Day 1: Tue. May 13

8:30 - 9:30 Registration & Coffee

9:30 -11:00 Opening Session with Karsten Hauer

For the past ten years, internationally recognized husband-and-wife team Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison have undertaken a number of journeys to understand critical landscapes from the perspective of endangered wildlife. In 1998 and 1999 they hiked, skied and canoed for 18 months and 3,400 kilometres along wildlife corridors from Yellowstone, Wyoming, to Canada's Yukon. In 2003, they again laced up their boots and migrated for 5 months and 1,500 kilometres across Yukon and Alaska with the endangered Porcupine Caribou Herd. In 2007, the thirty-something couple (along with their two-year-old toddler) paddled, portaged, and sailed for six months across Canada to meet writer Farley Mowat, along the way traveling through the settings of many of the iconic author's books.

Karsten will be speaking to us about his journeys and help us reflect on our PD Days theme “What’s Vital in Life & Learning?” Please join us to hear this engaging speaker.

11 -11:15 Coffee

11:15 -12:30 SESSION 1 Options:

Presenters: Aida Patient, English & Kori Street, Humanities

Holocaust History Amongst the Hallows – Understanding Evil in Harry Potter

Black shirts, deaths heads, a narcissistic leader bent on dominating the world and death marks. Sounds like Germany in 1942. It’s not; it’s Hogwarts. This presentation engages the notion that images of the Holocaust are a metaphor for the evil in Harry Potter. Formulated within an approach informed by both reader-response and trauma theories, our reading of the novels and the Harry Potter films investigates the construction of evil and readers’ understanding of the ways in which evil characters in fiction and film are aligned with socially traumatic events remembered collectively.

Presenters: Irene Naested & Norm Vaughan, Education & Schooling

Test Your Visual/Spatial Intelligence

Please join Irene and Norm for this stress-free, interactive session that will test participants’ visual/spatial intelligence. Visual literacy is an important aspect of our daily lives. Observing, critiquing and creating visual images enable us to gather information and to communicate understanding. We will explore how visual literacy and visual/spatial intelligence can be enhanced.

Presenters: Katharine Barrette & Ross Sherwin, Library

Save Your Students More Than $1,000 a Year - Throw Out Those Textbooks and Go E-Natural!

In an average year a student at Mount Royal is required to purchase up to $1,500 in textbooks. This is a session on using the Library’s electronic web-based subscriptions to replace your textbooks and earn the gratitude of all your students. Think of them being able to buy food, pay rent or just not being in so much debt. Replace introductory readings with online encyclopedias, textbook chapters with eBooks, and current reading with online journals. All of these resources are available 24/7 on-campus and off-campus. They can be integrated as links on your Blackboard site, web site, or any electronic document. As well, there are a number of sound pedagogical benefits to implementing this replacement program.

Presenter: Patricia Kostouros, Child & Youth Studies

The Use of Traumatic Material in Teaching

Memory experts would tell us that using information that is unusual, emotional and interesting is useful to help students understand the information a teacher may want to convey. Telling stories or using of media with traumatic content certainly fits these criteria. Using traumatic material is a pedagogical way to ‘bring it home.’ Therefore, it is understandable that instructors would resort to this method. It may even be a powerful, effective tool. However, concerns relate to the affect on students and whether or not they may indeed experience some form of “vicarious traumatization” after encountering this material. Furthermore, if National Student Health Surveys are correct, many students experience trauma while attending post secondary campuses through for example, date rape encounters, domestic violence, and many arrive at a post secondary campus with a trauma history. Since many of us on the Mount Royal campus believe that teaching changes lives, it is the hope of this presenter that after providing some theoretic and pedagogical background to this issue, the session will be used as an opportunity to dialogue about the appropriate use of traumatic material and ways to mitigate the impact on students.

12:30 -1:30 Lunch on the Muk-a-Muk’s Patio

1:30 - 3 SESSION 2 Options:

Presenter: Stefan Sikora, Education & Schooling

The Universal Aspects of Learning: A Context for Zoetic Skills

This presentation concerns itself with the topic of how human beings (indeed, all living things) learn and develop over time. Included in this presentation is a re-examination of the related concept of learning styles within a relatively individualistic yet, paradoxically, universal framework. A portion of this discussion will focus on examining the classroom implications of this model (the universal aspects of learning), especially with respect to what can be best termed the necessity of “failure” for the achievement of success not only in the overall learning process but also within the more general and personal development of what can be best described as a “zoetic skill set”. Further discussion will center on the role of the teacher as model and facilitator of learning process and responsibility.

Presenters: Steven Engler, Humanities & Irene Naested, Education & Schooling

Gaining Insight into Team Teaching

According to research one of the best means of learning about team-teaching is through peer-group sharing of experiences and insights. Please join Steven and Irene in a discussion of their experiences and observations (and yours) on the topic of team teaching. What is the history? What does research “say”? What are the models, the strength and weaknesses and rewards of the models? What are the issues, ideas, potentials, and possibilities to consider?

Presenters: Marlene Kingsmith, Child & Youth Studies & Marc Jerry, Business

How Will We Continue to Make Teaching Count at Mount Royal?

One key facet of Mount Royal’s success in student satisfaction has been its student focused approach to teaching and learning. With the transition to an undergraduate University, this session looks to invite discussion about how this focus on teaching can still be valued in a research University environment. Join Marlene and Marc for an interactive workshop to help develop an MRFA strategy to make teaching count!

Presenters: Faculty Learning Community on Pedagogy and Practice

Panel members may include: Cathy Smey Carston, David Aveline, Pearl Herscovitch, Valerie Kinnear, Jodi Nickel, Marc Schroeder, Reid Spencer, Mario Trono, & Yuhuan Wang

Panel Discussion: “Deep Learning”

While we wish all our students would reflect, apply and theorize about class content, in reality many students simply memorize just enough to get by. Based on our reading of John Biggs’ book Teaching for Quality Learning at University, our Faculty Learning Community will show how our discussions have influenced our theories and practice regarding teaching and learning. Specific issues include appealing to 21st century learners, setting clear objectives and designing learning activities that challenge our students to “go deep”.

+/- 3:00 Check-in to the Hotel

3:30 - 6:00 BANFF FUN Options:

Rock Climbing - Allan Derbyshire, Ecotourism

                                                Please wear appropriate footwear.

A Photographic Safari – Dac Dang, Math, Physics & Engineering

Bring your own photographic equipment, digital or otherwise. We will take scenic and close-up shots with possible abstract compositions guided by Dac. Bring waterproof boots. Meeting before and after for information, critiques, etc.

Rock, Walk & Talk – Katherine Boggs, Earth Sciences

                                              Join us for a hike exploring the ground surrounding the Juniper Hotel.

Free Movement Dance – Lisa Gilmour, Core Connexion

                                             A delicious workout…come and dance.

Cycling – Katja Hoehn, Chemistry

                                            Bring your own bike. Join your guide on a leisurely ride through the countryside.

A Little Art Therapy – Irene Naested, Education & Schooling

The Surrealist artists (Paris,1924) attempted to express the inner world, or the psyche.  Some of the artists were preoccupied by Freudian psychoanalysis and created dream-like paintings. We invite you to take a creative pause and discover what is vital in your life. Experience in different ways the use of two-dimensional art materials to express your inner world. No experience is necessary. Supplies will be provided.

Self-guided options: venue fees apply   Golf – bring your clubs & self-assemble,

                                                                         Banff Park Museum & the Whyte Museum,

                         Banff Hot Springs – remember to bring your swim suit.

7:00 to 8:30 Dinner in the Muk-a-Muk Dining Room

8:30 to 9:45 Movie: Being Caribou

Being Caribou (72 minutes) is a National Film Board of Canada production written and directed by Leanne Allison and Diana Wilson. It has been broadcast on Canadian National television (CBC's The Nature of Things) and across the US on The Documentary Channel and LinkTV. Composed of footage shot by Leanne during the epic 1,500-km-long trip she took with husband Karsten Heuer, it seamlessly weaves stunning close-ups of the caribou migration with the intimate video diaries of the two people following this endangered herd. The film has won a number of awards, including a Gemini.

8:30 to 9:45       Chill out in the Lounge - “Pop Goes the Trivia” contest with prizes!

10:00 to 1:00     Dance party with cash bar in the Lounge and Muk-a-Muk

Wee hours        Penthouse Party and Jam Session