Here is an idea of where I'll be in 2007. The workshops at Mohawk College and some of the others are open to the public. Please contact me if you are interested in attending or organizing similar workshops.
Feb. 20, 2007, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Grace Villa Nursing & Retirement Home
Hamilton, ON
Teamwork in Senior Care
Staff In-service
Teamwork: Treating people with respect and professionalism, accepting diversity in coworkers, and understanding what is productive and destructive gossip.
Feb. 22, 2007, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Grace Villa Nursing & Retirement Home
Hamilton, ON
Teamwork in Senior Care
Management In-service
Creating a positive environment, providing constructive criticism, and creating an environment responsive to change.
Feb. 24, 2007, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Mohawk College
Faculty of Continuing Education
Hamilton, ON
Balancing Work and Family: Negotiating Equality at Home
General Interest Public Workshop
Since the middle of the last century, women have been told to follow their dreams and be all they can be; yet it seems that working women often perform 60% to 80% of family-related tasks. The perceived unfairness affects the whole family. This interactive workshop will help you look at issues involved in managing both work and family. You will also learn skills to help you negotiate equality at home.
To register call Val, at 905-575-2035, x 2025
Feb. 28, 2007, 5:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Women in Engineering and Computer Science and DAWEG
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Degrees, Careers, and our Necessary Dreams
Open to all women in science in the Victoria area
In this workshop, we will:
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Explore our attitudes towards our careers, dreams, and ambitions in the sciences.
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Look at influences in the culture, in the workforce, and in us that discourage us from dreaming big.
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Prepare ourselves for these influences and be ready to counteract them.
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Discover ways not to let our careers unravel when children and family become part of our lives.
March 4, 2007, 10:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Vancouver Second Generation Group
Vancouver, BC
Writing Family Stories and Memoirs, Part 2
"Time passes, and what it passes through is people -- though people believe that they are passing through time, and even, at certain euphoric moments, directing time. It's a delusion, but it's where memoirs come from, or at least the very best ones. They tell how destiny presses on desire and how desire pushes back, sometimes heroically, always poignantly, but never quite victoriously. Life is an upstream, not an uphill, battle, and it results in just one story: how, and alongside whom, one used his paddle."
"Composing a memoir can magically attract the future."
Both quotations are from Walter Kirn, New York Times Book Review
March 5, 2007 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Society of Canadian Women in Science and Technology
YWCA, 535 Hornby St. 4th Floor
Vancouver, BC
Women and Ambition: Revisited
Available to members of SCWIST and other Vancouver women in the sciences.
One year after the initial ambition workshops with graduate students at SFU and UBC, we will revisit the topic and ambition and explore the challenges and changes we have experienced. We may also look at some of these questions:
- Why are educated women often with graduate degrees leaving the workforce to have their families? (How do they feel, what happens when they try to return, how do their partners feel, etc.)
- Are there any ways younger women who love their work can prepare their lives without having to sacrifice either their career or their family?
- What issues do women face (that men don't) in thinking about personal ambitions?
- What does it mean to negotiate equality at home as we seek equality in the workplace?
- Are there situations that face women in science and technology that men do not have to deal with?
- What does it mean for a workplace to be "family-friendly". What is the reality?
March 6, 2006, 9:00 a.m. - noon
Learning and Development
Human Resources
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC
Communicating Nondefensively
Available to SFU staff
- Are you often on the defensive? Do you sometimes feel attacked? Do your responses tend to make you feel worse?
- Defensiveness prevents effective communication and, rather than protecting us, usually leads to more conflict and frustration.
- If you are defensive or surrounded by defensive people, this interactive workshop can help you get more control of your responses to perceived attacks. You will identify defensive responses in yourself and others and learn how to respond nondefensively to stressful or difficult situations involving supervisors, coworkers, students, or faculty.
March 7, 2006, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Learning and Development
Human Resources
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC
Creating a Supportive Environment
Available to SFU managers
Would you like a better workplace environment for yourself and others? This workshop teaches you to create a space where people feel relaxed, confident, and competent. You will learn to
- avoid six communication behaviours that make others feel defensive
- use six behaviours that help others feel accepted and respected
- listen and respond with empathy when appropriate
- identify and counteract passive-aggressive behaviours
- send clearer verbal messages in a conflict situation
March 9, 2007
School of Graduate Studies
UBC Okanagan
Kelowna, BC
Women and Ambition: Dreaming Beyond Ambivalence
Available to Women Grad Students
Do you sometimes feel ambivalent towards aspects of ambition? Does it frustrate you when people encourage you or pressure you to be more ambitious? What are the factors affecting women's attitudes towards ambition and recognition?
This provocative, interactive discussion will explore how ambition plays out in the lives and minds of graduate students. We will look at the sources of women's ambitions and how our own attitudes and the attitudes of others may influence the personal and professional decisions we make. Examples from the lives of successful Canadian women will be shared.
Do you sometimes feel ambivalent towards aspects of ambition? Does it frustrate you when people encourage you or pressure you to be more ambitious? What are the factors affecting women's attitudes towards ambition and recognition?
This provocative, interactive discussion will explore how ambition plays out in the lives and minds of graduate students. We will look at the sources of women's ambitions and how our own attitudes and the attitudes of others may influence the personal and professional decisions we make. Examples from the lives of successful Canadian women will be shared.
March 10, 2007
Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences and the Jade Project
UBC Okanagan
Kelowna, BC
Dare to Be Ambitious
Available to undergraduate women interested in careers in the sciences.
For more information, see
March 12, 2007, evening
SCIberMENTORS, University of Calgary
Calgary, AB
Details t.b.a.
March 13, 2007, afternoon
Schulich School of Engineering, WISE
A workshop for women grad students and faculty in science and engineering
Details t.b.a.
SATURDAY, May 5, 9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Mohawk College
Faculty of Continuing Education
Hamilton, ON
Communicating Nondefensively
General Interest Public Workshop
Are you defensive? Do you feel attacked? Defensiveness usually makes conflicts worse. If you are defensive or surrounded by defensive people, this workshop can help you understand your responses and those of others. You will learn to communicate more effectively everywhere in your life.
To register call Val, at 905-575-2035, x 2025
May 16, 2007 and following twelve Wednesdays, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Computer Science Department
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON
Communication Skills for Computer Scientists
A 13-week credit course dealing with writing, speaking, and interpersonal communication.
FALL, 2007
Mohawk College
Faculty of Continuing Education
Hamilton, ON
Leadership in Long-Term Care
A course for RNs, RPNs, and managers in long-term care settings
This course, co-taught with Wendy MacDougal, RN, offered through Mohawk College. It may become an elective in the Gerontology Certificate Program. A detailed course outline can be found in the Mohawk College Continuting Education Fall Calendar. http://www.mohawkcollege.ca/Discover/CE.html which will be available in August, 2007.