This Week for Graduate Students: Wellness Resources and Upcoming Events
💡Resource Spotlight
Wellness Resources for You and Your Students
Columbia offers many well-being resources available to both graduate and undergraduate students. Graduate student instructors can take advantage of them and share them with students. You can include them in your CourseWorks course site, on your syllabus, or mention them in class.
Alice! Health Promotion provides well-being resources, consultations, and peer advocates to support students so they can achieve their personal and academic goals. Upcoming Alice! Health Promotion workshops cover subjects such as test anxiety strategies, managing cognitive load, and study skills. If you’re teaching, you can also request an Alice! Health Promotion workshop to be offered in your classroom on time management, reducing and managing stress, or other topics. The Columbia Blue Folder also provides resources for students in distress.
Teachers’ Lounge: Climate Cafes
Teachers’ Lounges are a series of informal discussions about teaching practices and the culture of learning at Columbia. Our conversations often introduce participants to related educational models, research, and theory, and invite dialogue about their pertinence to day to day teaching. 
In 2024–2025, Teachers’ Lounge is hosting Climate Cafes where instructors can gather to explore the interplay between climate change and learning. Join us for one or multiple sessions to discuss how to leverage your teaching to build a just, sustainable, and resilient future, no matter the discipline!
Teachers’ Lounge sessions count for the Pedagogy Workshop requirement in the Teaching Development Program.
Climate Cafe: Emotions in the Classroom | Register
Tuesday, October 15, 12:10-1:25pm, 212 Butler Library
In this session, we will discuss the power of emotions in the learning process, especially in the context of climate justice. Participants will leave with concrete strategies and resources for supporting themselves and their students in confronting challenging topics, as well as ideas for how to funnel those feelings into regenerative action.
CTLgrads Learning Communities
CTLgrads Learning Communities are interdisciplinary conversations about teaching and learning topics, designed and co-facilitated by CTL Senior Lead Teaching Fellows and other select graduate students. By participating in these discussions of the teaching literature with other graduate student instructors, you will develop new frameworks to innovate your teaching and connect to a network of interdisciplinary colleagues focused on pedagogy at Columbia. 
CTLgrads Learning Communities count for the Pedagogy Workshop requirement in the Teaching Development Program.
Ctrl+Alt+Teach: Using In-Course Technology to Promote Active Learning
In-Person Learning Community designed and run by Senior Lead Teaching Fellows Rachel Cohen (Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology) and Luke Lea (Classics)
- Part 1: Friday, October 11, 2024 1:10-2:25pm, 212 Butler Library | Register
- Part 2: Friday, October 18, 2024 1:10-2:25pm, 212 Butler Library | Register
Bridging the Divide: Interdisciplinary Teaching and Its Pedagogical Effects
In-Person Learning Community designed and run by Senior Lead Teaching Fellows Emma Leidy (Art History and Archaeology) and Marissa Swan (Classics)
Pedagogies of Race and Oppression Learning Community
This Learning Community is sponsored by the GSAS Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusion in partnership with Columbia’s Center for Teaching and Learning. The Learning Community is open to all Columbia University graduate students, with priority given to GSAS students who currently hold teaching appointments at the University.
The Learning Community collectively engages focused topics in pedagogy and practice as they relate to race and marginalization, with particular emphasis on anti-racist and anti-oppression pedagogy. Participants explore how various forms of oppression shape teaching and learning at Columbia and develop skills to support anti-racist and anti-oppression pedagogical thinking and practice. All participants must commit to attending the workshops as part of the year-long cohort and to completing brief reading and writing exercises. Because capacity is limited, participants are selected by application.
- Part 1: Friday, November 1, 2024, 11:00am-1:00pm, 212 Butler Library
- Part 2: Saturday, November 23, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm, Horace Mann High School
Apply on the GSAS website by October 14 at 11:59pm.
This learning community counts for the Pedagogy Workshop requirement in the Teaching Development Program.
TDP Reflection Retreat
Have you attended CTL workshops or the Essentials series this year, but haven’t found the time to complete your reflections for Teaching Development Program (TDP) credit? Fear not! Join us for a TDP Reflection Retreat. During the Retreat, we’ll review elements of good reflections before diving into four Pomodoro-style sessions where you can reflect with a bit of structure, snacks, and peer support! We’ll end with a quick discussion on how you might use the reflections you’ve just completed in the classroom and in job documents.
Date: Wednesday, October 16
Time: 10:00am-12:00pm
Location: 203 Butler Library
Checking In: Does Your Teaching Practice Feel Sustainable?
Welcome to office hours for graduate student instructors! Gather with your fellow teachers and the friendly CTL team to discuss what’s going on in your classroom this semester and make a plan for the future.
In this session, we’ll reflect on teaching experiences so far and chat about crafting a sustainable teaching practice by exploring questions like: Are you giving efficient and effective feedback? How much time are you spending preparing for class sessions? Can you and your students keep up? Inclusive teaching is sustainable teaching!
Date & Time: Friday, October 25, 2:00-4:00pm
Location: 212 Butler Library
Note: Graduate students with questions about any other aspects of pedagogy or CTL programming are welcome to drop in to our regular office hours, also in 212 Butler on Friday at 2:00pm, or on Zoom (email CTLgrads@columbia.edu to obtain the link).
Upcoming Lead Teaching Fellow Events
The 2024-25 Lead Teaching Fellows are running workshops and discussions in departments all around Columbia. These are generally advertised locally. Below are upcoming events that are open to participants beyond the LTFs home department.
Read more about the LTF program here, connect to an LTF in your department via the LTF directory, and discover more upcoming LTFs events on the LTF calendar.
LTF events count towards track completion in the Teaching Development Program.
Beyond Grading: Developing Timely and Effective Feedback Practices
Beyond merely correcting errors, praising high performance, or justifying low grades, what constitutes an effective and timely approach to providing feedback that genuinely promotes student growth? What practices should be avoided, and what should be cultivated to meaningfully engage students with their performance and encourage continuous improvement? In this roundtable event, we will explore the challenges faced by instructors and teaching assistants of ancient languages and content courses. Our discussion will focus on identifying strategies and pedagogical techniques that address these challenges, emphasizing the need for feedback that is not only corrective but also developmental.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Jazmín Novoa (Classics). Students in Classics, Classical Studies, and other fields related to the study of the ancient world are welcome to join.
Date: Tuesday, October 15
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Hamilton Hall, 618
Register: Email Jazmín at jan2191@columbia.edu
Community Building in the Language Classroom: Pitfalls of Talking about the Self and How to Address Them
This event will offer language instructors a platform to address their concerns and explore solutions related to the focus on the self in elementary language classes. We will examine how certain discussion topics can unintentionally reveal disparities among students, potentially undermining the sense of community within these classes. Together, we will develop strategies to navigate these challenges, focusing on discussion formats and exercises that encourage meaningful dialogue without necessarily centering on personal experiences.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Eponine Senay (French) and is open to graduate students in language departments.
Date: Thursday, October 17
Time: 5:00pm
Location: 521 Philosophy Hall
Register: Email Eponine at es4032@columbia.edu
Becoming a Mentor: How to Teach in a Lab Environment
Mentoring a student in lab for the first time? Want to refine your mentorship skills? Join us for an in depth discussion of mentorship styles, approaches, communication and boundaries that will lead to a successful mentorship experience for both you and your mentee.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Kylee Dresbach-Hill (Nutritional and Metabolic Biology) and is open to all graduate students.
Date: Wednesday, October 23
Time: 5:30pm
Location: Hammer Health Sciences Center, Room LL207 (CUIMC)
Register: Email Kylee at kd2866@cumc.columbia.edu