Introducing (and Deconstructing) York’s ESL Open Learning Centre…. Geoff Lawrence, Coordinator, ESL Open Learning Centre; Assistant Professor, ESL & Applied Linguistics Tucked away on the third floor of the South Ross Building, lies a hidden teaching and learning gem that may have slipped under your radar: The ESL Open Learning Centre (ESL OLC) – in Ross S327. […]
Open Education in Higher Learning Jerusha Lederman, Teaching Commons “Open Education Week” (OEW) worldwide began on March 7 of this year. Although at York, OEW was a relatively quiet affair, Open Education fundamentally influences ways in which we teach, learn and operate as an institution. Awareness and knowledge of Open Education Resources (OER) help us to successfully […]
Five Lessons in Online Teaching William Woolrich, LA&PS Fourteen years ago I was invited to develop a social work course on mental health. This was unusual for me in that it was to be my first foray into postsecondary teaching; but more importantly, it was unusual for the school because they’d never offered anything online […]
Why do you teach the way you do? Barbara Kerr, Teaching Commons How do university students learn best? What exactly takes place in an effective learning situation? What do you want your students to learn and why? What does successful learning mean in your discipline? How do you conceptualize the respective roles of instructor and […]
Three ways to make teaching more enjoyable, for you and your students Celia Popovic, Teaching Commons As the Director of the Teaching Commons it is my role to help to promote effective teaching and learning at York University. But also as a faculty member and Course Director I’m constantly on the look-out for good ideas […]
Vulnerability and compassion in the classroom Mandy Frake-Mistak, Teaching Commons “So long as we seek knowledge in classrooms, we are necessarily dependent on the teachers and students who are there engaged in a constitutively ethical enterprise. To intrude on that, to betray the trust that lets us in, to rupture the possibility of developing a […]
On Teaching Academic Writing – Part 1: Metaphors of Writing Stephanie Bell, Associate Director of the Writing Centre and Assistant Professor in the Writing Department Teaching and learning would be easy tasks if they involved straightforward transfers of information from person to person. This is a lesson that has been particularly difficult for educators to […]
The day vicarious readers met a vivacious teacher, or the pedagogy behind making them read Genevieve Maheux Pelletier, Teaching Commons So you have vicarious readers in your class… It may not be such a bad thing! I subscribe to the notion that active learning not only reinforce concepts but also enables learners to understand course […]
For the love of teaching: One TA’s collaborative guide to success! Vivian Stamatopoulos, LA&PS When I was asked to write a short article about my experiences as the 2015 recipient of the Presidents University Wide Teaching Award, I was thrilled to share my insights with my fellow educators. My first impulse was to start sharing […]
SPARK your teaching in 2016! Ron Sheese and Sophie Bury, Learning Commons SPARK is a digital resource designed by York librarians, study-skills specialists, and writing instructors to help students with academic writing assignments. Students around the world are consulting SPARK to learn fundamentals of library research and writing skills. While many instructors recommend SPARK to their […]