CTE’s New Website Launched – Mark Morton

blogThe Centre for Teaching Excellence launched a new website this week, one that is not only more aesthetically pleasing than our old site, but is also designed to provide more resources, more functionality, and more user-control. Here are some of the enhancements: Continue reading CTE’s New Website Launched – Mark Morton

Troublesome workshop invited us over the threshold – Trevor Holmes

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Relying heavily on one of higher education’s most recent door-opening concepts to run a workshop on, well, door-opening concepts, Gary Poole took a FLEX lab full of people through our paces Tuesday morning, May 5th, 2009. After his Presidents’ Colloquium talk on the Monday, in which he addressed the powerful phenomenographic notion of deep versus surface learning (more on that another post), Continue reading Troublesome workshop invited us over the threshold – Trevor Holmes

Faculty event: panel on writing reference letters for your graduate students – Trevor Holmes

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Three experienced (and successful) writers of reference letters for graduate students, Sandra Burt (Political Science, Associate Dean of Arts, Graduate Studies and Research), Ian Rowlands (Environment and Resource Studies, Associate Dean, Research, Faculty of Environment) and Ralph Haas (Civil and Environmental Engineering, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, FRSC), will share their advice and expertise. Continue reading Faculty event: panel on writing reference letters for your graduate students – Trevor Holmes

Classroom Disruptions: The Common Cold of the University Classroom – Amanda Clark

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I’m sure you’ve all experienced disruptions in the classroom at one point or another. In fact, they are as prevalent as the common cold – and equally bothersome I might add. Whether it be excessive chattiness, overly argumentative students, late comers/early departers or students engaging in non-class related activities like reading a newspaper or playing on their laptop, we all face some sort of disruption challenge at one point or another. Many instructors I’ve encountered take a hard line on this topic and strictly enforce classroom guidelines for acceptable behaviour while others seemingly ignore the glaring disruptions. Continue reading Classroom Disruptions: The Common Cold of the University Classroom – Amanda Clark

International TA Training: One year in service – Walid Omran (ITA Developer)

successHow am I going to teach these students? Will they laugh at me because of my accent and language mistakes? How will I control their behavior in the class? Is it true that culture can affect the students-TA relationship? How can I prove that I am a good TA? These were just some of the questions I had in mind when I received my first TA assignment, four months after arriving to Canada as an international graduate student. Now, after spending three years at the University of Waterloo and being a TA for a number of courses, I still think that teaching in the Canadian classroom can be a challenge for many international TAs (ITAs). This is mainly due to language barriers, cultural differences and uncommon backgrounds. Continue reading International TA Training: One year in service – Walid Omran (ITA Developer)

Notes from a Teaching Developer Conference 2: Universities and New Urbanism – Trevor Holmes

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At the Educational Developers Caucus conference I first wrote about a few weeks ago, one highlight for me was a workshop delivered by Erika Kustra and Bev Hamilton from the University of Windsor. While some workshops focus on tips and techniques, and others on current issues, these two critical thinkers facilitated a highly conceptual process that got participants moving around to stations on walls to play with New Urbanism as a metaphor for mapping our institutions (where we are and where we ought to be). Continue reading Notes from a Teaching Developer Conference 2: Universities and New Urbanism – Trevor Holmes

Time flies…things change… – Darlene Radicioni

The CUT (Certificate in University Teaching) program celebrated its 10th anniversary in Fall 2008. I’ve been here nearly that long too (since June 2000).How things have changed!

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In the beginning, the CUT program had one TA Developer working 10 hours a week. Registration occurred upon submission of a response paper after attending a workshop. We were happy to have 14 students in a workshop. Juice, water and sometimes cookies, were provided as additional incentive for participation. Once a student had met the requirements for a course, the Graduate Office would be notified and a grade of CR would appear on their transcript. There were no time limits to complete a course or the program (one student took 27 terms). Continue reading Time flies…things change… – Darlene Radicioni