![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, July 5, 2004
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Armitage]](/images/2002/0325armitage.gif)
The awards, which recognize teaching excellence and educational leadership, were established in 1986 when 3M Canada Inc. began collaborating with the STLHE. The awards include a citation and an invitation to participate in a three-day retreat at Chateau Montebello in Québec.
"These awards recognize and reward a very special type of faculty member who besides being known for exemplary teaching, is also active in promoting exemplary university teaching in others," said David Johnston, UW's president. "Howard Armitage's focus on integration, creativity, and problem-solving skills runs through his pedagogy and curriculum development."
The award's citation describes Armitage as the "quintessential educational entrepreneur." It adds: "He was a driving force in creating an intensive team project -- called WATcase -- in which fourth year accountancy classes are cancelled for three days and students work on a real-world problem for a real organization."
Recently, he championed the development of UW's new Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology. The centre, based in Needles Hall, is the home of the MBET graduate program in business, and an undergraduate program is in the works.
As well, Armitage was one of the first pioneers in UW's school of accountancy, and since 1993 he has led the Gordon H. Cowperthwaite Centre for Accounting Education.
His educational initiatives and classroom skills have earned him UW's Distinguished Teaching Award and the L.S. Rosen Outstanding Accounting Educator Award. His students praise his ability both to motivate them and challenge them. In the words of one: "His devotion to teaching his students to read, write, and think critically is the greatest gift a professor could give."
There is now a nucleus of 188 3M Teaching Fellows across Canada representing a broad range of academic disciplines, said Arshad Ahmad, coordinator of the fellowship program and a faculty member in the Department of Finance at Concordia University in Montréal. They work to enhance teaching and learning at their own institutions and through larger collaborative initiatives supported by the STLHE. "The popular Montebello retreat provides the winners with an opportunity to share past teaching experiences and discuss new ideas," Ahmad said.
The 3M Teaching Fellowships are open to more than 33,000 Canadian university educators, regardless of discipline or level of appointment. Up to ten awards are given each year.
As I wrote, a sabbatical leave is a period when a faculty member can be away from normal teaching and administration duties to concentrate on research and other activities. Depending on how long the leave is, and how long the faculty member has waited, salary continues at its normal level or may be reduced.
Here are some more plans for sabbaticals that began July 1, as reported to the board:
![[Douglas]](http://accounting.uwaterloo.ca/people/images/douglas.gif)
Alan Douglas (right) of accountancy will take a six-month sabbatical:
"I plan to revise
my papers invited for resubmission, continue my projects with Dan
Bernhardt (UIUC), Ping Zhang (U of T), and Raffi Indjejekian (U Michigan),
compete for research grants, and participate in academic conferences
and seminars."
Chris Eliasmith of philosophy will also be taking six months: "During the proposed sabbatical, I plan on focussing on current research projects and beginning work on a book. These research projects fall into two categories, those related to philosophy of mind and philosophy of science, and those related to computational neuroscience."
Gerard Boychuk of political science will take a twelve-month sabbatical "in order to complete two major projects: a manuscript on the historical development of health care in the United States and Canada and a SSHRC-funded manuscript project examining the impact of cross-border economic integration on public policies in the American states and Canadian provinces. I will use the sabbatical leave to reside in the United States in order to complete the research required for these two projects."
Monica Emelko of civil engineering will be on sabbatical for six months: "As I am approaching my review by the tenure and promotion committee, this leave will be spent preparing journal publications in collaboration with three students who will have recently completed their MASc degree. Most of the leave will be spent in Waterloo. As well, I intend to continue to develop local research partnerships."
Alison Pedlar of recreation and leisure studies will spend a six-month sabbatical on "an exploration of the work of Circles of Support which assist federally sentenced women on their return to the community. This will extend pilot work that was conducted in 2003 with a small group of women and their circles. A second activity will involve developing, with an interdisciplinary team, a project to consider the impact of sport for health initiatives in refugee camp/communities, primarily in Africa and SE Asia."
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
Class enrolment appointments for fall term for students enrolling
for the first time, today through July 24. Open enrolment begins July 26.
Engineering Society election: candidates' forum 11:30, Carl Pollock Hall foyer. Voting Tuesday, 8:30 to 3:30. Sandford Fleming Foundation debates, faculty of engineering, today through Wednesday, 11:30 to 1 p.m., Engineering II room 3324. Finals Friday noon. Math and Computer building utilities shutdown (cooling, heating, ventilation, electrical power), Tuesday 4 to 7:30 a.m. 'Adapting to Student Diversity'. Workshop sponsored by teaching resource office, Wednesday 12 noon, Math and Computer room 5158, details online. Open forum on JobMine, Tuesday 4:30 to 6:00, Rod Coutts Hall room 101. Co-sponsored by co-op education department and Federation's co-op student council -- an opportunity for student comments on the new JobMine system and suggestions for improvement. 'Salsa Fever': learn to dance Latin style, sponsored by Graduate Student Association, Wednesdays starting this week, 7;30 p.m., PAC Studio 2. Register at Grad House before July 7. Physics workshop: Einstein Plus National Teachers Workshop, sponsored by Perimeter Institute, today through Friday. |
| Beginning today: the on-campus Arts Computer Experience camp for children 7 to 12. |
The electronic newsletter for the faculty of engineering noted last week that at convocation in June, the class of 2004 also presented engineering dean Adel Sedra with a symbolic cheque for at $84,110.72. "The cheque represents the amount of money raised by and from the 2004 class for the Faculty of Engineering through Plummer's Pledge. The students pledge to give a certain amount of money for the next three years after graduation. Engineering has reclaimed its title for raising the most amount of money out of all the faculties on campus (we last the title last year to Math after many, many years of holding onto the title)."
A few weeks back I invited students to win Summerfest tickets by telling me -- and Daily Bulletin readers -- what was new and interesting on campus that hadn't yet been reported. I quoted a couple of the resulting messages, and here's another, from Christine D'Souza in applied health sciences: "When my friend Jessie and I, both UW students, were visiting Europe in May, we saw another Porcellino, the mascot of the faculty of arts, in the market in Florence! We took a photo and it is identical. Is that where the mascot is originally from?" Answer: yes. The boar sculpture in front of the Modern Languages building is a 1962 casting from a 17th-century mould based on an ancient Greek marble sculpture that's now in the Uffizi in Florence.
In an alumni newsletter just published by Conrad Grebel University College, Grebel president Henry Paetkau talks about the recent 40th anniversary celebrations at Grebel: "One legacy of this year of celebration is the 40th Anniversary Student Award Fund. It was established as an opportunity for alumni and friends of the College to invest in the education of future students and in order to make Grebel more affordable to more students. Over $17,000 has been donated to this Fund to date. Another indication of the fond memories many alumni have of their Grebel years is the growing number of their children who are choosing the College. That, more than anything else, is an affirmation of the value of this educational endeavour of the church."
One of the irritations that web surfers sometimes encounter is pop-up windows -- a second window that opens, often showing an ad, when you're trying to go somewhere or do something. But some surfers don't have this problem, says Carol Vogt, the "electronic workplace" maven in information systems and technology. "Netscape provides the ability to block pop-ups," she writes. "For Internet Explorer users there are a variety of pop-up blockers that can be downloaded. I use the Google toolbar, which can be downloaded from the Google site. Future versions of IE will have pop-up blocking built in." And I notice that Safari, the browser that comes with the Macintosh operating system, also provides the option of stopping pop-ups.
CAR