Creativity, Play & Spontaneity for Educators
April 1 | 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Being creative and integrating play into university teaching can feel like too much work, chaotic, and even inappropriate: after all, what’s so playful about teaching Dewey, Deleuze, or Derrida? And, where is there even space in the curriculum?
Yet, not everything in teaching needs to be preplanned, prepped, predicted and predictable. Spontaneity can further safety in the classroom. And play in teaching can even be a way of challenging the neoliberal and colonial structures in which we work.
In this interactive, participatory workshop, Erica Mohan and Jude Walker (EDST) will show how creativity, play and spontaneity is an attitude we can adopt in our teaching rather than something to add onto our already packed syllabi. They will share their own experiences and introduce participants to activities they have used in their classes, from games to role-plays to improv and artistic playful engagements, all of which support risk-taking, make teaching and learning more fun and further the learning of both teachers and students.
This workshop welcomes faculty members, instructors, TAs and graduate students — anyone who teaches adults in some way — who are interested in exploring how creativity, play and spontaneity can improve their pedagogy and bring more joy to their teaching.
**Registration Limited to 20 Participants**
Date:
Tuesday, April 1 | 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Location:
Neville Scarfe, Room 1007
Presenters (click/tap on name to see bio):
Erica Mohan is an adjunct faculty member in the Educational Studies department. She is also the Founder of Community Education Partnerships (CEP), a non-profit that provides educational support to Pre-K – 12th grade students facing homelessness and housing insecurity in the San Francisco Bay Area. Erica holds an MEd and a PhD in Educational Studies from the University of British Columbia. When not working, Erica enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and taking improv and comedy classes.
Jude Walker is Associate Professor & Program Chair of Adult Learning & Education in the Educational Studies department. She loves teaching adults and is constantly looking for new ways to make teaching and learning less boring. She also has a PhD from EDST; in fact, Erica and Jude suffered through the PhD program together and managed to find the humour in it and, at times, even playfulness! While Jude would likely bomb as a stand-up comic and is not very good at improv (unlike her co-facilitator), she believes strongly in the pedagogical power of doing silly things.