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Fictional Classrooms: National Community of Practice (Winter 2026) – March 2026 Meeting

March 23 @ 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm EDT
Four covers of media with representations of fictional classrooms in them - from left to right, "The Good Place" season 2; "Irfan in University"; "Vaathi"; and "Stoner" by John Williams.

Fictional Classrooms: National Community of Practice (Winter 2026) – March 2026 Meeting

Date: Monday, March 23rd, 2026

Time: 3:30-4:30pm (AT) / 2:30-3:30pm (ET) / 11:30am-12:30pm (PT)

Sign up to join! (you may be prompted to log in to your Google account)

 

Fictional Classrooms National Community of Practice Description:  

Over the past four years, our very own Matthew Dunleavy (CTEI Senior Educational Developer, Faculty Excellence and Development) and his colleague, Robin Sutherland-Harris (York University), have facilitated the Fictional Classrooms community. The current iteration brings together educational/curriculum/faculty/instructional developers and instructors from across Canada and the US to explore and reflect on narratives of education in films, television, short stories, and novels. These works may speak to us as learners, educators, developers, researchers, artists, and/or simply as humans. 

For Winter 2026, the Fictional Classrooms community will be discussing: 

  • The Good Place S02E05 “The Trolley Problem” (TV show) – January 26th 
  • Irfan in University (dir. Rıdvan Çevik) (short film) – February 23rd 
  • Vaathi (dir. Venky Atluri) (film) – March 23rd 
  • Stoner by John Williams (novel) – April 27th 

You can read about all these selections (and previous selections) in our what to read/watch list. 

To join the Fictional Classrooms Community for Winter 2026: 

Please sign up as follows:  

  1. Visit https://groups.google.com/search?q=FictionalClassroomsED (you may be prompted to log in to your Google account)
  2. On the right-hand side, click the small “Join” icon (next to the star) and ask to join group.
  3. Matthew and Robin will approve your request within 2 working days, and you will then have access to the group, including their shared Google Folder and Calendar. 

Note from Matthew and Robin: We approach the Fictional Classrooms program with a “read-what-you-can” mentality. We understand that we can get busy and may not finish readings each month, but we encourage you to attend each session regardless of how much you have been able to engage with the text or film so we can still have fruitful conversations and build community. 

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