Reflections on the Pandemic: Coming Back Stronger

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged educators professionally. This session reflects on how the pandemic provided initially unwelcome, yet ultimately rewarding, professional development opportunities, especially regarding technology. This session explores how to improve in-person teaching practices with these newly acquired expertise. Using differentiated instruction theory (Tomlinson, 2005), we will focus on repurposing the methods and materials developed for distance learning to scaffold learning more successfully, assess progress more efficiently, provide more effective remediation, and encourage learner agency.

Developing a Teaching Portfolio for Reflective Practice

As teachers, we develop a set of instructional skills and tools that we rely on. However, to what extent do we review our own performance? This session examines teaching portfolios as tools for reflective practice, using an example as a way to explore its efficacy. We will look at what to include and how to engage with the portfolio. This is a practical workshop intended to encourage instructors to consider this method of professional development.