Teaching Renewal Week 2026

We are pleased to announce that the Keynote speaker for this year’s Teaching Renewal Week conference is Flower Darby (Associate Director, Teaching for Learning Center). The title of her Keynote presentation is Joyful Teaching in Every Class: Find Your Fizz to Boost Learning and Success.

About the Keynote session: Given the challenges we’re currently navigating, it’s easy to lose sight of the higher purpose and value of effective teaching. We’re changing lives and helping dreams come true. Based on Flower’s forthcoming book, The Joyful Online Teacher (due out in April 2026), this session will explore how to promote flourishing, both our own and our students’, and rediscover the joy inherent in transformational teaching and learning.

About the Keynote speaker: Flower Darby celebrates and promotes effective teaching in all class formats to include, welcome, and support all students in their learning and success. In her work in MU’s Teaching for Learning Center, Flower offers courses, workshops, peer observations, and individual and departmental consultations to promote effective teaching in every class. Flower is an internationally renowned keynote speaker and author as well as adjunct faculty at MU. She’s taught in higher ed for 30 years in a range of subjects including Psychology, English, Technology, Leadership, Dance, and Pilates. A seasoned face-to-face and online educator, Flower applies learning science across the disciplines and helps others do the same.

Through her publications and presentations, Flower has helped educators all over the world become more effective in their work. Her co-authored books include The Norton Guide to Equity-Minded Teaching (2023) and Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes (2019), and she’s a regular contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her new book, The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes(in press) explores how we can thrive in online spaces and help our students do so as well.