Upcoming Events

UTM faculty, sessional instructors, librarians, staff, teaching assistants, graduate students, and post docs are welcome to register for our events.

TLC workshops, seminars, talks and panels are inclusive events. Please let us know if you require any accommodations. Contact us at tlc.utm@utoronto.ca if you have questions.

NOTE: In compliance with the regulations put in place by UTM surrounding COVID-19, all TLC programming and workshops will be facilitated online (remotely) until further notice.

 

WINTER 2022

 

Teaching & Learning Cafés (online)

Reflecting on your teaching practice is critical to faculty learning and development. It can help you find solutions to challenges that arise within the learning environment. Teaching & Learning Cafés provide an opportunity to reflect on how the term has been going, to ask any questions that may have come up, and to connect with your colleagues. 

A morning and afternoon Teaching & Learning Café will be offered once a month on Tuesdays at 2pm and Thursdays at 10am. 

January Teaching & Learning Cafés

February Teaching & Learning Cafés

March Teaching & Learning Cafés

UTM Instructor Support Drop-Ins (online)

Co-hosted by the TLC, RGASC, UTM Library, and UTM I&ITS. If you have questions related to pedagogy, Quercus or Zoom, please join us.  Instructor support drop-ins will be offered at the following times: 

Please register in advance, if possible. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing the Zoom link and passcode to attend the session. 

Spotlight on Teaching in the Arts and Humanities 

Wednesday, January 26th from 2:00pm - 3:00pm   

Please register here. 

This event provides an opportunity for instructors to share teaching strategies and resources with colleagues who share their disciplinary context. It is also an opportunity for instructors from other disciplinary contexts to gather new ideas. The session will consist of four 10-15 minute presentations with an opportunity to ask questions after each presentation.

Contributors: 

  • Kate Maddalena, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute of Communication, Culture, Information & Technology

Encouraging Students to Engage Creatively with Theory: a Holistic Rubric

Engaging with theory in the humanities is fun, creative, and intellectually risky work. When students are focused on getting it right for a mark, they miss the point of theory. This simple, holistic assessment method--a very simple "ungrading" approach--encourages and rewards risk-taking and creativity for B and A-level marks. 

Spotlight on Teaching in Management and Economics 

Thursday, February 3rd from 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Please register here. 

This event provides an opportunity for instructors to share teaching strategies and resources with colleagues who share their disciplinary context. It is also an opportunity for instructors from other disciplinary contexts to gather new ideas. The session will consist of four 10-minute presentations with an opportunity to ask questions after each presentation.

Spotlight on Teaching in STEM  

Tuesday, February 8th from 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Please register here. 

This event provides an opportunity for instructors to share teaching strategies and resources with colleagues who share their disciplinary context. It is also an opportunity for instructors from other disciplinary contexts to gather new ideas. The session will consist of four 10-minute presentations with an opportunity to ask questions after each presentation.

Contributors: 

  • Mike Pawliuk, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, CLTA, Mathematical and Computational Sciences

In Fall 2021 I taught a third year math course (MAT344 Intro to Combinatorics) without formal assignments, tests, or an exam. Students had "radical freedom" to create any portfolio of work they wanted to show their learning in the course. It went very well, and I'll discuss the important lessons I learned.

Spotlight on Teaching in Social Science 

Thursday, February 17thfrom 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Please register here. 

This event provides an opportunity for instructors to share teaching strategies and resources with colleagues who share their disciplinary context. It is also an opportunity for instructors from other disciplinary contexts to gather new ideas. The session will consist of four 10-minute presentations with an opportunity to ask questions after each presentation.

Contributors: 

  • Alison Smith, Assistant Professor, Political Science

I will be talking about a creative book review assignment I assigned this term in my POL318 class, Power and Conflict in Federalism. The book review was for works of fiction. I gave students the option of engaging with the work in any form or medium they wanted to - I got many formal book reviews, but also a number of podcasts, three paintings, several poems, and even a song! Artistic works were accompanied with an "artist's statement" in which they explained their work and how the book helped them to better understand Canadian politics. In addition to allowing students to engage with a novel and express themselves creatively, the books we reviewed allowed for really great examples of policy failures and power struggles that we covered in class, giving students a very clear understanding of how policies affect different people.

Preparing the Teaching Dossier 

Thursday, March 24th from 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Facilitated by Dianne Ashbourne, Educational Developer, Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy 

At the University of Toronto, teaching dossiers must be submitted as part of the review process for tenure review or continuing status review. This session will provide an overview of the content and structure of an effective teaching dossier, focusing on dossiers prepared for a review process, and with an emphasis on how to align this document with divisional and institutional expectations. Session participants will review the distinctive qualities of a teaching dossier, and will develop a plan for assembling and strengthening their own dossiers. They will also be led through the first steps of composing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy. 

Please register here. 

Writing an EDI Statement for your Teaching Dossier 

Tuesday, March 29th from 11:00am - 12:00pm 

Facilitated by Ann Gagné, Educational Developer (Universal Design for Learning), Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy 

This session will highlight the literature on writing EDI statements and allow space for discussion of how to demonstrate connections to equity, diversity, and inclusion practices in your pedagogy.  

Please register here. 

Curriculum Mapping 

Monday, April 4th from 1:00pm – 2:00pm  

Facilitated by Fiona Rawle, Associate Dean, Undergraduate, and Director, Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, and Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Biology 

This workshop will outline how to engage in effective curriculum mapping, and will highlight the opportunities that can arise from the mapping process and dissemination of the maps themselves. We will discuss mapping at the assignment, course, and program level, and will explore different ways to both use and disseminate curricular maps. 

Please register here. 

Term-End Reflection 

Wednesday, April 27th from 12:00pm - 2:00pm  

Facilitated by Fiona Rawle, Associate Dean, Undergraduate, and Director, Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, and Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Biology; Ann Gagné, Educational Developer (Universal Design for Learning), Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy ; and Dianne Ashbourne, Educational Developer, Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy 

Connect with your colleagues to reflect on this past year in an interactive, collaborative session. This session will provide an opportunity to share pedagogical strategies that worked well and to ask your colleagues for suggestions to address challenges that you encountered during the term. 

Please register here. 

Teaching as Performance 

POSTPONED - Date & time TBD

Facilitated by Anna Korteweg, Professor, Department of Sociology 

During this one-hour session we will touch on some key ideas from theatre, vocal technique, and dance to help us connect with our students during lecture and discussion – the key is how to be present in the room with yourself and your students! After a brief introduction to this theme, we will do a series of short exercises that will help you be present in the classroom and connect effectively with your classroom audience. 

Anna Korteweg (Professor of Sociology at UTM) has a background in theatre dance, receiving her degree from the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam. After arriving in the United States, joining small modern dance companies and performing at Jacob’s Pillow and various venues in New York and Boston, she decided to look for a job that would pay the bills and fell in love with academia.  She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California Berkeley, while continuing to dance and perform occasionally. In 2004, she moved to Canada to join UTM. The past 14 years she has focused on singing, first in choral settings and more recently in a small jazz ensemble.  She has studied for six years with vocal coach Micah Barnes, and performs in the hallways of her building and occasionally at coffee houses and living room concerts.   

Please register here.