Workshops

Conference Workshops

SURVIVING THE FIRST QUARTER OF TEACHING

Are you nervous about your first quarter of teaching? This interactive workshop will prepare you for the first day and beyond. Topics will include: planning the first day of class, designing syllabi and policy sheets, aligning teaching practices to learning goals, managing classroom dynamics, handling academic dishonesty, dealing with grading issues, and grasping the TA’s role in undergraduate education. Participants will have the opportunity to practice presentation techniques and to try out strategies for facilitating student engagement/learning.

THE NUTS & BOLTS OF LESSON PLANNING

Good lesson plans mean more effective instruction. This workshop provides strategies on how to formulate teachable objectives and align them with pedagogical strategies that will help students reach their learning goals. Participants will learn how to craft an effective lesson plan, how to assess student learning, and how to revise lesson plans after teaching them. This workshop will also help TAs to understand how much they can cover in a section, how undergraduates learn, and how to tailor lessons to a diverse student population.

FACULTY & TA PANEL

Panelists are distinguished teachers at UCLA, and have been invited to share their teaching philosophies and experiences with new TAs. The majority of this session is dedicated to answering questions from conference participants. Bring your questions, or just come to listen!

TEACHING LANGUAGES AT UCLA & LANGUAGE TA PANEL

Teaching a language for the first time can be daunting, whether you are concerned about how a non-native speaker will be received or how a native speaker can relate to the students’ cultures. In the first hour of this workshop, a panel of experienced language TAs will be available to share their experiences and answer your questions. In the second hour, experience a “Shock Lesson,” a demo lesson of first-day teaching in an unfamiliar language which shows how an experienced language TA would introduce a language without speaking English. Afterwards, join a group discussion with the Language Coordinators from your departments.  (No morning session. Offered once in the afternoon.)

TEACHING AND ASSESSING THE WRITING PROCESS

As part of their duties, TAs are often expected to assign and grade some kind of student writing, such as an essay, a research paper, or an abstract. Unfortunately only a few disciplines, such as English and Comparative Literature, offer intensive TA training for this task. This workshop will prepare TAs in other disciplines to help students navigate the writing process. The first half of this session focuses on methods to help TAs clarify writing assignments and prepare students to write. In the second half of the workshop, participants will focus on best practices for grading undergraduate writing. Topics will include: making effective comments on student work, dealing with plagiarism, developing time management strategies, and responding to student queries about grades. Workshop participants will practice developing discipline-specific grading rubrics and standardizing assessments.

IMPROVING ENGLISH SKILLS IN A TEACHING CONTEXT

This workshop targets International Teaching Assistants who are non-native speakers of English. The goal of the workshop is to 1) present an overview of the Test of Oral Proficiency (TOP) Test, the language screening exam required of all International TAs at UCLA, 2) provide information on UCLA resources and tips on how to improve language skills, 3) review basic good teaching skills, and 4) prepare attendees to present a small section of a lesson. In this workshop participants will have many opportunities to practice and receive feedback on their spoken English, preparing them for teaching in the classroom

LEADING DISCUSSIONS

Discussion sections are often the most rewarding part of a class. Yet, as moderators of these discussions, TAs are often terrified that they will be staring at blank faces for an hour. This workshop will focus on discussion sections in the social sciences and humanities, with special reference to making class material relevant to students and establishing a safe and comfortable environment in which productive discussions can occur. Participants will take home strategies for eliciting participation from reluctant students, developing procedures for stimulating thoughtful discussion, and keeping discussions going beyond the classroom.

FACILITATING ACTIVE LEARNING IN THE SCIENCES I, II, and III

With so much material to teach in the Hard Sciences, TAs may often be at a loss for how to introduce active learning strategies into their classes. This series of workshops introduces TAs to different strategies for use in science discussion sections. In the Chemistry Focus workshop, TAs will be introduced to POGIL, a series of classroom techniques developed through National Science Foundation and US Department of Education grants “that promote mastery of discipline content and the development of skills in the processes of learning, thinking, problem solving, communication, teamwork, management, and assessment.” Attendees will participate in a live demonstration of a POGIL lesson to see these techniques in action, and learn how to adapt them to their own disciplines. In the Physics Focus workshop, TAs will be introduced to using simulations and modeling to interrogate TAs (and students) misconceptions about the physical world. In the Quantitative Focus workshop, TAs will be introduced to techniques for involving students in problem solving.

GRADING PROBLEM-SOLVING IN MATH

Mathematical problem-solving is a skill taught in many different subjects, including mathematics, statistics, economics, and applied sciences such as engineering. This workshop will offer suggestions for leading problem-solving lessons that help students learn to solve problems themselves rather than be given answers by a TA. Grading, often a critical and stressful aspect of being a TA, will also be addressed, including consistent grading by multiple TAs. Participants will practice grading problem sets in this workshop using different approaches to help remove subjectivity.  (No afternoon session. Offered once in the morning.)