This Week for Graduate Students: CTLgrads Journal Club starts today!
CTLgrads Journal Club starts today!
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. Journal Club sessions are facilitated by CIRTL Fellows.
The CTLgrads Journal Club is open to current Columbia graduate students and postdocs. While we encourage participants to attend multiple Journal Club in order to build community with others interested in findings and implications of education research, we welcome visitors to individual sessions. In Fall 2023 Journal Clubs will run online via Zoom. Readings will be distributed to registrants one week prior to the session.
Making the Most of Mentorship
Are you wondering how to get the most out of your mentoring relationship? Mentorship, both formal and informal, is an integral part of personal and professional development. While each mentor-mentee relationship is unique, some broadly-applicable principles and practices can help to foster trust, growth, and inclusivity in any context.
In this interactive workshop, participants will learn concrete strategies for identifying and addressing common mentorship challenges. An interdisciplinary panel of mentor-mentee pairs will share their tips and tricks for entering mentoring; participants will then move into informal conversation with these “model mentorship” pairs. The session will end by identifying on-campus resources and next steps for taking a mentorship relationship to the next level. Panelists will include Ruben Gonzalez, Professor of Chemistry; Helen Lu, Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Senior Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and Advancement; Kristin Myers, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering; and selected mentees accompanying these mentors.
This session will offer pertinent guidance and models for current and future mentees and those planning to take on the role of academic mentor during their careers. Breakfast will be available to registered participants.
This event is part of the Advancing Mentorship Practices: Supporting Mentors of Graduate Students and Postdocs at Columbia initiative and sponsored by the Office of the Provost. It is a collaborative offering of the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, and the Office of Research Compliance and Training.
Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023
Time: 9:30–11:00am
Location: 212 Butler Library
Upcoming Lead Teaching Fellow Events
The 41 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 departments.
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.
Teaching with a Supervisor: Best Practices for Humanities TAs and Graduate Instructors
This is a discussion-based event about graduate students’ experiences working with professors as TAs and with language coordinators as instructors of records, primarily in language and humanities departments. Its purpose is to trade experiences of how much freedom the graduate students were given in the classroom, what the grading and teaching expectations were, the kinds of feedback graduate students have received, and other aspects of this dynamic. The aim of this event is develop a list of best practices for these working relationships and begin a more formal dialogue among graduate students around these relationships, a dialogue that can be continued with faculty members.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Venya Gushchin (Slavic Languages & Literatures), and is primarily geared towards graduate instructors in language departments and other humanities.
Date: Tuesday, October 17
Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Location: Hamilton 713
Register: here
Self-Reflection and Your Theory of Practice
“For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” ― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Self-reflection offers educators inquiry into their practice of teaching. Teachers who critically observe their own teaching and learning build a discipline towards effective praxis. In this workshop, we will explore who we are as teachers and build our theory of teaching. Together, we will examine classroom scenarios and problem-solve together the most ethical and caring response to challenging situations. When we consider our full self—our experiences, identities, and passions—it holds space for a genuine and sustainable teaching practice. Teaching can oftentimes feel like a performance of expectations. Yet, it is an opportunity for transformative moments for both educator and student to engage in knowledge and learning as a community.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Eunsun Wang (Poetry, School of Arts), and is open to all graduate students.
Date: Wednesday, October 18
Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: 212 Butler Library
Register: here
How to Talk about Talking About Climate Change
Climate change can be complicated, but talking about it doesn’t have to be. In this workshop, we’ll practice interactive assignments and projects you can implement in your classrooms to help students build confidence sharing what they’ve learned.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Miriam Nielsen (Earth and Environmental Sciences), and is open to those who teach or work with students in climate and climate-adjacent spaces.
Date: Monday, October 23
Time: 3:30–5:00pm
Location: Schermerhorn 417
Register: here
Balancing the Scales: Exploring Pros and Cons of AI in Second Language Learning
This forum has been designed as a space where attendees will be able to share their views and doubts about the pros and cons of using AI in the specific context of second language teaching. The objective is that the ideas presented here will help teachers make an informed decision about the use of these technologies in the classroom.
This workshop is led by Lead Teaching Fellow Mónica Ramírez Bernal (Latin American and Iberian Cultures), and is open to all language instructors.
Date: Monday, October 30
Time: 12:00–2:00pm
Location: Casa Hispánica, room 201
Register: Email Mónica at mar2345@columbia.edu