Welcome to Pause for Teaching, a podcast for teachers in higher education. Here at CATLOE, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Learning, and Online Education at the University at Albany, we know how hard you’re working. So, we invite you to pause, relax, and sink into a rich conversation, full of ideas and strategies to energize and engage you and your students!
Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik
Host: Aviva Bower
Editor: Nyssa Knarvik
Music: Ursula Wolfe
For more teaching resources, visit our website: https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning
Teaching Inclusively with Stephanie De Souza, Lecturer in Biology
Read a transcript (https://livealbany.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/web_catloe/IQA-zcZ1hTGdRLtRK_I03qKZAV8xCkoA_A0JG85zGz6yU70?e=ztL18F) of this episode.
Today on the podcast Stephanie D'Souza, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, shares how she transformed a large microbiology course into an active, inclusive learning community. Stephanie's focus on creating trust and belonging in the classroom is centered around viewing students as whole people and incorporating intentional course and activity design to help students navigate the realities of their lives while staying motivated and engaged.
Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik
Host: Aviva Bower
Editor: Nyssa Knarvik
Music: Ursula Wolfe
For more teaching resources, visit our website (https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning).
20 Apr 2026
Being Human in the Classroom with Sarah Mountz, Associate Professor in Social Work
Read a transcript (https://livealbany.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/GRP-CATLOE/IQB0JnlRedmOTLhFfG-tOO2ZAU4A_HSnKuTn-nD8IN6amVo?e=2xaa2H) of this episode.
Today on the podcast, Sarah Mountz, Associate Professor in the School of Social Welfare, describes her trauma-informed pedagogy as well as the centrality of relationship building and teacher vulnerability in her classroom. Sarah describes how she gets her students into the community, and brings joy, fun, play and humor into the classroom. Students develop a deeper awareness of their own experiences and the ways that they can develop agency as learners in and outside of the university.
Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik
Host: Aviva Bower
Editor: Nyssa Knarvik
Music: Ursula Wolfe
For more teaching resources, visit our website (https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning).
3 Mar 2026
Being Human in the Classroom with Kristen Hessler, Professor of Philosophy
Read a transcript (https://livealbany.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/GRP-CATLOE/IQA718lPPzDhT5BShXHgn5hJAb6xWXWMjP_YIKFlOMD2qus?e=bqMc84) of this episode.
Today on the podcast, Kristen Hessler, Professor of Philosophy, shares how her work with first‑year philosophy students in a Living Learning Community pushed her to rethink what it means to teach with structure, vulnerability, and curiosity about, as Kristen puts it, the “three dimensional world” her students live in. By combining intentional course design and a relationship rich approach to her students, Kristen and her students uncover the ways in which philosophy and ethics are already a key in her students’ lives. Her story reveals how a deep engagement with her students’ lived experiences has helped her experience teaching as both a privilege and a labor of love.
Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik
Host: Aviva Bower
Editor: Nyssa Knarvik
Music: Ursula Wolfe
For more teaching resources, visit our website (https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning).
3 Dec 2025
Being Human in the Classroom with Hillary Wiener, Associate Professor of Marketing
Read a transcript (https://livealbany.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/GRP-CATLOE/IQBEmywTY0gxTIMOBhjZRGY_Aa1QHdZdohVqnYz8fEGJ9vw?e=pLLjfb) of this episode.
Today on the podcast, Hillary Weiner, shares the story of the surprising amount of deep satisfaction she derives from teaching. Hillary’s use of backward course design, project-based learning, and community-engaged teaching has resulted in courses that allow her students to connect with their learning, their community, and the potential of marketing research to do good in the non-profit world. As her students forge these connections, teaching has connected her more fully to her own community in the Capital District.
Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik
Host: Aviva Bower
Editor: Nyssa Knarvik
Music: Ursula Wolfe
For more teaching resources, visit our website (https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning).
27 Oct 2025
Being Human in the Classroom with Joe Creamer, Lecturer in Writing and Critical Inquiry
Transcript available here (https://livealbany.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/GRP-CATLOE/EQox2EcuekpIpaJIN3z703ABTd7lFJUyxZ4iK1bPMgbxaw?e=9EY68V).
Today on the podcast, Joe Creamer tells us the story of how he came to understand his students in his Writing and Critical Inquiry courses more fully. Joe’s discoveries led him to team-based learning, a highly reflective teaching practice, and labor-based grading. The balance of higher structure and greater student choice has allowed both him and his students to experience vulnerability, joy, community, and the reflection that, as Joe says, “develops us as humans.”
Producers: Billie Franchini, Aviva Bower, Nyssa Knarvik
Host: Aviva Bower
Editor: Nyssa Knarvik
Music: Ursula Wolfe
For more teaching resources, visit our website (https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning).
3 Apr 2025
Teaching & AI with Marc Watkins, University of Mississippi
Today on the podcast, we speak with Marc Watkins, director of the AI Institute for Teachers and an Assistant Director of Academic Innovation at the University of Mississippi, where he is a Lecturer in Writing and Rhetoric. His writing on AI appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education and in his Substack Rhetorica (https://marcwatkins.substack.com/). He suggests that institutions of higher education need to slow down and make spaces where faculty and students can reflect on how AI is affecting us; and he shares his deep concern that AI is removing what he calls the friction that is an essential element in learning.
For more teaching resources, visit our website (https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning).
11 Feb 2025
Teaching & AI with Jon Mandle, Professor of Philosophy
Transcript available here (https://livealbany.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/web_catloe/ESP_VZbEMgNLqyJNvkzzOcEB4GryE31eGGl7HZq4mEa8Yg?e=E8xCun).
Today on the podcast, Dr. Jon Mandle, Professor of Philosophy, shares how he has students work with generative AI to develop their writing and argumentation skills, while simultaneously gaining an understanding of the limitations of AI in relation to philosophical and ethical thinking.
For more teaching resources, visit our website (https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning).
20 Nov 2024
Teaching & AI with Lauren Bryant, Lecturer in Communication
Dr. Lauren Bryant shares how she empowers students to think critically about AI's limitations and write in their own voices in large lecture classes.
16 Oct 2024
Teaching & AI with Jason D'Cruz, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Today on the podcast, Dr. Jason D’Cruz, Associate Professor of Philosophy, helps us explore the idea of a genuine conversation with our students about AI, how to make productive pedagogical decisions about AI, and how thinking through these big issues helps us recognize our value as teachers and as humans.
For more teaching resources, visit our website: https://www.albany.edu/teaching-and-learning
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