At dinner, we always try to take the time to ask the girls how their day was at school. Today, my eldest daughter (she’s 7) could barely contain her excitement. It was her first day at an after-school science program. It’s an hour long, once per week. Today, they made slime. Continue reading Green Slime – Veronica Brown
Teaching for Change: A Conversation at Ground Zero — Mark Morton
During a post-Christmas trip to New York City, my wife and kids and I walked to Ground Zero, the site where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center once stood. At first, it seemed that our visit would be underwhelming: the site now looks like any other construction zone, Continue reading Teaching for Change: A Conversation at Ground Zero — Mark Morton
The Pricing Game- An online Activity- Samar Mohamed
In my role as the CTE Liaison in the Faculty of Engineering I work with instructors in creating pedagogically sound online activities that enhance the students’ learning experience. I really like an activity that I worked on with Prof. Benny Mantin, a Management Sciences Professor who wanted to design an online activity that proves to the students the importance of a specific topic. Continue reading The Pricing Game- An online Activity- Samar Mohamed
“If You Know — Teach!” — Mark Morton
After Christmas, my wife and I took our kids (ages 13 and 15) for a week-long trip to New York City. We went to a few of the usual tourist attractions (like the Statue of Liberty) but we also tried to visit some sites that were off the beaten track, including Harlem. Like many people, my impression of Harlem was shaped in the 1970s Continue reading “If You Know — Teach!” — Mark Morton
…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
Good Teaching: The Top 10 Requirements — Michael Pyne
I’m a firm believer that a calendar year cannot be concluded without a slew of top 10 lists. Even Faculty Focus, an online website and e-newsletter dedicated to teaching in higher education, recently succumbed to the temptation of a top 10 of 2010. The two-part article entitled “Top 10 Faculty Focus Articles for 2010” Continue reading Good Teaching: The Top 10 Requirements — Michael Pyne