This Week for Graduate Students: Leveraging Learning Spaces Seminar Applications Due Today!

Leveraging Learning Spaces Seminar: Applications Due Today!

Learning spaces and the bodies that inhabit them exert powerful influences on learning. How can instructors make intentional interventions to their pedagogical practices, classrooms, and syllabi to better address the physical context of learning? This novel seminar from CTL will help participants explore embodied cognition, sensory learning, and relationships between physical experience, pedagogical context, and learning outcomes.

The Leveraging Learning Spaces Seminar will meet in-person in 212 Butler Library from 10:10am–12:00pm on the following Mondays: March 25, April 1, April 8, April 15, and April 22. Due to space constraints, participation in this seminar is by application only. Applications for the Spring 2024 run are being accepted February 19–March 4. Contact CTLgrads@columbia.edu with any questions.

This seminar counts towards completion of the Advanced Track of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.

Teachers’ Lounge 

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 Spring 2024, Teachers’ Lounge conversations will focus on leveraging AI in teaching. We hope these conversations will complement initial considerations of this technology with a spirit of collective exploration and play. We’ll be trying out specific tools, brainstorming about their possible use in assignments, and hearing from instructors who are experimenting with the use of AI in Columbia classrooms. A light lunch will be available to registered participants.

Teaching with AI: Prompt Realizations | Register
Wednesday, March 6, 12:10–1:25pm, 212 Butler Library

Teaching with AI: Pioneers Panel | Register
Wednesday, April 17, 12:10–1:25pm, 212 Butler Library

CTLgrads Learning Community: Teaching Beyond the Classroom

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. Join us for an upcoming Learning Community:

Teaching Beyond the Classroom

In-Person Learning Community designed and run by Senior Lead Teaching Fellows Jennifer Mead (Astronomy) and Garima Raheja (Earth and Environmental Sciences).

How do we as teachers think about teaching to different audiences, in different contexts, and in different places? We will explore concepts of expert bias, inclusivity and access, peer-to-peer learning, and teaching without a teacher. We will do this in a traditional classroom setting and then also explore this through a field trip to a local museum, the Museum of Natural History. Participants will work together to iterate on a teaching concept using inspiration and feedback from within the classroom and outside.

• Part 1: Tuesday, March 19, 3:00–5:00pm, 212 Butler Library | Register 
• Part 2: Tuesday, March 26, 3:00–5:00pm, American Museum of Natural History | Register 

CTLgrads Learning Communities count towards completion of CTL’s Teaching Development Program (TDP) for graduate students.

Get Feedback on Your Teaching: CTL Services

If you’re a current instructor or TA, the CTL offers free teaching observation services that can give you valuable insight on your strengths and paths for improvement. Our teaching observation services are described below.

 Completion of a CTL service satisfies the Application and Practice requirement of the Teaching Development Program.

Teaching Observation
In a teaching observation, a Teaching Consultant meets with you ahead of time to understand your goals for a class session, attends the session to observe your instruction and student activities, and debriefs with you afterwards. You will receive a confidential report considering how the goals you have set for the class have been met, suggesting future adjustments, and highlighting pertinent resources available to you.

To arrange for a teaching observation, submit a request at least two weeks prior to the date when you would like a Teaching Consultant to visit your class.

Practice Teaching (Microteaching)
Practice Teaching sessions (formerly known as Microteaching) are gatherings of 3-4 participants and a facilitator. Participants take turns delivering short samples of instruction to each other, and offering each other structured feedback. This feedback focuses on organization, clarity, engagement of learners, and any other specific aspect of teaching that the instructor would like feedback on.

These sessions are a good way to rehearse teaching practices and get direct feedback and support, whether or not you are currently teaching.

Upcoming sessions:
Tuesday, March 26, 1:00–3:00pm (online)
Friday, April 19, 12:00–2:00pm (in-person)

Upcoming Lead Teaching Fellow Event at CUIMC

The 2023-24 Lead Teaching Fellows are running workshops and discussions in departments all around Columbia. These are generally advertised locally. Below is an upcoming event that is 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. 

The Power of Questions: Improving Academic Engagement

Ever found yourself hesitating to ask a question in an academic setting, worried it might seem too simple or irrelevant? You are definitely not alone! Join us for a workshop aimed at overcoming these fears and empowering you to view questioning as a vital strength.

In this one-hour session, we will dive into the critical role of questions in learning and discovery, share tips for overcoming the jitters associated with asking questions, and provide a supportive setting for practice. Do not miss this chance to become more engaged in academic discussions and integrate questioning into your daily academic routine. Plus, lunch on us! 

This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Karin Isaev (Systems Biology), and is open to all graduate students, postdocs, research associates, and PIs affiliated with Columbia University.

Date: Tuesday, March 12 
Time: 12:00–1:00pm
Location: ICRC 816 (CUIMC campus)
Register: here