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Whether you're a new graduate teaching assistant or an experienced, senior-level TA, you're sure to find something in our campus-wide TA workshops to get you energized about teaching. The day also offers an opportunity to get to know other TAs who'll eventually become your friends and colleagues.
Skills Sessions
Grading Student Work: Increasing Learning, Saving Time
James Lang, Assumption College
How can you evaluate the work of your students—whether they are essays, problem sets, lab reports, presentations, or more—in ways that will help the students improve their learning while not bogging you down in endless grading sessions? In this workshop we will review some of the research that has been done on how students process feedback from their instructors, and consider some basic techniques for giving learner-focused feedback that does not eat up every free hour in your schedule.
The First Day of Class
Elizabeth Weber Edwards, Assistant Director of Graduate Student Development, Office of Graduate Studies
The first day of class is your opportunity to create a strong and positive impression on your students. It's a time for you and your students to share expectations, establish classroom norms, and create excitement for the subject and the class. In this session, you'll learn specific strategies for making the most of new beginnings.
Mapping an Effective Lecture
Eve Brank, Assistant Professor, Psychology
A good lecture involves more than just a string of endless information for students to copy down. Find out how to engage your students during a lecture and plan your lectures to best organize topics in a meaningful way.
Critical Moments in the Classroom: Video Vignettes
Richard Lombardo, Director, Office of Postdoctoral Studies and TA Development
Watch video scenarios of several critical situations that may at some point reflect your own experience as a GTA. Then discuss strategies you might use to manage the situations or, better yet, prevent such situations from occurring in the first place.
Constructing a Learner-Centered Syllabus
Edmund (Ted) Hamann, Assistant Professor, Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education
The class syllabus sets the tone for the whole semester. What is the most effective way to design a syllabus focused on students and learning? We'll discuss choosing content, organizing assignments, and other topics, all with the learner in mind. This session is great for TAs responsible for adapting their own syllabi, or those looking to include syllabi in their teaching portfolios.
Disciplinary Breakout Sessions
Join new and experienced TAs in your discipline and learn about effective teaching methods relevant to the teaching you'll be doing as a TA — for example, holding office hours, grading papers, running a lab, or teaching a recitation.
Each session will focus on applying what you've learned about the principles of learning and effective teaching within the context of your discipline. Sessions will be facilitated by experienced faculty and award-winning teaching assistants.
Wrap-Up Session
Metaphors, Messages, and Morals to the Story
Jody Koenig Kellas, Associate Professor, Communications Studies
What did you learn as a participant in this year’s Campuswide Workshops for Graduate Teaching Assistants? What are your takeaways? This session will focus on the key themes discussed throughout the day, within the context of “metaphors, memorable messages, and morals to the story.”