Canadian University Press Releases/Newswire

Source: Mount Allison University
http://www.mta.ca/news/?id=1117

"Making A Difference," Oct. 13- CANCELLED

October 11, 2006

SACKVILLE, NB — On Friday,
October 13 at 4 p.m. Alex Fancy, director of drama at Mount Allison and 3M
Teaching Fellow, and students Ian Mullan and Natalie Gerum will present a
reading from "Making a Difference" in the University Club. The 35-minute
reading of student voices from the book recently published by the National
Council of 3M Teaching Professors, of which Fancy is chair, will be followed
by a discussion and a cash bar.

Written as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the 3M Teaching
Fellowship, "Making a Difference / Toute la difference" is a collection of
reflections by award-winning teachers complemented by student testimonials
written about teachers who are not named.

The Teaching Professor (US) described the book in this way: "The collection
is a marvelous affirmation of how teaching inspires, enriches and satisfies,
both teachers and students. If you need a shot in your teaching arm, this
book will supply it."

Planned as a celebration, the book is a rich tapestry of reflections on the
rewards and challenges of university teaching; on how teachers strive, each
in their own way, to enhance learning; and what they learn from their
students. The student testimonials, many of which were written long after
graduation, show us that teachers make a difference in unexpected ways:
perhaps they hand students courage in the same way one hands a hockey stick
to a child, or perhaps they give students the wherewithal to articulate
resistances.

Fancy has organized previous readings at the Charlottetown conference of the
Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education; a seminar on
reflective teaching at the Banff Centre sponsored by the Institute for the
Advancement of Teaching in Higher Education; a conference in Vancouver of
the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; the
25th National Lilly Conference on College Teaching at the Miami University
of Ohio; and at the 2006 conference of the Higher Education Academy in
England.

The October 13th reading is sponsored by the Purdy Crawford Teaching Centre.

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