Breaking News! The Winter Workshops Descriptions

2012 Winter Workshop Series  

Teach your own Course: From the Basic to the Advanced 

Fridays 10am - Noon, Starting Jan 20th 

Place: 242 Asmundson Hall 
(except Feb 10 will in 2342 Storer Hall)

Jan 20th - How to Make a Syllabus 
Instructors: Jeff Anderson, Mara Evans, Henry Yeung

Description: 
Are you a first-time instructor or TA? Are you an experienced TA that would like to re-think how you teach a class? Whether you are a TA, an Associate Instructor, or anticipating your first teaching job, a syllabus serves as a framework for your class. In this workshop we will outline the elements of a syllabus and discuss its purpose. You will leave with an outline of a personal syllabus. If you are entering the job market, a fully developed syllabus is an excellent indication of your teaching abilities. Our discussion will provide a foundation for the topics covered later in this six-part series, including how to assess critical thinking, how to link the humanities and STEM, how to grade effectively and efficiently, and classroom management. 

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Jan 27th - Going Critical: Creating Activities that Promote Critical Thinking 
Instructors: Erin Hendel, Dalia Magana, Henry Yeung 

Description: 
Do you want your students to think more critically? Do you want your exams to do measure more than memorization? Join our workshop to learn how to build assignments, quizzes and exams that assess student understanding of course content while improving their critical thinking. Learn to develop assessments that encourage creative, active learning and higher-order thinking--the kinds of skills that will transport student knowledge beyond the classroom. We’ll develop some guidelines for assessing critical thinking and work with examples of some of the best creative assessments. 

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Feb 3rd - The Benefits of Problems: How to use Problem-based Learning and Problem Solving to Promote Critical Thinking 
Instructors: Jeff Anderson, Ann Chang, Erin Hendel 

Description:
“This class taught me how to think.” Are you interested in getting feedback like this on your course evaluations? Interested in helping your students move beyond knowing course material to developing deep critical thinking skills? This workshop will introduce you to techniques you can use to help students assimilate information at a deeper level through problem-solving and problem-based learning. We’ll cover what problem-based learning is, how to use it, and provide examples of how problem-solving can be used in all types of classes–from the humanities to social sciences to STEM courses. 

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Feb 10th - Odd Couplings: STEM and Humanities Teaching Meet 
Instructors: Dalia Magana, Matthew Nesvet 

Description:
Imagine! In one classroom, students are collected around a seminar table, reading, writing, and discussing. In a second classroom, students appear gathered around several object. In which fields are these two groups of students learning? In many instructors’ minds, students in the first classroom are reading, writing, and discussing in a humanities or humanistic social sciences course; the second classroom holds a STEM class. Come to this workshop to either learn to use teaching techniques that traditionally appear in STEM classrooms to teach reading, writing, and critical thinking in an arts, humanities, or social sciences course... or come to this workshop to learn how reading, writing, and open-ended, critical discussions can improve STEM teaching.  

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Feb 17th - Grading: The red pen is mightier than the sword 
Instructors: Ann Chang, Heather Dwyer, Matt Nesvet 

Description:
In most students’ and instructors’ minds, grades loom large. In this workshop, we will ask how grades influence learning. Come to this workshop to discuss practical techniques for grading and specific methods for evaluating written work. Learn tips on how to grade quickly, give useful feedback, and elicit critical thinking when you return assignments to students. 

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Feb 24th - Parenting, Pampering or Policing? Classroom management and interacting with your students 
Instructors: Jamiella Brooks, Heather Dwyer, Mara Evans 

Description:
In the classroom instructors must strike a balance between approachability and authority. Do we mentor, coddle or discipline our students? In this workshop we will discuss and share practical techniques for setting and communicating expectations. We will also analyze different ways of addressing challenging situations in classroom management. Participants will gain skills to shape their classroom dynamics, maximize student learning, and establish a positive and productive classroom environment.

Winter Workshop Series Dates have been set!

Winter Teaching Workshop Series!

The TAC will be hosting 6 workshops to help you get ready to teach your own classes. They will cover how to create a syllabus, how to design assignments, how to grade assignments and much, much more.

If you are interested in attending any of these workshops please save the dates for every Friday between Jan 20^th and Feb 24^th between 10am and noon. More information will be posted soon!

We look forward to seeing you there!

TAC Workshop: Community in the Classroom

On October 24 Dalia, Ann, and Heather led a workshop about making connections in the classroom. We chose this topic because all three of us feel that strong connections between the instructor and the students (and between students and other students) help to create a positive classroom environment in which better learning can happen. We had five attendants who were great participators and all had some really insightful things to say.

In developing this workshop, we ran into the issue that "connections" can be a nebulous concept, so our first exercise involved attempting to define connections. In order to help do this, the workshop leaders explained why we're personally interested in the topic, and the participants told each other why they were attending the workshop. One person said he thought connections involved mutual relationships. Another felt that connections are made by really getting to know your students. Another said he was at the workshop because he needed to build stronger connections so that his students would feel more comfortable and motivated.

After our participants had an opportunity to share their views about what it means to make connections and why they are important, we moved on to the next activity: TRUE/FALSE statements:

True False	Frequent student-instructor contact in and out of class is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. [1] [2] [4]
True False	Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. [1]
True False	Sharing one’s ideas and responding to others’ rarely improves thinking and deepens understanding. [1]
True False	Students’ intellectual and personal development is not improved by positive student-faculty contact in the informal setting (outside of classroom). [4]
True False	When instructors are demeaning it has little effect on the classroom climate. [3]

The purpose of the activity was to present research-based findings on the importance of connections in the classroom using an interactive/ hands-on approach. After giving participants a few minutes to think about these and share their responses with the person next to them, we had a whole group discussion. Statement #1 generated a good discussion. One person pointed out that we should also think about the "quality" of student-instructor contact, rather than only frequency. We also discussed strategies to make these stronger connections (such as staying after for a few minutes, replying to emails promply to increase communication etc.). The group was small, but very lively and seemed excited about the topic. We also passed out the "7 Principles for Good Practice..."

Chickering, A. & Gamson, Z. (1987). “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.” AAHE Bulletin, 39, 3-7.
<http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm>

Even though the 7 principles are out dated, they are still frequently cited and used for example in studies on how to make stronger connections in online classrooms. Overall, the article is short, very practical, and supported our arguments on why connections were important. Therefore, we feel they left with a good reference about undergraduate teaching and making connections.

After the true-false section, Heather led an exercise in which the participants identified common classroom problems that arose because of negative or lack of connections. We had some great discussion in this section, especially when people were able to share their own experiences. One (very common) problem that a participant volunteered was "distracted students, especially those distracted by Facebook/texting/web surfing/etc". Almost everyone in the room has seen this and so we got a lot of suggestions about how to deal with this problem, including:

Being a more dynamic speaker (which would improve the connection between instructor and student)

Have students do more small group so that they are actively engaged (which would strengthen student-student connections)

Physically moving around the room so students in the back are now in front

Interject phrases like "this will be on the homework" or "what I just said will be on the exam"

To end the workshop Ann introduced five scenarios that may come up in the classroom that one could resolve by building connections between students and with students. Because there were five participants we had each participant choose a scenario that they would like to present and they recapped the scenario and gave their solution to it. We then discussed other options to these solutions. The five scenarios were:

1. Your class just received their first midterms back. At the end of the class period one student approaches you to express concern over their grade and the potential effects it could have over their ability to get into graduate/medical/professional school. What do you do and say to this student?

2. You are leading a discussion section that heavily relies on student participation. But your students won’t speak up. What are some things you can do to get your students to participate more?
   
3. You are teaching a class with a culturally diverse (gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, etc.) student body. You notice that only one type of group answers questions you pose to the class. What can you do to connect with the other groups and get the different groups to participate?
   
4. You grade the first class assignment or test and everyone does poorly. You are frustrated because no one comes to your office hours and when you ask them if there are any questions, no one answers. How do you ensure your students do better on the next test?
   
5. Your students keep falling asleep in class and seem sluggish during discussion. However you know the students are doing relatively well because the test scores are about what you’d expect. How can you motivate your students and keep them awake? What are some factors out of your control that may be causing students to fall asleep?

For scenario 1 we discussed the student's attitude when bring the problem to you and how that affects our desire to help the student. Much of what we discussed involved explaining to the student why they got the grade they got and how they could give a more full answer for future tests. However we also discussed how we could use that opportunity to help students more fully understand the application process to higher education to help relieve the anxiety of the students.

We discussed many tools to use for scenario 2, but as a former TAC once said in regards to problems in the classroom, "The solution is small group work!" Often having students work in small groups removes the pressure. But having students have prepared questions or discussion points before coming to class OR having students take a few seconds to write down their thoughts may also be beneficial.

Scenario 3 elicited the most discussion with the focus being how to make international students feel comfortable participating. We were lucky to have two international TAs participating and they brought up that culture can be a major issue in students being quite, but also how we as instructors interact with ESL students can have a huge impact. One participant pointed out that when instructors spend an extended period of time trying to clarify a question posed by an ESL student it puts the student on the spot and makes other ESL students less likely to to ask a question less they also be put on the spot. We decided as a group that the best way to handle these situations is to try to clarify the question only once or twice, the answer what you think is the question is and check in again to see if you answered their question. This takes the pressure off the student (i.e. rather than saying, "you aren't understandable") and puts the focus back on the instructor (i.e. "was I able to answer your question?")

The participant who presented scenario 4 reacted to it by saying, "This makes me feel like I did something wrong if my students are doing poor and not asking me for help." This is probably a thoughtful teacher's worst nightmare. We discussed how we may inadvertently be intimidating and how we can ask our students if we are. This could be anonymous evaluations you do yourself or by asking a TAC to come do a Mid-Quarter Interview.

Lastly scenario 5 was mostly covered in Heather's section so we reiterated things to do with students to engage them more. This also included for really early classes have all the students get up and jump up and down a little in the middle of class to get their blood flowing.

Next Two Individual Fall Workshops

The next two workshops will both be during the week of Oct 31st. Having seen what the workshop leaders have in store I'm super excited to announce, 


CREATING INCLUSIVE CLASSROOMS FOR ALL STUDENTS


Date: Tuesday, Nov 1st 
Time: 4:00 - 6:00pm 
Place: 1360 Surge III 


As educators, our ability to effectively improve the lives of our students is connected to our ability to establish a learning environment that is simultaneously challenging, supportive and inclusive. Creating such an environment for all students requires sensitivity to societal subtleties that are often unseen. This workshop is designed to increase our self awareness, positively contribute to our ability to effect change in the classroom, and augment our lives and the lives of our students through cultural awareness. 


Presented by: 
    Jeff Anderson, Mathematics
    Matt Nesvet, Anthropology 


EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY: THE OLD, THE NEW, AND THE UGLY 


Date: Friday, Nov 4th 
Time: 1:10 - 3:10pm 
Place: 27 Olson Hall 


What role does technology play in your classroom? From gizmos to gadgets, advancements in the tech world have made their way into our curriculums, affecting the way we teach and the way our students learn. This workshop will provide creative tools to enhance your knowledge about productive (and not-so-productive) uses of classroom technology. With hands-on demonstrations, we aim to minimize the TA/faculty workload and enrich student learning at the same time. Expect to gain skills in streamlining your use of SmartSite tools, creating more effective PowerPoint presentations, and mastering online tools like blogs and wikis. 


Presented by:
     Jamiella Brooks, French
     Erin Hendel, English
     Henry Yeung, Nutrition

Life of a TAC - Professional Development

For those of you interested in becoming a TAC or in what we do, we're going to start writing about what happens in our weekly TAC meetings. For those of you who don't already know, as TACs we meet once a week for two hours to train on how to do consultations, plan workshops for the UCD graduate student and post-doc community, and have professional development. After new TACs have learned the ropes, the program likes to give each TAC a chance to lead meetings through professional development. 


Professional development can take the form of philosophical discussions, education videos, team building exercises, or reading a relevant paper. This week's professional development was lead by Jamiella Brooks. Jamiella is active in various campus groups and was developing a workshop for undergraduates on how to stay focused and not procrastinate. Jamiella ran a condensed version of the workshop for us. 


We started the workshop by thinking about and discussing what causes us to lose focus. For our group specifically, there was often an emotional component of either dreading the thing we were suppose to do, or wanting it to be so perfect that we don't want to start (i.e. writing our theses, which I'm also currently procrastinating doing by writing this blog post). 


We also talked about the myth of multitasking. Jamiella demonstrated this the best by having Henry Yeung try to send a text, draw a cow, and stomp his foot every two seconds all at the same time. We talked about how each of the things Henry was doing suffered from distraction (he never sent the text, and the cow looked like a chicken with spots). And we discussed if there was ever anytime multitasking does work. 


We then talked about what we do to avoid the work we should be doing, and what helps us do the things we are avoiding.  For our group it seemed the internet was the biggest distraction. To prevent that distraction, Jamiella showed us some software that will lock out specific webpages for a set amount of time. Erin Hendel offered up the tip to set the lock out when you go to bed so that when you wake up you can only visit websites you need to do your work. I don't know that I have the willpower to do it, but I gotta admit I'm glad the programs are there. 

**Update** The the suggestion for minimizing internet distractions that Jamiella suggested can now be found at the bottom of this post. Thanks Jamiella!

Jamiella's professional development was only 30 minutes, but I wished I could be a participant for a longer amount of time. Maybe come up with some tips that don't involve getting rid of the internet? Who knows, maybe this will become a future TAC workshop! But in the mean time feel free to offer your tips to avoid procrastination in the comment section.

Workshop 1 - Community in the Classroom: How to make connections in the classroom to improve student learning

We are excited to present our first of three individual Fall Workshops! 

Community in the Classroom: How to make connections in the classroom to improve student learning

Date: Monday, Oct 24th
Time: 2:30-4:30 pm
Place: 2342 Storer Hall

Description: Remember that great TA or professor you had as an undergraduate, the one who inspired you to enter your field? Want to connect to your students like they did to you? Want to create a classroom where students learn from each other? Research shows that students’ learning is affected by their relationships with the instructor and other students in the classroom. Come to this workshop for tips on building a positive learning community and leave a lasting impact through stronger connections.

This workshop will be presented by:

• Heather Dwyer, TA Consultant, Ecology
• Ann Chang, TA Consultant, Ecology
• Dalia Magana, TA Consultant, Spanish

Henry's Blog!

Hi All,

I am excited to be part of the TAC team. As a fourth year nutritional biology graduate student I've TAed in four different departments and 11 different courses. I enjoy teaching and learning from my students. Through my experience with other TACs, I"ve became more aware of my teaching style and have worked hard to improve my adaptability to the different learning capabilities of my students. This is currently my first year in the TAC program. I believe it is one of the most creative and inclusive of the numerous on-campus programs I've been involved with.

As a graduate student, I would say academics and research occupies a majority of my life. However, outside of this bubble, I enjoy doing outdoor activities (such as white water rafting, backpacking, and going to the ARC) and social hobbies (such as  going out to the bars, restaurant hunting, and playing IM sports). Thanks to the TAC program, I have improved my networking skills and ability to generating discussion which have made a significant impact in my life outside of academia.

In the future, the skills I've acquired from the TAC programs will be very useful whether I decide to work for industry, stay in academia, or  better yet ... going on vacation.

Cheers,

-Henry

Fall Workshops Preview

The TACs are busily working away at planning the Fall workshops. We'll be offering three stand-alone workshops this quarter. Those workshops will broadly cover

• Technology
• Inclusivity, and
• Connecting with our students

The details are still still being hashed out but stay tuned for the workshop descriptions and the specific dates and times of the workshops!

TA Consultants are Open for Fall 2011 Business

The Fall 2011 TA Consultants

The TA Consultants (TAC) are back from summer break. We just finished the annual TA Orientation and are now ready for our normal in quarter services. To reacquaint you the current TACs, we are:

Jeff Anderson

Jamiella Brooks

Angel Chang

Ann T. Chang

Heather Dwyer

Mara Evans

Erin Hendel

Dalia Magana

Matt Nesvet

Henry Yeung

We offer two main types of classroom visits that can be requested at any time free of charge. They are:

1. Mid Quarter Interviews - for those of you who want to know if you're connecting to and getting information to your students.
2. Video Taping - for those of you interested in your presentation styles.

This Fall we will also be offering three individual workshops (i.e. not a series). There will be more on the specific topics in the weeks to come, so stay tuned!

We look forward to working with you!

Distressed and Distressing Students

A few days ago, nineteen people, including graduate students, TA consultants, and a CAPS (counseling and psychological services) staff psychologist met to discuss Teaching a Distressed or Distressing Student. The event, a TA Consultant Open Office Hours that we co-hosted with CAPS, addressed how TAs can identify and give support to distressed and distressing students. Dr. Thomas Roe led what was an informative talk followed by informal discussion. Dr. Roe, the TA consultants and the other graduate students who attended made a number of useful suggestions. First: that when students' work changes without any explanation (from high grade to very low grades on assignments, for instance, or regular to only sporadic attendance), something may be wrong. Second, it is a good idea to communicate with students to find out what's happening with their work, and if they are having problems that they'd like help dealing with, there are a number of places on campus TAs can refer them to (CAPS, the WRRC, and others). CETL can also speak with TAs about the challenges particular students may be facing, and can offer written materials and advice about when it's a good idea to refer the students to CAPS. One attendee told the story of her student at another university who was experiencing a great number of problems; she had personally walked that student to (that campus' version of) CAPS to help her connect with staff there. We also discussed distressing students, especially those who cheat. One thing that came up in the discussion is, cheating is not just a moral failing - there are reasons why students cheat. Usually, because they procrastinate. One way to address this with a cheating student is to ask them to complete and submit assignments one step at a time rather than all at once. This may discourage them from waiting until the last moment, when they may find that all they can do is cheat - or not complete their work. Lastly, we discussed how TAs themselves encounter a number of different teaching-related stresses; Dr. Thomas emphasized that he and CAPS are available to all graduate students for group and individual meetings. The event was informative, and 14 of 19 who attended stayed for more than an hour. Thanks, CAPS! T.A. Consultants look forward to hosting more office hours around campus. Look out for emails about TA Consultant Open Office Hours happening in your department, graduate group, or area of interest. And if you have an idea for a place or center on campus where we should hold one of these office hours (or a discussion theme for the same), email to let us know!

Ask-a-TAC: Answering Questions Via Email

Dear TACs:
How do I tell a student to stop emailing me questions that she could easily answer for herself if she bothered to, you know, open her notes/book or do a google web search or just think back a few days to the lab she just did, without discouraging her from asking questions she really does need my help with?
~ Over-Emailed TA

Dear Over-Emailed:
First, thanks for the great question! Often students do like to use their TAs as a personal search engine, and this can be flattering, but might quickly become frustrating. As a TA we want to make sure we are available to help (as you mention above) but we also do not want to get caught in some question-answering quick sand, right? Plus, an important part of our students' learning -- as we strive to help our students become independent learners and thinkers -- is to help them be able to search out and answer their own questions! So how can we make this happen?

The best learning does not occur in isolation, and letting your students know from the beginning what types of questions you will answer, and how, over email is important. I always encourage my students to get the email address of at least one classmate, that way if they miss lecture someone will have notes for them! Also, if you find yourself, in the middle of a term, answering repeated questions via email about "the answer to #3 is X, right?" or "I don't understand problem A. Can you explain it?" then it's worth taking a minute in class to re-address the issue. Have a discussion about what it means to learn-- mainly, that getting the "right" answer is often less important than understanding how to answer the question.

Without knowing your student personally, I'm going to hazard a few guesses and present a few scenarios. It is very possible that she looks up to you, and sees you as the best, most reliable source of information for matters related to the lab/class. If this is the case, you might want to think about how to instill confidence in her ability to answer her own questions. If the question is something to the extent of "what's the answer to problem 7?" maybe your email might begin with "That is a great question! I really think that if you take a closer look at X in lecture 8 you'll find what you're looking for. Let me know if I can help with anything else."  Alternatively, if you're getting questions like "I answered problem 3. Is this answer correct?" you might want to try "I'm so glad to see you are working on the practice problems. What area of problem 3 was particularly challenging to you?" or, pick out a specific portion of their answer and respond with a question "I'm not sure what you mean by xxx. Can you explain more specifically how it relates to the first part of your answer?" Some TAs might feel compelled to flat out say they won't check answers over email, because it creates different levels of advantage/disadvantage among their students, but they are comfortable discussing answers. However, maintaining a positive but firm, uncompromising tone via email is important. Heck, it might not even hurt to wait an extra hour (depending on the question) and write to say, "I just saw your email! I hope you were able to find the answer by going back through your lecture notes. Let me know if you have any other specific questions I can help you with."

And another scenario: she doesn't get it, and she keeps writing you with questions she should be able to look up. It never hurts to have a polite heart-to-heart by first finding out the nature of the issue. Is she missing lecture? Did she lose her lab book? Does she not have the email address of her labmates? Does she not use the chatroom? And then perhaps the following is appropriate "I am more than happy to help you understand and explore the concepts we cover in class. However, it is in your best interest to at least try an answer your own questions first before emailing me. I am always happy to help you with logistical questions, but when you ask questions about course content I need to know that you have attempted to find a solution before asking me. Also, I often find it easier to answer questions in person. Why don't you come to office hours or set up an appointment?"

And finally: in all likelihood this student is not lazy or annoying (although it might feel like it). In sending you an email they are demonstrating that they are trying! They may just need some holistic help in targeting their study efforts, or they may not know how to ask a more nuanced question about conceptual links. I hope that you will strive to help them be a confident, independent learner -- as frustrating as it is to have to answer their questions with a question!

Good luck,
Mara, TA Consultant

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.