Striving for great teaching at CUTL

Striving for great teaching at CUTL

Maeve Haldane | If you're a new professor at McGill, you probably received a letter from the Centre for University Teaching and Learning last July, letting you know about what a handy resource the centre is for finding out about teaching policies at McGill. They also offer information about grants, consultation services, and a smorgasbord of workshops for teachers.

Director Lynn McAlpine says that "part of the scholarship of teaching is breaking out of the isolation of teaching." She envisions a university environment in which teaching and research are given equal footing, which means that teaching would be a public endeavour, and available for scrutiny by peers, just as is research. "We need a language to talk about it, just like in research."

If you picked up the Reporter early today, you still have time to pop by Grading Written Assignments - How Objective Can it Be?, Nov. 7 from 12:30-3:30 pm, Education Building, room 539.

Are you up for tenure or reappointment? You may want advice on your teaching portfolio and clarification of McGill guidelines. The Teaching Portfolio workshop is Dec. 6 from 1:00-4:00 pm in room 129.

Next semester CUTL will be offering an Information Session for the Royal Bank Teaching & Learning Improvement Fund, as well as the second session this year of Policies and Guidelines for Graduate Supervision.

In May, there will be a week-long workshop on Course Design and Teaching. Those are just the university-wide workshops -there are faculty specific ones, too.

CUTL is available for one-on-one consultations with teachers about examining, developing or improving their skills. These services are confidential and convenient.

As well, they can tell you about funding for pursuing research on teaching, including the generous Royal Bank Teaching and Learning Improvement Grants.

Visit the website, www.mcgill.ca/cutl, to find all kinds of resources. Explore further at www.mcgill.ca/cutl/topics/html, where there are dozens upon dozens of useful links for teachers and teaching assistants on topics like technology, grading, ethics, large classes, lecturing, research supervision, etc.

If you have any questions about workshops, or suggestions and requests, call 398-6648.