Why: Because SPSU is a place where good teaching matters. Where people genuinely love to teach and care about the quality of their teaching. And because people who really care about something always want to do it better and because:

Who:Open to anyone teaching at least one section of one course at SPSU during Fall term 2004—tenured or untenured, full-time or part-time, experienced or new to the classroom. The only other requirement to qualification is that you have to be interested in improving your teaching and helping others improve theirs.

Who:A flexible program of completely formative evaluation—the process will focus only on improving teaching. What you learn is yours, what you do with it is up to you. No individual data or information will be collected or distributed. And you’re only making a one-semester commitment.

During the semester you will be expected to meet with your partner twice: once before you visit each other’s classrooms to observe teaching, and once after. You will also be expected to participate in at least one observation of your partner and one observation by your partner. And you will be expected to complete a brief evaluation of the program at the end of the term. That’s it. That’s all that’s required, but . . .You may certainly go beyond the minimum expectations if you choose to do so. Opportunity for discussion among program participants (a series of informal brownbag lunches) will be available throughout the term.

You should expect the following:

• the opportunity to get useful perspective and concrete suggestions applicable to improving your teaching
• the opportunity to build at least one collaborative relationship with another faculty member from whom you can gain support, advice, and ideas
• the opportunity to get feedback on your teaching in a setting totally separate from the summative evaluation process used for annual review, promotion, tenure
• access to resources useful to you in your teaching activities.