The Informer Page 7 June 1, 1989 FACULTY DEVELOPMENT B Y Work Study Students Anyone planning to hire a student through the Work Study Proposal programme, should note the deadlines recently published by the Student Society: For positions starting September 5, 1989, the deadline for proposals is July 31, 1989; for positions starting January 8, 1990, the deadline is December 1, 1989. REID For further information, contact Lori Kosciuw, Work Study Coordinator in the Student Union, 986- 1813 or local 2969. Instructional Skills Workshops The IS Workshop, which aims to share lively classroom methodology among college instructors, may be offered again this August, from the 28th to the 30th in Room H503. This workshop involves participants in active teaching which is video taped for later group discussion. In a non-threatening atmosphere, new and seasoned college instructors examine their teaching. If you are interested in an Instructional Skills Workshop, please contact Hilary Clark at local 2055 or at home (926-3030) for information. Writing Across the Curriculum The recent W-A-C Workshops saw some 75 faculty colleagues from around the institution gather over four days. General response indicates that the participants found the meetings stimulating! Guest speakers from Whatcom Community College, Puget Sound University, the University of Western Washington, Fraser Valley College and from our own experts raised a widely various series of issues linking reading, writing, thinking and teaching. It was the first time in my memory that such a sustained exploration of pedagogical issues has been held on this campus and the spirit of cross-disciplinary cooperation and the exchange of ideas was exciting. Now the challenge to our faculty is to keep the energy up! We need to explore ways that writing and critical thinking can enhance our teaching and ways that our teaching can become more a “coaching experience.” In the 1990s, education will continue to change. Only if this college keeps its faculty and its curriculum design at the cutting GILBERT edge can we claim to be “an institution of choice,” or hope to satisfy the needs of a progressively more sophisticated, but less skilled student body. People signed up for various ad hoc committees to work with issues arising from the workshops; others are more than welcome. The momentum begun in this series of workshops— as, indeed, the momentum begun in a vitalized Professional Development Programme this year— can be maintained only by the continued effort (largely volunteer) of involved colleagues. Thanks go to Rosemary Coupe and Penny Connell for their work in organizing this conference. Also to Jessie Pendygrasse in Business Management for her work in bringing her team into the process. Rosemary will be continuing to coordinate Writing Across the Curriculum and Jessie to work with her BM colleagues; enquiries can be directed to them. I would like to thank the Faculty Development Committee for its hard work this year and for the support I have received from each member. We didn’t all come to PD with the same focus, but we all worked together to produce a year’s work of which we can, I believe, be proud. As I come to the end of my year as Chairperson of the Committee, I want to thank people all over the college who have been helpful to me and who have cheered me with their kind comments and suggestions. Especially, let me thank Grace Ralph; Jane Hamilton in PR; the librarians; Claire Day, Jan Bain and other members of the. Word Processing Centre; Linda Givens in the Print Shop; Koraley Calvert in the Dean’s office; the staff in Humanities; Di Knight, Edna Sakata and Dave Sharrock in MPC; Barbara Boyce in the President’s Office and all those who went out of their way to expedite my (many) requests. This college should be proud that it has supported a major thrust in faculty Professional Development. Now we must continue the work just begun: only with continued support from our colleagues and recognition of the magnitude of the job by the Administration will PD become firmly established as a priority at Capilano College. The challenge is now yours.