Requirements for ECE TAs:
ECE TAs are encouraged to contact their TATD Fellow Mentor throughout the semester with any questions or TA concerns. New TAs are required to meet with mentors at a mid-semester check-in. TAs are required to attend two workshops per semester.
Fall 2023
Past Workshops
Spring 2023
Week of February 13: "Developing a Good Professor-TA Relationship"
Time/location: Tuesday, February 14 at 10:30 am in AVW 2460
Facilitated by Michael Moore
It is often hard as a TA to determine how involved you should be with the professor you TA for. How often should you communicate? What course-related decisions should you make on your own? Which decisions should you delegate to the professor? How much autonomy do you have in designing your lab/discussion sessions. This talk will address these points and more in hopes of creating a better dynamic between you and your professor.
Week of February 20: "TA'ing for Graduate Classes"
Time/location: Tuesday, February 21 at 1:00 pm in AVW 1146
Facilitated by Mustafa Doger
Over the last year, I was a TA for two different graduate courses (ENEE627 & ENEE662) and I realized how different and difficult it is to be a TA for graduate courses. During this workshop, I will talk about things that are easier as well as things that are more different & difficult and how to cope with them. I will share some of my experiences and tips for teaching graduate courses.
Week of February 27: "Improving Mid-Semester Evaluations: Strategies for Meaningful Student Feedback"
Time/location: Thursday, March 2 at 1 pm in AVW 2460
Facilitated by Faisal Hamman
This workshop aims to equip TAs with practical strategies for enhancing mid-semester evaluations in order to gather more meaningful student feedback and improve teaching practices. The workshop will be divided into three main sections: crafting quality evaluations, fostering student engagement and response, and utilizing feedback to enhance teaching and learning outcomes.
Week of March 13: "Building Good Habits to Balance Classes, Research, and TA Duties"
Time/location: Wednesday, March 15 at 12:30 pm in AVW 2460
Facilitated by Joseph Messou
Balancing classes, research, and TA duties as PhD students can be challenging. Most of the time, excelling at all these tasks comes at the expense of sleep, which is not sustainable. In this workshop, we will go over tips to develop good habits in order to stay on track when things are difficult and not feel overwhelmed.
Week of March 27: "Time Management Strategies"
Time/location: Thursday, March 30 at 10:30 am in AVW 1146
Facilitated by Sahan Liyanaarachchi
Juggling between course work, research and TA can be an exhaustive task. I would like to discuss a few techniques & tools for effectively managing your time, both as a grad student and a TA.
Week of April 3: "Those Left Behind: Strategies to Support the Bottom Cohort"
Time/location: Wednesday, April 5 at 3:30 pm in AVW 2460
Facilitated by Michael Pedowitz
Over the course of one's experience as a TA it is common to encounter students that are putting in a significant amount of effort but fall behind in coursework. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss challenges and strategies in working with these students.
Week of April 10: "How to Address Conflicts Between Yourself and the Instructor"
Time/location: Wednesday, April 12 at 2 pm in AVW 2460
Facilitated by Sahar Zargarzadeh
I believe there are lots of cases that we might face a conflict with the instructor of the course. Sometimes the issue is very simple and minor that we can talk about it and reach to the same conclusion, but sometimes it's not. I want to let TAs talk about their related experiences and guide them through how to approach the problem.
Week of April 17: "How to Grade Uniformly"
Time/location: Wednesday, April 19 at 1 pm in AVW 2460
Facilitated by Utku Noyan
Grading uniformly refers to the practice of consistently applying the same standards to all students in a class or course when evaluating their performance and assigning grades. It is important for ensuring fairness and promoting a level playing field for all learners. The following are key steps in grading uniformly:
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Establish clear and concise grading criteria
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Use objective methods of assessment such as tests, quizzes, and standardized rubrics
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Consistently apply the same grading standards to all students
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Avoid subjective bias and favoritism
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Provide regular and constructive feedback to students
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Use data-driven decision making and keep accurate records of student performance
By following these steps, educators can ensure that their grading practices are transparent, fair, and consistent, leading to a more equitable and effective learning environment for all students.
Fall 2022
Week of November 7: "Your Rights as TAs"
Time/location:
Facilitated by Sahar Zargarzadeh
The other day I was speaking with my TA friends, and I realized that while all of us are mostly aware of our duties as TAs, we don’t usually know about our rights! This inspired me to offer a workshop on this subject. I would like to let GTAs know about the rights that they didn’t imagine they have!
November 1: "Receptive Teaching: The Importance of Soliciting and Adapting to Students Feedback"
Time/location: 3:00 pm; 2460 AV Williams
Facilitated by Michael Moore
As TAs, we oftentimes find ourselves so hyper-focused on delivering course content to our students that we forget about something that our students can offer us — their feedback. Feedback allows us to calibrate our teaching styles to best suit our students. While the most common way that we collect feedback is through mid-semester evaluations, these occur far too late in the semester to be of any impactful use. In addition, even with the mid-semester feedback, it is difficult to translate it into actionable methods to better our teaching styles. In this workshop, we will discuss several ways to solicit feedback from students throughout the semester, as well as how to adapt our teaching styles based on this feedback, with the ultimate goal being to enhance the learning environment for our students.
October 26: "What Makes a Teacher Exemplary?"
Time/location: 11:00 am; 2460 AV Williams
Facilitated by Faisal Hamman
Teaching assistants (TAs) serve as a bridge between students and professors, enabling them to form a lasting impression when teaching. New TAs often develop teaching methods through trial and error, an unsystematic approach that might result in fragmented or unfounded beliefs about what makes a teaching method effective. The aim of this workshop is to provide TAs with the pedagogical knowledge required to be outstanding teachers within the classroom. I will outline four key dimensions of effective teaching that exemplary teachers excel in: lesson organization, lesson clarity, lesson interest, and classroom climate. We will go over numerous techniques utilized by these instructors to assist TAs in enhancing students' learning experiences. The workshop participants are encouraged to share their ideas, experiences, and pedagogical knowledge. By initiating a conversation on "what makes a teacher exemplary?" I hope to help TAs develop effective teaching strategies that can be implemented in the classroom.
October 21: "How to Engage Students "
Time/location: 1pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Utku Noyan
The best books, and course materials in the world will not engage students about learning and eager to work hard. Passion, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is a critical aspect in students' performance at all levels of their education, and TAs may play a crucial role in giving and promoting that motivation in students. Of course, that's easier said than done since every student is driven differently, and it takes time and a lot of effort to get a classroom full of children engaged about learning, working hard, and pushing themselves to thrive. Even the most well-intentioned and knowledgeable TAs often struggle to keep students on track, so whether you're an experienced or fresh TA, we'll examine how we can engage our students to urge them to unleash their full potential.
October 14: "Tools to Adapt to a Student's Learning Style "
Time/location: 10:00 am; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Joseph Messou
Learning styles vary depending on the student and the level of the class. While most graduate students are already independent and will ask precise questions during office hours, a lot of undergraduate students are still trying to build good learning habits. As TAs, our job is to help clarify certain topics seen in class and assist students with homework problems. This can be done in different ways and most of the time depends on the student asking the question. In this workshop, we will cover tools to adapt to a student’s learning style and become helpful TAs.
October 5: "Learner-Centered Teaching"
Time/location: 12:30pm; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Mustafa Doger
I will talk about learner-centered teaching which puts emphasis on students capabilities and how to make most of them. I will explain basic steps of learner-centered teaching strategies that motivates students and facilitates learning.
September 28: "Post COVID-19 Teaching Changes"
Time/location: 1:00 pm; 2460 AV Williams
Facilitated by Michael Pedowitz
Covid 19 produced a marked shift in both student readiness, engagement and expectations. At the same time it shifted teaching paradigms and opened up new ways of learning g for students. In this workshop I will discuss the challenges and benefits of these changes and how to take them into account moving forwards.
September 22: "Adjusting to the TA Life "
Time/location: 12:00pm, AVW 2460
Facilitated by Sahan Liyanaarachchi
I would like to discuss the problems I faced as a TA and give a brief description about how I overcame them. I would also like to divide the attendees into groups of 5 or 6 and allow them to discuss the problems they face and come up with solutions as a group.
Spring 2022
April 7: "Making a more interactive classroom"
Time/location: 3pm; AVW 2460
Facilitated by Fatemeh Alimardani
I will speak about the use of interactive teaching approaches in this workshop, urging more attention to the content of the lesson. Interactive education is all about teaching students in a way that engages them directly in their learning process. Not only will I speak about the use of interactive methods of teaching, but I'll also give you some examples of methods used as well.
April 1: "Teaching students from diverse backgrounds"
Time/location: 2pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Lei Pan
Sometimes we may have students with diversified background in our class, with different academic standing and other factors. There is no one size fit all teaching solution that could be effective among everyone. In this workshop, I will help you think through several hypothetical scenarios to better understanding the needs of students with diversified background.
March 15: "How to TA labs efficiently"
Time/location: 11:00am, Zoom
Facilitated by Wei-Hsiang Wang
It usually takes effort and time to TA lab-based courses, TA needs to prepare pre-lab report, post-lab report, and answer students questions. Often times, during a lab session, students have different questions you need to investigate. In this workshop, I am going to provides some tips on leading labs more efficiently.
March 7: "How to motivate students to learn instead of focusing on the grade "
Time/location: 3:00pm, AVW 2460
Facilitated by Joseph Messou
Unfortunately, as years go by, it seems that more and more students no longer care about learning and only want a decent grade to pass the class. Having a good GPA is important and may be enough to get an interview. However, it takes more to go beyond the interview stage. This is when students are expected to convert their GPA into knowledge and skills obtained from their different classes. As TAs, in addition to grading and helping students during a lab, office hours, or a discussion session, we also have the ability to impact students in the long term. In this workshop, we will cover strategies to help students focus on learning instead of the grade.
February 28: "Making grading an easier and more time-efficient process"
Time/location: 11am, AVW 2460
Facilitated by Arafat Hasnain
Giving feedback on assignments is one of the critical aspects of being a teaching assistant. However, grading can also seem like an arduous task if not managed properly along with other responsibilities of being a graduate student. This discussion driver workshop will provide tips on being an efficient grader with consistent grading methods and proper communication.
February 23: "Teaching as an International Teaching Assistant"
Time/location: 12pm, AVW 2460
Facilitated by Matin Mortaheb
Some international graduate students are worried when they learn that they are required to teach, especially in interactive classes. This may be caused by a lack of confidence in communicating in another language as well as being unfamiliar with that culture. The idea behind this workshop is to give international teaching assistants (ITAs) several tips and techniques that can be useful to be applied to their teaching methods to boost their confidence in communicating with students and have effective teaching in the classroom.
February 17: "TA assignments: How to handle a lack of expertise"
Time/location: 2pm, AVW 2460
Facilitated by Michael Pedowitz TA assignments are often made with careful consideration to your skills. But one can TA a course they have a very limited background for. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss ways to mitigate this and other administrative parts of being a TA
Fall 2021
November 12: "Strategies for Motivating Students"
Time/location: 11:00 am; 1146 A.V. Williams Building
Facilitated by Fatemeh Alimardani
The best lessons, books, and materials in the world won’t get students excited about learning and willing to work hard if they’re not motivated. Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is a key factor in the success of students at all stages of their education, and TAs can play a pivotal role in providing and encouraging that motivation in students. Of course, that’s easier said than done, as all students are motivated differently and it takes time and a lot of effort to learn to get a classroom full of students enthusiastic about learning, working hard, and pushing themselves to excel. Even the most well-intentioned and educated TAs sometimes lack the skills to keep students on track, so whether you’re a new TA or an experienced one, we will see how we can motivate our students to encourage them to live up to their true potential.
October 26: "Making Good Use of Office Hours and the Virtual Discussion"
Time/location: 12:00 pm/ Zoom
Facilitated by Wei-Hsiang Wang
Regular office hours can not be sufficient for all of the students. They may have time conflict or they do not even start to do the homework by your office hours. Most of the questions come one day before the deadline via emails. Sometimes it is difficult to answer questions simply using email, and may lead to time consuming while you cannot always set up a zoom meeting to discuss with them. In this workshop, I aim to discuss some issues I had before and give some tips.
October 20: "How to Prepare Students and Ourselves for the Transition to In-person Classes?"
Time/location: 12:00 pm/1146 A.V. Williams
Facilitated by Matin Mortaheb
As students, faculties, and TAs acclimate to shifting in-person classes, many will struggle with changes in routine and the loss of whatever daily online habits they had settled into during distance learning. Some students can even feel like they are experiencing withdrawals from their digital lives. In this workshop, I will introduce several useful methods which may help you as a teaching assistant to adjust yourself to the in-person teaching methods while at the same time getting benefit of what we had designed for virtual setting, and also to help you to motivate your students to do this transition better.
October 14: "Grading, Student Success, and Building a Rapport"
Time/location: 2:00 pm; 1146 AV Williams
Facilitated by Michael Pedowitz
The purpose of this TATD is to look at grading standards, how to define student success, and how to effectively communicate and get buy-in from students on these goals in your classes. This is driven by my experience that students often feel that TA's are arbitrary or uninterested in helping them learn the material in the class. Therefore the workshop will be split into several sections, overviewing grading and the communication of these schemes to students, harmonizing student and TA views of success. And final the communication of your views as a TA on these ideas in a receptive and respectful way.
Thursday, October 7: "How Much Help Should I Give the Students?"
Time/location: 10:30 am; 2460 AV Williams
Facilitated by Ehounoud Joseph C Messou
A recurring challenge during office hours is to determine how much help you should give students. While we want to encourage students to learn on their own, directing them to the book cannot be viable since our main goal is to help them learn and not point out useful resources. At the same time, students will always try to get the answer from you. In this workshop, we will go over tips to find the right balance and be a helpful TA.
Friday, October 1: "What Have We Learned From TAing Online?"
Time/location:12 pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Lei Pan
In the past three semesters, online classes have been an integrated part of the learning and teaching experience. Now with most classes returned to in-person meeting, what can we learn from the online experience and make both students and TAs experience better?
September 20: "Leading Effective Discussion Sessions"
Time: 12 pm; 2460 AV Williams
Facilitated by Arafat Hasnain
Discussion sessions are an essential element of university education. They can complement regular lecture sessions and aid the students in their understanding of the course material. There are various challenges associated with leading discussions as teaching assistants, especially in the virtual classroom environment. In this workshop, we will go over various approaches for teaching in discussion sessions that hold the students’ attention and also provide an effective medium of learning.
April 14: "Helping Students Make Informed Decisions On Potential Career Paths"
Time: 2 pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Skylar Hoffert
Finding a career path for engineering students is quite difficult, considering how many potential applications of engineering knowledge exist. In this workshop, we will discuss ways that you can encourage different students to pursue different career paths and help them to find related experience. Given the disparity of interest for undergraduate students, this can be challenging this workshop will provide you with more ideas on how to assist students who are searching for a career path.
April 8: "Subduing Ego and Promoting Self-Esteem in Students"
Time: 3:00 pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Charles Turner
We all struggle with identity and self-worth to various degrees. However, this is not an indicator of competence or aptitude for academics. If we understand the difference between self-image and self-esteem, we can improve the experience of our students and increase the chances of their success. This workshop will explore this concept and discuss ways of changing our method of instruction.
March 31: "What to Expect When Teaching"
Time: 2:00 pm, zoom
Facilitated by Semih Kara and Lei Pan
We would like to share and discuss some of the situations that you as a TA can or cannot expect. Semih will focus on the unexpected situations a TA might encounter, and Lei will discuss what are the perks that you can take advantage of, especially given that online teaching has made a lot of things easier. Our goal is to relieve you from the stress of being a TA with our experience.
March 12: "Enhancing the Communication With Students"
Time: 11:00 am; zoom
Facilitated by Xiaomin Lin
I will talk about inclusion and diversity in the classroom. And then I will talk about communication enhancement. Last but not least, I will about how to set up a good online office hour/recitation.
March 2: "How to Evaluate Students More Efficiently and Fairly in Virtual Education?
Time: 1:00 pm; zoom
Facilitated by Matin Mortaheb
Grading is inherently a burdensome process. Although there are many ways to make grading more efficient, many factors should be considered to make sure that the efforts of students are fairly assessed by the applied grading method. In this workshop, I will introduce several useful grading methods for different grading scenarios happening in virtual education which may help you as a teaching assistant to reduce the load of grading while keeps its fairness.
February 26: "Encouraging Active Learning During Office Hours"
Time: 11:00 am; zoom
Facilitated by Levi Burner
Last semester, my workshop was titled “Helping Students Apply their Coursework”. It introduced a method of structuring conversations with students in order to help them bridge the theory to practice gap. This semester’s workshop will pick up where the last left off with a more detailed exploration of question/answer conversational strategies and visual aids (especially for online classes) to encourage active participation of students in office hour’s style conversations. A particularly interesting case will be what to do if you do not know the answer. There will be a breakout session since that was well received last semester.
February 19: "Leading Effective Discussions"
12:00 pm; zoom
Facilated by Arafat Hasnain
Discussion sessions are an essential element of university education. They can complement regular lecture sessions and aid the students in their understanding of the course material. There are various challenges associated with leading discussions as teaching assistants, especially in the virtual classroom environment. In this workshop, we will go over various approaches for teaching in discussion sessions that hold the students’ attention and also provide an effective medium of learning.
November 13: "Practicing Mindfulness- Virtual Edition"
Time 2:00pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Charles Turner
Practicing mindfulness has become a popular topic for managing emotions and stress, as well as enhancing clarity and focus on one's tasks each day. This is especially critical in today's virtual/teleworking environment where you or your students might be feeling the effects of isolation. We can use these principles to promote a calm, relaxed, yet enlivened classroom environment. This workshop will discuss these principles and provide some practical exercises for TA's to apply in the virtual classroom and their own personal life.
November 4:"Balancing Your Time as a Student, TA and Researcher"
Time 2:30pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Semih Kara
Many of us can be overwhelmed under the multifaceted nature of the PhD process, since we are expected to sucessfully function as students, TAs and researchers. This workshop aims to hear out the difficulties that you might be having in this regard and introducing tips to overcome these concerns, as well as providing an environment for the fellow TAs to share their experiences and suggestions on how you can enhance your multitasking abilities. Some of the topics to be discussed includes time and load management, tips for gaining efficiency in TA and student chores and overcoming the burnout syndrome. Seeing that we have many specific tasks (e.g. grading, doing homework, carrying out experiments and proving results) of several nature, we will discuss on the micro-perspective of how to become more efficient in these tasks. We will also talk about the macro-perspective of how to place these tasks into our daily life. Finally we will talk about the burnout syndrome and share what motivated us to take this path. As a result of this workshop we hope that you will feel more control over your tasks and be motivated to embrace the difficulties of the PhD process.
October 22: "Seeing the Forest for the Tree: Helping Students Apply Their Coursework"
Time 12:30pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Levi Burner
Engineers naturally seek practical application of theoretical knowledge. However, students encountering a subject for the first-time sometimes struggle to see utility in the subject. Further, successful real-world designs often require creative application of theory. In both situations, students need to build top-down associations of practical requirements with theoretical concepts. This workshop will discuss how TA’s can encourage this process with confidence boosts, tips, and examples.
October 16: "Leading Effective Discussion Sessions"
12:00pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Arafat Hasnain
Discussion sessions are an integral part of learning in university. Discussion sessions can supplement regular lectures and are very important for the understanding of course material for students. In this workshop, we will go over different strategies for leading discussion sessions that are engaging and helpful to students.
September 30: "Stimulating the Curiosity of Engineering Students"
2:00pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Skylar Hoffert
An immensely helpful skill for educators to possess is the ability to stimulate curiosity in students. Rather than always asking questions to your students and expecting an answer back - a good learning plan should encourage students to ask questions on their own in an effort to understand the material. This workshop will discuss some strategies that TAs could use to stimulate some curiosity in the minds of their students and allow TAs to discuss successful related strategies.
September 23: "How to Survive Virtual Lab Sessions"
11:00 am; Zoom
Facilitated by Lei Pan
Communicating with students over Zoom can be awkward, especially when feedback from students are not instantaneous. For lab sections, they usually last for at least 2 to 3 hours. Therefore, a new method for interacting with students during lab sessions is needed to make the virtual session more engaging.
September 16: "How to Adapt to the Virtual Teaching Environment as a Teaching Assistant"
12:00 pm; Zoom
Facilitated by Matin Mortaheb and Xiaomin Lin
By switching to virtual classrooms in this semester, teacher assistants will need to figure out how to adapt their instruction to facilitate active learning in the virtual setting classrooms. Therefore, the overall goal of this session is to make you prepared for the Zoom typed discussion classroom or office hours. The session consists of two parts. Matin would like to share some techniques and examples that can be used to improve the student engagement in the virtual classroom. Xiaomin will introduce some of the helpful online tools for managing the class and he also will share some of his past experiences in the virtual classroom.
March 4: "Practicing Mindfulness Inside and Outside of the Classroom"
12:30 pm; 1146 AV Williams Building
Facilitated by Charles Turner
Practicing mindfulness has become a popular topic for managing emotions and stress, as well as enhancing clarity and focus on one's tasks each day. We can also use these principles to promote a calm, relaxed, yet enlivened classroom environment. This workshop will discuss these principles and provide some practical exercises for TA's to apply in the classroom and their own personal life.
February 27: "Satisfactory Performance as a TA"
1:00 pm; 2460 AV Williams Building
Facilitated by Jinjing Han
Based on the TA evaluation form, there are three questions for students to evaluate a TA. In this workshop, I am planning to discuss how to treat students with respect, how to be well-prepared for class, and how to be an effective teacher. In addition, I will also discuss the comments I received in the past 2 years and discuss what are students really looking for, and how to satisfy students.
February 21: "Expect the Unexpected: Learning to be an Adaptable TA"
1:30 pm; 2168 AV Williams Building
Facilitated by Semih Kara
We will be discussing how to adapt to assisting classes that the TA has forgotten or the instructor does differently than what the TA is used to. I see instances of the first one in classes such as introductory digital logic (or other introductory classes) and I believe the second issue happens often in graduate classes. I am aiming to talk on different ways to coop with these situations, such as attending classes, going through the syllabus with the instructor beforehand and following every step of the course, using student’s homeworks to help preparing rubrics, etc. as well as how this might effect time management.
February 4: "What's All This About 'Research'?"
2:00 pm; AV Williams 2460
Presented by Professor Bruce Jacob
Professor Jacob will take some time to talk to TAs about why you should do research, how to do research, and how to go about finding/picking a research advisor.
November 14: "Balancing Your Time as a TA, Student, and Researcher"
2:00 pm; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Semih Kara
As the end of the semester approaches many of us are overwhelmed under the multifaceted nature of the PhD process, since we are expected to successfully function as students, TAs and researchers. This workshop aims to understand the difficulties that you might be having in this regard and introducing tips to overcome these concerns, as well as providing an environment for the fellow TAs to share their experiences and suggestions on how you can enhance your multitasking abilities. Some of the topics to be discussed include time and load management, tips for gaining efficiency in TA and student chores and overcoming the burnout syndrome. Seeing that we have many specific tasks (e.g. grading, doing homework, carrying out experiments and proving results) of several natures, we will discuss on the micro-perspective of how to become more efficient in these tasks. We will also talk about the macro-perspective of how to place these tasks into our daily life. Finally we will talk about the burnout syndrome and share what motivated us to take this path. As a result of this workshop we hope that you will feel more control over your tasks and be motivated to embrace the difficulties of the PhD process.
October 28: "How to Ensure That Your Students Get the Maximum Benefit of a Discussion Session"
1:00 pm; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Sajani Pallegoda Vithana
A discussion session is where the students train themselves to apply the subject matter they learn in class, while clearing out their doubts on the material. TA's should make sure that they create an interactive environment during the discussion session in order to let the students get a better understanding on the concepts and to improve their critical thinking skills. Moreover, TA's could use simple techniques such as briefing the material before moving on to questions and conducting a short Q&A session, to ensure that the students get the maximum benefit of the discussion session.
October 21: Community Event "Coffee With Your TATD Mentor"
3:00 pm; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Marissa Stewart from TLTC
This Community Event will consist of a brief workshop regarding the benefits of feedback. This topic can be particularly helpful as mid-semester evaluations are being held and TAs are in the process of requesting feedback from their students and even mentors or professors. The second half of the event, TAs and their mentors will have time to talk over coffee and pastries.
October 17: "Motivating Your Students to Be More Independent and Prepared"
10:00 am; AV Williams 1146
Facilitated by Yuqi Zhao and Xiaomin Lin
Learning is mainly done by a student himself/herself. The recitation would be more effective and efficient if the students come prepared. Thus, motivating the students to be more independent and prepared before coming to the discussion (lab) session is an important task for all TAs. In this workshop, we aim to focus on tips we learned from our past TA experience.
October 10: "Discussion Sessions: Understanding a Student's Perspective"
11:00 am; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Sai Saketh Rambhatla
Most TAs do a good job in making the discussion session as smooth and coherent as possible but what does the student think? We as TAs work hard to prepare well for the session but do we keep the student in mind during our preparation. This workshop starts by highlighting how differently the student perceives the discussion session and ends it with some ways to address such issues.
October 1: "Making the Most of Your Office Hour"
2:00 pm; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Xin Tian
Office hour lasts usually about one hour every week. How to make full use of this one hour to help as many students as possible is an important lesson for TAs to learn. In this workshop, I aim to focus on tips I learned from my past TA experience. 1) Collect questions before office hours to have an expectation of what questions may be asked. (Or we can have a sense from students’ emails). 2) Summarize and make a list of questions that most students don’t fully understand. Solve those common questions together to save time and avoid repeating. 3) Avoid spending too much time on one question. 4) Be prepared and know the lectures. 5) Try to use illustrations like logical drawing, block diagram, etc. to facilitate explanation.
September 26: "Grading to Teach"
1:00pm; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Andrew Goffin
Instead of focusing on how to grade efficiently (that's likely covered by others), this talk will talk about how to develop a rubric and grade assignments to best educate students. For example: distribute points so the most important concepts are worth the most, write comments to lead students to the correct conclusion when they are wrong.
September 16: "Three Steps to an Engaging Lab Session"
12:30 pm; AV Williams 2460
Facilitated by Lei Pan and Jinjing Han
Students spend more time with a lab TA than the professor. Also unlike a discussion session TA, the lab TA plays a more important role in the class since students learn directly from him/her. Thus it is important for us, as lab TAs to convey course material to students in the valuable three hours. We would like to share our experience with you on how to design an engaging lab session in three steps: before the lab session, during the lab session, and after the lab session.