MYFest 2026: Schedule

This session will demonstrate why screen-reader access is important when designing learning materials, especially Open Educational Resources. Have you ever wanted to know how people who are visually impaired or totally blind access your content? Come to this session and I, a visually impaired screen-reader user and an accessibility expert myself, will demonstrate for you the experience of a blind person navigating websites and digital materials. The session will connect these examples to the four principles of accessibility: perceivable, operable, user-friendly, and real. We will also discuss reasonable accommodations and why accessibility must be built into course design rather than added later. Throughout the session, participants will be invited to reflect, ask questions, and rethink their own materials. By the end, they will leave with practical strategies for creating learning spaces that are genuinely inclusive for screen reader users.

These are sessions that center community building. We believe that “building community is to the collective as spiritual practice is to the individual” (Grace Lee Boggs cited by adrienne maree brown), and this is a space for us to get together, get to know one another, and learn ways of building community that we can take back to our classes and local communities.

Can we learn about AI by sparring with it? In this workshop, we’ll try writing exercises that use AI as a foil or opposing force to test ideas rather than generate them, to challenge rather than affirm. These exercises and tools will help demystify the technology and break the spell of anthropomorphization.

The aim of this series of sessions is to create a safe space in community with one another to engage in healing conversations around topics of import to our individual and collective well-being. Topics are intended to address issues common to the human experience in these trying times. The hope is that these sessions invite introspection and dialogue to deepen connection and solidarity, and inspire hope, healing and transformation.
Topic 1: Building community through embracing diversity and connecting with the ‘other’
Topic 2: Centering joy in our lives during trying times
Topic 3: Embracing vulnerability for building connection and belonging

Come walk with us! In this session, we invite you to join Zoom on your phone and take a walk. We’ll talk a little bit at the beginning and set our intentions, and have some moments of quiet meditative walking while honing our senses to what surrounds us, then we will take a moment to share from our surroundings and reflections from the walk. We will also discuss ways you can try an activity similar to this in your own teaching and practice.

Do you feel truly seen and valued in your work, and are you helping others feel that way too? Join us for a six-session book circle exploring “Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose” by Jennifer Breheny Wallace hosted by Theresa Destrebecq.

Relive the IEH Series from May 2024 again – sign up to receive daily tips and activities related to Intentionally Equitable facilitation from June 15 – July 15

In the middle of busy days, even a few moments of stillness can make a big difference. This recurring 10 minute guided meditation offers a space to pause, breathe, be mindful and gently reconnect with yourself. Whether you are new to meditation, looking to build a steady practice or long-time meditator, you’ll be guided through a calming experience designed to reduce stress and help enhance your presence. Come as you are – no prior experience needed, just a willingness to slow down and be.

This session invites participants into a collective exploration of feminist epistemic disobedience through reflective writing, deep listening in triads, and collaborative poetic weaving. It centers affective listening and community-building as practices for reimagining science education. The focus is on opening space for new ways of knowing, relating, and imagining educational futures.

These are sessions that center community building. We believe that “building community is to the collective as spiritual practice is to the individual” (Grace Lee Boggs cited by adrienne maree brown), and this is a space for us to get together, get to know one another, and learn ways of building community that we can take back to our classes and local communities.

Do you feel truly seen and valued in your work, and are you helping others feel that way too? Join us for a six-session book circle exploring “Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose” by Jennifer Breheny Wallace hosted by Theresa Destrebecq.

Join me for a short calming and reflective journaling session designed to help you reconnect and recharge. Through thoughtfully written prompts and individual quiet reflection time, we’ll journal about gratitude, self-love, loving-kindness and wellbeing. Whether you’re a long-tome journaler or just getting started, this space invites you to slow down, tune in and leave feeling lighter, clearer and more connected. Bring a notebook, an open heart and come just as you are.

What if every voice and every view were treated as the wisdom it is? Join this online session to explore key methods from Lewis Deep Democracy (LDD), a methodology that arise in post Apartheid South Africa.

This is a kick-off session to support participants who plan to take the free, online, self-paced AI Literacies Unlocked course.

Do you feel truly seen and valued in your work, and are you helping others feel that way too? Join us for a six-session book circle exploring “Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose” by Jennifer Breheny Wallace hosted by Theresa Destrebecq.

During this session, we’ll reflect collectively on our learning in the past month, whether through MYFest or elsewhere, and see what emerges as new needs or interests for the next few weeks. We will also experiment with creative approaches to community reflection that you might want to try in your own courses or practice.

In the middle of busy days, even a few moments of stillness can make a big difference. This recurring 10 minute guided meditation offers a space to pause, breathe, be mindful and gently reconnect with yourself. Whether you are new to meditation, looking to build a steady practice or long-time meditator, you’ll be guided through a calming experience designed to reduce stress and help enhance your presence. Come as you are – no prior experience needed, just a willingness to slow down and be.

Join us for an hour of supporting each other’s writing… quietly… where we will kick off with 5 minutes of inspiration, give everyone about 50 minutes to work on what is important to them right now, and have 5 minutes to celebrate what we’ve accomplished today. This group is dedicated to anyone who is working on a writing project of any kind: you can work on a peer-reviewed paper, grant application, syllabus, even a really tricky email, even your creative work, a poem you want to capture, lyrics for your next song 🙂

Across higher education, conversations about AI have largely centered on policy, risk, and academic integrity, often overlooking the conditions faculty and students were already navigating before AI emerged. This interactive session starts from a different premise: AI may be less a disruption itself and more a signal of existing learning environments, asking participants to explore the question: What issues has AI served as an accelerant for, and why? Through facilitated dialogue and structured reflection, faculty will examine how institutional conditions shape help-seeking, participation, trust, and AI use, while identifying pathways for addressing those conditions in their own contexts.

Join me for a short calming and reflective journaling session designed to help you reconnect and recharge. Through thoughtfully written prompts and individual quiet reflection time, we’ll journal about gratitude, self-love, loving-kindness and wellbeing. Whether you’re a long-tome journaler or just getting started, this space invites you to slow down, tune in and leave feeling lighter, clearer and more connected. Bring a notebook, an open heart and come just as you are.