This Week for Graduate Students: Make your teaching development count!
Teaching Development Program (TDP) Offerings
CTL’s Teaching Development Program offers current Columbia doctoral and MFA students a path for receiving credit for sustained teaching development in graduate school. Completion is noted on Columbia University transcripts. Below are offerings designed to help you in the TDP, whether you’re new to it, in the middle of track completion, or wrapping up ahead of graduation.
New to the TDP? Save the dates for the TDP Sprint
This unique offering from CTL provides you with all programming needed to complete the Foundational Track of the Teaching Development Program in four action-packed days. Completion of the Foundational Track of the TDP earns notation on Columbia University transcripts and a letter from CTL certifying sustained teaching development in graduate school.
The Sprint includes access to all required workshops, time to complete preparatory and reflective activities, collegial engagement with other graduate students in the TDP, and lunch each day. Applications open April 22–May 6.
Date: Tuesday, May 28–Friday, May 31
Time: 9:30am–4:00pm
Location: Butler Library
Making progress in the TDP? Join us for a Reflection Retreat!
Have you attended CTL workshops this year, but haven’t found the time to complete your reflections for TDP credit? Fear not! Join us for a new offering this spring, the 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, lots of coffee, snacks, and friends all around. 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: Friday, April 26
Time: 1:00–4:00pm
Location: 212 Butler Library
Wrapping up the TDP? Keep your eye on deadlines ahead of graduating
If you are nearing completion of a Teaching Development Program (TDP) track, let us be the first to congratulate you! You have carried through with a systematic and sustained exploration of pedagogy that makes you a considerably stronger and more effective teacher, and will continue to benefit you, your future students, and your future employers. After certifying your completion of a track, CTL will coordinate with the University Registrar on your transcript notation. You can finish a track and exit the TDP program at any point while you are in your graduate program at Columbia.
- Double check that you have met program requirements by comparing the TDP Overview to your submitted materials.
- If you have a May 2024 degree conferral, track completion deadlines are as follows: Advanced Track: May 1; Foundational Track: May 8
Introduction to Advanced CTL Fellowships for Graduate Students
The CTL’s Graduate Student Programs and Services team invites doctoral students (and in some cases, MFA students at SOA) who have engaged extensively with CTL offerings, as well as current and past fellows, to join us for the second of two information sessions we are offering this semester to explore additional paid fellowship opportunities at the CTL.
This information session will focus on the following opportunities:
- Senior roles in the Lead Teaching Fellowship (LTF), Teaching Observation Fellowship (TOF), and Teaching Assessment Fellowship (TAF)
- The Teaching Consultant role
- Fellowships through partnering departments in GSAS, including the Fellowship in Academic Administration and the Office of Academic Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship focused on the Pedagogies of Race & Oppression Learning Community; as well as Student Assistant roles in SOLER
In this session, CTL staff will review all senior fellowship opportunities available to graduate students. They will then be joined by current and past fellows to share the expectations, development opportunities, and timelines for applying to each of the above opportunities. At the end of the session, participants will be invited to ask questions in an interactive Q&A.
Date: Friday, April 12
Time: 1:00–2:00pm
Location: 212 Butler Library
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.
This semester, the CTLgrads Journal Club is open to graduate students and postdocs across the CIRTL Network. Sessions are being facilitated by CIRTL Fellows and will run online via Zoom.
- Friday, April 12, 10:00–11:00am | Register
CTLgrads Journal Club sessions count towards completion of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.
Upcoming Lead Teaching Fellow Events
The 2023-24 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.
Empowering Every Student: Teaching for Different Learner Backgrounds
Have you ever been in the front of a classroom feeling torn between supporting a student really struggling to understand and ensuring that a top performer does not get bored? Whose needs did you choose to meet in that moment? Come to this workshop if you want these moments to shift from choosing between two students, to supporting the collective.
Teaching Assistants (TAs) often face the challenge of instructing classes in which students enter with varying levels of comprehension. This workshop provides TAs with practical strategies to effectively teach in classrooms with a range of comfort levels. Participants will learn how to create inclusive learning environments, gauge student understanding, and make course material accessible to different student needs. We’ll practice these methods with examples from your own classroom.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Sujoy Bhattacharyya (Sustainable Development) and is open to all graduate students, regardless of discipline. Discussion and examples will be geared primarily towards instructors in Sustainable Development and related fields (social sciences, statistics, ecology), but other departments are very welcome if they find these techniques relevant.
Date: Friday, April 12
Time: 11:00am–12:00pm
Location: International Affairs Building 1101
Register: email sb4439@columbia.edu
Equity and Grading: A Practical Guide
We will discuss the framework of “Grading for Equity” and cover a few practical tips to incorporate equity into grading practices. Participants will leave with multiple specific strategies around grading that are guided by equity. Participants will have the chance to develop a personal grading philosophy that incorporates equity, and reflect on how they can incorporate equitable grading practices in their current teaching assignment.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Bonnie Siegler (Sociology) and is open to all graduate students, regardless of discipline.
Date: Wednesday, April 17
Time: 3:00–4:00pm
Location: Online
Register: here