This conversational session will dedicate time to think about, share, and reflect on your teaching practices that support students to be well. Participants are asked to watch this 2-minute video prior to the session and begin reflecting on the question: How do you foster a learning environment that promotes student well-being? In our session, we will consider together small practices that may be easy to implement but have big potential to positively foster students’ (and your own) wellness through learning.

Teaching is not an exact science! It often involves lots of flexibility and adapting to the emerging   needs of our students. Collecting feedback on your teaching can help you gather information on what worked well, what students might benefit from in the future, and provide opportunities for you to reflect on the teaching experience. As a TA or TF it can be challenging to determine how and when to collect feedback, interpret negative student feedback, as well as ensuring the feedback is meaningful to your own development as a teacher. This session will introduce ways to collect feedback from your students, peers, and others.

What can you do as a teaching assistant to create an inclusive learning environment? Whether you are leading a lab/tutorial, providing guest lectures, marking assignments, or facilitating online discussions, this session will focus on how TAs of all types can make critical decisions to help meet the needs of diverse learners. Topics covered in this session include the four stages of psychological safety, Indigenous ways of learning, anti-racism, and Universal Design for Learning.

*This session is part of the SGS Expanding Horizons Series

Facilitated by Lindsay Brant, and Yasmine Djerbal, Centre for Teaching and Learning
Tuesday, September 28, 2021; 1:30 – 2:30pm, Zoom

Leading up to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30th), this session will consider the responsibilities of non-Indigenous instructors, and strategies for talking about colonial violence in the classroom. Centering Dr. Shaista Patel’s 2021 article “Talking complicity, breathing coloniality: Interrogating settler-centric pedagogy of teaching about white settler colonialism” in the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, we will talk about ways to interrupt the reproduction of harm and settler apathy.

Facilitated by Yunyi Chen, Centre for Teaching and Learning
Panelists: Ian Garner, Student Academic Success Services (SASS); Matt Rahimian, Office of the Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic); Student Panelist: TBA

While Queen’s University is becoming more culturally diverse, this trend has given rise to concerns about academic integrity as students from diverse cultural, educational, and linguistic backgrounds seem to be at high risk of committing plagiarism. Contrary to the portrait that depicts international students as persistent plagiarizers, this workshop intends to delve into why plagiarism seems to pose a problem for international students in English academic writing through a cultural perspective.