Category: teaching and learning

“Andrea is a compassionate instructor who offers students the individualized support needed to meet high standards with confidence. Her unique teaching approach is built on developing relationships, creating safe spaces, seeking rich learning opportunities, and providing thoughtful feedback. Andrea challenged us to be critical thinkers, expand our self-reflection, and provide exceptional patient care. Her innovative approach stands out in developing excellence in the next generation of nurses.”

Another recipient of a 2024 Camosun Teacher Recognition Award, Andrea has been a faculty member in the Baccalaureate of Science, Nursing (BSN) program at the college for 17 years. A registered nurse (RN) since 2001, Andrea has worked in almost all clinical settings, but early on in her schooling, began to feel like teaching was her path. “By second year I wanted to do what my teachers were doing, but I needed more clinical experience to give me more confidence.” Then her husband began to teach at Camosun. “I saw what he was doing, and I thought, I really want to teach too. And now, I love being in the classroom, in the lab, working with the students because they inspire me to think and learn and grow.”

Andrea told me she has taught everything in the BSN program, including theory and relational practice courses, but she always teaches the clinical courses, and has been in almost every clinical setting, but her heart “is in oncology and palliative care. I’ve also just completed my master’s in counselling which supports the work we do in oncology. I love helping my students support families as they work through grief.” I asked Andrea if her degree in counselling has helped her support students in their own studies, knowing how stressful the BSN program is. “Yes, absolutely. Our students are stretched thin and being a nurse is a busy, demanding job. As well, because many students have anxiety or other mental health challenges, if I can support them in a more holistic way to empower them in their learning, they can identify their own strengths to become the best nurses they can be.”

I asked Andrea what she enjoys most about being in the classroom. “I’m passionate about nurses giving great care to patients and families, and I feel that as an educator, I can help shape that. I understand that a nurse can be very skilled but may not be able to relate to patients who may be experiencing some of the hardest days of their lives. So, I just love being able to support the students in becoming that compassionate nurse for their patients.”

The BSN program was especially challenged when COVID hit, mainly because of the hands-on nature of the program, and I wondered how Andrea adapted at the time and what she might have taken away from that experience.  “I learned a lot and got more comfortable with technology and learning in different ways. My experience with the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program (PIDP) gave me a good foundation for using technology for teaching, but moving online forced me to use it more, for example by recording videos or integrating D2L discussion forums. I do think the pandemic made me a better teacher, but it also made me realize I don’t want to teach online because I missed the engagement with and immediate feedback from my students.” As to what Andrea has kept since that time, not a lot since she has only been teaching clinical recently. Immediately after COVID, however, she taught the theory course as a flipped course. “I never would have had the guts to do that before. In that version of the course, students reviewed videos in advance and came to class ready to work on more practical content. And I think the learning improved in those theory classes because they had access to the videos ahead of time.”

I take groups of eight students into the hospital setting, and what I have learned is that some students aren’t ready emotionally to be on units like oncology or palliative care. Some students have limited to no life experience dealing with death or grief or they have recently had a loved one pass, sometimes even from cancer. So, what I’ve started doing is having them reflect on whether they are ready for specific units. I explain that oncology is an amazing unit – it’s so rewarding, but people are going to die on our shift and families are going to be in a lot of grief. I ask them, how they are going to care for themselves and have them self assess if they think they’re ready. Because they have to look after themselves so they can get through their year of school.”

I wondered if Andrea had any specific memories from her years of teaching to share. “I was very inspired by something that happened recently. A student didn’t know if she wanted to go into the oncology/palliative unit, or into the respiratory unit for clinic. I needed more students to go on the oncology side, and I thought she would work well there. She had had a rocky term and was ready to quit, so, we talked about how things could play out for her, and she ended up just doing amazing on palliative. The patients loved her, and they never wanted her to leave. She had the right personality and wanted to learn and grow. In the end she told me palliative was the area she wanted to pursue, and I told her the patients and families would be lucky to have someone like her at their bedside.” Andrea told me how inspiring it was to see how one week this student was ready to drop out, and the next she was blossoming on the palliative unit. “The stories that resonate the most for me are when students become confident and begin to trust themselves, and then surprise themselves when they look back at the start of the term and realize how far they have come.”

Andrea had a lot of advice for new faculty coming to teach at Camosun. “Trust yourself but lean on experienced faculty – I learned so much from senior teachers when I started. Be humble with your students. It’s okay to not know something – that’s where we grow the most. And I really feel that completing some kind of courses on teaching is invaluable. For me, the PIDP made me a better teacher; it made me much more confident and breathed new life into this job for me. Have fun, be creative, and don’t be afraid to try new things. Students love it when you mix it up. Create diverse assignments so students have some choice to demonstrate their knowledge in different ways. And finally, make sure to take some self care for yourself so you can support your students.”

“I took Anthropology 104 with Tara as an introductory course my first semester, while I was unsure about what to study. It was an online course and Tara made the class so enjoyable! Usually, online courses are hard to get into, but Tara delivered the course material in such an interesting and tangible way. The assignments were intriguing and challenged you to think beyond yourself and develop the anthropology lens. Her style of teaching made me enjoy the class even more!”

Tara, a recipient of a Teacher Recognition Award last spring, started teaching as a term instructor at Camosun in 2000 just after competing her master’s in anthropology from Simon Fraser University (SFU). For a year she commuted between Victoria and Vancouver, where she was living, then someone retired, and Tara became a full-time continuing faculty member. “I actually took my first course at Camosun in the 90s, in a pilot project for something they called ‘coordinated studies.’ After two years of taking courses at Camosun and the University of Victoria (UVic), I went to Trent University in Ontario to finish my undergrad because I learned at Camosun how valuable a small class was. After taking a year off and to work, I started my master’s at SFU specializing in medical anthropology.” Tara’s master’s thesis examined the way health care providers within a hospital system understand the concept of culture, if they feel agency over changes happening within their institutions and communities (often linked with culture), and how that informs their patient care. “I wanted to study how those in power within systems and institutions play a role in shaping our experiences; In contemporary language I would say I was studying institutional racism.” Tara assumed she would continue in a career revolving around research and international development when she finished her master’s, but life had other plans. “I’ve been teaching ever since, and love being in the classroom with my students.”

Tara teaches Anthropology 104, the introductory course, as do her colleagues, but she also teaches a gender across cultures course, as well as cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and a course on the anthropology of development. “The anthropology of development course studies international development as an industry. We take a critical analysis of international development and ask questions like: what does development mean? How does it play out in countries of the Global South? And we study the criticisms from anthropology about placing such a broad framework onto local contexts without studying those contexts from within which can often end up marginalizing those who need support the most.”

I asked Tara what she loves about teaching. “I enjoy getting students to see the world differently, to check assumptions, to understand how culture informs so much of how we view the world and how what we often assume to be universal is culturally situated and created. And how once we understand those things, we better understand why people act or think the way they do. I’m lucky to be teaching a discipline where students essentially read stories about real people and real lives – there is theory, but the stories are woven in throughout. Whether we’re talking about issues of people being unhoused, undocumented migrants, people in farm work, nurses, it doesn’t matter; we want to understand their perspectives.” Tara provides a safe space for students to challenge assumptions about the world as they explore these different perspectives. “Students are hungry to explore contemporary issues. Many have a basic understanding of gender, racism, settler colonialism, globalization, etc. so my job is to give them grounded examples in that safe space.” But Tara’s favourite thing about teaching a Camosun is the small class sizes. “We really get to know our students and can support them in their learning journey. If I have a student with academic experience, I can push them. If I have a student who is engaged, but doesn’t have the same solid academic background, I can support them to try things they find challenging. I can meet where they’re at, but also have high expectations of them.”

Tara also loves having international students in her classes. “They can speak from experience, and they understand that culture means more than food and flags and traditional dance. And they bring in great examples to share with the class. Our classes include people of different ages, different academic backgrounds, and different cultural backgrounds, which in an anthropology class, is gold.”

My next question for Tara was around what impact the past few years, from the sudden move to online teaching to the slow return back to “normal,” has had on her teaching. “I had already been using D2L and teaching an asynchronous online before the pandemic hit, so the learning curve was not as steep for me as for others. And while I prefer to teach face-to-face, I see the value in online courses. When I taught gender studies online last winter, I had five students who don’t live in Victoria, and because they were working part time or parents, the online format worked well for them. I also had a couple of students who were only taking that one class, but now they’re going to come to Camosun because it was a great experience for them.”

In terms of what she has carried over from that time, that is a more complicated question. Due to challenges around attendance post-pandemic (for a variety of reasons), Tara is not using D2L as much to encourage students to come to class. “I don’t want students thinking that the in-person course can be completed online. Providing course materials in D2L to support in-person courses has allowed us to move away from students having to buy textbooks. I can embed videos that I don’t have to take time to show in class, I can provide them with quizzes so they can check their understanding of content, and I love all of that. But how do we also encourage students to come to class? So instead, we are bringing some of those activities back into in the classroom.”

I wondered if Tara could share some memories of her classes from her many years of teaching. “A few years ago, I unintentionally used an offensive word in class- I didn’t even realize I had done it. After class, this lovely student came up and commented that he hadn’t heard that word in a long time – he was from England and familiar with the word’s pejorative meaning. I turned bright red and said ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realize I had used that word.’ He replied that he had been surprised. So, I opened the next class by saying, ‘I need to apologize for what I said. A student very respectfully pointed this out to me, and I am really horrified at my behavior. And I just want you to know, I am sorry, and I will work on this.’ It was good learning moment because we all have to be mindful of the language we use and the effect it can have even when it might not be intentionally used to be hurtful. That was really impactful and the way that student dealt with it was a model for other students.” Tara told me that while it’s lovely getting cards or e-mails from students commenting on how wonderful the class was, for her “what’s impactful is when I when I make mistakes, and how that then changes how I am in the classroom moving forward.”

Finally, I asked Tara what kind of advice she might have for faculty just starting out at Camosun. “Have fun. We have course outlines and learning outcomes to guide us and provide consistency for students, but we also have a lot of freedom to teach courses the way we want to. So, teach to your strengths, teach to your passions, and the students will love it. But most of all, be authentic and true to yourself. Just as students are diverse, our instructional styles are also diverse – I’m sure there are students who are frustrated by my teaching style and some who love it. We need to teach to our strengths, and be interested, invested, and passionate, and open to changing and learning when we get those student evaluations. But, at the same time, be self-aware when you review evaluations. Students are often very perceptive and if they say you really cared about them but were kind of disorganized, there is a pretty good chance you were disorganized. And if you’re aware of that, you’re going to be a good teacher. So, learn from your students, take what they say seriously, and let them help you become a better teacher, because just as we want them to succeed, they want us to succeed too.”

Nik is an instructor in Culinary Arts at Camosun, specifically working with the apprenticeship and foundation programs, and now the E-pprentice program.  Nik was pointed out to me by a colleague as he is integrating self-reflection practices into the E-pprentice program (the online version of the apprenticeship program), practices that are not typically found in trades programs. I was intrigued, and very happy when he agreed to talk to me.

Nik finished his Red Seal in 1994/95, then moved to Europe for 18 years. When he returned to Canada, to his surprise, his instructor during his apprenticeship at Camosun in 1995 lined him up with a term appointment at Camosun, which became continuing in 2012, teaching the foundation and apprenticeship programs. When the E-pprentice instructor, Gilbert Noussitou, retired a few years back, Nik was asked to take over that program. “It was daunting at first,” Nik said, and as he began to teach the course, a quote from John Dewey, which he had heard while working on the Provincial Instructor Diploma Program (PIDP), stood out to him: We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on the experience. Reflecting on learning was what was missing from the E-pprentice program. “We were struggling with student engagement, buy-in and ownership of learning.” But Monique Brewer, then in Applied Learning, understood what he was trying to do and agreed to help.

Nik worked with Monique and Robin Fast from CETL to develop a critical reflection framework for the E-pprentice course, which incorporated STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and SMART (Specific Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) goals into the course revision plan, because “at the end of the day, we want students to develop metacognitive skills to promote self awareness and continuous learning.”

The original document outlining the assignment was complex, so Nik and his colleagues worked with Patricia and Kristina from E-learning, and the Multilingual Support Specialists (MSS) group to make it more accessible for students. “We started with a professional interview, due within the first two weeks of the course. Why a professional interview? Well, we wanted students to identify why they’re in the program, where they’re going, and how they’re going to get there. And what better way to think about that than to talk to someone in the industry. We gave them options for questions to ask, depending on what was important to them – work life balance, progression, etc., and created an overview and instructions,” which framed the reflection and self assessment components around the 5Rs Reflective Writing Scale (Bain et al., 2002), Reporting, Responding, Relating, Reasoning, and Restructuring. Then they created a rubric and a feedback tool for the assignment and were good to go. Nik now considers this to be the most important assignment in the course.

While Nik had originally created four reflective assignments, he decided in the end to integrate just three of them into the course.  “I wanted to incorporate the interview because that would set the stage for success. The “SMART goal setting assignment gives students a framework to set and take ownership of their professional development goals for success in the program and culinary industry. The STAR story framework helps them to reflect on their skill growth throughout the program and articulate it to future employers.”

In addition to adding the reflective assignments, Nik worked (with Kristina) to create instructions for the course as a whole to make sure all the content and assignments were clear for all students, revised the content so it is in HTML format and easily accessible in D2L. He is, however, satisfied with what he has done to support students to own their own learning.  “That’s what our idea was: to give students the opportunity to explore and stretch and to try new things, because that allows students to excel and build employability skills.

Culinary Arts has agreed to share the developed assignments with whomever in the college community would like to use them. They have been developed in a way that is easily transferable to other trades. Please reach out to CETL if you have questions or would like to talk to Nik more about his work.

Joanne is a faculty member, for the second time around, now teaching in the Management & Human Resource Leadership program area.  She first started at Camosun in 1992, working as an instructional assistant for the then Hotel and Restaurant Management program. In 1998, she was asked to teach a computing class for the hospitality students and said, “I’ve been in the classroom all my life, earning my accounting designation at 42, finishing my master’s degree at 52. But when I walked into a classroom as an instructor, I knew instantly that was what I wanted to do.” But Joanne decided she still had some work to do on her own career. “I left Camosun in 2003, and I said I’ll be back in ten years – I’m going to develop my career and do some great things, then I’m going to bring those back to the classroom.”

Joanne worked in hotels in finance for several years, then decided to move on from accounting. “I completed my master’s in leadership and transitioned over to operations, and I loved being a director of operations. Eight departments with 200 staff reporting to me – it was dynamic and crazy.” Then, on March 1, 2020, Joanne went to the Delta Whistler Suites as Interim General Manager. “We all know what happened two weeks after that: the whole world fell apart, and the hotel industry was devastated. I couldn’t leave the team without a general manager during a global pandemic, so I stayed there for 2020 and guided that team through the pandemic, which was the hardest year of my life.”

When Joanne returned to Victoria at the end of 2020, she decided it was time to return to the classroom. A role came up in the leadership program at Camosun, and in the fall of 2021, Joanne started teaching full-time. “This is the icing on the cake of my career. I’m so happy to be here and love every minute in the classroom. Students tell me, your stories are what make it all come to life. It took me 18 years instead of 10, but I’m back and I’m sharing what I know and how the curriculum relates to real life.”

Today, Joanne teachers Introduction to Management and Operations Management courses. “Intro to Management is a holistic look at management leadership and organizations. The first-year students in that course are a little shell shocked, but I like to bring life to organizations and encourage them to analyze organizations so they can learn from both the bad and the good. In operations management, students evaluate an organization in the community and apply the theory to that organization, then they complete a capstone group project and present it back to the class.” But Joanne’s favourite class to teach is Leading in Diverse Environments. “In this course, students develop their ability to understand their biases, and to change the lens through which they see the world because the future leaders of organizations need to provide a safe place for people to come and be their whole selves.” Joanne says it’s an impactful course full of deep, awkward, uncomfortable conversations where she shares stories from her personal life and where everyone learns from each other.

I wondered about the classroom diversity in Joanne’s favourite course, and she told me that last year, 100% of the students were from elsewhere. “Because we’re studying how people view things differently, I specifically put them into diverse groups based on where they’re from, and those groups stay together for the whole term. Students tell me they’ve made connections they never would have, and they had no idea people had such varied opinions about such simple things. We talk about religion. We talk about gender. We talk about age, stereotypes, humor, power – everything.” Joanne celebrates diversity in all of her classes. “I’m teaching future leaders, so I encourage them to embrace diversity for their future businesses. We all have a bias toward people who are like us, but when you’re recruiting, you need to consider people who look different, who bring a different approach, and be aware of your own biases.”

I asked Joanne what she enjoys most about teaching. “I enjoy it all. I enjoy learning from the students. I enjoy facilitating a learning environment. I say right up front, you’re not going to learn it all from me – you’re going to learn from each other, and I love the discussions and sharing of perspectives. I’ve had students who were architects, veterinarians, career counselors, engineers – you name it. And they have all had experience that I don’t have. When students can bring their own practice to the classroom, that’s huge for me.”

I knew that COVID had had an impact on Joanne’s work life, but I wondered if she noticed changes in teaching from her first time around at Camosun to now. “The hospitality program I taught in originally was very collaborative, but I classes were lecture focused. But now, many of my colleagues are supporting flexible delivery where students can either come to class in-person or participate through D2L. What I see now is instructors who’ve tried new things because they were forced to during the pandemic, and continuing with those things because they are working. And I definitely see more flexibility to try things and see what might happen.” For Joanne, coming back to Camosun, tools like D2L were new to her but she has been thankful for the support she had from eLearning. “Now I think I can shake things up a bit, make my classes a little more innovative with technology, and find cool ways to engage the students. There are no limits now because the pandemic busted up all the norms.”

I wondered if Joanne had any fond memories from her years of teaching. “My memories are mostly around the connections with the students, but one that stands out for me involved one of my students from Africa. This student felt safe enough in our classroom to talk about some of the racism that she experienced when she first came to Victoria which was a shock for many people in the class, and we had a good conversation about it. One student from Mexico said he had never experienced any of this and didn’t understand what was happening for her. So, we had this profound discussion about white-passing, and the students really got it. For me, it’s those aha moments – those moments when we can expand a student’s lens – that are profound for me. My students have told me that the leading in diverse environments course profoundly changed how they walk through the world. Now they look at every crowd they’re in, every room they’re in, and look for diversity, which gets straight to my soul, because I always tell them on the first day that if by the end of this semester they take a beat before they act on their biases, I’ve done my job.”

My final question for Joanne was what kind of advice she might have for new instructors at Camosun. “Partner with someone in CETL who can work through your courses with you. Then I would say, lean on your fellow faculty and ask questions.” In fact, Joanne’s department has a buddy system for new faculty members coming in. “I was a buddy for the first time this year to a new faculty member coming in to teach BUS 150. It was an eye-opener realizing how many things they need to learn – from how Camosun works, to how to use D2L, to how courses are delivered. And since I was teaching the same course, I took pictures of my class whiteboard, sometimes to show him an exercise that was great, and other times when it bombed and to recommend he try something else. That buddy system our chair set up is brilliant.” And perhaps something every department should start up!

“Nicole is a phenomenal professor. Not only does she know the material, but she makes it relevant with real world examples. She brings in examples from her own days in the field and also cutting-edge archeological research and techniques. She is engaging and professional, but cares for all her students. She makes extra effort for those of us that are registered with CAL. She deserves this award because she exemplifies the best in teaching and caring.” 

Nicole, a recipient of a Teacher Recognition Award last spring, has been a faculty member at Camosun College for 22 years. When she started, she had no formal teaching experience, but after 22 years she still loves what she does and says it continues to be challenging, interesting, and rewarding. 

Nicole started out as a field archeologist. “I completed my undergrad at the University of British Columbia, then did three field seasons in Belize, living in a tent in the middle of the jungle. While I was in graduate school at the University of Colorado, I did consultant archaeology for a large company that sent me all over Arizona, New Mexico, parts of Southern Utah, to get dirt under my fingernails” which is where her love for applied learning was born. And Nicole loves that applied learning has become a focus at Camosun. “My experience with students over the years confirms for me how valuable applied learning is because while some students are not as strong in traditional academia, if you give them an opportunity to apply what they’re learning, more students will become engaged in their learning. It’s a lot more work to teach that way, but it’s also a lot of fun to see students proud of what they’re able to do, and what a great opportunity for them to feel pride in their work and to share it with family and friends and the public.” 

Nicole teaches all the archaeology courses within the Anthropology department at Camosun, including an applied field program that she had just wrapped up ten days before we spoke. “I also I teach Introduction to Anthropology which for many, many years has been part of the Indigenous Studies program. I’ve been proud to have been able to Indigenize that content and to Indigenize the way I approach teaching in general because of all the amazing guidance I’ve received from my Indigenous colleagues and from our Elders.” She also teaches a food anthropology course. “I don’t have an academic background in food anthropology, but because that topic was starting to take over more and more of my existing classes, in 2012, I launched its own course.” The food anthropology course allows students to examine history, identity, sustainability, and globalization, but opened the door for Nicole to integrate applied learning. “I created opportunities for students to eat edible insects, for example, and to come face to face with how cultures determine what we think is ‘food’ and what we think is ‘gross.’” Then in 2018, Nicole started teaching an anthropology of death class. “This has been a profound professional and personal experience for me, as I have an opportunity to walk along with people at different stages of their lives – from 18-year-olds to retirees; most people in our culture are both interested in and terrified of death and we tend to live in death avoidance, but in the end we’re all mortal. This course has been an amazing experience for me to learn alongside my students, and while it’s very academic, it’s also profoundly personal.” The Anthropology of Death course partners with the Royal BC Museum, which Nicole says is an excellent opportunity to celebrate being a community college and part of our community. “Bringing what we do out of the classroom and having students teach is a really great way for them to cement their learning.” 

What Nicole has discovered in the Anthropology of Death course is that “the more time you spend talking about death, the more time you are actually talking about life. Many of the students are just starting to think about mortality, and I’ve had some amazing experiences where students will tell me about how they were able to use the skills they learned in my class to help a loved one have a good death. To have somebody want to share that with me is very special.” But they also do some fun things in that class. “We did a mock Egyptian funeral in 2018 when the Egypt exhibit was at the Royal BC Museum, renting a coffin from the Victoria Operatic Society and everything. It was a ton of work, and it was crazy fun. We can’t do that if I’m just having students read something or watch a video.” This year, Nicole says the museum has already reached out to her for a partnership in conjunction with their Stonehenge exhibit. “It’s great exposure for the college and promotes what the College says we’re all about in terms of applied learning and being engaged with our community.” 

I then turned to Nicole’s field work program, knowing how passionate she is about it. “The program has been offered since 2008, and this year we ran it over an intensive ten-day period which captured a different group of students. The program is designed to build an applied skill set you don’t normally get from traditional academic archeology field schools.” For some background, Nicole told me that 90% of archaeology is consultant-based here in North America, meaning that the work is done in the context of development to uphold heritage legislation. “Creating a safe place to learn is really what this applied program is all about, giving students a chance to build applied skills that will make them more desirable in a field setting. I developed this program in partnership with the Archaeology Branch of the BC provincial government, so students receive both a credential from the college and a certificate through the Archaeology Branch.” In addition, half of the program time is dedicated towards an applied project in partnership with an Indigenous community. “Students are not just learning how to take field notes or use a compass. They are also learning about cultural protocols and building respectful relationships.” 

In 2024, for the ten-day version of the program, Nicole co-facilitated with Tommy Happynook, a hereditary leader from the Huu-ay-aht Nation located out of Bamfield who has his PhD in anthropology and is a faculty member at UVic. “It was a three-way partnership between me (Camosun,) Tommy (UVic), and the Huu-ay-aht Nation who hosted us. We first had three intensive days here in town, then we spent five nights camping out in Huu-ay-aht territory just outside of Bamfield. The Nation rolled out the red carpet for us and our students interacted with some of the people working in the Huu-ay-aht Nation’s Lands department. We were able to teach not just from a Western archaeology perspective, but also from a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective with Tommy providing his cultural lens. The Nation had asked us to work with them to help inform their visioning process to build thoughtful economic development. So, the students felt like they were doing something valuable, and they were able to learn by doing in a space where they could make mistakes and learn from them. We had two full field days crashing through the bushes experiencing things that can’t be replicated in a classroom. It was really intensive, and it was a lot of fun.” Nicole notes that when students work in community, the bar is set higher for them. “They put in a lot more work, and then are glowing because they are so incredibly proud of what they’ve been able to do.” Experiences like this make Nicole proud to be working at a community college. “We have opportunities to do exceptional things, we contribute to our community, and experts from our community teach us all kinds of things through our partnerships with them.” And including students in those relationships is something Nicole loves. “When we think about what we want students to take away from post-secondary learning, I’m not just teaching anthropology. I’m teaching students how to work together and build community.” So, Nicole says, we need to continue to integrate opportunities that take more time, take more resourcing, cost more money, because those things, for our students, are transformative. 

Knowing how much Nicole enjoys being with her students in person, I wondered how moving online during COVID affected her teaching. “For my own sake, I needed to think about the opportunities that were presented, rather than all the things that we couldn’t do. For example, I use edible teaching aids in my food anthropology course, bringing in something for the students to eat every single class. During COVID, I put together teaching kits in mason jars with everything labeled for the weeks. One week we did a chocolate tasting, so I included three different chocolates. We did an olive oil tasting, so I included vials of olive oil. Then, after learning how to make sourdough started over the holidays I made a video teaching students how to make their own sourdough starter and about two thirds of the way through the course we had a bread night. I taught them about social, political, and economic complexity through the lens of wheat, and we discussed the domestication of wheat and the importance of bread. And at the same time, I taught them how to make dough and cook their bread. Then everybody shared pictures of their bread. That was really cool, and I still have bread night even though we are back in person.”  

Nicole also finds opportunities to engage with other departments at the college. After we returned to in-person learning, “Chef David Lang helped us with bread night, inviting us to the Culinary Arts space so we could use their big ovens. I connected with my colleagues in Visual Arts who gave me clay for the students to make their own bread stamps inspired by Roman period stamps. Last year, in my Introduction to Anthropology course, we learned about acorns from a Knowledge Keeper who shared teachings about collecting acorns. We gathered acorns here on Campus, we weighed them, we learned what makes a good acorn and why, and we learned how to process them and how much work that is. Then we tried making a few different foods from the acorn flour, and ate it at the Pit Cook, which was great fun”.  

Nicole had already shared so many amazing memories, but I could not resist asking if she had any others that stood out to her over her years of teaching. “When we did the Egypt the Mock Egyptian funeral at the Museum, I was interviewed by CFAX someone who listened to my interview was upset enough by what I had said to email me. This person said they took offense to me using the words death and fun in the same sentence because death is not fun, it is morbid.” The next day in class, while students were excitedly preparing for the mock funeral, Nicole asked them for their opinion about the email. “It was such an interesting conversation because they said the class was both fun and a safe way to think about something scary. Then the person who sent the email came to the event and peppered the students with questions. Later they told me how they tried to educate her about death literacy, and I thought, my work here is done. Seeing students engaged in their own learning is a real honour.” 

And as always, my final question for Nicole was about what advice she might have for new instructors at Camosun. “Don’t be afraid to say, ‘I don’t know’ and to circle back when you do. Students appreciate knowing that we are humans. Also, bring your own expertise into the class – students love hearing stories. And don’t be afraid to ask for help, from colleagues, from CETL, from guest lecturers. It’s a learning process, and can be overwhelming but lean into your strengths, have fun learning, ask lots of questions, and above all, build community with your students.” 

“Robin has always worked hard to make sure her students are successful, regardless of their background or situation. She tries various new techniques in order to facilitate her students’ learning. She engages with K-12 students to promote Civil Engineering and organizes student / industry nights to help students find jobs after graduation. Many students cite her as their favourite teacher. She has always been attuned to the students’ needs and strives to give them all the tools they need to excel.”

Robin is a faculty member in the Civil Engineering department at Camosun, where she also just became the Chair, and a recipient of a 2024 Teacher Recognition award. She has taught here since 2014, starting as a term faculty member and becoming full-time in 2016, but she says “I am first and foremost a mom of two teenagers which is my joy and my life’s priority. Being a parent had influenced how I teach at Camosun, but Camosun has influenced how I parent as well. I came from a traditional mindset – that you go to high school, then to university, and then get a job. But Camosun has taught me that you can take a windy path to get to where you want to go, and it can be a beautiful path. That’s what inspires me most at Camosun.”

Robin graduated with a civil engineering degree from the U.S. and then went into consulting for ten years before moving to Victoria. “When we moved to Canada, I knew I didn’t want to do consulting anymore. A part of me always wanted to be a teacher, so I took a role at the University of Victoria (UVic) in their Co-op program where I helped craft their new civil engineering program.” She also did some teaching and realized she had found what she wanted to do. “My very first term position at Camosun, I was teaching fluid mechanics, and I remember driving home feeling guilty because this was the first time in my life that work didn’t feel like work.” Robin taught as a term instructor for awhile longer, then applied for a continuing position.

I asked Robin what courses she teaches. “I teach the very first design course students in our program take, called Sustainability Project. It’s a course where we teach students how to do design projects and talk about sustainability, but really, we’re trying to teach them how to work together as a team. Then I teach their very last class, which is their capstone class. It’s interesting to bookend their experience here from their first project which may be designing a simple table, to their last project which could be a two-story building. The growth that happens in between those courses is exceptional. But my favorite class to teach is hydrology, which is the study of water: water in the air, water in the ground, and water on the surface. We spend 99% of the time talking about water on the surface because that is what influences civil engineering work.”

In addition to teaching the hydrology course, I wondered what else Robin enjoys most about teaching. “I feel like it’s an honor to be on someone’s learning journey. My approach is that we’re in it together – the students and I are one team trying to reach the same goal, and I get to facilitate how we get there. But as much as I’m directing the ship, so to say, I’m learning from the students as well. I love working with our learners who are sacrificing things and investing their time to be here.” And most important to Robin? “Good discussions, and learners who are brave enough to ask questions. And if I can’t answer a question and someone else in the room can, I’m down with that. Those discussions and interactions are the most important.”

She also loves to see her students grow. “I see that growth between the first design course and the last design course. For example, in the first design course, we’ll have students who don’t say a word to anyone for the first month. Then they are put into groups and by the end of the term, those students will stand up and present their project to their peers, something they would not have considered possible at the beginning of the term. Then in their final term, I realize that they are ready to become graduates and technologists, and it’s amazing!”

Since Robin has been here for awhile, I asked if she had taken anything away with her from teaching online during COVID. “While we try to help students develop good work habits, they are people first, so we have to go into our classrooms with compassion and remember not to sweat the small stuff. While I am very strict with deadlines because of the nature of the courses I’m teaching, I have an open-door policy – if a student is struggling, I want them to come talk to me. We can figure it out even if we have to take a windier path. And even if a student fails a class, I tell them it’s going to be okay. We’ll find another route for them to take.”

The other thing Robin has taken from those couple of years is an admiration for her peers in Civil Engineering. “We don’t spend a lot of time together, but I remember we had a staff meeting on the day before everything shut down, and then were online teaching the very next day. We had never used streaming technology before, but everyone helped each other make it happen. I felt so fortunate to work with this group of people who care so much about our students.”

And aside from COVID, I wondered what other memories from her years of teaching stick out for Robin. “I remember some of my early insecurities with teaching and when I asked a colleague at UVic about how to work with a challenging student, he said, you need to connect with them. So, I did, and I remember thinking, they’re not just trying to trip me up…they need connection. Those moments of realizing that there’s more going on are huge. But the lightbulb moments are also great, when a student takes something to the next level. Or when you see a former student around Victoria who’s working and they have a good life, they’re happy, they’re being challenged – those are the best moments, when someone has launched.”

I was also curious about how many women are in the Civil Engineering program, and about Camosun’s new Women in Technology program that is slated to launch soon. “Our graduating class was 30 to 40% female this year, but there are only 5 women in a class of 35 in our current first year group – it fluctuates every year. But the Women in Technology and Indigenous People in Technology programs will be starting soon, and we will be providing excellent wraparound services, and are looking for students who maybe haven’t had the best experience with education but who want to learn.”

Finally, I asked Robin what advice she might have for new instructors coming to teach in her program. “Embrace Camosun and what it means to be at Camosun. We are here for the learners – we want our doors open and for learners to come and see us. We want questions and we want engagement. That would be my advice: understand what you’re doing here and remember what an awesome job we have, to be able to walk with someone on their journey of learning. That’s why our jobs are fun!”

“Steve is a talented and absolute NERD in the HVAC world. He’s open to new ideas and methods while being able to lay the foundation of how things are. Honestly, I’ve never had a teacher who treated me with so much respect and kindness. I can be a frustrating student because I’m really keen and inquisitive and he NEVER made me feel like I was interrupting or irritating him. I was praised for my curiosity. I’ll never forget the way he showed up for me.”

Steve is an instructor in the Plumbing and Pipe Trades program at Camosun where he teaches refrigeration, and one of our 2024 Teacher Recognition award recipients. Steve began working in refrigeration when he was 18, completing his apprenticeship after five years then eventually he went to work at the University of Victoria (UVic) doing refrigeration and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) maintenance. As someone with a new family, Steve enjoyed the stability of the UVic job, but after seven years decided he was ready for a new challenge. In 2022, “I was playing hockey with somebody who worked at Camosun, and he asked if I had ever thought about teaching because he thought I’d be good at it. They were looking for a refrigeration instructor, so I checked it out and as soon as I met the team, I was hooked.”

I was curious about what exactly the study of refrigeration entails, and Steve explained that “refrigeration is anything with a refrigeration cycle. Anything from an ice machine to slushy and soft-serve ice-cream machines, to walk-in coolers and freezers, to AC and HVAC systems and heat pumps, to ice plants like hockey rinks, curling rinks, and everything in between.” And in the program at Camosun, students learn it all.

I asked Steve what he enjoys most about teaching. “It’s diverse, it’s challenging, it’s fulfilling, and the whole team here is very supportive. I really enjoy watching students learning and then applying what they learned.” Steve told me he likes to figure out what will work for students and what won’t. “I bring a discussion mentality into the classroom which engages the students in sharing their questions and experiences; I enjoy an involved classroom where students get to participate. I also bring practical examples in – for almost every situation we discuss, I have a real-world example available, either something I’ve done, a video of an expert in the field, or something we do in our shop. Our students mostly learn by doing or seeing directly, not just by reading or being told and I try to emphasize that in my program.”

I was curious if the students in Steve’s program come in with experience in refrigeration. “In the foundations program we mostly see students who haven’t worked in the trade before. That’s a fun program because they’re all fresh and they don’t have any experience. But now I mostly teach the apprenticeship levels, levels three and four, and those students have all worked in the field for at least two to three years, so they bring their own experiences to the classroom.” That means in these classes, everyone, including Steve, learns from each other which is important in a trade that is evolving faster than anyone can keep up with. “I also have to keep current with what’s changing by going to conventions and training seminars because our program has to adjust accordingly.”

At the apprenticeship level, Steve enjoys the math component of the courses. “Students call me the HVAC nerd because I’m good at breaking down formulas, why we use them, how we use them, etc. We have access to digital tools and apps now, but students need to understand where the final numbers come from.” Steve also likes the foundation students. “They’re fun and you get to spend a lot of time with them because that program is 30 weeks long. What I like most is guiding them into discovering what they want to do in this diverse trade and where their strengths are and helping them to find where they fit.” Next year, Steve will see some of his first foundation students coming back for level four apprenticeship. “That’ll be my first full circle, which is very fulfilling.”

Jumping off this, I asked if there were moments in his teaching life that stood out to Steve. “I focus a lot on pressure enthalpy diagrams, which is the study of refrigeration cycle and psychrometrics, which is the study of air properties. For most students, these are hard concepts to grasp, so I find fun ways to make it more practical. One student came up to me and said, ‘I’ve heard about pressure enthalpy diagrams in two levels in a row, but I didn’t understand them until you explained it.’ And the next job they went to, they drew out a pressure enthalpy diagram and used it while they were on the job. Everything had just clicked, which was a really fulfilling moment. Also, when students pass the red seal exam and tell me how they feel confident to go and do any job, those are stand-out moments for me.”

As for advice Steve might have for new faculty coming on to teach for the first time, he emphasized how fantastic the teams in Trades are. “I was very nervous: I was one of the youngest trades instructors that we’d ever hired, and I had never taught before in front of a classroom. But the whole department gets behind you. If I had never used a tool or process before, three of them would meet me at 7:00 am to give me an hour lesson on it so then I could show the students. I’ve never had that amount of support in the workplace. It was a team effort, and that applies to the whole campus community. I’ve never had situation where I felt I was asking a silly question or not being supported. Even the students themselves are very supportive – they understand that instructors are people too. Learning is a collaborative effort for everybody, and I’ve never had a class where I didn’t learn something too. It’s that ongoing process of learning that is fulfilling and challenging that continues to hook me.”