This Week for Grad Students: Interested in a CTL fellowship? Info session this Friday!
2025-26 Fellowship opportunities
Introduction to CTL Fellowships for Graduate Students
Are you looking for ways to extend your pedagogical development? Would you like to be more involved with the Center for Teaching and Learning? Join the CTL’s Graduate Student Programs and Services team to learn more about paid fellowship opportunities at the CTL that provide Columbia doctoral and MFA students 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
CTL staff will be joined by current and past Fellows in each of the above programs to discuss the expectations, development opportunities, and timelines for applying to each fellowship. At the end of the session, participants will be invited to ask questions in an interactive Q&A.
Get feedback on your teaching
CTL teaching observation services are free, confidential, and count towards completion of the Teaching Development Program
Request a Mid-Course Review by Feb. 28
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.
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.
Date: Tuesday, March 11
Time: 1:00-3:00pm
Location: Butler Library
Teaching Observation
If you are currently teaching a class, recitation, or lab, this is a unique opportunity to receive confidential, individualized, practical feedback on your teaching. A Teaching Consultant can watch you teach and debrief with you afterwards. CTL observations are coordinated to your goals and provide you evidence-based strategies to implement going forward.
A Teaching Observation must be requested at least two weeks in advance of the date you would like to be observed.
Integrity Week 2025
Integrity Week at Columbia facilitates integral conversations with our campus community about integrity and ethics in academia through programs and workshops that focus on the fundamental values of academic integrity in research, teaching, and learning. This week of collective action and instruction strengthens the Columbia community’s commitment to honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage.
A variety of Integrity Week events are running across campus during the week of February 24.
⭐️ Resource Spotlight ⭐️
While it is each student’s responsibility to understand and abide by university standards towards individual work and academic integrity, instructors can help students understand their responsibilities through frank classroom conversations that go beyond policy language to shared values.
This CTL overview provides strategies for promoting academic integrity in the age of AI, and links to Columbia University resources that offer support to faculty, graduate students, and undergrads.
Access resource: Promoting Academic Integrity
Online Offerings from the CIRTL Network
Better Teaching Through Neurodiversity: Supporting Students’ Executive Functioning
Many times, instructors fear that designing a neuroinclusive classroom is too difficult and may even come at the expense of some of their other students’ needs. In fact, the opposite is often true: if we take the time to look carefully at their needs and reflect on our own teaching practices, accommodating students with autism, ADHD, and other neurodivergent conditions can actually improve outcomes for every student.
Through case study exploration and brainstorming around specific teaching materials, participants will work with peers to add to their toolbox for neuroinclusive teaching. Register asap, as spaces in CIRTL workshops fill up quickly.
Date: Wednesday, March 12
Time: 2:00-4:00pm ET
Location: Online
CIRTL workshops count towards completion of CTL’s Teaching Development Program for graduate students
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 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!
Bridging the Gap: Science Communication Essentials
Join this event to enhance your science communication skills. Learn how to simplify complex ideas, engage diverse audiences, and make your research more accessible. The session is perfect for anyone eager to improve their ability to share science (and other topics!) effectively. Students and post-docs from any field are welcome!
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Kylee Dresbach-Hill (Nutritional and Metabolic Biology). It is on the CUIMC campus and open to all graduate students.
Date: Tuesday, March 4
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Hammer Health Sciences Library, Room 322
Register: RSVP here. Contact Kylee Dresbach-Hill with any questions!
Incorporating Coding and Open Science Principles into Engineering Education
This initiative focuses on equipping engineering students with computational skills and fostering an open science mindset to address modern challenges in fluid mechanics, dynamics, engineering mechanics, and continuum mechanics. Come ready to explore new possibilities and enhance your research techniques—lunch is on us!
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Pawan Chandiramani (Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics). It is open to PhD and Masters students in engineering.
Date: Friday, March 7
Time: 12:00-1:00 PM
Location: CBIPS Studio, 706 Mudd
Register: RSVP here by Tuesday March 4. Contact Pawan Chandiramani with any questions.
Pedagogical Techniques in the Social Sciences
Do you feel like you end up going back to the same techniques over and over again in your social science classes? Do you wish you had more techniques in your back pocket and knew when and what they worked for? This session is designed to be an overview of LOTS of different pedagogical techniques to use in the classroom, the pros and cons of these techniques, and how to combine different techniques. This session is not intended to be a deep dive on any one individual technique, but will provide participants with resources to go deeper after the session.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Anna Garner (Political Science). It is geared towards TAs in social science but open to all interested graduate students.
Date: Thursday, March 13
Time: 2:30 PM
Location: IAB 707
Register: RSVP here. Contact Anna Garner 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.