In this Season 2 opener, Brett and Danielle sit down with three teachers navigating their first Cegep ESL experiences. Sergio Arduini shares the challenges of breaking in, Guillaume Benard talks about the freedom and enthusiasm of teaching, and Shanie Sirois reminds us that while overwhelming at times, the joy and support are real. 

At the heart of every great conference is participation. In our Season 1 finale, we return to the 2025 RASCALS Colloquium for a special vox pop exploring how teachers are sharing ideas, shaping the conversation, and getting involved—without necessarily joining the organizing team.

You’ll hear from:

• Maxime Camiré – Cégep de Victoriaville
• Christina Favvas – Cégep Édouard-Montpetit
• Amy Pittendreich – Cégep Lévis-Lauzon
• Élise Mitchell – Cégep de Chicoutimi
• Ian Pitblado – Collège Laflèche
• Marc-Alain Blanchard Maurais – Cégep Beauce-Appalaches
• Rona Denise Yu Asensi – Cégep de Jonquière

Together, they highlight four accessible ways to participate:

• Join a community of practice (inspired by Jérôme Loisel’s essentialist approach)
• Contribute to devis-implementation discussions
• Share ideas at Johanna Wang-Cardinal’s Show and Tell
• Take the leap and present a session—like Ian Pitblado did this year!

Thanks for listening all season long. This episode is a celebration of what happens when teachers show up for one another.

At the heart of every great conference is participation. In our Season 1 finale, we return to the 2025 RASCALS Colloquium for a special vox pop exploring how teachers are sharing ideas, shaping the conversation, and getting involved—without necessarily joining the organizing team.

You’ll hear from:

• Maxime Camiré – Cégep de Victoriaville

• Christina Favvas – Cégep Édouard-Montpetit

• Amy Pittendreich – Cégep Lévis-Lauzon

• Élise Mitchell – Cégep de Chicoutimi

• Ian Pitblado – Collège Laflèche

• Marc-Alain Blanchard Maurais – Cégep Beauce-Appalaches

• Rona Denise Yu Aseni – Cégep de Jonquière

Together, they highlight four accessible ways to participate:

• Join a community of practice (inspired by Jérôme Loisel’s essentialist approach)

• Contribute to devis-implementation discussions

• Share ideas at Johanna Wang-Cardinal’s Show and Tell

• Take the leap and present a session—like Ian Pitblado did this year!

Thanks for listening all season long. This episode is a celebration of what happens when teachers show up for one another.

This episode takes you right onto the convention floor at the 2025 RASCALS Colloquium, where we asked CEGEP ESL teachers: What impressed you most this year? 

We hear from: 

• Jonathan Bishop (Cégep de St-Hyacinthe) 

• Tanya Caouette (Cégep de St-Félicien) 

• Maxime Camiré (Cégep de Victoriaville) 

• Isabelle Dompierre-Lapointe (Cégep de Thetford) 

• Dina Isber (Cégep de Valleyfield) 

• Caroline Orton (Cégep du Vieux Montréal) 

• Amy Pittendreich (Cégep Lévis-Lauzon) 

🔥 This episode includes reflections on three standout presentations: 

1. Keynote: “AI isn’t coming—it’s already here” 
   Dianne Elizabeth Stankiewicz (Service national du RÉCIT, Domaine des langues) explores what generative AI means for CEGEP educators today. She tackles ethical use, critical thinking, effective prompting, and reframes academic integrity in the age of the machine. There’s even some humour. 
   📎 Presentation link: recit.org/ul/qxd 

1. “Using a Screenplay Project to Stimulate Human Creativity” 
   🎬 Ian Pitblado (Collège Laflèche) walks us through a five-step speculative fiction screenwriting journey designed for the English Culture & Literature course. One of our guests called it their personal favourite for how it pushes students to create something real and meaningful. 

1. “A Free, Engaging, Open-Source English 100 Course” 
   📚 Marie-J. Martineau (Cégep Édouard-Montpetit) shares her ECQ-funded course that’s practical, cost-free, and deeply aligned with the new devis values. Expect flexible lesson plans, H5P Moodle activities, and open access. 
   📧 Contact: [email protected] 

Whether you’re AI-curious, looking to refresh your materials, or just want to hear what colleagues are up to across the province, this episode delivers a fresh dose of inspiration. 

🛎️ Follow us on Instagram: @rascals.podcast

In this episode of *RASCALS’ Roundtable*, we tackle one of the most quietly controversial elements of the new ESL devis: how do we teach—and evaluate—openness, respect, and curiosity? Mikhael Kowalak joins us to unpack what this means in real-life CEGEP classrooms. From grading group discussions to navigating cultural sensitivity, we talk pedagogy, ethics, and that time a student's politics didn't quite align with his - and yet he still got an A+. 
 
🎧 Featuring: Mikhael Kowalak, teacher and researcher at Cégep de Sherbrooke 
 
📚 Publications: 
- Lau, S. M. C., & Kowalak, M. (accepted). *Crossing the linguistic and disciplinary divides...* (Routledge) 
- Lau et al. (2022). *Soutenir les apprentissages des étudiants immigrants...* Le langage et l'homme, no. 561 
- Lau et al. (2020). *Supporting immigrant students’ academic and social integration...* Canadian Modern Language Review 
- Blandford et al. (2019). *Une approche plurilingue...* Correspondance, 25(2) 
 
🔗 Learn more: Centre for Integrated Plurilingual Teaching and Learning 

What’s in an R-score? And why does it feel like it was designed by a statistics prof with a grudge?

In this episode of RASCALS’ Roundtable, we demystify one of the most confusing—and most important—parts of the Quebec CEGEP system. Guest Sylvain Jomphe, ESL teacher and union president at Cégep de Jonquière, joins us to explain how R-scores are really calculated, what students (and teachers) getwrong about them, and what we can do to help.

🎧 Topics include:

·     What exactly is the R-score?

·     Why your grade isn’t the whole story

·     How group strength affects your chances

·     The truth about ‘cheating down’

·     How to talk to students about placement

📩 Contact Sylvain: [email protected]

📎 Want to go deeper? Check out:Understanding the R Score (EN)CRC Explained (FR)

In this episode of RASCALS’ Roundtable, we sit down with Louisa Hadley, president of the Dawson Teachers’ Union, to talk about precarity, and with David Turpie, a CEGEP teacher who’s lived to tell the tale. From long commutes and unpredictable schedules to burning questions about permanence, this episode exposes the challenges and resilience of Quebec’s non-permanent teachers. 
 
🎧 Topics include: 
- The mental and financial cost of precarity 
- Why continuing education teachers face the biggest inequities 
- What unions are fighting for 
- David’s biking, juggling, multi-CEGEP journey 
 
📲 Follow the precarity experience: @ppducvm on Instagram 
🔗 Learn more at dtu.qc.ca or via the Dawson Teachers’ Union Facebook page 

AI is here—and it’s not going anywhere. In this episode of RASCALS’ Roundtable, we tackle the question that’s on every teacher’s mind: How do we keep students from cheating with AI... and how do we start using it ourselves? 

• Marie-Gervaise Pilon shares strategies to prevent plagiarism by fostering trust, designing smarter assignments, and understanding the real reasons students cheat. 
• Robyn Jaquays walks us through the teacher side of AI—from using it to polish CVs and lesson plans, to turning ChatGPT into your unofficial teaching assistant. 

It's practical, provocative, and packed with ready-to-use tips. 

🔗 Connect with our guests: 
📲 Marie-Gervaise Pilon 
Instagram/Threads/X: @marshmallowsadz 
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mgpilon-blewitt 
📘 Publication: Preventing Plagiarism and Cheating in the Age of Artificial Intelligence 

📲 Robyn Jaquays 
Email: [email protected] 
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robyn-jaquays-06b4181a 
📘 Publications available on request: 
Optimiser l’enseignement professionnel avec ChatGPT 
Integrating ChatGPT into Education: A Guide for Teachers 

Mise à Niveau isn’t just a course—it’s a lifeline. In this episode ofRASCALS’ Roundtable, Rebecca Peters walks us through how she helped create a course for true beginners in English, built with an ECQ grant and a dream team of CEGEP collaborators. Then, Julia Golden shares how she repurposed the Moodle version of the course to fit the reality at a college where it wasn’t officially offered. Two different strategies. One powerful message: no student should be left behind.

They come from across the country with a suitcase and a sense of adventure—but are they ready for the classroom? In this episode of *RASCALS’ Roundtable*, we follow the language monitor program from two angles: Alexandra Demers trains new assistants for life in cégeps, while Meredith Lees is designing hands-on materials to help them succeed. Whether you're supervising, mentoring, or just wondering what your Odyssey assistant actually does—this one’s for you.