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Zachary G. Goodell

Associate Director

Phone: (804) 827-0562 Fax: (804) 827-1393 Office: Center for Teaching Excellence Virginia Commonwealth University Grace E. Harris Hall 1015 Floyd Avenue, Room 5116-A Richmond, VA 23284 Email: zggoodel@vcu.edu

Background

I grew up in Charlottesville, VA where my dad was a professor at UVA for about thirty years. I came to VCU as an undergraduate student in 1983. In 1987 I earned a B.S. in Psychology and I quickly put the degree to use bartending and painting houses! After a year I decided to go back to VCU to get my masters in Sociology. In 1990 I earned my M.S. in Sociology and began teaching sociology courses as an adjunct both at VCU and at J. Sargent Reynolds Community College. Oh yeah, and I also continued to bartend and paint houses! In 1997 I got married and decided soon thereafter that I needed to get a real job so I went back to school at VCU for Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration –my concentration was on Higher Education in urban settings. In 2000 I was approached by Joe Marolla who asked me if I would help him start a Center for Teaching Excellence here at VCU and I accepted. I have been working here ever since! I now have my Ph.D., I am still married with two kids, and I continue to teach introductory sociology to 200 students every fall semester.

As Associate Director of CTE, my responsibilities include:

• Coordinator of CTE
  • Mentorship Program
    
  • Small Grant Program
    
• Coordinator of Faculty Learning Communities Program
  
• Editor of VCUTeaching Newsletter
  
• Coordinator of the New Faculty Orientation
  
• Webnovice CTE Website

I also offer workshops in the following areas:

• Classroom Assessment (Formative Assessment)
• Classroom Management
  
• Teaching with Personal Response Systems
  
• Fostering Critical Thinking Skills in Students
  
• Exploring Learning-Centered Teaching Practices
  
• Preparing a Teaching Portfolio
  
• Teaching Large Classes

Zach is available for consultations, classroom observations, and a beer!