Working, reading, reflecting. But mostly working
Last month UBC hosted a meeting of the Universitas 21 Teaching and Learning Network. With the support of CTLT’s amazing events team, I was the lead on organizing committee. The event went exceedingly well, but it was a lot of work getting it off the ground. A week after I was on a plane to Europe for a quick (11 day) break.
U21 gave me a somewhat different perspective on the work I do and how teaching and learning are valued at UBC–and other institutions. Colleagues from Ireland have faced horrific budget cuts and redundancies as of late, for example. So on one level I felt rather privileged to do the work I do where I do it. But it also highlighted how important professional networks of colleagues are: though I was something of a fly on the wall during the event, I interacted with most delegates. There’s a lot of potential to collaborate with these folks–even more so at the instructor level perhaps. You can view the videos of the keynotes (along with Harry Hubball’s final synthesis) here.
All of which is a somewhat polysyllabic rationalization for neglecting this e-portfolio…
On my flight home from Amsterdam I managed to not only catch up with my reading–I managed to ready everything outstanding from the FCP library (yay iPad! yay PDF Expert!). The readings gave me a lot to think about: in terms of ethos, the practice of teaching, and research design. I’m even more committed to conducting a study that’s rigorous and reliable–inspired to do so, in fact. So I’ve also managed to work through another iteration of my study proposal.
I think my syllabus is done. And I’ve nearly got things organized for my teaching to be peer reviewed next term. Speaking of which, the update/revision of my course is 95% done: just need to adjust some assessment rubrics and a few scenarios for PBL. My presentation for tomorrow’s session is done too–but I’ll post those slides after tomorrow’s session. For pedagogical reasons I never distributed PPT slides to my audience.
That’s how I roll…