Winter 2013
St. George Campus
Elements of Effective Lesson Planning
Robin Sutherland-Harris, TATP Humanities Coordinator
Cristian Ches, TATP Social Science Trainer
CORE
If you have ever struggled with how to effectively organize material and manage your time in a class or lab, then this session is for you. Understanding the key elements of lesson design will help you to:
- get students prepared to learn at the start of a class;
- streamline your content so you know how much material can be reasonably introduced in the time you have;
- build in time for discussion and student interaction (which leads to deeper learning);
- close the class effectively so students can reflect on what they’ve learned and be ready for what comes next in the course.
Participants are asked to bring with them a key learning goal and list of topics for one class they would like to teach (or for a real class they know they will be teaching shortly!). Participants will be asked to complete a lesson planner in the session; a template will be both emailed to registrants in advance and provided in the workshop.
Monday, January 21, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Identifying, Assisting and Referring the Student in Distress
Janine Robb, RN, MSc, Executive Director, Health and Wellness
Dan Johnson, Community Health Coordinator, Health and Wellness
CORE
In recent years, increasing concern has been expressed with regard to student mental health at the post-secondary education (PSE) level. Health and mental health professionals in medical and counselling centres have substantiated these concerns. They report significant increases in the numbers of students requesting mental health services, as well as increases in the severity and complexity of the mental health issues. Based on data gathered from the 2009 American College Health Association – National College Health Assessment, this workshop looks at the nature and prevalence of mental health issues with which university students are struggling. Strategies on how to identify, as well as effectively assist and refer students in distress will be discussed.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Looking Ahead: Documenting Your Teaching & Demonstrating Effectiveness
Sara Carpenter, CTSI/TATP Acting Assistant Director
CORE
Many TAs and instructors are unaware that in addition to their CV, junior scholars must also produce a teaching dossier or a portfolio that describes and documents their teaching expertise. This document can be difficult to produce if materials are not compiled over the course of years of graduate work and TAing. This workshop serves as the ‘pre-dossier’ workshop, offering practical tips on how to produce, document, and collect the materials necessary for the compilation of the teaching dossier, including course evaluations, teaching support materials, and evidence of professional development. This workshop will not focus on how to compile the dossier, rather we examine strategies for ensuring that you are ready to prepare a dossier when the time comes.
Friday, February 1, 2013
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Pedagogy 101
Sara Carpenter, CTSI/TATP Acting Assistant Director
ELECTIVE
This workshop is designed to introduce both new and experienced TAs and CIs to the language, concepts, and tools of university-level pedagogical theory. This workshop will provide a basic review of some of the major assumptions about teaching and learning that drive the development of undergraduate curriculum and approaches to teaching undergraduate learners. Participants in this workshop will increase their ability to traverse the field of undergraduate teaching by understanding basic concepts, hopefully stimulating more critical engagement with assignments, including the planning of tutorials, marking, and providing feedback to students.
Monday, February 04, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Fostering Academic Integrity: Noble Intentions & Sticky Situations
Martha Harris, Faculty Liaison, CTSI
Saira Mall, Educational Technology 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’.
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Active Learning Methods in the Sciences and Engineering
Andreea Lupascu, TATP Science Trainer
Benjamin Moulton, TATP Science Trainer
CORE
Active learning is a pedagogical method that helps teachers involve students in the learning process. Primarily based on learning by doing, reflection, group discussion and teaching others, active learning techniques can increase learning retention and depth of understanding. These methods can be used in most contexts including: lecturing, tutorials and labs. In this workshop, the facilitators will discuss different types of active learning methods that can be used in Sciences and Engineering teaching contexts. The facilitators will demonstrate several active learning techniques and participants will be given an opportunity to discuss in small groups how they can adapt each method to their specific teaching environment. By the end of the session, participants will have a list of ideas for how to incorporate active learning in their tutorial/lab and what resources they can use to further develop the use of active learning as a pedagogical method.
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Confidence in the Classroom
Robin Sutherland-Harris, TATP Humanities Coordinator
Bill Flanik, TATP Social Science Trainer
ELECTIVE
Do you sometimes feel like an impostor in front of the classroom? You are not alone! Graduate student teachers in all disciplines struggle with feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty, especially in the early stages of developing a teaching style, or when they must provide instruction beyond their own area of expertise. This workshop addresses how and why we experience this “impostor syndrome” as well as what we can do to move past it. Developing the skills to accurately assess our own teaching styles and abilities can help diminish the syndrome’s negative impact. Workshop participants will not only gain a better understanding of impostor syndrome, but will also work collaboratively to develop concrete methods for effectively perceiving and evaluating their own teaching performance.
Friday, February 08, 2013
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Effective Communication with your Course Instructor: Building Positive Working Environments
Lana Kuhle, TATP Humanities Trainer
Sandy Romain, TATP Social Science Trainer
ELECTIVE
This session will examine strategies to foster successful relationships with your course instructors. Issues covered will include: academic policy, time management, and tips for various working styles and needs. Attendees will leave with a concrete list to facilitate their next meetings with course instructors.
Monday, February 11, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Engaging Students Through Writing: Strategies for Developing Students’ Writing Skills
Michelle Majeed, TATP Social Science Trainer
Lana Kuhle, TATP Humanities Trainer
CORE
This workshop will focus on key ways to help students improve their writing skills. Participants will review key principles of effective grading that serve to support the development of writing skills in students. Participants will also be introduced and will have the opportunity to practice a variety of exercises that can be incorporated into tutorials to engage students through writing. Workshop participants will leave with a broad range of tools and strategies that they can use in a variety of teaching settings in the future. This workshop will be useful to both TAs responsible for tutorials as well as grading only TAs.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Active Learning in a Math Based Environment
Limin Jao, TATP Science Coordinator
David Beach, TATP Science Trainer
CORE
Active learning techniques have been shown to increase student comprehension of course material by incorporating the student in the learning process. In this workshop we identify what constitutes active learning and examine specific techniques that are currently, and successfully, in use within math environments. This session is a stepping-stone for TAs towards modifying and designing their own ideas to incorporate active learning into both current and future teaching assignments.
Friday, March 1, 2013
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Webinar: Online Learning and the Role of TAs
Laurie Harrison, Director of Online Learning Strategies, IT+S, University of Toronto
Karen Smith, CTSI Course Instructor Training Coordinator
Elective
Did you know that the University of Toronto runs a number of undergraduate courses online? This webinar session will provide an overview of online learning at University of Toronto and beyond. We will discuss the various roles that support web-based instructional activities and explore best teaching practices for TAing online courses. Participants in this session will get to experience first-hand the use of virtual break-out discussion and whiteboard, using the Blackboard Collaborate tool.
Participants will be emailed instructions to set up their equipment and the link to the webinar session before the session.
Participants are encouraged to use a headset with microphone, however external or built-in speakers and microphones will also work. Text chat will also be available during the session.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
3pm – 5pm
Get em’ Talking: How to Plan and Run Engaging Discussion-based Tutorials
Michelle Hoffman, TATP Microteaching Coordinator
Bill Flanik, TATP Social Science Trainer
CORE
It has happened to us all. Your course instructor assigns a text—maybe a straightforward textbook chapter, perhaps a challenging philosophical treatise—and your job is to facilitate an enlightening tutorial discussion. You arrive armed with brilliant discussion questions, but your queries are met with blank stares and dead silence. It seems like half the class hasn’t even read the text. When you finally goad students into speaking, a few comments are insightful but most are way off-base. As the discussion flounders, students become increasingly confused and disengaged. How do we, as TAs, deal with this painful scenario? What can we do to prevent it from arising in the first place? In this workshop, two veterans of discussion-based tutorials will offer concrete, practical solutions. We’ll show how you can encourage students to come to tutorial prepared, things to try when students aren’t prepared, how to prepare yourself to lead an engaging discussion, and tips and techniques for facilitating discussion once it’s underway.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Promoting Comprehension: Instructional Strategies for Supporting Student Reading
Sara Carpenter, CTSI/TATP Acting Assistant Director
Robin Sutherland-Harris, TATP Humanities Coordinator
CORE
They did the reading…but they didn’t get it. This common scenario presents itself to teaching assistants in classrooms across the disciplines. Students come to class having done the readings, but not prepared to work. Why? Often, reading comprehension is a challenge for our students. This workshop will examine the constellation of challenges that reading comprehension poses in the undergraduate classroom. We will explore concrete strategies for supporting reading both inside and outside the classroom, and discuss methods to integrate reading strategies and promote comprehension through tutorials.
Monday, March 11, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Preparing Your Teaching Dossier
Limin Jao, TATP Science Coordinator
Bill Flanik, TATP Social Science Trainer
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 beginning of a meaningful dossier.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Equity, Power and Diversity in the Classroom
Michelle Majeed, TATP Social Science Trainer
Sara Carpenter, CTSI/TATP Acting Assistant Director
ELECTIVE
This workshop is an introduction to the principles, practices, and resources available for building an equitable classroom in the university environment. This workshop is designed for all TAs from any discipline who are interested in understanding the role that social power and identity plays in their classroom and exploring strategies for creating equitable, inclusive learning environments.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Essentials of Communicative Language Teaching: Putting Principles to Work
Stefana Gargova, TATP Humanities Trainer
Michelle Hoffman, TATP Microteaching Coordinator
CORE
In this workshop, language instructors will have the opportunity to learn about and explore some core principles of communicative language teaching (CLT) and task-based instruction. Employing a number of theoretical and empirical findings drawn from Second Language Acquisition research, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience, this session will emphasize the pragmatic side of language teaching and provide strategies for successful implementation of CLT principles in the academic language learning context. Prime focuses will be lesson planning and task design.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor
Adding Interest, Adding Investment: Making Current Connections to Inspire Student Learning
Martha Harris, Faculty Liaison, CTSI
Karen Reid, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Computer Science
ELECTIVE
When students find a personal connection with course content, it improves engagement and provides natural encouragement to invest interest in their learning. This session explores how TAs can work creatively with assignments and course meetings to bring in connections to current events, culture, and student interests. We will look at examples from different disciplines of how to make these connections, and how prioritizing dialogue with students can create a positive teaching and learning experience for TAs and students. Participants will explore how to integrate current connections into current and future courses as a course instructor, and identify strategies that align with their personal teaching approach.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
10am – 12pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th floor
Making Your Syllabus Work for You and Your Students
Karen Smith, Course Instructor Training Coordinator, TATP
Robin Sutherland-Harris, Humanities Coordinator, TATP
ELECTIVE
The course syllabus is the primary means of communicating course objectives and instructor expectations. A well-crafted syllabus ensures that students understand the essential requirements for participating and succeeding in a course. In this session, participants will evaluate sample course syllabi and identify the components of a clear and meaningful syllabus. They will also learn how syllabi can help to guide student learning and serve as an effective course management tool. Attendees will receive useful take-away resources and guidelines that will help them prepare their own course documents.
This session is for teaching assistants and course instructors who expect to be leading courses in the near future and need to develop a course syllabus.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
10am – 12pm
Blackburn Room,
Robarts Library, 4th Floor
Syllabus Clinic: (Re)Designing Your Syllabus as a Learning Tool
Karen Smith, Course Instructor Training Coordinator
Michelle Hoffman, TATP Microteaching Coordinator
ELECTIVE
This clinic will open with an evaluation of a model University of Toronto course syllabus. Participants will then work in small groups to review and assess each other’s syllabi (see below for instructions). TATP facilitators will circulate to provide additional guidance and feedback. Time will be given in the session to make changes to your syllabus based on participant feedback. This session is for teaching assistants and course instructors who expect to be leading courses in the near future and need to develop a course syllabus.
As a participant in this clinic, you are required to bring to the clinic one of the following documents:
- A proposed course syllabus for a new course you would like to teach one day
OR
- A course syllabus for an existing U of T course (if you are bringing in a syllabus for an existing course in a University of Toronto department, you MUST have the Course Coordinator’s express permission to use this document in this clinic)
The aim of the clinic is to have each participant leave with a well-developed or revised syllabus, so participants without a document to work from will not be admitted to the clinic.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
2pm – 4pm
Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor
UTM Workshops
UTM: Roundtable Discussion on Challenges for Undergraduate TAs
Ben Moulton, TATP Science Trainer
ELECTIVE
TAing is a challenging job to begin with, let alone when you are TAing your peers. In this roundtable, discussion-based workshop we will explore together what it means to TA as an undergraduate student. Our discussion will focus on how to create healthy boundaries between you and your friends, to gain a healthy respect from senior students, and to give you some ways to fulfill your TA role without added stress. Through the roundtable discussion we will discuss realistic expectations of you as a TA, and explore effective methods used by other undergraduate TAs who have gone through these trials.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
10am – 12pm
IB, Room 220
UTM: Developing Content and Format for Successful Tutorials in Social Sciences
Cristian Ches, TATP Social Science Trainer
CORE
Designing tutorial format and content that connect real life issues with course materials can increase level of student engagement. Case studies are stories with a twist, places where theory meets practice, and their practical, applied nature can draw students in. By using case studies in teaching, TAs can provide students with valuable tools that allow them to make linkages between education and their future professional activities. This workshop will explore how to select and incorporate case studies into tutorials.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
2pm – 4pm
IB, Room 220
UTSC Workshops
UTSC: Working the Room: Strategies for Improving Your Classroom Presence
Limin Jao, TATP Science Coordinator
CORE
Effectively communicating core concepts and ideas to students requires more than careful lesson planning. As teachers, we are not merely an encyclopedia—a database of facts and figures. Rather, we are performers of sorts—like storytellers, musicians, or TED presenters—who draw the students into the material with our words and actions. In order to more effectively communicate to a varied student body, participants will gain knowledge and practice to help improve classroom presence, with a focus on confidence, energy, and authority. This interactive workshop will cover:
- establishing a strong vocal presence (e.g., tone, projection)
- developing assertive and engaging body language
- ‘reading’ your audience
- connecting with students in small and large classrooms
Friday, March 15, 2013
1pm – 3pm
AC 219
UTSC: Fun Strategies for Tutorials
Karen Smith, TATP Social Science Coordinator
ELECTIVE
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein
Learning activities in tutorials can be vibrant, fun, and engaging. This workshop will explore strategies to bring fun into your classroom, including interactive learning strategies and simulations. This session will provide new and experienced TAs with evidence-based strategies for dynamic learning and allow opportunities to practice these strategies.
Monday, March 18, 2013
2pm – 4pm
BV 359