New TAC: Jamiella Brooks

Salut! !مرحبا As a new TAC I look forward to many opportunities to learn from my peers and to share my (sometimes off-kilter) ideas for teaching and pedagogy. I come from teaching English in a Los Angeles middle school called Maria Regina. Being around very energetic, very curious kids was a challenge (especially when it came to teaching a subject like English) but they certainly taught me a lot about patience and taking different pathways to instruction and learning.

In an age that is increasingly hostile to teachers, I aim to encourage and uplift others. A professor once told me that teaching is the most thankless job there is, and that will remain true until we find a way to be thankful for each other, and guide one another to be increasingly better at what we do. I believe that we are all teachers in some way, shape, or form--at the workplace, at home as parents, among our own friends; teaching and guiding is an innate quality of our being. As a TAC I know that I will be humbled and presented with many learning opportunities to refine and improve my own methods.

Here at Davis I teach French and have taken Arabic classes in an effort to look at the literatures and dialogues coming from places like Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, which have a considerable French language influence and continue to be seated in post-colonial ideology. I am increasingly interested in linguistics, especially issues around second language acquisition and multilingualism. When I'm not teaching or taking classes I spend time in my community garden or can be found watching cartoons with my beloved husband and stepdaughter.

Konnichiwa Minasan

Hello Fellow Educators,

I am Jeff Anderson. As a new member of the TAC team here at UC Davis, I look forward to the many opportunities I will have to support educational development at this university. I believe teaching is an art best perfected with practice, creativity and feedback. I constantly look for ways to improve my own teaching, new ideas to support learning and methods to make the educational environment welcoming for diverse students. I am excited to be part of this team that will sustain this program and bring the benefits of our work to the larger teaching community here at UC Davis.

I am a third year mathematics PhD student. I do research in numerical linear algebra. My specific research problem applies linear algebra to analyze electric circuits. Main point: I use numbers to help make the computers you use run smoothly.

Outside of Math, I love to exercise, eat, cook, and learn about cultures different from my own (I am a Greek, Swedish, Spanish, English Californian. I was born and raised in the Bay Area).

Hi Everyone,

As a new TA consultant, I am very excited and look forward to work with TAC. I am interested in teaching, specifically in promoting student engagement in the classroom. In addition to be a Ph.D. student and consultant, I also teach at Davis Chinese School. I enjoyed teaching whether in university context or adult school setting. The more I teach, the more I enjoyed in it.

I am currently a PhD. Candidate in Education at the University of California, Davis. My emphasis area is educational policy and school organization. Currently, I am working on my dissertation on Student Engagement and Quality of Higher Education: A Contextual and Analytical Study of Current Taiwanese Undergraduates. My educational background is multidisciplinary from B.A. in Chinese Literature with minor in Foreign Language at National Tsinghua University (2001-2005), Master in Educational Leadership at The University of Montana, National Chengchi University (2005-2007).

When I am not teaching or writing my dissertation, I enjoyed spending time hanging out with friends, play board games and travel.

Hi, TAC blog readers! My name's Matt; I'm an anthropology PhD student and a 2nd year fellow and teaching consultant at The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). I'm excited to join my returning and new colleagues in sharing our knowledge, thoughts and practices with the wider graduate teaching community. And I'm especially excited about the possibility of learning about what has been happening in classrooms across campus. For all of us at CETL, teaching and making a difference in our students' education matters. We're ready to work with you to make your classrooms rewarding and collaborative learning spaces. You can find me in Young Hall 2Q; my office door is always open, and I hope you'll stop by to talk throughout the quarter!

As one of this year’s brand new TA Consultants, I’m excited to plunge into the work of supporting other educators here at UC Davis. Teaching has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my graduate career both here at UC Davis and at the University of Montana. It has also been one of the most challenging. I have probably encountered (or caused) just about every classroom issue you could imagine. Fortunately, I have benefited from excellent teaching mentors who have helped me to learn from these experiences, and I’m constantly seeking ways to improve my teaching. The more I learn about teaching, the more I enjoy it. I look forward to sharing this enthusiasm with other graduate students.

In addition to being a TAC, I’m a PhD candidate in the department of English with a Designated Emphasis in Native American Studies. I’m particularly interested in nineteenth-century American literatures and Native American literatures. My dissertation explores literary expressions of alternative nationalisms in the nineteenth-century United States, focusing on some of the different ways that nineteenth-century writers imagined the future of the space now occupied by the United States.

When I’m not teaching, reading, or working on my dissertation, you can usually find me outside. I love to explore California’s mountains, valleys, and coastlines.

NEW TAC: Dalia Magaña

¡Hola! I’m thrilled to be joining the cohort as a new TAC! Teaching has been one of the most rewarding parts of graduate school (most of us probably have this in common!). Teaching, to me means being immersed in a learning environment since not only do students learning from me but, I am also constantly learning from them. Student’s investment in learning has driven me to pursue a career where I will have opportunities to learn about the diverse approaches to teaching giving me the tools to provide fruitful outcomes for students. For these reasons, I look forward to a collaborative enriching opportunity as TA consultant to learn from others and share my experience and passion for teaching.

I’m a 4^th year graduate student in the Spanish Department where I have been teaching for the past 4 years. My research involves medical Spanish from a linguistic perspective (how Spanish speaking patients interact with their doctors in Spanish with or without an interpreter and based on this how to teach medical Spanish). In the future I hope to continue my research and specially continue teaching college students.

Aside from research and teaching, I don’t really have hobbies of my own at this time. For now I enjoy occupying my free time by my children’s hobbies: play-dates, watching rated G/ PG movies, bike-riding, Farmer’s market etc.

TAC Member: Sarah Dalrymple

I have been a TA Consultant for almost 2 years and this school year I have also been one of the TA Consultant Co-Coordinators. During this time, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to work with other graduate students to improve their teaching. My favorite aspect of the TAC position is that our interactions with TAs are mutually beneficial. I walk away from every consultation and workshop having learned something new. This has allowed me to improve my own teaching tremendously!

Sadly, I need to finish my dissertation and will leave the group at the end of the spring, but I'm looking forward to one last quarter of consultations! I'm pretty much the biggest fan ever of the Mid-Quarter Interview (MQI) consultations that we do for TAs. During the interview, students generate specific suggestions for how their TA can improve their teaching. Then the TAC shares the suggestions with the TA in a consultation afterwards. Having had an MQI done in one of my classes, I know first hand that the suggestions are helpful and that the interview itself can make a big difference in students' attitudes about the course and you, the instructor. I would recommend that everyone do an MQI if they are interested in improving their teaching!

I am a fifth year Ph.D. student in Population Biology and am doing my dissertation research on ants and fire severity patterns in the Eastern Sierra. This means I spend my summers in high dessert forests with perfect weather and picturesque vistas. It's not a bad way to collect data... When I'm not thinking about teaching or biology I also enjoy cooking, painting, and climbing, and figuring out how to work those activities into my work whenever possible.

New TAC: Heather Dwyer

Hey everyone, I'm really excited to be a part of the TAC group! Similar to a lot of grad students, I came here with no interest in teaching but quickly found that teaching is my favorite part of graduate school. As a TAC I'm hoping to help others improve and get more comfortable with teaching. I'm also excited to learn a lot from other TAs and spend more time talking and thinking about the classroom.

I'm a fourth year in the ecology graduate group and my research focuses on the response of butterflies to regional warming. In addition to being a teaching assistant a bunch of times, I've participated in teaching seminars and creating teaching tools. At some point I'd love to get some real experience in course design. I hope to continue teaching at the college level after graduate school—anything from intro bio to upper-level, specialized classes.

My interests outside of teaching and biology include art, literature, and exploring the Bay Area.