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Feedback to Improve Teaching
[social_share/] [social-bio] This fall I taught my first for-credit university course. I have plenty of previous teaching experience in the K-12 system and non-credit workshops/courses offered through the GMCTE, but this was the first-time teaching paying university students. I was feeling some apprehension and added pressure. With this pressure in mind (and wanting to provide the best learning experience possible) I put together a formative assessment plan for the course. This plan would allow students to provide me with feedback on my teaching and use of learning activities. Here is a list of some of the items in that plan: Pre-Course Survey: I began with a pre-course survey the last…
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Nominating an Outstanding Teacher: Why and How?
[social_share/] [social-bio] There are a number of reasons to reward and recognize outstanding teaching at our university. Teaching awards can encourage the further development of expertise, and validate the energy and hard work that goes into teaching. Teaching awards can also foster a sense of community and help to build collegial relationships. The process of preparing an award nomination is itself heavily reliant on the strength of collegial bonds and community. For instance, a nominator must know something about the teaching style of a nominee and must rely on the nominee’s relationships with colleagues and students to procure authentic and quality letters of support. In the video below, Dr. Beverley…
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Crafting Artful Teaching
[social_share/] [social-bio] I’ve been a teacher since I was 6 years old and I still absolutely grin when I see a class that is well-structured and flows with lots of student and instructor excitement and enthusiasm that is “on purpose.” When the class time flies by, things are “accomplished,” there’s action, and “learning” is palpable, that is what we strive for, and to me it’s as beautiful as a great movie, a heart-felt song, or a painting that claims your attention. I saw these qualities in a 50-minute class taught by Leah Ferguson, a new faculty member in Kinesiology. I was absolutely grinning by the end of the class so…
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Where Do You Get Your Examples?
[social_share/] [social-bio] I recently interviewed Leah Ferguson, faculty member in Kinesiology, about how she chooses the examples she uses to illustrate concepts in her first year KIN class… This might surprise you at first but then it’s an “of course!!” What a way to make research real, build a sense of collegiality, highlight what’s going on in the college, and let students know about the research of their other professors. The real examples from the college make the concepts come alive! The interview is about five minutes…let us know what you think.
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Website Launched as Hub for All Things Open at USask
[social_share/] [social-bio] We’ve been posting a lot on this blog lately about all of the open initiatives happening at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as initiatives elsewhere that are available to faculty and graduate students at our university. There’s been the adoption of an open textbook for a class of 100 students, the piloting of the open source platform Mahara by the College of Education for ePortfolios, and now the launch of the first open course from an academic unit at the U of S with registration opening for Dr. Ken Coates’s Circumpolar Innovation through Canvas. Given the growing list of open initiatives, and the long-running support and education…