Busy Days and Conferences
The past couple of days have been extremely busy and,
to be frank, exhausting for me. While I was hoping to
make more progress on drafting the synopsis for
The Silent Goodbye, most of my energy was
taken up preparing for and then delivering three
workshops at conferences here in Nota Bene.
The first two took place Monday afternoon in Saint John, at the conference for an organization that is called something like "Atlantic Association of University and College Student Services". I spoke first on the issue of the challenges and opportunities faced by institutions of higher education as they seek to expand their representation of international students. Then I led a workshop on the conflict that too often arises between the legal obligation to provide academic accommodation to students with disabilities and the "defence" of academic standards mounted by some members of the academy. Both are highly controversial topics and, with exceptional turnouts of some amazing people at each workshop, I really enjoyed and learned from the experiences.
This morning found me back in Freddie, facilitating a half-day workshop at the annual conference of the group known (to me at least) as the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education. Sorry but I have a really hard time remembering these long, involved names, especially since the organisations are often referred to simply by the acronym: AAUCSS and CAUCE. Today's 3.5 hour-session attempted to help participants move past the "buzz words" about inclusion, positive environments, wellness, empowerment and all that currently being bandied about by universities in Canada and to understand what it really means for an institution to commit itself to be an inclusive, positive place. Again, a fantastic group of participants who, I'm afraid and pleased to say, probably taught me more than I taught them.
Preparation for these kinds of workshops is intense and the performance itself is both exciting and exhausting. Doing three in the space of 24 hours is more of a challenge than I'm used to so I'm now in full crash mode. I tried to play a round of golf this afternoon to kind of let myself down easy but heavy rain and lightning ended the game after seven holes. Still, I shot three-four on the first two holes so I'm pretty pleased.
Meanwhile, I managed to edit together a video of Marlee playing with her beloved orange balls, which will be available soon on the Video page of this site. That's good. And my net book came through with flying colours at today's conference, the Open Office suite performing admirably through my first attempt to create and use a powerpoint-style slide show in a presentation. Kudos to that.
I also want to send out a big "Happy Birthday" to my sister Janice. June 1st is her day and I wish her all happiness today.
The first two took place Monday afternoon in Saint John, at the conference for an organization that is called something like "Atlantic Association of University and College Student Services". I spoke first on the issue of the challenges and opportunities faced by institutions of higher education as they seek to expand their representation of international students. Then I led a workshop on the conflict that too often arises between the legal obligation to provide academic accommodation to students with disabilities and the "defence" of academic standards mounted by some members of the academy. Both are highly controversial topics and, with exceptional turnouts of some amazing people at each workshop, I really enjoyed and learned from the experiences.
This morning found me back in Freddie, facilitating a half-day workshop at the annual conference of the group known (to me at least) as the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education. Sorry but I have a really hard time remembering these long, involved names, especially since the organisations are often referred to simply by the acronym: AAUCSS and CAUCE. Today's 3.5 hour-session attempted to help participants move past the "buzz words" about inclusion, positive environments, wellness, empowerment and all that currently being bandied about by universities in Canada and to understand what it really means for an institution to commit itself to be an inclusive, positive place. Again, a fantastic group of participants who, I'm afraid and pleased to say, probably taught me more than I taught them.
Preparation for these kinds of workshops is intense and the performance itself is both exciting and exhausting. Doing three in the space of 24 hours is more of a challenge than I'm used to so I'm now in full crash mode. I tried to play a round of golf this afternoon to kind of let myself down easy but heavy rain and lightning ended the game after seven holes. Still, I shot three-four on the first two holes so I'm pretty pleased.
Meanwhile, I managed to edit together a video of Marlee playing with her beloved orange balls, which will be available soon on the Video page of this site. That's good. And my net book came through with flying colours at today's conference, the Open Office suite performing admirably through my first attempt to create and use a powerpoint-style slide show in a presentation. Kudos to that.
I also want to send out a big "Happy Birthday" to my sister Janice. June 1st is her day and I wish her all happiness today.