Looking for ways to revitalize your teaching but don't have time for a big redesign? In Small Teaching, author James Lang argues that small changes in classroom techniques and activities can have big impacts on student learning. Hear practical teaching strategies from faculty guest speakers.  Bring your questions and your lunch.  Leave with ideas you can implement right away in your courses!  

Lightning Presentations:

Xinli Wang, Department of Mathematics

• Using Effort-based grading and Student Reflection as Inclusive Assessment Practices
• In this presentation, I will share some ideas of redesigning course assessments so make your course more inclusive. These include effort-based grading, student reflection as part of course assessment and mastery-based grading.  Following the presentations, participants are welcome to share challenges they face while designing course assessments.

Jennifer Watt, Faculty of Education

• Moving Assessment: Voice Memos for Relational Feedback
• What happens within our teaching when we think more about assessment in relational ways? In this lightening talk, I will share how I unbound myself from the desk, dropped the red pen, and moved away from the screen to adapt a new process of walking and talking to give feedback to student through voice memos. I will share the impacts of establishing learning conversations where student can hear (and feel moved by) my authentic interactions with their thinking, and I commit to practices that contribute to my well-being as an educator. This form of assessment can be particularly helpful for pre-professional programs where students are learning how to communicate effectively and establish meaningful relationships with colleagues and with the students, patients, or clients they will be working with in their professional roles.

Location: UM Zoom

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff

Looking for ways to revitalize your teaching but don't have time for a big redesign? In Small Teaching, author James Lang argues that small changes in classroom techniques and activities can have big impacts on student learning. Hear practical teaching strategies from faculty guest speakers. Bring your questions and your lunch. Leave with ideas you can implement right away in your courses!  

Lightning Presentations:

Chyngyz Erkinbaev, Biosystems Engineering

• Engage them all: Transforming the engineering lab session into a fun assignment
• A simple drag and drop coding tool can reduce students’ anxiety around programming and open the door to full participation. When paired with a mini project approach and a student created video component, this method led to remarkable 100% engagement and enthusiastic involvement.

Cheryl Pryce, Nursing, and Meaghan Ewharekuko, The Centre

• Motion Minutes: Moving Feels Awesome and You Deserve to Feel Great
• Do you struggle with keeping students engaged during lectures? Motion Minutes may be the answer to boost engagement and well-being for your students. Come see why movement may be the secret to keep students invested in learning! Afterall, movement feels awesome and you deserve to feel great. 

Location: Room 223, The Centre (65 Dafoe Road)

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff

You probably have heard that "teaching is an art." But have you thought of yourself as a teacher-artist? This workshop uses experiential and art-based pedagogies to increase your capacity for innovative and engaging teaching--such as storytelling, role-play, and creative works. 

Join us to learn how to lean into the strengths of your unique teaching style and explore strategies to infuse creative elements into your teaching! You will leave this workshop with a set of art-based tools designed to make the process of developing and facilitating courses more and enjoyable for you and your students. This workshop is also a great opportunity to develop skills and confidence speaking in public.

Location: Room 325, Education, 71 Curry Place

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff

Do you teach large classes and have a hard time coming up with ways to engage students? Are you looking for ideas to build-in activities and opportunities for discussion in your courses? Would you like to try new ways of presenting content but lecturing seems like the only alternative for large classes? 

In this workshop we’ll share tried-and-tested strategies to make your large classes more interactive and engaging. We will explore experiential learning pedagogy as a framework for organizing, delivering, and assessing course content in ways that maximize student participation and engagement--and give you a break from lecturing!

Our focus will be on small changes you can easily incorporate to any in-person course; however, these strategies can also be adapted to online courses.

Location: UM Zoom

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff

Join our monthly meetings to connect with colleagues involved in Experiential Learning across UM and explore best practices and challenges in experiential learning. 

This session: Trying out new assessments can be tough, especially when you're aiming to make them meaningful and aligned with experiential learning and course outcomes. Join us for an engaging conversation with Christina Penner, Senior Instructor in Computer Science, as she shares how she transformed a traditional lecture-based course into an interactive, flipped classroom. Christina will walk us through how she chose her assessments, how she grades them, and why she made those choices. She’ll also share practical tips for where to start, how to choose assessments, how many to choose, and more! You don’t want to miss this exciting conversation! 

Location: UM Zoom

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff

Join our monthly meetings to connect with colleagues involved in Experiential Learning across UM and explore best practices and challenges in experiential learning. 

This session: The Experiential Learning Gathering is an annual spring tradition that brings together members of the Experiential Learning Community of Practice and others, to celebrate, connect, and reflect. Hosted by the Office of Experiential Learning each May, this event offers faculty, instructors, and staff meaningful opportunities to build relationships, share ideas, and support one another in their ongoing journeys with experiential teaching and learning.

Location: Room 223, The Centre (65 Dafoe Road)

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff

You probably have heard that "teaching is an art." But have you thought of yourself as a teacher-artist? This workshop uses experiential and art-based pedagogies to increase your capacity for innovative and engaging teaching--such as storytelling, role-play, and creative works. 

Join us to learn how to lean into the strengths of your unique teaching style and explore strategies to infuse creative elements into your teaching! You will leave this workshop with a set of art-based tools designed to make the process of developing and facilitating courses more and enjoyable for you and your students. This workshop is also a great opportunity to develop skills and confidence speaking in public.

Location: Room 325, Education, 71 Curry Place

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff

Do you teach large classes and have a hard time coming up with ways to engage students? Are you looking for ideas to build-in activities and opportunities for discussion in your courses? Would you like to try new ways of presenting content but lecturing seems like the only alternative for large classes? 

In this workshop we’ll share tried-and-tested strategies to make your large classes more interactive and engaging. We will explore experiential learning pedagogy as a framework for organizing, delivering, and assessing course content in ways that maximize student participation and engagement--and give you a break from lecturing!

Our focus will be on small changes you can easily incorporate to any in-person course; however, these strategies can also be adapted to online courses.

Location: UM Zoom

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff

In this workshop, participants will explore how to assess learning in ways that honor; the knowledges, relationships, and contexts our that students bring. This workshop invites educators to reflect on the purposes and practices of assessment beyond the traditional rubric. Together, we will explore how rubrics can become living, relational tools—co-created with learners, grounded in respect and reciprocity, and responsive to multiple ways of knowing and expressing understanding. Participants will leave with tangible ideas and examples for re-designing evaluation processes that are more just, inclusive, and community-connected.

Location: Room 223, The Centre (65 Dafoe Road)

Open to: UM Faculty, Sessional Instructors, and Staff