You are welcome to complete more than two activities if you wish.  Please contact me (tammy@cs.washington.edu) if you have any questions about these activities.

Deadlines

2.  All activities are due at the final class session, Tuesday, December 11.  You are encouraged to start your activities early in the quarter since your graduate courses and teaching appointments will demand more of your time at the end of the quarter.  Also, completing activities early in the quarter will give you an opportunity to practice some teaching skills before applying techniques in your own quiz sections and office hours.

Activities

Keep a record of your teaching experiences as a teaching assistant during fall quarter.  This journal does not need to be a polished piece of writing.  This activity requires that you start right away the first week of the quarter.  Try to update your journal at least once per week.

Choose a topic or activity which you have spent some time trying to learn (note: the topic does not need to be computer science).  Write a 2 - 3 page paper about your experiences.  Think about the following questions as you write the paper:  How did you become interested in the topic/activity?  What types of teaching styles and/or learning styles worked best for you?  What teachers particularly helped/hindered you in learning about this topic or activity?

The CSE Department asks for volunteer tutors to help undergraduate students in their 300 and 400 level courses.  Typically, a tutor meets with a group of students for one hour per week.  The tutor serves as a discussion leader to help students understand concepts.  As a tutor, you get to select what course(s) you would like to tutor.  At the end of the quarter, write a 1 page reflection paper about your experience as a tutor.  Questions you might want to think about include:  Was tutoring more or less difficult than you anticipated and why?  What improvements did you make in your teaching skills?  What would you do differently if you tutor again in the future?  Please include the course that you tutored in your reflection paper.

Microteaching is a service provided by CIDR to help teaching assistants and professors improve their lecturing ability.  You will present a 3-5 minute lecture that is videotaped, watch other students present material, and then discuss how each student can improve their presentation ability.  We will do a few microteaching sessions as a group of 3-5 students.  Write a 1 page reflection paper about your microteaching experience.  Questions you might want to think about include:  Was microteaching helpful and why or why not?  What did you learn about yourself as a teacher?  What are some concrete things you can do to improve your presentation style?

Microteaching sessions are scheduled for Monday, October 29 2:30 - 4:30 pm and Wednesday, October 31 11:30 - 1:30 pm.  If you plan to do microteaching as one of your activities, please state which day(s) you can attend.

You can help facilitate the discussion/activities of a CSE590IT session.  If you are interested in this activity, please contact me (tammy@cs.washington.edu) early in the quarter to ensure enough planning time and to choose a topic that interests you.  After the facilitation, please prepare a 1 page reflection paper about your experience.  Questions you might want to think about include:  What were the difficult parts in planning the discussion/activities?  Did the discussion/activity go as smoothly as you hoped?  Why or why not?  What would you do differently if you led this session again for next year's 590IT class?

Observe another (willing) TA's quiz section sometime during the quarter.  The person you observe could have more or less experience than you as a TA.  Attend the quiz section led by the TA and take notes about what you notice.  After the quiz section, set up a time to discuss the observation with the TA.  After the discussion of the quiz section, prepare a 1 page reflection paper about your experience.  This paper should not focus on the TA's strengths and weaknesses, but rather on what you learned about yourself through the observation.  Questions to think about include:  What kinds of things did you talk about in your discussion with the TA?  How did the discussion go?  How did the process of observation go?  Was it easy, hard, overwhelming, helpful?  What did you learn about yourself?  Please include the name of the TA and course observed in your paper.

See the list of TA's who are willing to be observed.

If you are an experienced TA in the department, you can volunteer to mentor a new TA or small group of new TAs.  You should meet with the new TAs a few times during the quarter to see what kinds of challenges they are facing as teaching assistants.  Please let me (tammy@cs.washington.edu) know early in the quarter if you would like to do this activity and I'll set up a group for you to mentor.  At the end of the quarter, write a 1 page reflection paper about your experience.  Questions to think about:  What are some of the similar experiences that the new TAs are going through that you encountered as a new TA?  Did you find that the mentoring process made you a better TA?  Why or why not?  What suggestions would you give to future mentors of new TAs?

Organize a group of TAs, other grad students, and possibly some faculty members to get together for a role-playing session.  A role-playing session provides opportunities for students to practice "challenging" situations involving professors, students, and other TAs.  Some situations include classroom disruptions, students dissatisfied with their grade, failing students, and cheaters caught.  After the session, please write a 1 page reflection paper about your experience.  Did the participants improve their skills in handling challenging situations?  What did you learn about resolving conflicts as a TA?  What other challenging situations would a TA in this department encounter?

Read a book (some chapters in a book or an article) about teaching and/or learning.  After reading the material that interests you, please write a 2-3 page paper summarizing your reactions.  What did you learn?  What recommendations can you make for other TAs and professors?  Did you learn anything about yourself during the course of reading the material?  Please include the book/article title (chapters) and author in your report.

If you have an idea for an activity that involves teaching and/or learning, please let me know.