This Week for Graduate Students: Join CTLgrads Learning Communities!
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.
Upcoming Learning Communities:
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)
- Part 1: Wednesday, October 23, 2024 2:10-3:25pm, 212 Butler Library | Register
- Part 2: Wednesday, October 30, 2024 2:10-3:25pm, 212 Butler Library | Register
Learning Communities count for the Pedagogy Workshop requirement in the Teaching Development Program.
CTLgrads Journal Club
Are you interested in creating an inclusive educational climate for all STEM learners? Join us for the CTLgrads Journal Club. This informal discussion community is an opportunity to discuss resources and research on teaching and learning with fellow grad students and postdocs. Each session will help you consider how you can use findings in education research—in your field and beyond—to inform your own teaching practices
While we encourage participants to attend multiple Journal Club sessions in order to build community with others interested in findings and implications of education research, we welcome visitors to individual sessions. In Fall 2024, Journal Club sessions are being facilitated by CIRTL Fellows and will run online via Zoom. Readings will be distributed to registrants one week prior to the session.
💡Resource Spotlight
Assessment and Grading in CourseWorks Course
An advanced take on the Introduction to CourseWorks (Canvas) online course, this self-paced training provides instructors with an in-depth understanding of the assessment and grading features in CourseWorks (Canvas). Participants learn about setting up assignments within CourseWorks using various tools, and navigate the different grading features available within CourseWorks to grade assignments, quizzes, and discussions. The course itself models the ways in which Canvas can be used for different course activities. Enroll now
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.
Soft Skills: Not Hard to Assess
How can you tell if your students have learned to think critically, reason ethically, or gain intercultural competence? These and many other so-called “soft skills” are central to learning outcomes across higher education, but are remarkably difficult to assess. In this workshop, we’ll discuss techniques for adapting existing assignments and rethinking everyday classroom activities to become assessment opportunities, allowing you to incorporate these approaches instantly into courses you teach or TA.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Gareth Cordery (Music Department) and is open to all graduate students.
Date: Friday, September 27
Time: 10:00-11:30am
Location: 620 Dodge Hall
Register: Contact Gareth Cordery at gjc2141@columbia.edu
Developing your Teaching Signature: Intentionality, Reflection, and Progress
What type of teacher do you want to be? How do you make that dream a reality? In this workshop, we’ll explore concepts and methods for developing your own teaching signature. First we’ll situate ourselves by defining teaching signatures. Then we’ll consider what it means to self-assess, and examine how we can better achieve pedagogical goals. Finally, we’ll work on developing personalized statements that summarize our own pedagogical goals in a class-independent way. By the end of this session you should be able to:
1. Identify teaching characteristics you wish to embody
2. Reflect productively on your current teaching style
3. Develop a two-sentence statement that defines your personal teaching signature
This workshop will be focused on instructors in the natural sciences. All material needed for the workshop will be provided there, as well as snacks! This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Bennett Slibeck (Earth and Environmental Sciences) and is open to all graduate students.
Date: Tuesday, October 1
Time: 4:10-5:10 pm
Location: 558 Schermerhorn Extension
Register: via this form
Stereotype Threat in Science Teaching
Have you heard of or experienced the “leaky pipeline” of science? Come discuss your perspectives and learn from others’ experience over food, and we can patch the holes in the pipeline together!
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Ines Aitsahalia (Neurobiology and Behavior) and is open to all graduate students (although focused on scientific disciplines).
Date: Wednesday, October 2
Time: 6:30pm
Location: JLGSC-L7-081 (Jerome L. Greene Science Center, 3227 Broadway)
Register: via this form