By Samah Sabra, EDC Educational Development Coordinator
The first time I attended the annual conference of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, I knew that it was more than the magic of being in Montreal that had me hooked. Right from the first pre-conference workshop, I was enthralled, my mind racing with possibilities I wanted to try in my work as an instructor and an educational developer. The conference confirmed for me that I had made the right career choice. I was excited about what the next year would hold as I tried out new teaching techniques (e.g. including a more deliberate set of student reflections on their own learning process and areas for improvement) and developed new programming at the EDC (e.g. a workshop series on working with threshold concepts and writing attitudinal learning outcomes). I already knew I loved teaching, as well as learning from other people’s experiences in and out of the classroom. What I hadn’t realized was just how large of a national and international community of post-secondary educators and staff at teaching and learning centres I would have access to, who were just as excited about these same things and passionate about improving students’ learning experiences.
While I had a similar experience in Cape Breton last year, there was a different kind of magic at this year’s STLHE conference in Kingston, Ontario. What made this one so rewarding was that I had the chance to attend it with many staff, faculty, contract instructors, and graduate students from Carleton, who took advantage of the relatively short distance to expand conversations they’ve been having about teaching and learning. It was definitely nice to walk onto an unfamiliar campus and see so many faces I recognized. More than this, though, it was a pretty great feeling to look through the program and see so many presenters from Carleton, who were facilitating pre-conference workshops, cracker barrel sessions, and short interactive workshops, presenting research about a course they had taught, or taking part in panel discussions. At almost every scheduled time slot, there was an opportunity to learn from one of my colleagues about teaching and learning activities taking place on our campus. Some presented things on their own, others discussed collaborative projects.
I felt honoured to be associated with these amazingly inspirational people! I often hear people say that teaching can be a lonely endeavour in institutions of higher education. At this year’s conference, I think a lot of us were reminded that there it doesn’t have to be, that we have support from each other as we try to push ourselves to try new things and to learn from our mistakes. Over the lunch hours, we discussed sessions we had attended in the morning. At the end of the day, we learned more from each other and came up with some ideas for new projects and programming for the upcoming year. One of the ideas I’m particularly excited about is a Faculty Learning Community about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning! Stay tuned for more information about this program in the fall term.