Category: Teaching Strategies

Instructional Skills Workshop — Veronica Brown

Sunset on Georgian Bay, Pointe au Baril, ONWhen I first heard about the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW), I didn’t immediately run to sign up. The idea of someone videotaping me teach made me squirm (it still does). What? You want to not only tape my teaching but then someone is going to critique it and I have to watch it that night? Ugh.

[Insert loud sigh here] OK. This is probably good for me. I am sure I wave my hands too much, I have been known to say ’cause instead of because, I wonder if I seem as distracted as I feel…yes, there are some things I can work on. Continue reading Instructional Skills Workshop — Veronica Brown

Learning to lose our balance — Julie Timmermans

We spend much of our lives focusing on achieving balance: balancing our many work and life commitments, balancing our diets, and balancing our cheque books (actually, does anyone do that anymore?).  We are concerned with maintaining balance in the world’s ecosystems and balancing national budgets.  Continue reading Learning to lose our balance — Julie Timmermans

Creativity in a Nutshell – Martin Smith

Often I read Science Daily as a way of keeping up on many different areas of science.   Lately, one topic that keeps popping up is creativity and how we can promote creativity in our lives. For me, the creative process and teaching have a lot of overlap.  As instructors we try to be creative in the ways that we engage our students.  Continue reading Creativity in a Nutshell – Martin Smith

Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk: Humour as a Teaching Tool — Mark Morton

Humour can be an effective pedagogical tool. This is borne out by a study that I undertook, five years ago, of about a thousand comments that were posted by students to RateMyProfessors.com: a good sense of humour turned out to be among the top five characteristics that undergraduates appreciated in an instructor (the other attributes in the top five were being approachable; Continue reading Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk: Humour as a Teaching Tool — Mark Morton

“StickKing” with It: Self and Peer Motivation — Mark Morton

Today is January 3, which means that about 30% of all resolutions that were made two days ago have now been abandoned. Whatever motivation we had to strive for self-improvement on New Year’s Day has vanished in a puff of snow. I’m curious as to why this is the case. Every person that I know has, I think, loads of motivation and perseverance for some tasks and goals: my son, for example, will spend hours putting together a complicated Lego set, even missing meals in the process unless we remind him to eat. Continue reading “StickKing” with It: Self and Peer Motivation — Mark Morton

So what’s your personality? – Martin Smith

What really makes your gears turn? Recently, I was thinking about a personality test, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), that might help you figure this out.  The full test itself is an extensive questionnaire that is designed to classify your personality preferences in four areas in order to help you better understand the way you think and react under different circumstances.  I wanted to share it in this blog because I think it can help us to reflect upon and understand our style and preferences as a teacher.  For me, understanding my own personality preferences helped me to relate better with my students. Continue reading So what’s your personality? – Martin Smith