{"id":16776,"date":"2013-11-11t08:44:16","date_gmt":"2013-11-11t13:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=16776"},"modified":"2013-11-10t19:53:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11t00:53:37","slug":"sotl-spotlight-a-great-conference-in-banff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2013\/11\/sotl-spotlight-a-great-conference-in-banff\/","title":{"rendered":"sotl spotlight: a great conference in banff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sotl<\/a><\/a>by nancy chick, cft assistant director<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

nancy <\/a>is the\u00a0author<\/a><\/em> <\/em>of a variety of sotl articles and book chapters, as well as\u00a0co-editor<\/a><\/em> <\/em>of two books on signature pedagogies and co-editor of <\/em>teaching & learning inquiry<\/a>, the official journal of\u00a0the international society for the scholarship<\/em> <\/em>of teaching and learning (issotl<\/a>), with the 2022年世界杯中国小组赛积分 as its editorial office. <\/em>\u201csotl spotlight\u201d is her ongoing feature on the cft website. <\/em><\/p>\n

i’m on a plane from calgary back to nashville by way of salt lake city, reflecting on a fabulous conference, the 2013 symposium on scholarship of teaching and learning<\/a><\/strong> (sotl) sponsored by mount royal university’s institute for sotl. i’m trying to identify what made it such a good experience. i go to plenty of conferences and tend to enjoy them and learn a great deal, but this one was different.<\/p>\n

i had been invited as the opening keynote the conference, which meant a) i was more nervous than usual, but also b) i was finished with the “hard part” almost immediately after the conference began, leaving me to enjoy the rest of the time as a participant and learner.\u00a0 and while i can find plenty of things that i might’ve done better in my keynote (it was at the end of a very long travel day and near my bedtime, so i wasn’t as sharp as i could’ve been; my nerves got the best of me in controlling my breathing, which affects “performance”), i’m okay with how it went. i loved writing <\/em>that keynote: i was tasked with reflecting on sotl’s accomplishments and contributions and then looking ahead to its next frontiers and new directions.<\/strong> how fun is that?\u00a0 i recalled the sense of satisfaction i used to feel writing the narratives for my retention, then tenure and promotion, then post-tenure review, and then final promotion portfolios.\u00a0 taking stock like that can be very grounding.\u00a0 that’s how it felt to write this kind of narrative about sotl’s past and future.\u00a0 but the conference for me was far more than that first night.<\/p>\n

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walk with margy along the bow river<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

it was held in banff, alberta, canada<\/a>, a small town surrounded by the snow-covered canadian rockies, and it was snowing in town as well.\u00a0 (confession: i love the snow the way most people love the beach or a golf course.)\u00a0 we were in a cozy lodge with fireplaces, chunky wood furniture, and excellent meals. also, after searching high and low, i realized there were no desks in the rooms. i can’t remember the last time i stayed in a hotel room without a desk.\u00a0 imposed desklessness is almost like cell-phoneless: initial panic, followed by gratitude for the forced break.\u00a0 but there was more.<\/p>\n

i may have been the only person there from the united states, as it was a canadian conference with people from many of the provinces<\/a>. i would say the accents were lovely, but colleague gary poole<\/a> (from vancouver and also at the conference) would remind me that in fact i<\/strong><\/em> was the one with the accent. indeed, i was!<\/p>\n

i met some wonderful new colleagues and caught up with some dear “old” ones. (when i think about it, some of these connections may be only five or so years old, but they feel ancient, in the best of ways.)\u00a0 on the shuttle from calgary to banff, i sat next to kerry ritchie<\/a> and genevieve newton<\/a>, two young faculty from the university of guelph’s college of biological sciences.<\/strong> we had a warm conversation about our countries, the recent canadian political scandal<\/a>, our respective jobs, and then sotl. later, during the conference, i attended their sessions:<\/p>\n

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program descriptions of kerry's & genevieve's presentations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n