This was an intense and eclectic week. I’ve enjoyed the Brightspace training and spent some time on my own, noodling around to figure a few more functions out myself. The session on Assignments, Quizzes and Grading was more complicated and I know I’ll need to review that session a few times to get to grips with the different possibilities. Overall, I’m finding Brightspace more intuitive and easier to navigate than Blackboard Learn; not to mention the fact that it’s brighter, more modern in appearance and generally more visually appealing. On a different note, I’m very impressed with our trainer and see her as a good role model in how to do online training of this nature.

It’s been time consuming trying to find a guest Storyteller for next Tuesday’s Story Circle. It’s disappointing that no students came forward: OGE sent out an email and one of the Indigenous Advisors also approached students in this regard. We’ll have to work on how we get more students involved. This kind of links to the Human Library Initiative we’re (re) launching. We have several people willing to join our ‘Planning Party,’ including two Nursing students. I’m hopeful they will help us build those connections with students and we may get some Storytellers to come forward as well.

Learning Canva was a little frustrating initially, but now I’ve got the hang of it, I love it! I lost a bunch of work I’d done on it (for a couple of different reasons – one my fault, the other a, ‘program says “no” and quits moments’), and had to start again. I’m optimistic these were just teething problems and as a first attempt, I enjoyed creating this Who are our students?  infographic. It’s a nicer and more ‘user-friendly way of presenting snapshot information.

The Intercultural Leadership Forum was thought provoking and led into a discussion of culture in its more nuanced sense (i.e., the culture of ‘mask-wearing’ and ‘not mask-wearing), and someone shared an interesting article about how research is demonstrating the need to connect on an emotional level rather than logical, to create human connection across more polarized viewpoints (I’m thinking Story Circles and Human Library – we’re off to a good start). The next day, having completed the Intercultural Development Inventory I had a consultation with one of the UBC facilitators for the Professional Development course I’m doing on Leadership in Intercultural Contexts and we also talked about this.

There is symmetry and synergy to several of the projects I’m working on right now, including this PD. It’s a lot of work (I’ll be doing homework this weekend and don’t want to be the student who doesn’t get stuff in on time) and already I know it’s going to support me over the next months. I’m already rethinking what it means to be a leader – I didn’t see myself in that way, but now I see that I have been and I need to consider what that means for my role at the college and how I can develop myself / skills.