Work-Integrated Learning Focus Group with University of Toronto

May 21, 2015, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm

with Jenessa Banwell, PhD. Student from U of T

Trent was asked by the U of T research group to call together staff and instructors who work with experiential education for this session.   Trent, through CTL, will serve on the advisory committee following the initial focus groups across several intuitions. 

 

The First Year Teaching Experience ~ Follow up – a Lunch & Learn event

May 13, 2015, 12 noon – 1:30 pm

with Cathy Bruce, Centre for Teaching and Learning

The results from the Instructing First Year Classes Report have been compiled into a report and this will be the topic of discussion at this event.  The report, phase 1 of this project, will be analyzed and reviewed with feedback being used for future phases.

 

GTA Event:  Work Search Outside of Academia & Skills Identification

April 9, 2015, 1:30 – 2:30 pm

with Charmaine Rodrick, Trent Career Centre

Whether you are considering academia or not, looking at all of your options will be helpful in the process. Learn how to articulate your skills and experiences and develop an action plan that will help you achieve your goals. Go beyond traditional methods and include the hidden job market, networking, informational interviewing, and social media in your work search.  You will also learn how to identify your skills and create effective skills statements.  These statements can be used in your work search to highlight your accomplishments on your résumé and incorporated into answers in job interviews. 

 

GTA Event:  Leveraging the GTA Skills Today & Beyond – a Panel Discussion

April 9, 2015, 12:30 – 1:30 pm

with Adam Guzkowski, David Newhouse, Andrew Vreugdenil, Diane Therrien

We are bringing together faculty who work directly with graduate students to help them frame the skillsets developed through their GTA work to support their future directions and goals. 

 

GTA Event:  Writing a Lot & Leveraging GTA Skills Today & Beyond

April 9, 2015, 11:00 am – 12 noon

with Elaine Scharfe

This workshop is based on Paul Silvia’s book "How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing" and is for anyone who has had any of the following thoughts in the past few months: I can’t find time to write, I would write more if only I could find a big block of time in my weekly schedule, I would write more if I had a better chair (or a better computer or a better desk or a better pen or a better office or a kinder officemate), I am waiting until I feel like it…. In this workshop, one approach to increasing your writing productivity will be presented (Silvia, 2007). Several well-known techniques for changing behaviour will be explained and participants will be guided through several introductory exercises. The workshop will not remove all the guilt and anxiety from writing process but it may be a start. 

 

Experiential Learning – a Panel Discussion

March 24, 2015, 2:00 – 3:30 pm 

with Mike Alcott, Todd Barr, Louise Fish & Blair Niblett

Louise Fish (Risk-Management), Blair Niblett (Education), and Mike Alcott (Trent International Program Director) and Todd Barr (Trent Community Research Centre) will be discussing the unique opportunities to integrate aspects of community service-learning, community-based research and experiential education into both teaching and research. At its best, experiential learning can provide a mutually beneficial relationship wherein students connect real-life experience to more theoretical classroom study, instructors enrich their own teaching and research endeavours, and community partners meet pressing organizational needs.  Furthermore, within this context, we will focus on managing “risk” of experiential learning in relation to the new legislation. 

 

Sensitive Topics - Brown Bag Lunch Series 

March 24, 2015, 12:00 – 1:30 pm

with Carolyn Kay

Many topics of discussion are raised in university classrooms that a student or group of students may find sensitive for particular reasons; their personal histories or levels of comfort with graphic images, for example, may make some topics emotionally difficult to learn about, hear about, or see represented in slides or on film.    In some cases, the material being taught is difficult for all of us to contemplate, and as instructors we may find we are teaching subjects that are extremely sensitive for us as well as for our students. It can be hard to talk to students in an open way while also respecting their various levels of discomfort (and our own) with sensitive topics.    How we approach these topics is one of many keys to effective teaching. This will be an opportunity to share our classroom experiences with teaching sensitive topics and the contexts within which we raise these difficult subjects, and to draw on our collective knowledge about how to effectively teach sensitive topics while respecting and empathizing with the responses that students may have to what is presented.

 

Active Learning – Brown Bag Lunch Series

February 17, 2015, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm

with Elaine Scharfe

Active learning is a process whereby learners are actively engaged in the learning process rather than passively absorbing the material being presented.  This BBL series session is bringing together Instructors who use Active Learning in their courses and Instructors who want to learn more!   The session will be a round table discussion format to share how you use active learning techniques and for questions and conversations about future uses.

 

GTA event: Teaching Portfolios, Part II – Collecting, Selecting and Reflecting 

January 22, 2015, 10:00 – 11:30 am

with Cathy Bruce and Robyne Hanley-Dafoe

This event is a follow up to the Introduction to Teaching Portfolios workshop offered on December 2. If you did not attend the first session, you are still very much welcome to this second session. This workshop will provide participants with criteria for: 

• collecting resources and material for your teaching portfolio 
• selecting the most relevant evidence, and  
• writing brief reflections to frame those samples 

Discussions regarding the collection, selection and reflection of samples will focus on teaching, but will also address evidence of research abilities as well.

 

GTA event: Academic Integrity

January 9, 2015, 1:00 – 2:30 pm

with Dana Capell

Academic integrity is at the heart—the core value—of the academic enterprise. Achieving it requires an ongoing commitment by all levels of the university community. Unfortunately, recent articles in academic journals and the popular press have brought into question our collective success in living this value. This presentation will provide an overview of the extent and types of academic misconduct university students report engaging in, TA and faculty view of this behaviour, and possible explanations for why academic misconduct is occurring. Following an interactive presentation, participants will be asked to identify specific steps they might take in support of academic integrity at Trent.

 

Developing a Teaching Philosophy Statement

December 15, 2014, 2:00 – 3:30 pm

with David Poole

Dr. David Poole will be facilitating this session on how to develop and capture your teaching philosophy statement.

Power Point Presentation

Teaching Philosophy Examples

 

Teaching First Year Courses – a Brown Bag Lunch event

December 3, 2014, 12 noon – 1:30 pm

with Cathy Bruce

We invite all faculty and instructors who have taught or are teaching 1st year courses to come to this open discussion.

 

GTA Event:  Teaching Portfolios

December 2, 2014, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

with Cathy Bruce, Robyne Hanley-Dafoe

This session will introduce graduate students to the value and structure of a teaching dossier.  

 

GTA Event:  Classroom Management

November 24, 2014 / November 20, 2014, 11:00 am – 12 noon / 1:00 - 2:00 pm

with Robyne Hanley-Dafoe

University classrooms have changed in many ways that have had direct and indirect impact on instructors, faculty and GTA’s. 

This workshop will explore the following ideas:  

• Do you know when a behaviour is threatening versus merely odd?  
• Do you have strategies for classroom management that help to identify when a student is no longer able to function well in the classroom environment?  
• What are indicators in written assignments that should raise your concerns?  
• Do you know what is required of you by law when you become aware of a student who may be a risk to self or others?   

The workshop time will be spent on the following:  

• The 2014 student.  
• What the student means for the classroom and the institution.  
• Identifying risk behaviour.  
• Balancing the rights of the individual with the rights of the other students in the class. 
• What about your rights as the instructor?  
• Safety first.  
• Resources.