Celebration of Teaching
Overview of the Celebration of Teaching Week
- Sign-ups for hosts is available here — tell colleagues that they should be hosts!
- Sign-ups to be a guest can be made through this form.
- February 23-27: Celebration of Teaching Week!
Do you ever wish that you had an opportunity to sit in on your colleagues’ classes? Would you like to see what techniques other faculty use to run discussions and engage students? Are you curious about how classes in other disciplines differ from your own? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then join us for the CTL’s fifth annual “Celebration of Teaching” Week!
This teaching “open doors” week (February 23-27, 2026) will give you the chance to see what happens in Colby classrooms across campus. Sign up to be a “host,” and welcome faculty and staff visitors into your classroom. Sign up to be a “guest” as well, and see firsthand how your colleagues foster learning. Hosts and guests will receive a voucher to Mary Low Coffeehouse to engage in a follow-up conversation about the experience. Also join us for a celebratory brunch with food and conversation on Monday, February 23, 8:30-10:00 AM in Grossman 209-210 (reserve your brunch spot here).
This year’s celebration includes two “Toast to Teaching” lunch events (“Toast to Teaching” sign up here) at which colleagues informally share their “teaching wins” on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 25 & 26 from noon until 1:00 PM in the Smith Room in Roberts Hall.
You can also sign up for a special workshop with Sarah Kuhn on “Teaching With Things” (sign up for “Teaching With Things” here) on Wednesday, February 25 at Greene Block + Studios (18 Main St., Waterville) from 4:00 to 5:30 PM. Designed for Colby educators as well as educators from the Central Maine Education Consortium, this interactive, hands-on workshop models the practice and theory of a Thinking With Things approach to instruction, using physical materials in the classroom to take advantage of the ways in which we humans evolved to learn: with our hands, our bodies, and our immediate environments. Brief presentations and short hands-on exercises are designed to inspire participants to create innovative ways to teach concepts across the disciplines.
Another workshop facilitated by Sarah Kuhn is held Thursday Feb. 26 from 4:00 to 5:30 PM in Parker-Reed (sign up for “Teaching With Things” here) and is designed for Colby instructors and students who have participated in or are interested in the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Learning Assistant (LA) Program, or other peer-to-peer supports such as the Chem Help Center, departmental tutors and TAs, etc. This interactive, hands-on workshop models the practice and theory of a Thinking With Things approach to instruction, using physical materials in the classroom to take advantage of the ways in which we humans evolved to learn: with our hands, our bodies, and our immediate environments. Brief presentations and short hands-on exercises are designed to inspire participants to create innovative ways to teach concepts across the disciplines. Feel free to share with your student peer-to-peer workers!
What is the Celebration of Teaching?
Taking place every spring, usually at the end of February, Colby’s Celebration of Teaching celebrates the world-class teaching that transpires on campus. The centerpiece of this annual, week-long event is the friendly hosting that occurs: faculty members volunteer to make their classrooms available for guest visits by other faculty and teaching staff. The goals are connecting with colleagues to create opportunities to share innovative pedagogies, inspiring colleagues to try new approaches or activities with their own pedagogies, and appreciating the varied, impactful, and welcoming teaching that Colby’s faculty members practice.
Classroom hosts are encouraged to have post-visit coffee (or tea) conversations with their guests to mutually inspire and celebrate teaching ideas, on the CTL!
A capstone event typically crowns the week, and has taken various shapes including guest speakers on pedagogy, a snacks-and-mingling reception, and an informal set of talks from previous mid-career CTL faculty fellows.