Workshop Calendar & Descriptions

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Calendar

Upcoming Workshop Descriptions

CTD WORKSHOPS

Course and Syllabus Design
Introduction to developing the complete curriculum for a course you are planning to teach or for a current course you would like to revise. Basic steps in course design will be presented, supplemented by handouts and checklists. Syllabi from a variety of disciplines will be available for critique based upon guidelines you develop that are appropriate for your discipline. For maximum benefit, bring a syllabus from a course that you are teaching or have taken.

Grantwriting For The Sciences
Success in academe, particularly in a research institution, can often be correlated with success in grantwriting. CTD is providing this opportunity for graduate students, TAs, and postdoctoral fellows to explore the issues involved in effective grantwriting-what are the components that, if known and well-executed, can equate with success?

Preparing Teaching Portfolios
As job markets shrink and teaching experience is weighed more heavily in employment decisions, it is important to develop an effective teaching portfolio which conveys to prospective employers your special qualities as a college teacher. This workshop introduces you to items commonly included in such portfolios with examples and models from several disciplines. After you have had an opportunity to review the materials, you will develop some materials for inclusion in your own portfolio. Individual assistance in refining and revising your portfolio will be available by appointment after you attend the workshop.

The Art of the Lecture/Classroom Management Principles
Planning and implementing effective lessons follows naturally after you organize and develop plans for your course. This seminar deals with lecturing, teaching and learning styles, establishing positive conditions for learning, resources to enhance instruction, and issues of classroom management.

Using Instructional Technology in the Classroom
An overview of the Instructional Web Development Center's (IWDC) offerings as well as instruction on how to request a web site and student accounts through Academic Computing Services will be covered. Using WebCT, attendees will create a course web page using only a web browser. The hands-on tutorial will guide attendees through adding and managing a message board, chat room, and calendar. Other topics include grade posting, and how to enhance online supplementation with streaming audio, video and animations. A bound tutorial manual will be provided.

How to Run A Problem-Solving Section
What is the problem with problem-solving? In this workshop we will address the issues involved in leading a problem-solving session. This workshop will help you teach students how to apply problem-solving strategies in different contexts and situations-not just provide answers. We will explore productive questioning techniques and provide strategies for encouraging student participation in problem solving sections to help your students become active and independent learners.

Leading Discussion Sections
This workshop will explore the use of productive questioning techniques, alternative teaching formats, and other ways to encourage students to participate in discussion sections and become active and independent learners.

Time Management for Teaching Assistants
Is this even possible? How can you reconcile the demands of your research, your own studies, and your personal life with the 16-20 hours weekly commitment of your teaching assistantship? This workshop will provide effective and proven strategies for regaining control over time in your life so that you can have the "time of your life".

Speaking with Confidence: Tips for Effective Presentation
Discover how to increase your confidence and your effectiveness when making a presentation. This workshop provides basic tips and ideas for the planning and effective delivery of your speeches to help you in overcoming your nervousness in public speaking. You will have a chance to practice your skills with the use of audiovisual aids. Please bring transparencies from your work-in-progress or from previous presentations for a customized workshop.

Complex Thinking
This workshop addresses how to make students see and appreciate the conceptual basis for the disciplines they are learning. Drawing on lessons learned from cognitive science, linguistics and educational psychology, we will examine how to get students to think and learn in more complex ways via questioning strategies, understanding students' perspectives and recognizing different modes of learning.

Writing Strategies for Engineers
This is the first in a series of workshops that will be offered on an occasional basis dealing with the communication needs of science and engineering TAs. Accrediting requirements indicate the importance of communicating effectively as well as developing lifelong learning strategies. In this workshop you will have an opportunity to learn about specific techniques for common scientific/technical writing tasks for yourself and your students. Because the instructor will be contacting each registrant prior to the workshop in order to develop a "needs assessment," it is important to register before attending the workshop.

Using Library Resources For More Effective Teaching
Taught jointly by CLICS and the Social Sciences & Humanities Library (SSHL), this session will focus on using library resources more effectively as a teacher. In addition to demonstrating new and exciting databases and capabilities, the session will help you design and administer research assignments that take advantage of what the library has to offer, while minimizing frustrations resulting from misunderstanding available resources. While this is useful for all teachers, it is especially helpful if you will be teaching for the first time in spring or summer quarters.

Effective Problem Solving Discussions in the Social Sciences
Problem solving is most effective when a group explores the problem thoroughly and generates a variety of possible solutions which members then evaluate on the basis of their possible consequences.

This workshop helps TAs as they work with students to:

1. analyze a situation, issue, obstacles and goal of any problem,
2. list characteristics any problem has and explain its importance,
3. plan procedural outlines for the students' problem solving processes,
4. comprehend the importance of being clear about the criteria or standards by which the group will judge possible solutions, and
5. help the group arrive at the best possible solution to a problem and decision making.

Lesson Planning
Teaching Assistants learn to create objectives and the steps to bring about the best results for learning outcomes through lesson planning. TAs will learn the components of a good lesson plan and how to design effective, easy-to-follow lessons with interesting assignments, which are the key to a successful learning experience for the student. The lesson plan outline for each lesson echoes the format of the course introduction, assuring consistency in your instructional design approach.

Special Discussion Techniques/Methods and Observing Group Discussions
Special techniques can be used to improve discussion and improve overall teamwork in the classroom. TAs learn the characteristics of effective group discussion and how to implement those aspects. They will also learn how to teach collaborate group dynamics to their students. Active and focused listening are demonstrated. The TA learns to read verbal and nonverbal signals of the whole class as well as within small groups.

Evaluating Written Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Perhaps the most difficult task for the teaching assistant is to evaluate a student's writing. While objective tests can examine the student's comprehension about facts and figures, written papers covering divergent topics offer a challenge to the grader. This workshop covers ways for TAs to evaluate papers fairly and easily by providing and selecting criteria, and creating guidelines for the TA and students regarding written work. The techniques presented will promote consistency and fairness and will help reduce effort in the sometimes daunting task of evaluating and grading many papers.

Biomedical and Science & Engineering Libraries' Workshop:
The goal of the library workshop is to provide teaching assistants with an overview of the available information resources in their fields so that they may be more proficient in their own research and to help them transmit information retrieval skills to their undergraduates.

Librarians from the Biomedical and Science & Engineering Libraries will be covering essential resources in the sciences, mainly biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Time saving searching techniques for the ROGER online catalog, SAGE web search engine, CDL journal article databases, PubMed, and more will be demonstrated with hands-on practice exercises. Methods of locating full text journal articles online and electronically requesting items will also be covered.

Gender Equity In Teaching: What Is It? Why Do We Want It? How Can We Achieve It?
Most of us know what gender equity is (we recognize it when we see it) and we surely know why we want it; but do we know how to achieve it? Sadly, research has shown us that both women and men are prone to gender-biased teaching. Understanding the role gender plays in communication and interaction is key to making changes in this area. Participation in this workshop will help you examine your own teaching techniques and behaviors and should help you become more sensitive in your interactions with all of your students.

GRADING WRITTEN WORK-for TAs and Graders

One of the consistent complaints made by students involves evaluation of their written work.

"Why did I get a C?" "I don't know what you want." "Your grading is unfair!"

Please join us for a very practical look at what to do when you are faced with grading all those papers and/or essay exams. You are concerned about fairness, consistency, and appropriate ways to respond to students' writing, yet find yourself under time constraints and in some cases, with little direction from the course instructor about the criteria to be used in grading.

In this workshop, we will discuss ways to make your evaluation criteria clear to your students right from the start and how to approach grading in a way that is fair both to your students and you.

SPECIAL DISCUSSION TECHNIQUES
Special techniques can be used to improve discussion and improve overall teamwork in the classroom. TAs learn the characteristics of effective group discussion and how to implement those aspects. They will also learn how to teach collaborative group dynamics to their students. Active and focused listening are demonstrated. The TA learns to read verbal and nonverbal signals of the whole class as well as within small groups. This session is particularly helpful if you are a new TA leading discussion sections for the first time.