Teaching with Intention and Awareness

Audience

Open only to UMD faculty, staff, and graduate students

Course Description

This digital course, called Teaching with Intention and Awareness, will help you foster meaningful connections and create inclusive learning communities in your courses. As educators, the choices we make shape whether students feel they belong and can fully engage in their academic journey. The ways we design learning experiences, build community, and even welcome students can impact learning positively or negatively.

In this course, you will explore the ways that students do and do not experience a sense of belonging at UMD. You’ll reflect on your teaching values and examine how intentional teaching practices can positively impact students both academically and personally.

By the end of the course, you will be able to explain why teaching with intention and awareness matters, reflect on strategies that foster belonging, and plan concrete ways to cultivate a supportive and engaged classroom community. This course is an invitation to pause, reflect, and design your learning environment intentionally.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of this digital course, you will be able to:

• Explain why it’s important to teach with intention and awareness.
• Reflect on intentional strategies to increase student belonging.
• Plan to implement strategies to build classroom community.

Content

1. Belonging at UMD
2. Teaching Intentionally
3. Strategies to Increase Belonging
4. Intentionality and Awareness in Your Classroom

Expectations

This digital course consists of a brief pre-test and 4 lessons. Altogether, this should take approximately 50-70 minutes to complete. Each lesson culminates in an activity to help you reflect on your teaching and plan intentional strategies to increase belonging.

Digital Badge

By completing this course, you will earn your Teaching with Intention and Awareness micro-credential. To receive recognition for your efforts, simply explore each page and complete all assignments within this course.

This badge is an exciting step towards earning your Learning and Belonging Pedagogies Practitioner meta-credential from the TLTC’s Teaching Academy.

UMD Users Only