School is starting to get underway. We had our first faculty meeting yesterday and classes start on Thursday. This morning, we have our fourth annual TA Boot Camp. We've done this right before school starts for the past few years as a way of giving our TAs a leg up in the classroom. We get a variety of graduate students with a wide variety of teaching experience. Boot camp provides them with an opportunity to meet the faculty and each other, pick up some quick and dirty pedagogical advice, and get basics like the syllabus, textbooks, and room keys taken care of.
In years past, we've devoted an entire day to the boot camp. We start with an icebreaker activity and discuss first day of class strategies. This was followed by a roundtable with the theory faculty members that covered issues of academic integrity, classroom management, and asking and answering questions. This was followed by good harmony teacher/bad harmony teacher--easily the best part of the day. One of our faculty would get up and demonstrate good teaching practices for 20 minutes, which was followed by a ten-minute discussion period (what was good about what you saw?). This was followed by 20 minutes of bad harmony teacher, where one of us would get to have a bit of fun demonstrating bad pedagogical practice. One of my colleagues one year just stood in front of our "class" and read in a monotone from the Kostka/Payne for 20 minutes, yelling at anyone who laughed. This, too, was followed by a ten-minute discussion of things that were bad and/or could have been done better.
Following a break for lunch, we had another roundtable on pedagogical practices. We discussed testing, grading, teaching ear training, and cooperative and active learning strategies. We also touched on closely-guarded faculty secrets like FERPA and passcode to the smart classroom equipment. This was then followed by another round of good teacher/bad teacher, this time with aural skills.
This year, for a variety of reasons, I've had to scale it back to two and a half hours. I'm basically going to do a PowerPoint show with a variety of group activities scattered throughout. We'll basically cover the same topics: we just won't have time for the good and bad demonstrations. If I get around to it, I'll try to post my slideshow here.
I think even if the students only get to know us and one another, and can take away a handful of new--if fairly small--teaching tricks, then the boot camp was successful. For those with little or no teaching experience, it puts them somewhat at ease. For those with considerable experience, it provides a forum for the exchange of ideas.
In years past, we've devoted an entire day to the boot camp. We start with an icebreaker activity and discuss first day of class strategies. This was followed by a roundtable with the theory faculty members that covered issues of academic integrity, classroom management, and asking and answering questions. This was followed by good harmony teacher/bad harmony teacher--easily the best part of the day. One of our faculty would get up and demonstrate good teaching practices for 20 minutes, which was followed by a ten-minute discussion period (what was good about what you saw?). This was followed by 20 minutes of bad harmony teacher, where one of us would get to have a bit of fun demonstrating bad pedagogical practice. One of my colleagues one year just stood in front of our "class" and read in a monotone from the Kostka/Payne for 20 minutes, yelling at anyone who laughed. This, too, was followed by a ten-minute discussion of things that were bad and/or could have been done better.
Following a break for lunch, we had another roundtable on pedagogical practices. We discussed testing, grading, teaching ear training, and cooperative and active learning strategies. We also touched on closely-guarded faculty secrets like FERPA and passcode to the smart classroom equipment. This was then followed by another round of good teacher/bad teacher, this time with aural skills.
This year, for a variety of reasons, I've had to scale it back to two and a half hours. I'm basically going to do a PowerPoint show with a variety of group activities scattered throughout. We'll basically cover the same topics: we just won't have time for the good and bad demonstrations. If I get around to it, I'll try to post my slideshow here.
I think even if the students only get to know us and one another, and can take away a handful of new--if fairly small--teaching tricks, then the boot camp was successful. For those with little or no teaching experience, it puts them somewhat at ease. For those with considerable experience, it provides a forum for the exchange of ideas.