STAFF DEVELOPMENT
at George Brown College

Festival of Learning

February 24 & 25, 2009
Intersession Week

Workshop Descriptions

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
290 Adelaide St. E. – CFSE Building

1:15pm-2:45pm
Concurrent Session 1

1.1 Captioned Media & E-Text Policy

Anne Villahermosa, Karen Walker (Room 128)

The Accessibility for Ontarians for Disabilities Act was passed into law in June 2005 and we are seeing the development, implementation and enforcement of accessibility standards in order to remove and prevent the creation of new barriers for individuals with disabilities, deaf, deafened and hard of hearing students. One of the ways that George Brown has responded to the challenges of barrier removal and prevention is by implementing a Captioned Media & E-text Policy. This session will highlight the best practices and strategies integral to this Policy, as well as discussing what support is available to faculty with respect to this initiative. 

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1.2 Closing the Gap for Second Language Learners in Content-based Subjects (e.g. accounting, marketing, communication, IT, health, hotel management, business…):  Practical teaching strategies for non-ESL faculty in a college environment

Dr. Sheila Dermer Applebaum, Paula Applebaum (Rm. 126)

This workshop provides an opportunity for non-ESL staff to have a conversation with colleagues and experienced ESL trainers. Practical teaching tips will be designed to reduce the learning gap of second language learners in their content-based courses. Questions arising from second language learners’ lack of comprehensibility in courses at George Brown College will be addressed in terms of facilitating teaching and learning in various contexts

Within the college environment, meeting the language and academic needs of second language learners is a significant challenge. Most ESL/International learners have passed entry language requirements for the College. Nevertheless, in their content-based courses (e.g. accounting, marketing, communication, IT, health, hotel management, business…) professors commonly have difficulty helping these learners close a persistent gap in communication.

What should be done about the responsibility for providing additional language support to second language learners? Without precluding the learners’ responsibility for accessing free tutoring on campus, should college professors be required to assist them in increasing comprehensibility in the classroom? Is it possible to facilitate the improvement of learners’ cultural and linguistic skills, without jeopardizing the implementation and timing of a professor’s course schedule?

Using a ‘dialogue with peers’ format, this presentation will explore practical ways for non-ESL staff  to address communication gaps experienced by second language learners in content-based subjects.

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1.3 The Power of Spirit in Holistic Education

Paul E. Royes (Rm. 127)

The presentation will define Holistic teaching and learning and its roots in Spirit and continue with a discussion of the practical outcomes of such an education.

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1.4 Curriculum Transformation and Disability: Implementing Universal Design in Post-Secondary Education

Olga Dosis (Rm. 203)

Ontario has new disability legislation, the AODA which will begin to increase the demands on instructors and institutions in understanding and including the needs of students with disabilities.

Incorporating Universal Instructional Design principles can benefit educators in becoming more reflective and balancing the multiple demands of research, teaching and developing more effective instructional strategies for teaching inclusively.

Come and get introduced to the new AODA, raise your awareness of disability related issues in the classroom and be introduced to Universal Instructional Design principles.

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1.5 The Academic Strategy – What’s It Got To Do with Me?

Michael Cooke (Rm. 202)

The success of the Academic Strategy is dependent upon the involvement of every employee in the college.  Whether you are Faculty, Support Staff or Admin Staff, the success of our students is highly dependent upon you and your involvement in the Academic Strategy.  Sometimes, as Support Staff, it is difficult to know how you can be involved.  On February 24th at the Festival of Learning, Vice President Academic Michael Cooke is hosting a workshop exclusively for support staff to discuss exactly how you as a member of our support staff team can become involved and to hear your ideas of how you feel you could contribute most.  Don’t miss this opportunity to meet with Michael and discuss this very important topic. 

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1.7 American Mathematics Association of Two Year Colleges Conference.

Bruno Fullone, Paul Balog (Rm. 129)

In this workshop, we will be sharing ideas and teaching activities related to mathematics and statistics that we have learned at the American Mathematics Association of Two Year Colleges Conference. This workshop will also give you the opportunity to participate in statistics and other activities that you can use in your classroom.

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1.8 Teaching Portfolio

Lazaros Simeon (Room 204)

Teaching portfolios can serve a variety of different purposes.  Teachers use teaching portfolios to document their teaching responsibilities and detail their accomplishments and student successes.  More importantly, they are powerful tools that foster reflection on the practice of teaching.

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3:00pm-4:30pm
Concurrent Session 2

2.1 Poetry Reading  

Maureen Hynes, Kathryn Payne (Rm. 126)

The School of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the School of Work & College Preparation are proud to present, as part of our ongoing Speaker Series open to all staff, a POETRY READING with published poets and GBC faculty members, Maureen Hynes and Kathryn Payne. Besides hearing some fine poems, you will also have a chance to discuss poetic craft, technique and practice.

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2.2 Field Education Forum

Field Education Working Group 2008-11 Academic Strategy (Pam Doyle, Lori Cranson, Lina Medaglia, Donnalu Macdonald, Maria DeNotaris, Michael Cooke, Alexis Tregjo) (Rm. 127)

This forum, sponsored by the Field Education Working Group of the 2008-11 Academic Strategy, will bring together key field placement coordinators/ staff. This preliminary forum will facilitate discussion on issues of quality, quantity, areas for collaboration and best practices.

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2.3 Communications Café

Neil McGillivray, Maryam Mirkhaef (Rm. 204)

Tired of rushing through your day – virtually ignoring the people around you as you get things done? Feeling disconnected - like there’s no real opportunity to get to know your colleagues better and meet new people at the college? Interested in hearing fresh ideas and opinions as well as expressing your own? Well here comes the Communications Café to the rescue. It’s 90-minute oasis of calm and conversation with great people – like you - who work at George Brown. Grab a free Starbucks coffee and a sweet treat and talk with colleagues in intimate structured conversation pods. To get things going you’ll be given interesting, provocative subjects to discuss and fun, easy tasks… plus every 10 minutes or so you’ll move to a new pod with a new topic and people.  In 90 relaxed but invigorating minutes you’ll have time to make new college connections, explore new ideas, and share thoughts.  Communications Café…the pause that refreshes! Participation is limited in this special session so please register early.

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2.4 Peer 2 Peer: Strategies at work in the Student Success Program

Dawn Lovas (Rm. 202)

Join professors, peer leaders, and Student Success Specialists who are working with peer facilitated initiatives in the Student Success Program. Hear about successes and challenges working with peer leaders from both the professors and leaders points of view.

The Program targets first year students, promotes sustainable learning communities and has three areas of focus: Ongoing Orientation, Academic Competence and Early Alert.

You will have an opportunity to see and discuss new on-line initiatives:  Online Communities, Online Mentoring, and Online Course Clubs - peer-led online activities that support success off campus.

We will utilize cooperative learning strategies to model engagement and reflection, and provide opportunities for you to interact with presenters and each other.

This presentation will end with a brief discussion on how the college intends to measure impact of the Program over time.

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2.5 PowerPoint is not just for Presentations!

Teena Dawson

Discover how easy it is to make posters and flyers quickly and effectively using PowerPoint.  Grab their attention and get the results you want with just a few simple keystrokes. 

You'll learn how adding clipart and pictures, WordArt, shapes, text boxes and lots more can add a lot of punch to posters, flyers and promotion materials!

So join us for this fun and creative workshop!

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2.6 Plagiarism, Detection and Prevention: Report on the Academic Honesty Tutorial Pilot Project

Ita Grant, Peter Lovrick (Rm. 128)

At the 2008 Festival of Learning, the Library Learning Commons introduced the award-winning Academic Honesty Tutorial (AHT) as an effective tool for introducing the concepts of academic honesty and plagiarism.   In September, 2008, a pilot project was implemented by  the Library Learning Commons, School of Construction Management and Trades and the LIAD department.

Learn about the evolution of this exciting collaborative project:

1. Graded  assessments
2. Pre-requisite for final reports
3. Students’ and faculty’s reactions

Students’ comments about the Academic Honesty Tutorial  “It allows me to understand about plagiarism better”; “ it helped….how to cite a reference”; “interactive and visual”;   “I never knew handing in the same project twice was cheating”

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2.7 Queering Learning: What Difference Does It Make?

Joseph Sinnott (Rm. 203)

Theologian and teacher Carter Heyward argues that to come out queer is “to make our sexuality a (possibly the) central factor in our public world,” that “to come out without realizing this is irresponsible.” This session will provide a space for faculty and staff to share, discuss, and critically question the whys and wherefores of coming out in our very public professional roles at George Brown and the tangible differences that coming out makes in our community of learning.

…more to come…

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Revised: February 20, 2009