Fall 2017 TA Training Day - Saturday, September 23rd, 2017
2nd Floor Tory Building (workshops) & 1st Floor Azrieli Theatre (keynote talks)
Concurrent Workshops #1: 10:00 – 11:30am
Room / Title / Presenter / Audience / EDC Credit204 TB / “Teaching New Dogs Old Tricks: Engaging Students in Research” / Martha Attridge Bufton, MacOdrum Library / All FASS & FPA TAs / Yes
206 TB / “In the Know and on the Go: Identifying Academic Support Services for Students” / Andrea Hogue-Reynolds, Centre for Student Academic Support / All TAs / No
215 TB / “Kinàmàgawin: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom” / Naomi Sarazin & Benny Michaud, Centre for Indigenous Initiatives / All FASS & FPA TAs / Yes
217 TB / “Personalities in the Classroom:Strategies for Teaching and Meeting with Different Characters” / Ryan Coulling, Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology / All TAs / Yes
219 TB / “Incorporating Activities in Discussion Groups” / Anita Grace Dept. of Law & Legal Studies / All FASS & FPA TAs / Yes
Teaching Talk #1—Keynote Speaker Series: 11:45am – 12:45pm
Room / Title / Presenter / Audience / EDC Credit101 AT / “From Part-Time TA to Full-Time Employment” / Veronic Bezaire, Dept. of Chemistry / All FSFED TAs / Yes
Concurrent Workshops #2: 1:15 – 2:45pm
Room / Title / Presenter / Audience / EDC Credit204 TB / “Teaching Effective Writing: Building Core Skills Early, and Often” / Hilary Grant, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, & Culture / All FASS & FPA TAs / Yes
206 TB / “Making the Grade: Providing Effective Feedback while Marking” / Logan Ewanation, Dept. of Psychology / All FASS & FPA TAs / Yes
217 TB / “Active Learning Strategies for Improving Student Engagement in Problem-Based Tutorial Sessions” / Josh Woods, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering / All FS & FED TAs / Yes
202TB / “Preparing for Life after Graduation: Graduate Professional Development” / David Lafferty, Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs / All TAs / No
Teaching Talk #2—Keynote Speaker Series: 3:00 – 4:00pm
Room / Title / Presenter / Audience / EDC Credit101 AT / “And the Word Was Made Memorable: The TA, the Classroom, and the Learning Imperative” / Nduka Otiono, Institute of African Studies / All FASS & FPA TAs / Yes
Session Descriptions:
Concurrent Workshops #1: 10:00 – 11:30am
1. Teaching New Dogs Old Tricks:Engaging Students in Library Research (1.5 hrs)
Martha Attridge Bufton, MacOdrum Library
Generation Y students like search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, so much so that “googling” is now a verb.So how do we get these students into the library, either in person or “on the cloud”? Martha Attridge Bufton, a subject specialist at the Carleton University MacOdrum Library, will share teaching strategies to raise awareness of the need to use library resources to find “good” information when delivering in-class workshops to large groups—it’s all about filter bubbles, YouTube, and peer instruction.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Engaging students, managing a classroom
EDC Credit: Yes.
Restrictions/Limitations: All FASS and FPA TAs, max. enrolment of 30
Location:204 TB
2. In the Know and on the Go: Identifying Academic Support Services for Students (1.5 hrs)
Andrea Hogue-Reynolds, Centre for Student Academic Support
Feeling overwhelmed by the academic demands of your students? Know that you are not alone! This workshop will provide detailed information regarding the academic resources that are available to TAs at Carleton helping you to address the concerns and obstacles that many of your students face. Participants of this workshop will engage in an interactive overview of the academic support services that are offered through the Centre for Student Academic Support.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Managing a classroom, adopting institutional standards/procedures
EDC Credit:No.
Restrictions/Limitations:All TAs, max. enrolment of 30
Location:206 TB
3. Kinàmàgawin: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom(1.5 hrs)
Naomi Sarazin & Benny Michaud, Centre for Indigenous Initiatives
How do you talk about Aboriginal issues in your class? Oftentimes, discussions surrounding Indigenous issues can leave students and TAs feeling uncomfortable, angry, and/or alienated. In this workshop, we will explore some of the difficulties that can arise when discussing these issues in the classroom. Through interactive activities and discussions, you will learn techniques to enhance your facilitation skills that will enable an inclusive, safe, productive, and professional classroom environment.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Managing a classroom, creating an inclusive learning environment
EDC Credit: Yes.
Restrictions/Limitations:All FASS and FPA TAs, max. enrolment of 20
Location:215 TB
4. Personalities in the Classroom: Strategies for Teaching and Meeting with Different Characters(1.5 hrs)
Ryan Coulling, Department of Sociology & Anthropology
This workshop aims to help you identify some of the different personalities you will encounter as you teach and meet with students that you TA. This workshop will also allow you to be able to develop strategies to deal with these students, while recognizing unsuccessful tactics.
Skills/Knowledge Developed:Managing a classroom
EDC Credit: Yes
Restrictions/Limitations:All TAs, max. enrolment of 25
Location:217 TB
5. Incorporating Activities in Discussion Groups (1.5 hrs)
Anita Grace, Department of Law & Legal Studies
After a while, even the most lively discussion group can become stagnant. At this point, it’s time to get creative! This workshop will demonstrate a number of different teaching techniques that can be customized to your discussion group, including small group activities, games, and worksheets.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Managing a classroom, facilitating a discussion, incorporating and managing activities
EDC Credit?:Yes
Restrictions/Limitations: All FASS and FPA TAs, max. enrolment of 20
Location:219TB
Teaching Talk #1—Keynote Speaker Series: 11:45am – 12:45pm
1. From Part-Time TA to Full-Time Employment (1 hr)
VeronicBezaire, Department of Chemistry
As a graduate student, TAing is your job. It is likely to be your only degree-related job until securing full-time employment in your field of study, so make the most of it! Reflect on what your TA experience is and all that it can be. Learn how to recognize the skills you develop as a TA, and how to transfer them to a career inside or outside academia.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Career planning
EDC Credit?:Yes
Restrictions/Limitations: All FSandFEDTAs, max. enrolment of 230
Location:101 AT
Concurrent Workshops #2: 1:15 – 2:45pm
1. Teaching Effective Writing: Building Core Skills Early, and Often (1.5 hrs)
Hilary Grant, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, & Culture
A new study by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, Assessing Learning Outcomes: Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking and Written Communication Skills, found that students’ written communication skills improve most when they are taught explicitly and consistently throughout their higher education. In today’s classrooms, however, teaching this invaluable, core skill often falls to teaching assistants. With strong writing highly prized by employers and written communication remaining the primary vehicle for demonstrating knowledge within student assessment, how can TAs help students write their way to success? This workshop will show you how to maximize opportunities to teach students effective writing in your teaching assistantship.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Teaching essay writing
EDC Credit?:Yes
Restrictions/Limitations: All FASS and FPA TAs, max. enrolment of 30
Location:204TB
2. Making the Grade: Providing Effective Feedback while Marking(1.5 hrs)
Logan Ewanation, Department of Psychology
In this workshop, we will be learning together about a number of strategies on how to provide students with effective feedback while marking/grading. We will also have a chance to discuss ways to handle situations when students are unhappy with their mark.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Providing effective feedback, handling difficult situations
EDC Credit?:Yes
Restrictions/Limitations: All TAs, max. enrolment of 30
Location:206 TB|
3. Active Learning Strategies for Improving Student Engagement in Problem-Based Tutorial Sessions (1.5 hrs)
Josh Woods, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Teaching assistants in Engineering, Math, and Science are often faced with solving a large number of examples during tutorial sessions. More often than not, this can be a monotonous period for students. To overcome these challenges, this workshop introduces the concept of active learning and describes how teaching assistants in Engineering, Math, and Science can incorporate it into their problem analysis sessions to improve student engagement and knowledge retention. Workshop participants will have an opportunity to experience a number of active learning strategies for themselves and determine what might work best with their teaching assignment.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Incorporating active learning into PA sessions
EDC Credit?:Yes
Restrictions/Limitations: All Science and Engineering TAs, max. enrolment of 25
Location:217TB
4. Preparing for Life after Graduation: Graduate Professional Development (1.5 hrs)
David Lafferty, Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs
As you progress through your graduate program, it’s tempting to focus only on your immediate future. But no matter how far along you are or how busy you may be, you need to look ahead at what awaits you after graduation. In this workshop, you will learn about the opportunities for professional development available at Carleton University, the professional development workshops that can count toward your paid pedagogical training hours, and how to use Carleton’s new cuPortfolio system as a tool to help shape your career narrative.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Planning for life after graduation
EDC Credit?:No
Restrictions/Limitations: All TAs, max. enrolment of 65
Location:202 TB
Teaching Talk #2—Keynote Speaker Series: 3:00 – 4:00pm
1. And the Word Was Made Memorable: The TA, the Classroom, and the Learning Imperative(1 hr)
NdukaOtiono, Institute of African Studies
As a professor, one of the greatest challenges I face is how to make every classroom encounter a memorable experience worth revisiting by students, the TAs, and myself. I call this the "classroom learning imperative." Being a TA means that one works at a delicate intersection of teaching and learning in a challenging arena that comprises one's own "professor" and "fellow students." This talk explores personally tested strategies for creative classroom exchanges that are at once memorable, enjoyable, and fulfilling for the TA and the other parties involved.
Skills/Knowledge Developed: Facilitating learning, engaging students
EDC Credit?:Yes
Restrictions/Limitations: All FASS and FPA TAs, max. enrolment of 230
Location:101 AT