Educational Impacts in the North Speaker Series

The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology Invites all Faculty, Students and Staff to the

2020/2021 Robert W. Tait Annual Lecture on Implementing Teaching Excellence

Presenter

Dr. Angèle Smith

What the pandemic taught me:  Reflections on teaching & learning in the midst of COVID

Please join us on Thursday, May 27^th, 2021

11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Link:  https://bit.ly/unbc-ctlt

Presentation Abstract:

The process of teaching/learning is scary. It lays bare what we don’t know and what we haven’t (yet) grasped or understood. It lays bare our vulnerabilities.  We cannot hide from that feeling of being exposed. Teaching and learning can challenge what we think we know and believe – perhaps it always should. I was confronted with that scariness and sense of vulnerability this year as a teacher when UNBC was required to pivot to online teaching in the matter of days. I remember back in March 2020 feeling that I had no idea how to teach anymore. All that I knew and all that I thought I had done well over the last 20+ years of teaching was thrown out the window. I didn’t have any idea how to shift to an online world.

But I soon realized that while it was important to learn the pragmatics of online teaching, I couldn’t let that alone drive my “pandemic teaching”. I had to go back to the basics of my philosophy about good teaching and learning experiences, and be driven by my pedagogy. I reflected and was buoyed by some core concepts that guide my ideas about teaching and learning: community, trust, compassion, flexibility, collaboration, and inclusion.

This event will be recorded and archived at https://video.unbc.ca/channel/CTLT/2112