Teaching circles and book clubs are small communities of like-minded educators who meet monthly throughout a semester or academic year to focus on a specific teaching-related issue. Led by UATA’s Faculty Teaching Fellows, these groups offer the opportunity to connect and engage with faculty members across campus with similar interests and goals. Open to all full- and part-time faculty. Books will be provided. Check out the options for Fall 2026 and sign up today!
Fall 2026 Teaching Circle and Book Club Descriptions
Write Like You Teach Book Club
Facilitator – Dr. Jolene Hubbs, Professor, Department of American Culture and Society
Description, Location, and Schedule
- Description – Readers of the Chronicle of Higher Education will likely recognize James M. Lang’s name: his columns on teaching and learning have been a regular feature of that publication for many years. In this fall 2026 book club, we’ll read Lang’s latest book, Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience (2025).
By distilling some elements of good teaching into guidelines for writing for a general audience, Lang’s book makes clear how practices and skills that work well in the classroom can help us write for a broad readership. Each chapter of Write Like You Teach ends with writing prompts, and an appendix offers advice on publishing and promoting one’s work. - Goals
- Tie together teaching and research. I think this text might particularly appeal to faculty members for whom research is a sizable portion of their FTEs by illuminating one important part of the symbiotic relationship between teaching and research.
- Learn about how effective teachers might use their classroom skills to share their research more effectively and more broadly.
- Location – ten Hoor 102
- Time Frame – Fall 2026 Academic Term
- Fall 2026 Meeting Dates
- Tuesday, September 8, 10:30-11:30: Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2
- Tuesday, October 6, 10:30-11:30: Chapters 3 and 4
- Tuesday, November 3, 10:30-11:30: Chapters 5 and 6, “A Final Word,” and Appendix
Teaching and Supporting Professional Students Teaching Circle
Facilitator – Clare Ryan, Associate Professor of Law, School of Law
Description, Location, and Schedule
- Description – Many programs across UA’s campus train students to enter a specific profession, such as law, nursing, social work, education, business, and many others. These programs tend to focus on preparation for a specific career, often including preparing for a licensure or qualifying exam. This teaching circle is designed to bring together faculty from across campus who teach and support professional students. Each session, we will cover a different topic or set of related topics. Topics include:
- Teaching professional identity and professionalization into the specific career
- Teaching material tested on the licensing exam
- The importance of experience
- Supporting our students in different life stages
- Uncertainty about the future
- Cross-campus connections
- Location – 2008 University Hall Conference Room
- Time Frame – Fall 2026 Academic Term
- Fall 2026 Meeting Dates
- Monday, September 21, 2-3:15 p.m.
- Monday, October 12, 2-3:15 p.m.
- Monday, November 9, 2-3:15 p.m.
- Monday, November 30, 2-3:15 p.m.