This Week for Grad Students: Last chance! New seminar on climate change & pedagogy 🌎
Spring 2025 focus on ecopedagogy
Applications due today!
Climate Wayfinding Seminar: Teaching for Climate Healing
In this six-week intensive seminar, participants look inward, look outward, and look forward to create a pedagogical practice that meets the needs of a changing world. This heart-centered learning community explores how to address the emotionality of the climate crisis, incorporate climate content and competencies across the curriculum, infuse ecological values throughout the classroom experience, and make a plan for next steps and implementation. Participants leave with a fuller understanding of their own climate engagement, a plan for supporting students in theirs, and a climate-informed teaching artifact for their teaching portfolios.
This seminar runs March 26–April 30; the deadline to apply is TODAY, February 17.
This program satisfies the Advanced Track requirement of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
Climate Pedagogy for a Just Transition
Can’t fit the seminar into your schedule? Or are you eager to get a taste of ecopedagogy before it starts? Join us for a special Teachers’ Lounge this Wednesday!
In this informal session, we will take a look at the Climate Justice Alliance’s Just Transition Framework and apply it to teaching and learning. Participants will leave with ideas for making their classrooms incubators for a just and sustainable future — including learning objectives and teaching strategies to incorporate climate across the curricula and disciplines.
A light, climate friendly lunch will be available to registered participants.
Date: Wednesday, February 19
Time: 12:10-1:25 pm
Location: 212 Butler Library
This session counts towards completion of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
Essentials of Teaching and Learning
Assessment and Feedback
The last Essentials workshop of the semester is focused on giving you tools to assess students accurately, efficiently, and encouragingly. Learn approaches for assessing student learning and providing feedback that encourages students to focus more on their improvement and what is valuable in the discipline – and less on bottom line scores.
Date: Tuesday, February 18
Time: 10:10-11:40 am
Location: 203 Butler Library
Essentials workshops are a core requirement for completing the Foundational Track of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
🌟 Resource Spotlight 🌟
Practice Teaching
Even if you do not currently have an instructional role at Columbia, you can still get individualized, supportive feedback on your teaching! A Practice Teaching session, led by a Teaching Consultant, brings together a small group of graduate students who rehearse teaching approaches and get direct feedback from each other.
Practice Teaching sessions run periodically at CTL. The next one is this Wednesday Feb. 12. Custom sessions in departments can also be requested.
CTLgrads Journal Club
Are you interested in creating an inclusive educational climate for all STEM learners? Join us online 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 across the CIRTL Network. 
This semester, Columbia’s CIRTL Fellows are hosting these national online conversations. Join us for the next upcoming Journal Club session: What Do You Do When a Student Falls Behind?
Date: Wednesday, February 26
Time: 11:00am-12:00pm ET
Location: Online
Journal Club sessions count towards completion of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
Request an MCR before it’s too late!
Mid-Course Review
If you’re currently leading a section or recitation, a Teaching Consultant can drop by to interview your students in your absence about how your teaching practices are impacting their learning in the course. Afterwards, in a confidential debrief meeting, the TC can help you build on current strengths and plan improvements that your students will appreciate!
MCRs are most effective when completed during weeks 4-7 of the semester. The deadline to request one for Spring 2025 is February 28.
CTL Fellowships for Graduate Students
Fellowship Info Session
Interested in becoming a 2025-26 Lead Teaching Fellow, or in other CTL fellowships next year? Join us to learn about paid fellowship opportunities at CTL that provide Columbia doctoral students (and in some cases, MFA students at SOA) with sustained professional development experience.
This information session will focus on the following 2025-26 academic year opportunities:
- Lead Teaching Fellowship (LTF)
- Teaching Observation Fellowship (TOF)
- Teaching Assessment Fellowship (TAF)
- CIRTL Fellowship
- Student Assistant positions through SOLER
Date: Friday, February 28
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: 212 Butler Library
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.
Best Practices for Grading & Assessment
Grading often comes up as one of the more unpleasant tasks for a TAs and instructors. With grading comes challenges of managing large piles of student work, ensuring equitable grading practices, and, increasingly so, addressing the conundrum of AI/LLM-assisted (or written) submissions. How can we make it more painless for both students and graders?
In this workshop, we will talk broadly about the overarching goals of grading and identify shortcomings in existing grading structures. We will also discuss practical steps and solutions, such as creating clear grading rubrics. Attendees will have the opportunity to share their own experiences, woes, and solutions with grading.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Eva Chen (Sociology). All are welcome, but our discussion will be most relevant to the social sciences and humanities.
Date: Tuesday, February 25
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm
Location: Knox 501D
Register: RSVP here. Contact Eva Chen with any questions!
Accessible Teaching Strategies for Neurodiverse Learners (and Teachers!)
This event aims to raise awareness about neurodiversity and equip educators with practical, evidence-based strategies for creating accessible teaching environments. The event will highlight the importance of universal design for learning (UDL) principles, helping participants implement changes that benefit all students, not just those who identify as neurodiverse.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Ines Aitsahalia (Neurobiology and Brain Behavior). It is open to o graduate students, teaching assistants, and faculty across departments. Given the relevance of the topic (and the fact that neurodiverse students and teachers exist outside of neuroscience!) participants from a variety of academic backgrounds are encouraged to attend.
Date: Wednesday, February 26
Time: 2:00pm
Location: JLGSC-L4-078 (4th floor of the Zuckerman Institute)
Register: RSVP here. Contact Ines Aitsahalia with any questions!
The CTL is here to help!
Consultations
Graduate students can now request consultations to get support for their teaching and learning needs. The CTL provides consultations on a range of topics, including syllabus design, creating and refining a teaching statement, integrating instructional technologies into class activities, and presentation practices. Learn more and request a consultation.
Office Hours
Live office hours for graduate students are running during the Spring 2025 semester on Fridays from 2:00-4:00 pm ET. Drop by 212 Butler or join our Zoom room to consult with us about maintaining an inclusive and supportive learning environment, any other aspect of teaching, CTL fellowships and other offerings, job market preparation, or making progress in the Teaching Development Program. To join office hours via Zoom, email CTLgrads@columbia.edu for the link.