Have you heard of the Graduate Teaching Apprenticeship Program (GTAP)? GTAP is a program developed by the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning to better support graduate students’ career development and teaching interests. GTAP participants engage in CITL-sponsored workshops and learning communities, faculty and peer mentoring, and goal-setting activities. They also spend time creating job… Read more »
Creating Learning Outcomes and Community
Learning outcomes are statements that reflect what your students should accomplish at the end of your course. Learning outcomes are measurable and can be used to direct the course timeline. For example, “by the end of the course, students should be able to…” explain, compare, create, or recall. These active verbs allow instructors to create… Read more »
Creating a Teaching Portfolio with a Graduate Student Learning Community
If you’re applying for an academic job, you’ll need a teaching portfolio to provide evidence of your teaching effectiveness. What goes into a teaching portfolio? There are usually three realms of documents: ones the teacher produces; ones from peers, students, and institutions; and ones showing student achievement. Feedback on your teaching portfolio is extremely important,… Read more »
Using Backward Course Design to Demystify the Syllabus Writing Process
A syllabus can be a creative and integrative expression of graduate students’ academic and pedagogical interests. Whether graduate students are applying to teach for their department, Collins, or Global Village, or preparing for academic job interviews, they can use the syllabus to showcase how they would teach their dissertation topic. It can be tempting, however,… Read more »
Associate Instructor Orientation: Starting the First Week of Classes Prepared
The first week of class sets the tone for the rest of the semester, so make sure your students feel comfortable talking and sharing thoughts. Here’s an interactive way to start a conversation: Have each student write down their thoughts about a discussion question on a piece of paper. A good first day question might… Read more »
Create Application Materials with a Graduate Student Learning Community
Are you a graduate student getting ready to apply for academic jobs in the fall? While you’re prepping your research statements and writing samples, don’t forget there are many teaching-related materials that you will likely need. A growing number of universities ask for a candidate’s statement of teaching philosophy, diversity statement, teaching portfolio, and course… Read more »