This Week for Graduate Students: A welcome message from the CTL, and Essentials start this week!

Dear graduate students, 

I hope your semester is off to a wonderful start! As you may already know, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) offers a range of ways to help you develop effective teaching practices during your time at Columbia.

The values and practices of inclusive teaching underpin all of CTL’s offerings for graduate students. As you begin a new academic year, we encourage you to make use of CTL’s Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia, approaches to Teaching in Times of Stress and Challenge, and the wealth of other CTL teaching guides available.

CTL’s Essentials of Teaching and Learning series, beginning September 11, provides guidance on inclusive teaching practices before moving into the fundamentals of curriculum design, active learning, and assessment. Our seminar for graduate students this semester, the Innovative Course Design Seminar, can help you design a truly meaningful, relevant, and accessible course. These offerings and many more count for completion of Columbia’s Teaching Development Program for graduate students, which is noted on Columbia University transcripts.

Keep an eye out for a CTL-supported Lead Teaching Fellow in your department, running programs and discussions tailored to teaching in your discipline. And for those of you preparing for the job market, I encourage you to make use of CTL’s on-demand guidance for teaching statements, diversity statements, and teaching portfolios.

Finally, please know that CTL is available to consult directly with you about any teaching challenges or opportunities. Drop by our CTLgrads office hours on Fridays between 2–4 pm, no appointment necessary, or request to schedule a teaching observation, mid-course review, or individual consultation. 

Thank you for your dedication to teaching, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Best wishes,
Amanda Irvin
Executive Director, Center for Teaching and Learning

Essentials of Teaching and Learning Workshops

The Essentials of Teaching and Learning workshop series offers new or developing graduate student instructors approaches to better facilitate student learning and improve teaching practices. Join us at these foundational workshops to deepen insights that you have started to develop at teaching orientations or in early teaching experiences. Sessions are listed below. Each live session is accompanied by a 20-minute module in Canvas to be completed in advance. Workshops are conducted in-person in Butler Library. 

• Essentials 1: Inclusive Teaching – Wednesday, September 11, 10:10-11:40 am
• Essentials 2: Designing Learning Objectives – Wednesday, September 18, 10:10-11:40 am
• Essentials 3: Active Learning – Wednesday, September 25, 10:10-11:40 am
• Essentials 4: Assessment & Feedback – Wednesday, October 2, 10:10-11:40 am

Completion of the Essentials workshop series satisfies a core requirement of the Teaching Development Program

Showcase Your Development with the TDP

The Teaching Development Program (TDP) offers doctoral and MFA students a means to organize, document, and articulate their teaching development at Columbia. Completion of the TDP is certified by the CTL and noted on transcripts for doctoral students in Arts and Sciences, SEAS, Mailman, Nursing, Social Work, Business, Journalism, and GSAPP—and for MFA students in the School of the Arts. 

The TDP website provides information about the program’s structure and benefits, along with testimonials from Columbia graduate students who have completed it.

Innovative Course Design Seminar

Participants in the Innovative Course Design Seminar (ICDS) explore inclusive, evidence-based instructional design practices and apply these concepts to the creation of a learner-centered syllabus. Participants use the principles of backward design and inclusive teaching to develop context-specific learning objectives, aligned and scaffolded assessments, and a range of engaging activities across formats and contexts within a single course. Applications are now being accepted through Monday, September 23.

ICDS is running in Fall 2024 in person from 10:10am-12pm in Butler Library on five successive Thursdays: October 10, October 17, October 24, October 31, and November 7.

For those enrolled in the Teaching Development Program (TDP), this seminar satisfies the Advanced Track seminar requirement.

Approaching the Academic Job Market

Starting your academic job search and looking for guidance on the standard components of an academic job application? The CTL has designed three self-paced resources to introduce you to the teaching statement, diversity statement, and the elements of a compelling teaching portfolio. Each resource is designed to introduce the material, help you kickstart the writing of your first draft, and give you ways to edit and revise current drafts. Click on the links below to access the respective modules and get started!

• Intro to the Teaching Statement: Access module
• Intro to the Diversity Statement: Access module
• Intro to the Teaching Portfolio: Access module

Checking In: Get Feedback on Your Teaching! 

Welcome to office hours for graduate student instructors! Gather with your fellow teachers and the friendly CTL team to discuss what’s going on in your classroom this semester. In this session, we’ll be chatting about how to get feedback on your teaching—from your peers, from the CTL, and (most importantly) from your students!

Date & Time: Friday, September 20, 2-4pm
Location: 212 Butler Library

Note: Graduate students with questions about any other aspects of pedagogy or CTL programming are welcome to drop in to our regular office hours, also in 212 Butler on Friday at 2:00pm, or on Zoom (email CTLgrads@columbia.edu to obtain the link).