Feedback: Performance Reviews

Reflections

I started the PID program a long time ago – in about 2011 I think? 🙂 The first course I took was Curriculum Development with David Tickner. In some ways, I’d like to go back and repeat that course again now, because it was definitely the most valuable and practical course in the program for…

Empowering Online Instructors (and learners!)

In Chapter 13 of The Skillful Teacher, Stephen Brookfield tackles online learning. He challenges the assumption that “traditional classrooms are stimulating and congenial learning environments brimming over with interpersonal empathy and intellectual energy, while online classrooms are lonely and isolated.” (Brookfield, 2015). This rings true for me, because as with all things – it depends.…

Life-long Learning

The importance of life-long learning seems self-evident. As a professional, you need to stay current in your field to be relevant, to grow within your role, to provide value and vision to your organization. This could be industry trends or technology trends. It could be changes in the structure of a profession or organization or…

Lecturing Best Practices

In Brookfield’s text, The Skillful Teacher, he looks at how lecturing is perceived against the reality of the experience, and breaks down some best practices for lecturing in the classroom. In reading this chapter, I tried to look at these best practices from the perspective of online lecturing, as the programs I’m involved in are…

Accreditation Tales

The college I work at has several levels of accreditation. The first level is that the school itself has to be accredited by the Private Career Training Institutions Agency of BC – or PCTIA, as we call it, for short. The college’s accreditation lasts for 5 years, and then we need to be re-accredited, which…

Resistance in the Classroom

In Stephen Bookfield’s The Skillful Teacher, he dedicates two chapters to student resistance to learning and how to respond to that learning. One thing I am liking more and more about this book, is that it looks at subjects that, on the surface, are logical and self-evident issues in the classroom, but that many people…

Ethical Connundrums

We have a very lengthy policies and procedures guide, but no code of ethics that is explicitly defined. There are comments about ethical behavior, but no specifics that get into detailed scenarios. I think this makes sense, as if you define things too narrowly, a person accused of unethical behavior can point to the policy and…

Cultural Brokers

In Chapter 8 of The Skillful Teacher, Stephen Brookfield discusses teaching methods that work well in diverse classrooms. In a section on gauging diversity, he talks about “cultural brokers – members of the minority groups represented in the classroom who agree to assist the teacher and can move between academic and minority culture.” (Brookfield, 2015).…

5-Year Plan

Currently I am not an instructor – I manage instructors for online programs at a private college. I don’t have aspirations to work as an instructor again. I have wanted, for a long time, to move into management, so my current job feels like a perfect fit for me. It lets me use my technological…