Author: trevorholmes

As Senior Instructional Developer, Curriculum and Programming, Trevor Holmes plans and delivers workshops and events in support of faculty across the career span. Prior to joining the Centre for Teaching Excellence, Trevor worked at a variety of universities teaching courses, supporting faculty and teaching assistants through educational development offices, and advising undergraduates. Trevor’s PhD is from York University in English Literature, with a focus on gothic literature, queer theory, and goth identities. A popular workshop facilitator at the national and international levels, Trevor is also interested in questions of identity in teaching and teaching development.

International Women’s Day Turns 100 — Trevor Holmes

Logo for IWD centenary

As I write, I am reading news reports of men harassing women in Cairo, women who assembled to celebrate International Women’s Day, women who protested alongside men to oust Hosni Mubarak.

As I write, I am hopeful about initiatives to help women and girls get educated all around the world.

I note tertiary education efforts too, like Women’s Education Worldwide.

And I think hard about the post over at Hook and Eye, a blog co-owned by Aimée Morrison (Waterloo English) and guest-blogged today by Shannon Dea (Waterloo Philosophy).

I feel like we need to act locally and think globally about feminism… a point I keep making to my own first year students still, relentlessly…

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The Centre for Teaching Excellence welcomes contributions to its blog. If you are a faculty member, staff member, or student at the University of Waterloo (or beyond!) and would like contribute a posting about some aspect of teaching or learning, please contact Mark Morton or Trevor Holmes.

…and so it goes – Trevor Holmes

Bit of a dry spell on the blog this term! We’ll try to be more regular.

So I’m sure readers have been holding their collective breath, awaiting eagerly my update from the first day of class a couple of Fridays ago. That’s right: in my first blog post of 2011, I imagined a perfect pedagogical storm of a first day. I did do what I intended to. Many of the students in lecture contributed good thoughts to the definition of culture we were coming up with, collectively. They didn’t seem to tire of the pairs of images so much as previous years’ cohorts have. And in tutorials, when confronted again with some of the same images, they deepened their analysis still more, becoming comfortable with each other in the smaller setting. I even had them fill out tutorial logs at the end of each tutorial, so those who didn’t get a chance to contribute could let us know what they were thinking. Continue reading …and so it goes – Trevor Holmes

Beginnings – Trevor Holmes

I’m not ready for this. I need a longer break! My first class is this week — I have a reprieve until Friday at 10:00, so my apologies to those who had to begin at 8:30 this morning!

As we enter 2011 we face an unprecedented level of distraction. Over the weekend, a few things came together for me as I was socializing (online and in person) and simultaneously thinking about my first lecture. At a friend’s house, we were talking about Millennials — the people born since 1982 or so who have been coming of age in the new millennium — and how (even for us, a Gen X and a Boomer) it seems impossible to have slower time for reflection and focus. The next day, someone passed along an article about the ways in which English literature departments have lost the plot. Both moments are very present in my mind as I plan the first lecture of a Cultural Studies course (a course that could be seen as one big pile of distractions, and that’s one of the kinder things said about the discipline!). Continue reading Beginnings – Trevor Holmes

Overheard on the 7 – Trevor Holmes

GRT bus When I’m not riding my bike to work, I usually take the bus. Waiting for any of the number 7 buses, one overhears things. In the spirit of the “Overheard at” websites, I’d like to offer occasional orts of wisdom from students who, at the end of their day, Continue reading Overheard on the 7 – Trevor Holmes

Eric Mazur to visit Waterloo campus – Trevor Holmes

Renowned physics education pioneer Eric Mazur will be at Waterloo Dec 1 2010. Before there were clickers, before there was a “Force Concept Inventory,” Mazur was developing “interactive engagement” or peer instruction (see a two-minute video here).

The talk is co-sponsored by Physics and Astronomy and the Centre for Teaching Excellence. Here’s the ad: Continue reading Eric Mazur to visit Waterloo campus – Trevor Holmes

How many “Asians” does it take to make middle-class white kids uncomfortable? – Trevor Holmes

It’s International Education Week at Waterloo.

I say this because I had thought perhaps I could blog about my own personal framework for “internationalism” and intercultural awareness. I grew up in an adoptive family with a Scottish-Welsh mother (whose parents were immigrants) and an Irish father (who himself came from Dublin at age 12). My birth family are all Irish-Scottish on the mother’s side but Cape Bretoners since the mid-1800s, and Romanian on the father’s side (also immigrant parents). Somehow, though, the blog topic I thought I was going to consider has been overshadowed by another one, and it reminds me of my white background rather uncomfortably. Continue reading How many “Asians” does it take to make middle-class white kids uncomfortable? – Trevor Holmes

Alan Morgan on Experiential Learning – Trevor Holmes

In our September 2010 CTE Newsletter, I had the privilege of interviewing 3M Teaching Fellow A.V. Morgan, lately retired from Earth Sciences, about his long career at Waterloo. For reasons of space, one of the questions and answers was not included; it is reproduced below. Alan brings experience into the classroom, and wherever possible, takes students out to the experiences…
TH: Clearly, you have had a rich and deep experience in your discipline and inspiring others to understand Continue reading Alan Morgan on Experiential Learning – Trevor Holmes