Engaging students inside and outside of the classroom is my focus and passion. My story as the faculty mentor to the football team, and how that has affected my teaching and approach with students, has been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education and in the NCAA's Champion magazine. Interested in learning about ways to support student athletes at your institution? Please contact me at gkreahlingmckay@yahoo.com.
Sample comments on Supporting Student Athletes:
"Athletics, more than any other co-curricular activity, shapes the schedules and the practices of college students. At an increasing number of institutions, mine included, more students participate in athletics than any other non-academic activity. We invited Gretchen McKay to help us think about these facts. Her insights about the academic lives of student athletes were deep. But even more importantly, she helped us see how active learning techniques can build on the practices of student athletes to improve the learning of all students. She is warm, funny, wise, and as comfortable with coaches as she is with faculty. I would strongly recommend her for any campus seeking to deepen the learning of student athletes and their non-athlete peers." -- Dr. Gary Daynes, Provost, Barton College
“Dr. McKay provided us with critical insights into how we can better engage our faculty in order to arrive at successful outcomes for our student [athletes]. As a result of our dialogue, my staff feels empowered to truly open their programs to our faculty in order to take a team approach. While we were already outstanding performers in the classroom, we have pushed that performance to the next level.” - Steve Peed, Director of Athletics, Maine Maritime Academy
Faculty Development Support in face to face, blended, and online environments:
"In 2016, I seized the opportunity to develop an online course in Art History through the Council of Independent Colleges. A true beginner, I was fortunate to be mentored by Dr. Gretchen McKay at the conference of the Consortium for Online Humanities Instruction. Dr. McKay was especially generous in showing me how her course looked online. She offered sage advice on course structure, the use of technology and internet resources, and pedagogy. I followed her advice by structuring my course course based on modules, keeping it clear and simple, and "front-loading" the entire course before the semester started. I especially benefited from her instruction on discussion boards, with precisely scheduled contributions, responses and follow-ups among the students and me. The interaction allowed individual personalities to surface. Indeed, the word got around after the first year, and I had to add a second section the following year. In short, I am very happy that I followed the insightful, helpful, lessons learned from Dr. McKay." - Dr. Libby Bailey
Professor of Art History, Wesleyan College, Macon, GA
"Not only does Gretchen have a compelling presence, she has a LOT of experience with different approaches to teaching, and she is terrific at articulating them." -- Steve Kerby, Director of Instructional Technology, McDaniel College
Topics Might include:
Supporting Student Athletes: Navigating College Systems
Engaging Student Athletes in the Classroom
Reacting to the Past - immersive role-playing in higher education and Gamification in Higher Education
What do you do in the F2F part of a flipped class?
How to design a hybrid or blended class and best practices in online course design
Curating digital content
Past Workshops :
Consulting on Student Athletes, Barton College, October 2018
Convocation Speaker, Schreiner University, August 2018
Keynote Speaker, Engaged Pedagogy Conference, Texas Lutheran University, May 16, 2018
Workshop on Supporting Student Athletes, Maine Maritime Academy, March 2017
Workshop on Active Learning at New College of Florida, October 2017
Session on Online Course Design for Active Engagement for Texas Learning Consortium Retreat, Lubbock Christian University, June 2017
Faculty mentor for the Council of Independent Colleges Online Humanities Teaching Consortium II (August 2016-August 2018).
Plenary speaker and Reacting to the Past role-playing game workshop facilitator on gamification at the American College of Greece, September 12, 2016.
Sweet Briar College, day-long workshop on active learning in F2F and online classes (May 2016).
American College of Greece, week-long Reacting to the Past game workshop (January 2014)
Contact me for more information:
gkreahlingmckay@yahoo.com
@GretchenMcKay1 on Twitter
