Winter 2015

ST GEORGE WORKSHOPS

READING UP: INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING STUDENT’S CRITICAL READING & ANALYSIS

Robin Sutherland-Harris, TATP Humanities
Sandy Carpenter, TATP Humanities Trainer

CORE

They did the reading…or did they? This common question presents itself to teaching assistants in classrooms across the disciplines. Students come to class unprepared to work with the readings. Why? Often, reading at university is challenging for our students. This workshop will examine the underlying barriers to successful reading 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 that promote comprehension through tutorials.

February 5, 2015
10am – 12pm
CTSI, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

*This session can count as “Skill Development: Critical Reading and Reflection” tutorial training

UNIVERSAL INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND THE ROLE OF THE TA

Adriel Weaver, TATP Social Sciences Trainer
Morgan Vanek, TATP Humanities Trainer

CORE

This interactive workshop will explore how post-secondary classrooms can be more responsive to a broad range of learning needs. What can you do in your role as a TA to help craft meaningful learning experience for a diverse student body? In this workshop, we will discuss the difference between accessibility, accommodation, and universal instructional design, and offer you an opportunity to practice putting these principles to work in your own teaching context. Please bring your questions, and be prepared to contribute to the conversation!

February 9, 2015
2pm-4pm
CTSI, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

POWERPOINT AND BEYOND: USING VISUAL AIDS IN THE CLASSROOM

Joel Rodgers, TATP Humanities Trainer
Jessica Wilczak, TATP Social Sciences Trainer

ELECTIVE

PowerPoint and other slide ware have become ubiquitous in post-secondary classrooms, and have attracted both critics and defenders.  This workshop will locate the debate around PowerPoint within the broader question of how to use visual aids effectively in our teaching.   What are the benefits and limits of slide ware as a pedagogical tool?  What are some alternatives to PowerPoint? If we choose to use slide ware, what are some principles for designing effective slides?  In this workshop, participants will develop a research-based framework for thinking about visual aids in teaching. Building on that, they will apply these principles to a new or existing visual aid during the workshop. Participants are encouraged to come with a visual aid that they would like to work on (either two to three slides from a slide ware presentation or a handout). Alternatively, participants may create a new visual aid based on something they may teach in the future.

February 24, 2015
1pm-3pm
CTSI Teaching Studio, Room 4034
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

THE GOAL IS STUDENT LEARNING: APPLYING PRINCIPLES OF BACKWARDS COURSE DESIGN   

Megan Burnett, Assistant Director, CTSI/TATP
Robin Sutherland-Harris, TATP Humanities Coordinator

ELECTIVE

It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day or minute-to-minute demands of teaching and the never-ending tensions around content. There can be a lot of pressure to focus on what comes next rather than on what comes last. But what happens when we begin where we want to end up – with the emphasis on student success and learning? This workshop will explore how you can make backwards course design work in your classroom, whether you are new to TAing or are more experienced. We will examine some of the theory around identifying learning outcomes and goals and experiment with how to make them effective classroom tools in both the short and long term. We will then make connections to additional concrete strategies for providing assessment and feedback that will help students achieve the goals you’ve set for them.

February 25, 2015
2pm-4pm
CTSI, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

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.

Friday, March 6, 2015
10am – 12pm
CTSI, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

ACTIVE LEARNING IN THE SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING

Leanne De Souza, TATP Sciences Trainer
Lauren Norman, TATP Sciences Trainer

CORE

The science lab and tutorial is often inherently ‘active’ and interactive. However, there are unique strategies to manage the hectic science classroom while implementing ‘active learning’ techniques that add value to the teaching and learning experience, and maximize on the time-constrained nature of labs and tutorials. We will discuss and practice some teaching strategies that enhance and stimulate active learning in the science classroom. This workshop requries the participant to have a particular lab or tutorial as an example to work from. This can be a past, current or anticipated course. We encourage participants to bring an example lab manual or text that they might use in their labs and tutorials. This workshop will review strategies to prepare and plan for active learning and to execute methods that promote active learning.

Friday, April 10, 2015
10am – 12pm
CTSI, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

*This session can count as Lab/Practical tutorial training

PREPARING YOUR TEACHING DOSSIER

Michelle Majeed, TATP Course Instructor Training Coordinator
Sandy Romain, TATP Social Sciences 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 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, what a new TA can do to develop the beginnings of a meaningful dossier will also be

Monday, April 13, 2015
1pm – 3pm
CTSI, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

Robin Sutherland-Harris, TATP Humanities Coordinator
Sasha Kovacs, TATP Humanities Trainer

ELECTIVE

Teaching in a large institution can be a solitary task. Although we are surrounded by other TAs, we often find ourselves working alone. But teaching, like other academic pursuits, is enriched through collaboration and conversation. This workshop will provide some strategies for finding and developing a community of fellow TAs excited about teaching. We will also explore a framework for collaborative teaching: What are the strengths and weaknesses of working together, what kind of teaching work best lends itself to collaborative approaches, and how can you ensure that the process goes smoothly and has great results?

Wednesday, April 22, 2015
2pm -4pm
CTSI, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

HEALTHY LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Michelle Majeed, TATP Course Instructor Training Coordinator
Morgan Vanek, TATP Humanities Trainer

CORE

During the 2011-2012 academic year, Counselling and Psychological Services at UofT saw a 47 percent increase in students seeking services, with 89 percent reporting feeling overwhelmed and 52 percent expressing intense anxiety. In light of this data the Provost struck an Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health in Fall 2013. In October 2014 this committee released the first student mental health strategy framework at the University of Toronto entitled “Report of the Provostial Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health” (http://mentalhealth.utoronto.ca). In this report the committee made twenty-two recommendations in five identified areas: institutional commitment, awareness, education, training and anti-stigma, inclusive curriculum and pedagogy, mental health services and programs and supportive policies and procedures.

This workshop will provide participant with information on the current state of student mental health services and resources on campuses and strategies for promoting a healthy learning environment in their tutorials and through other forms of contact with their students (e.g. emails, online teaching platforms, office hours).

Tuesday, April 28, 2015
10am-12pm
CTSI, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

MAKING YOUR SYLLABUS WORK FOR YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS

Michelle Majeed, TATP Course Instructor Training Coordinator
Sandy Carpenter, TATP Humanities Trainer

ELECTIVE

In the university setting, a syllabus can be the primary means of communicating course objectives as well as instructor expectations. A well-crafted syllabus ensures that students understand the essential requirements for participating and succeeding in a course. But how do we put it all together? How do we make a syllabus that is a clear, meaningful, and accessible resource for our students?

This session will highlight elements that can make a syllabus a learning tool for your course and some best practices to consider when developing a syllabus that encourages student use. Attendees will receive take-away resources and guidelines that will help them to create or revise their own syllabus.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

2pm -4pm

CTSI, Blackburn Room

Robarts Library, 4th Floor

PUTTING IT ALL INTO WORDS: DRAFTING A STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Ben Moulton, TATP Sciences Coordinator
Adriel Weaver, TATP Social Sciences Trainer

CORE

Increasingly, post-secondary institutions are asking for stand-alone “teaching statements”, or even teaching dossiers, to be included with applications for academic and teaching positions. Even if you have a lot of teaching experience and know what you value in your own approach to teaching, it can be challenging to articulate your teaching beliefs and strategies in a clear written statement. This interactive workshop will seek to provide experienced TAs with strategies for putting their own teaching ideas and experiences into words. Participants will examine and evaluate teaching statements created by others, then work to build a first draft of their own teaching philosophy statement that could be included in job applications or a teaching dossier. Reflective exercises will assist participants in discovering their own teaching philosophy and in expressing this philosophy in narrative form. Suggestions for the content and format of the statement will be provided. This session is targeted at teaching assistants with significant teaching experience. It will be assumed that all participants have a basic understanding of what a teaching dossier or a Statement of Teaching Philosophy is.

Friday, May 8, 2015
2pm – 4pm
CTSI Office, Blackburn Room
Robarts Library, 4th Floor

UTSC WORKSHOPS

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

Shadi Dalili, Senior Lecturer, Chemistry–Physical and Environmental Sciences

Johann Bayer, Senior Lecturer, Physics and Astrophysics–Physical and Environmental Sciences

CORE

This workshop will enable TAs and graduate students to articulate a rationale for active learning pedagogies, even as participants will expand their toolkit of effective strategies for engaging students in active learning.  Resources such as Elizabeth Barkley’s Student Engagement Techniques (2010) will inform the session; participants will be provided with resources to consult during and after the workshop.  Brief explanations of a range of student engagement techniques will be combined with activities in which the participants will work in pairs or small groups to develop their own creative applications and adaptations of the presented strategies.  In this way, the session itself will model effective student engagement techniques.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015
5pm – 7pm
AC219

BEST PRACTICES IN FORMATIVE FEEDBACK

Nancy Johnston, Senior Lecturer, Associate Director, Centre for Teaching and Learning

CORE

Students will take part in a series of hands-on activities interspersed with brief lectures to learn how to increase student engagement and learning through the use of effective feedback techniques. Participants will develop valuable teaching skills by learning how to efficiently assess assignments and provide forward-looking suggestions for improvement.

Thursday, February 5, 2015
10am – 12pm
IC318

NAVIGATING POWER ROLES: COMMUNICATIONS WITH SUPERVISORS AND STUDENTS

Michelle Majeed, TATP Training Coordinator and PhD Candidate, Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies

Ghazal Fazli, UTSC TA Trainer and PhD Candidate, Health Policy

ELECTIVE

Research focused on student engagement demonstrates that undergraduates highly value the relationships they have with TAs. The research also highlights that interactions with students inside and outside of the classroom are key to engaging students and for supporting their academic success. This workshop will focus on developing concrete methods for navigating relationships between students, TAs and course instructors.  Facilitators and attendees will work through a series of case studies with the goals of effectively diagnosing potentially “problematic” situations and turning consultations or “conflicts” into positive opportunities for teaching.  This session will also 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 relationships with course instructors.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015
11am – 1pm
IC318