Add comment May 13th, 2007

Highlights from PD Workshops

Putting Strength Based Feedback into Practice

I was in Toby Merrit’s workshop on Teaching Students with Learning Challenges and he provided an example of how he has put “strengths based feedback” into practice with students.  Toby works in Disability Services, so his focus with students is on their disabilities.  He indicated that since attending Idahlynn’s workshop on Strength Based Feedback, he now starts his conversation with students by asking them about their strengths rather than their challenges.  He said that the new approach has dramatically changed the conversation, making it positive.  Thank you Toby for sharing a best practice with us and promoting the strength-based revolution!
 

Cultural Intelligence

The theme of Our Turn to Learn on May 9 was Cultural Intelligence.  Our student population is becoming increasingly diverse, which impacts everyone working at Mohawk College.  Noelle Richardson from Graybride Malkam, leaders in diversity training, facilitated the workshop with a broad look at the topic.  The video, “A Class Divided” demonstrated the influence that we have on our students.  There is a positive correlation between a teacher’s view of students and their ability to perform.   In the future, we plan to offer practical workshops focusing on developing comfort with cultural differences.  As Noelle stressed, we control our own actions and behavioural change is the key to breaking the cycle of discrimination. Liz Roberts, Practical Nursing has forwarded a link to the website containing the lesson on  Stereotypes that she uses in class.  You will find it under #2, “Ethnic Stereotypes”.  There is also a lot of other great material on the site.  Thank you Liz!   http://www.tolerance.org/teach/web/power_of_words/index.jsp   Roberta
Faculty Development

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Add comment May 11th, 2007

Greetings from Cate

It’s a perfect spring day out there - time to reflect, rejuvenate, and recharge our batteries.  An opportunity to make some time for ourselves, for our personal and professional learning and development.  Curtis Bonk, academic jedi, and keynote for the Connections Conference was a spring tonic, with energizing strategies to engage our learning community.  Curtis is a real believer in sharing, so you might want to check out his website:  http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/
It was also a terrific opportunity to see what our own Mohawk experts are doing.  Thanks to all for sharing your insight, strategies, and technologies. 

Dr. Idahlynn Karre inspired us with her insight into the strength-based revolution, and the extensive research demonstrating that our greatest potential for growth and development lies in the area of our strength (not remedial work for our weaknesses!).     We get more of what we focus on, so leveraging our strengths to manage our weakness makes great sense.  Dr. Karre’s engaging activities provided an opportunity to practice some strength-based feedback, and her extensive reading list has some great resources to further explore our own strengths.  Ten million interviews over 10 years  led the Gallup Organization to the following 12 predictors of worker engagement  and performance.  To reflect on your own work experience, you can view the 12 elements at:
 http://www.mohawkcollege.ca/ctlr/docs/GreatManaging_12Elements.pdf              

Roberta Burke and I had the opportunity to train with Idahlynn, and look forward to facilitating a few more of the “Performance feedback: playing to my strengths” workshops in the near future.  Watch Mocomotion or our new Centre for Teaching, Learning & Research calendar for dates and details. 

http://www.mohawkcollege.ca/ctlr/events/calendar.html

In my role as Staff Development Officer, I enjoy the opportunity of focusing on professional and personal for Support Staff and Administration.  I also really enjoy the chance to partner with Roberta Burke for college wide professional development.

I hope this blog will be a conversation.  Please share your insight into our college community, and best practices for learning and development.  Please share your ideas for professional development, and let’s work together to make it happen.   

 May 8, 2007

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2 comments May 8th, 2007

Hello from Roberta

Wow, wasn’t the Connections Conference great!  I was so impressed by the buzz and energy in the room.  Congratulations to the e-learning services team for a very successful conference!

My role on the CTL&R team is to organize professional development activities for faculty related to teaching and learning.  As you can imagine May/June is our busiest time of the year.  I am responsible for the College Educator Development Program, the western region colleges program for all new faculty hires.  This program runs in May, June and August.   Teaching for Success, is a two day in-house program for new part-time, partial load and sessional instructors.

I often work with Cate Walker-Hammond  to develop professional development events that are appropriate for all employee groups.  We just completed a series of workshops on  “Giving and Receiving Feedback – Playing to Your Strengths” as preparation for performance feedback.  On May 9, we will be offering a workshop on Cultural Intelligence, facilitated by Noelle Richardson from Graybridge Malkam.

In addition to my role in faculty development, I am also the Communications Officer for Local 240, CAAT academic.  This role enables me to keep in touch with faculty and to keep abreast of academic issues that impact professional development needs.

I invite you to contact me anytime during the year to discuss your teaching and learning wishes.  My hope is that the blog will be a venue for “Teachers to Talk Teaching”, share and search for resources and best practices.  I look forward to talking with you often.

Add comment May 4th, 2007