Welcome back, and welcome forward: into a new year! 2015 brings many things; not the least of which is that Marty McFly should be showing up (along with some sweet kicks), and not the most of which is that I…
Internet and Outernet
For more than the last eight weeks, I have had no internet access at home. It's been a difficult time. Undertaking research projects for credit, applying to grad schools, blogging here... all while not having internet access was difficult. No…
Charles vs. The Turkey
Or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the S-Bomb Chapter One Turkey, Peacock, great-concrete-brutalist-monolith-of-doom... whatever you prefer to call it, I spent the first four years of my undergrad without studying in Robarts library. I had never felt the need. There…
BREAKING BIAS: Women in Philosophy and Other Stories
On Monday of last week, the Philosophy Course Union held its first Women in Philosophy (WiP) conference. The goal of the conference was to celebrate and advocate for women in the field of philosophy, through a series of talks by…
“The Compassionate Educator”
Do professors really care? Last week, I introduced the Teaching and Learning Symposium, which I was lucky enough to attend. And, if it wasn't clear then, I'll make it clear now: that symposium—a collection of faculty, staff, and librarians from…
Planning & Responding to Change: the Teaching & Learning Symposium
If you've been reading our blog for a while, you're probably wondering: what's wrong with this Charles guy? The other bloggers write about really interesting things, like going to plays and the TIFF, trying out yoga and segways, dealing with mental health (Harry Potter style), quitting…
What’s the deal with “Open Access Week”?
Last week was Open Access Week (or OAweek as the hashtag goes), both at UofT and around the world. The UofT Libraries and the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office were pretty big on pushing OAweek, but when I mentioned to the…
Asking questions in office hours
In the past few weeks, most of the bloggers here have been offering tips to succeed in classes, and what resources are available on campus. Among the answers we usually give is "go to office hours, they're really helpful!". But…
It’s all about the free stuff: some resources to keep you going
If you've been tuning in this week, you'll know that UofT has dedicated October to Mental Wellness Month, and we here at the Life@UofT blog are taking part by talking about our own experiences with stress and mental health. The hope…
Mythbusters: Teaching Assistant Edition.
Last week, we shared a moment about tutorials, and briefly mentioned that they are usually run by Teaching Assistants (TAs). What exactly a TA is can be elusive to most students, and I think it's important to spend a few minutes together…