Faculty PD
Our ability to learn never ends
Georgian’s faculty professional development (PD) opportunities include a range of workshops, series, webinars and drop-in sessions to help faculty build key strengths and to continue to expand and grow as teachers in their practice. The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) invites you to sign up for a workshop or drop in to a session. We’re here to help and we always love to hear from you!
CTL workshops
View upcoming CTL workshops for the fall 2023 semester.
Locate your workshop and scroll over to the TEAMS ACCESS LINK column to join.
Modality/location – Please note that workshops are being delivered virtually and/or face to face. Please refer to the LOCATION column.
If you have difficulty registering for a workshop, please email CTL@georgiancollege.ca.
This schedule of workshops is updated often, so please check back weekly!
Pathways document
Faculty Learning Community (FLC)
Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) are structured learning communities of faculty and staff at Georgian intended to build connections, engage is scholarly conversations and develop a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). FLCs are considered high-impact practices that foster culture change among faculty. At the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), FLCs have focused their discussions and projects on learning about and experimenting with evidence-based teaching practices.
About
The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) would like to invite you to participate in a Faculty Learning Community based on the book, Distracted, by James Lang.
Getting students to pay attention has always been a challenge and remote teaching has really highlighted this issue for postsecondary teachers. In a 2020 survey by Georgian College, the top student issue was focusing or paying attention to remote teaching. Previously, we might have suggested access to technology has ruined students’ ability to focus yet, as we enter into our new reality of post pandemic teaching, we can realize technology is not the issue. We need to consider good pedagogical design and practices to support student learning.
In his new book, James Lang argues the solution to an inability of students to focus is actually a deeper problem: how we teach is often at odds with how students learn. How we organize our learning spaces is more designed to force students into long periods of intense focus, but emerging science reveals that the brain is wired for distraction. Students learn best when able to actively seek and synthesize new information.
Through the FLC, we will explore how we can structure our learning spaces more as a place to cultivate students’ attention. The book offers lots of ideas grounded in research and helps us think more about how to support student learning.
Facilitator: Kelly Fox
Anyone is welcome to join. The FLC is free. However, you must either acquire the book for yourself or get online access via the Georgian library.
How will this book club work?
We will meet virtually, over the course of five weeks.
- Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2 to 3 p.m.
- Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2 to 3 p.m.
- Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2 to 3 p.m.
- Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2 to 3 p.m.
- Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2 to 3 p.m.
We encourage faculty to be available and committed to all five weeks. We will only read select chapters over the course of five weeks. We want this FLC to be as easy and stress-free as possible for you. We recognize the ongoing requests on faculty time and workload and that we are all likely running with a less-than-a-full tank. We encourage those who are interested to enrol and take part in a way that makes sense for you and as your schedule allows. So, if you didn’t get to the reading, you can still show up. If life gets in the way of some of participating or reading, please attend those you can! If what you need is to have your camera and mic off and just listen in – no worries, and no apologies needed!
Please register via Halogen before Sept. 2.
Does grading affect learning?
Are there potentially better ways to engage and motivate the learner?
Join us as we explore the new book, Ungrading: Why rating students undermines learning (and what to do instead) by Susan Blum. The book is authored by fifteen educators from different areas of education like humanities, social sciences and STEM and they share their diverse experiences of going gradeless. The book explores how ungrading can actually help student focus more on learning. We will unpack how grades intersect with motivation and learning and explore a variety of assessment and evaluation approaches.
Facilitators: Iain Robertson, Kelly Fox
Anyone is welcome to join. The FLC is free. However, you must either acquire the book for yourself or get online access via the Georgian library.
How will this book club work?
We will meet virtually, every two weeks for four weeks starting Wednesday, Sept. 14.
- Wednesday, Sept. 14, noon to 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, Sept. 28, noon to 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, Oct. 12, noon to 1 p.m.
- Wednesday, Oct. 26, noon to 1 p.m.
We encourage faculty to be available and committed to all four weeks. We will only read select chapters over the course of four weeks. We want this FLC to be as easy and stress-free as possible for you. We recognize the ongoing requests on faculty time and workload and that we are all likely running with a less-than-a-full tank. We encourage those who are interested to enrol and take part as in a way that makes sense for you and as your schedule allows. So, if you didn’t get to the reading, you can still show up. If life gets in the way of some of participating or reading, please attend those you can! If what you need is to have your camera and mic off and just listen in – no worries, and no apologies needed!
Please register via Halogen before Sept. 2.
Have you thought about ways to be more inclusive in your teaching practice? Would you be interested in sharing some time with other Faculty to explore strategies for promoting equity in your learning spaces? Please join us for a new FLC where we will discuss and share ideas. Our group will read the new book Inclusive Teaching: Strategies for promoting equity in the college classroom by Hogan and Sathy (2022). This book was written by educators, for educators. The authors provide practical suggestions to enhance your practice.
FLC objectives
- Discuss the role of structure in inclusive teaching
- Explore strategies to enhance inclusion in your teaching practice
- Reflect on your journey as a reflective practitioner
If you are curious, but still not sure, you may like to listen to this podcast from Teaching in Higher Ed with the authors Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy.
Please come to the FLC as you are. We encourage those who are interested to take part in a way that makes sense for you and as your schedule allows. So, if you did not get to the readings, you can still show up. If life gets in the way of some of the synchronous sessions, please attend those you can! If what you need is to have your camera and mic off and just listen in, no worries, and no apologies needed!
Dates
- Wednesday, Nov. 2, 3 to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 9, 3 to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 23, 3 to 4 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 30, 3 to 4 p.m.
Registration
KEYS to Teaching and Learning
Fall 2023 series
Join CTL’s team of faculty developers on a journey that unlocks the doors of teaching and learning. Through this six-part series, faculty will venture into the exciting worlds of lesson planning, active learning, assessment and evaluation, and personal development.
Each session is independent and can be taken as a standalone course or as part of the series. We secretly hope you join us for the series 😊.
Postsecondary learners are increasingly diverse and come from a variety of generations, cultural backgrounds and learning experiences. Also, they are at various social, emotional, and developmental stages. With larger and more diverse classes and with multiple types of delivery, it’s becoming more important to connect meaningfully with our students and establish a climate of belonging. Additionally, we need to purposely integrate and apply foundational learning principles in our classes. In this session, participants will explore the impact of these considerations on teaching and learning.
As a participant in this workshop, you will:
- interact with teaching peers and begin to develop a learning community;
- discuss various characteristics of our students and how this impacts our practice;
- explore foundational principles of postsecondary teaching; and
- experience a variety of teaching approaches.
Date
- Wednesday, Sept. 13 from 10 to 11:30 a.m
How to join
There are many nuances to course design. Planning your course takes thoughtful reflection and meaningful organization. In this session, we will discuss key principles for designing for engagement, learning and belonging.
As a participant in this workshop, you will:
- explore the relationship between programs, courses and planning;
- consider foundational concepts of universal design for learning (UDL);
- connect instructional frameworks to teaching; and
- reflect on the importance of lesson planning.
Date
- Wednesday, Sept. 20 from 10 to 11:30 a.m
How to join
Active learning improves student engagement. Student engagement improves learning. It can be energizing and fun! In this session, we will explore and experience active learning strategies.
As a participant in this workshop, you will:
- explore active learning as a teaching and learning strategy;
- consider the when, how, and why of integrating active learning; and
- practise active learning strategies.
Date
- Wednesday, Oct. 11 from 10 to 11:30 a.m
How to join
Assessment is not just a way to determine if learning has occurred. More importantly, assessment strategies can help students learn and provide direction for your lesson planning. In this session, we will look at how diagnostic, formative and summative assessment weave together to contribute to student success.
As a participant in this workshop, you will:
- consider the purpose of assessment and draw connections between learning and assessment;
- explore methods of diagnostic, formative and summative assessment; and
- highlight the importance of assessment in the process of integrated course design.
Date
- Wednesday, Oct. 18 from 10 to 11:30 a.m
How to join
Meaningful assignments provide students with authentic connections to their programs and careers. As experts in your fields, your assessments strategies can help learners build knowledge, skills and achieve course outcomes. In this session, we will explore all things assignment-related.
As a participant in this workshop, you will:
- reflect on key elements of assignment and test design;
- explore the difference between novices and experts; and
- discuss ways to improve assignment design and incorporate universal design.
Dates
- Wednesday, Nov. 1 from 10 to 11:30 a.m
How to join
We improve our teaching by looking back as much as looking forward. Gaining expertise in our teaching takes focus and reflection. In order to improve our practice, we need to consider our own teaching competencies.
As a participant in this workshop, you will:
- explore teaching competencies;
- reflect on your teaching goals; and
- discuss means of collecting feedback on your teaching.
Dates
- Wednesday, Nov. 8 from 10 to 11:30 a.m
How to join
Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW)
CTL offers an opportunity for faculty to participate in a four-day day workshop within a small group setting designed to enhance your teaching and learning practice. The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) was developed by a group of passionate educators over 30 years ago. It is an intensive 30-hour event that uses a “laboratory approach” to focus on the development of instructional skills and has been described as a “transformational experience” whether you’ve been teaching for one year or 20 years.
The ISW is a collaboration between facilitators and participants, which is grounded in active, experiential learning and based on principles of learning-centred instruction. While facilitators have had training in the ISW facilitation process, they are faculty, just like participants.
The ISW requires a significant investment of time, energy and resources from the college and all participants. A commitment to all four days is required. ISW is a fully onsite, face-to-face workshop that follows current college COVID-19 protocols.
Next class will begin in fall 2023. Stay tuned for registration!