jackson and Mary Jane Cruz
College of Business: Karen Cooley
College of Education and Social Sciences: Dr. Amy Andersen
Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities: Dr. Brian Vizzini
College of Nursing and Health Sciences: Dr. Chuck Chase

From this group, one instructor was chosen as the overall recipient of Teaching Excellence for the university. For 2009, this recipient is Dr. Brian Vizzini. Congratulations to Dr. Vizzini on his accomplishments in teaching.


Conferences on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
The following are conferences that you might be interested in attending that focus on enhancing teaching and learning at the university.

October 8-10, 2009  39th Annual Conference of the International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning in Philadelphia, PA. The ISETL conference encourages faculty from all disciplines to study and apply learner-centered principles of teaching and learning in practical ways.
 
October 22-25, 2009 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference at University of Indiana, Bloomington. This conference serves faculty who care about teaching and learning as serious intellectual work.
 
October 28-November 1, 2009 Professional and Organizational Network in Higher Education Conference in Houston, TX.  The POD conference attracts practitioners in the field of faculty and professional development.
 
November 19-22, 2009. The International Lilly Conference on College Teaching at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. This organization focuses on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the theme of the 2009 conference is “Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning”.
 
March 10-12, 2010 The SoTL Commons in Stateboro, GA.  This conference focuses on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and brings together faculty who want to improve student learning outcomes.
 
Additional opportunities will be posted as that information becomes available.


Faculty Summer Development Grant Program
The overall purpose of the Faculty Summer Development Grant is to provide financial assistance for travel to enable faculty members to attend workshops, seminars, and other educational opportunities to improve their effectiveness as faculty members at WTAMU. Such activities might include: attending teaching development workshops or seminars, improving course curriculum, academic leadership training, and/or creating a greater depth of knowledge in a field of study. The call for proposals for this opportunity is usually sent out in the middle of the spring semester for travel in the following summer. Those awarded a grant are asked to share what they have learned in a faculty showcase sometime early in the fall semester.

Other Faculty Grant Opportunities

We will list other types of grant opportunities related to teaching and learning in higher education in this space.