Graduate Teaching Toolkit

GTA Toolkit is a series of monthly workshops offered throughout the fall and spring semesters, led by graduate students for graduate students. Workshops cover a range of topics meant to reinforce or deepen graduate students’ understanding of teaching and learning strategies that can be immediately applied to practice. These workshops are also an opportunity for graduate students to learn from each other and build community around a culture of teaching at Ohio State.

What will I learn?

Toolkit workshops are designed by graduate students for graduate students. They aim to support participants’ professional development, engage them in reflection and discussion, and build community among graduate instructors on campus who are passionate about improving their teaching. All graduate students, regardless of teaching experience, are welcome to attend. Our spring 2024 theme is centered around course design. Descriptions and learning outcomes for our upcoming spring workshops are outlined below:

Graduate Teaching Toolkit: Creating Teaching Statements and Teaching Portfolios (January 2024)

Preparing for the academic job market or applying for the Graduate Associate Teaching Award (GATA) but not sure where to get started with crafting your teaching portfolio? In this workshop, participants will gain familiarity with the elements of successful teaching portfolios, learn about best practices for writing and organizing their materials, and practice drafting their own teaching statement. Graduate students at any stage in drafting their materials are welcome to attend. 

As a result of attending GTA Toolkit, participants will: 

  • identify the purpose and value of teaching statements and portfolios
  • identify the necessary elements of successful teaching statements and portfolios 
  • employ best practices in the writing and organization of teaching statements and portfolios

Find more information here.

Graduate Teaching Toolkit: Unlocking the Hidden Curriculum (February 2024)

Wondering how to best communicate to students why a course contains specific content? Not sure how to convey the relevance of course goals to lessons and assignments? This session offers an introduction to TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) as a framework to address these concerns, providing participants with the strategies necessary to foster a culture of transparency in the classroom and demystify the hidden curriculum. 

As a result of attending GTA Toolkit, participants will: 

  • identify the benefits of fostering a culture of transparency in the classroom
  • apply the TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) framework for assignment design
  • develop strategies for addressing the “hidden curriculum”
  • understand best practices for promoting transparency around course goals and design

Find more information here.

Graduate Teaching Toolkit: Teaching What You Don't Know (March 2024)

Teaching a course or lesson outside your area of expertise and unsure where to begin? In this session, participants will identify challenges that emerge in teaching unfamiliar topics and develop strategies for doing so without sacrificing instructional quality. Our focus will be on helping participants apply strategies related to choosing, organizing, and teaching the course content they anticipate covering in current, future, or hypothetical courses.

As a result of attending GTA Toolkit, participants will: 

  • identify challenges surrounding teaching what you don’t know
  • describe techniques to choose course content around learning goals and student experiences
  • explore methods to organize course content in a meaningful way for students
  • develop strategies for teaching unfamiliar material without sacrificing instructional quality

Find more information here.

Graduate Teaching Toolkit: Beginning Steps of Course Design (April 2024)

In this workshop, participants will gain familiarity with backward design: an approach to course design that builds on instructional goals to derive outcomes, assessments, and teaching strategies. We will outline the process of backward design, explore the key benefits of this method, and give participants time to apply the initial steps of this process as they prototype goals, outcomes, and assessments for a current, future, or hypothetical course that they would like to design. 

As a result of attending GTA Toolkit, participants will: 

  • summarize the steps of the backward design process
  • articulate the benefits of using backward design to plan a course
  • apply the initial steps of backward design by prototyping course goals and learning outcomes as well as assessment plans aligned with this vision
  • begin to collect the information and resources you will need to finish the course design process on your own

Find more information here.

 

How do I attend?

More information about each upcoming GTA Toolkit workshop can be found above. Follow the link in the event listing to register through BuckeyeLearn. In order to maintain a collaborative and interactive learning environment, workshop space may be limited.

Who facilitates the workshops?

All GTA Toolkit workshops are developed and facilitated by Drake Institute Graduate Consultants, advanced graduate students at Ohio State who have demonstrated exemplary instruction and a commitment to advancing teaching and learning.

Meet our Graduate Consultants:

August Masonheimer

Sam Mitchell

Shana Sandborn

Carmi Thompson