Fall 2012

ST. GEORGE CAMPUS

DEALING WITH STUDENTS IN DIFFICULTY
Cheryl Shook, Registrar, Woodsworth College
CORE

This workshop will focus on how to identify, engage, refer and manage students who may be challenging. Students who are withdrawn, distressed, demanding or who present unusual requests or situations, including crisis situations, often need special support and/or attention. How and to whom to make appropriate referrals in a variety of situations will be reviewed along with the many resources available for teaching assistants and students.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office
Robarts Library, 4th floor, 4029

EFFECTIVE LAB TEACHING: YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Andy Dicks, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts & Science
CORE

A laboratory TA has both the ability and opportunity to make an incredible impact on the academic experience of undergraduates. This interactive workshop will cover issues and challenges surrounding practical teaching in a lab environment. Topics discussed will include pre-lab talks, communication and demonstration strategies, building respect and rapport with your students, lab management and dealing with conflict, as well as important lab-related evaluation approaches.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office
Robarts Library, 4th floor, 4029

ACCESSIBILITY AND THE AODA (ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT) IN THE UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT
Andrea Carter, U of T Employment Equity and AODA Office
CORE

Teaching Assistants are invited to attend a workshop led by Andrea Carter, AODA officer and Employment Equity officer, to learn how to create a more inclusive and accessible learning environment. Purpose: Under new provincial legislation, all staff and faculty must understand how to accommodate people with disabilities in our daily work. Learn the definitions of disability, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), the University’s obligations and commitments to accommodating people with disabilities, and the policies and procedures to follow.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office
Robarts Library, 4th Floor, Room 4029

ASSIGNMENT (RE)DESIGN WORKSHOP
Karen Smith, TATP Social Sciences and Course Instructor Coordinator
ELECTIVE

This workshop will allow you to reflect upon an assignment you have designed. Within this workshop, you will critique your assignment with the assistance of your peers, and will re-iterate your assignment to develop improvements, to build in learning scaffolding over the term or to improve assessment techniques. Attendees of this workshop are expected to bring 4 paper copies of an assignment they have designed as well as one paper copy of the syllabus of the course. Your assignment should include a description of what is expected of your learners as well as the criteria you will use to evaluate student work. TAs who come without a syllabus and assignment will not be able to participate in this workshop.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012
10am – 12pm
Robarts Library, 4th floor, Blackburn Room

DEMYSTIFYING LIBRARY RESEARCH
Monique Flaccavento, Public Services and Instructional Librarian, OISE/UT
Rita Vine, Acting Information Literacy Librarian, U of T Libraries
CORE

What do you do with students who are baffled by Library research? In this session, U of T librarians will share their top picks of tools, services, and research guides, and work with you to strategize responses to typical undergraduate research and essay problems. Help your students go beyond Google and Wikipedia, discover ways to find better information faster, and figure out how long they’ll need to get their papers done.

Thursday, November 8, 2012
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Computer Lab
Robarts Library, 4th floor

AUGMENTING A LESSON’S NARRATIVE WITH PREZI
Karen Smith, TATP Social Sciences and Course Instructor Coordinator
Robin Sutherland-Harris, TATP Humanities Coordinator
ELECTIVE

Do you have a tutorial lesson plan where you include an element of mystery, where students uncover a surprising truth over course of the class? Do you teach a concept where you begin slowly and build suspense? These are examples of narrative strategies in the classroom. Telling stories through your teaching may be something you do implicitly, or a new concept. In this workshop we will discuss narrative teaching and then consider how to apply it to build a presentation in Prezi. Prezi is a cloud based presentation system which is known for its zooming user interface. Participants in this workshop should come prepared with: a) a memory stick with lesson elements such as text, images, and possibly video or audio-visual links and b) a narrative or storyline for their lesson. We will practice building a Prezi presentation to augment your teaching narrative for a lesson.

PLEASE NOTE: Participants in this workshop will need to create an account on Prezi, a web-based presentation making system. Please review the Terms of Service (http://prezi.com/terms-of-use/) in advance of the workshop and be aware your presentation created from a free account will be public. You are responsible for respecting copyright in your own presentation.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Computer Lab
Robarts Library, 4th floor

DEVELOPING STUDY SKILLS IN UNDERGRADUATE LEARNERS
Michelle Hoffman, TATP Humanities Trainer & Microteaching Coordinator
David Beach, TATP Sciences Trainer
CORE

In this workshop, we’ll discuss how you as a TA can help demystify some of the study skills that students frequently struggle with. By the time we’ve reached graduate school, some of these skills (such as taking good notes) may be second-nature to us, while some (such as time management) may be less so. In either case, it can be difficult to know what practical advice to offer to students who are struggling to develop basic learning skills. We’ll talk about strategies for managing course readings, effective note-taking, and studying; how we can communicate these strategies to students; and the campus resources that we can direct them to.

Tuesday, November 27 2-4pm
CTSI Office
Robarts Library, 4th floor, Blackburn Room

PREPARING YOUR TEACHING DOSSIER
Sara Carpenter, Acting Assistant Director, CTSI/TATP
Umme Akhtar, TATP TA Trainer, Sciences
CORE

The teaching dossier is a comprehensive record of teaching activities and accomplishments that is now required in applications for permanent positions at the University of Toronto, and in applications for academic positions at an increasing number of institutions across North America. In this session, we will review the elements of a successful teaching dossier and discuss how to use it as a framework for setting goals for future professional development. Since many TAs have limited teaching experience, an emphasis will be placed on what a new TA can do to develop the beginnings of a meaningful dossier.

Thursday, November 29, 2012
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor

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UTM WORKSHOPS

AN INTRODUCTION TO GRADING IN THE SCIENCES & ENGINEERING
Ben Moulton, TATP Sciences Trainer
CORE

Grading is a very important component to teaching and learning, it can be a useful tool for students and instructors to assess performance, learning goals and teaching goals. Most TA’s are required to grade in their teaching appointments, whether that be in an exclusive grading role or as part of other classroom duties. In the sciences, items for evaluation can include tutorial assignments, written lab experiments, scientific papers, and short answer tests. Grading assignments and lab reports can often be time-consuming and stressful without adequate preparation and planning. Therefore, it is especially important for TAs in the sciences to learn skills that enable them to grade efficiently and effectively so that feedback is meaningful and useful to students. In this practical, hands-on workshop, you will learn about:

TA responsibilities
Efficient grading techniques
Delivering effective feedback
Utilizing grading tools (marking schemes and rubrics)
Handling grading disputes

Thursday, October 11, 2012
2pm – 4pm
UTM Instructional Building, Room IB 210

FOSTERING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: NOBLE INTENTIONS & STICKY SITUATIONS
Sara Carpenter, Acting Assistant Director, CTSI/TATP
Martha Harris, Faculty Liaison, CTSI
CORE

You are invigilating an exam for a course you have TA’d. Walking past a student’s desk in the exam hall, you notice an extra piece of paper peeking out from underneath the student’s exam paper. What do you do? Or…what if a student comes to you during an office hour with the first draft of an assignment, and all of the research is taken from the Internet? Or…what if your instructor asks you to assign a failing grade to an assignment you think might have been plagiarized? When is plagiarism plagiarism? When is collaborative work cheating? What is academic integrity, anyway, and how is a TA supposed to foster it?

Despite the best intentions, many teaching assistants and students will encounter these dilemmas when navigating course work. In this interactive session, we will grapple with these questions and more, and you will work through some scenarios (based on actual cases at the University of Toronto) to devise strategies for preventative measures and next steps in these ‘sticky situations’.

Thursday, October 18, 2012
1pm – 3pm
Room 3214-DV (David Building)

CONDUCTING MODERATED GRADING SESSIONS IN WRITING INTENSIVE COURSES
Dr. Tyler Evans-Tokaryk, Senior Lecturer and Writing Specialist, Humanities & Social Sciences, Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre
CORE

Description to follow.

Wed, Oct 31, 2012
1pm – 3pm
UTM CC 2112

AN INTRODUCTION TO GRADING IN THE HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES
Cristian Ches, TATP Social Sciences Trainer
CORE

Grading is not only an act of evaluation; it is an act of teaching. How can we grade fairly, but efficiently; rigorously, but encouragingly? Cristian will speak from experience about strategies and tools used to evaluate student work. In this workshop, you will learn about:

Grader’s responsibilities: consistency and fairness, time management, and how to work with fellow TAs and Course Instructors;
Strategies for effective grading and for giving meaningful feedback;
Grading disputes: university policy, credibility as a grader, and tips for coping with student complaints.

Grading exams will be an area of focus, timely linked to the upcoming December exam period.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012
4pm – 6pm
UTM Instructional Building, Room IB 360

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UTSC WORKSHOPS

EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Malama Tsimenis, Senior Lecturer, Centre for French and Linguistics, UTSC

Teaching assistants are often faced with problematic situations which, if not promptly addressed, can destabilize the classroom environment and ruin both the students’ learning experience and the TAs’ teaching experience. Students refusing to participate in class discussions or to do the assigned homework; being systematically late or not coming to tutorials; disrupting their classmates; contesting the TA’s authority; contesting grades, etc., are only a few of these problems.

In this interactive workshop, the TAs will work together to come up with ideas and strategies to address a number of problematic case scenarios.

They will also be given useful tips on how to effectively respond to these challenges without getting disillusioned in the teaching process and without compromising their relationship with their students. Strategies to avoid/prevent these situations from happening in the first place will also be discussed.

Thursday, Sept 27, 2012
10am – 12pm
AA 160

STRENGTHENING UNDERGRADUATES’ RESEARCH AND WRITING SKILLS

Sarah Fedko, Campus Information Literacy Coordinator, UTSC Library
Sheryl Stevenson, Lecturer and Graduate Student Support Coordinator, UTSC Writing Centre

Participants in this hands-on, interactive workshop will gain a better understanding of common undergraduate problems with research and writing. The workshop will address the following questions: What are the most problematic aspects of the research and writing process for undergraduates? What is the TA’s role in helping support and improve undergraduate research and writing? How can you offer instruction but also promote active learning? And where can you go for resources that can help you strengthen undergraduates’ skills in these crucial areas? To address this last question, the workshop will provide take-away materials that encapsulate strategies, best practices, and online resources that can help you improve your skills in teaching research and writing.

Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012
4pm – 6 pm
IC 318

PREPARING THE TEACHING DOSSIER
Sara Carpenter, Acting Assistant Director, CTSI/TATP

Tuesday, Nov 27, 2012
10am – 12pm
IC 318