Carleton Interview Questions Ignore the fact that this page states "Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences." The questions they list are broadly applicable, and include a long list of questions that you can ask deans, faculty, search committees, etc.
"Academic Job Searching for Dummies" An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education which gives good common-sense advice about the job search. There are some basic things you can do to increase your chances to make a good impression during the job search!
"The Community College Job Search" Dana M. Zimbleman has written an entire series of articles for The Chronicle of Higher Education about pursuing a career teaching at Community Colleges. We link to one of the articles here, but if you search her name on the Chronicle's site, all the articles will pop up. Check it out!
Exploring E-Portfolios Kathleen Black Yancey is one of the leading thinkers on teaching portfolios. As more schools adopt teaching portfolios for assessment and reflection, it never hurts to think about how you might create your own teaching portfolio, or use them in your classroom. In her article "Postmodernism, Palimpsest, and Portfolios: Theoretical Issues in the Representation of Student Work," Yancey explores the issues of e-portfolios and student work.
Vanderbilt Teaching Portfolio Divided into brief sections such as "What Role Do Teaching Portfolios Play on the Job Market?" and "Electronic Teaching Portfolio," this resource briefly addresses a few less commonly discussed aspects of teaching portfolios. This site also has a list of links, not just hardcopy references(!), about teaching portfolios.
3. Assessment and Grading
Evaluations
Forms for Mid-Semester Evaluation Want to know how your class is going? Wondering if your students find your classroom activities effective? Using mid-semester evaluations can confirm your suspicions of how your students perceive your class. This link from Princeton University provides a form for evaluations, and a list of questions you can use to create the kind of evaluation you feel will be most effective for your class. Evaluation fun!
Introduction to Rubrics So...you know you want to use a rubric... but you just spent an hour fiddling with the table formatting. If so, this is the site for you. They have a few simple blank rubrics that you can download as word documents. Huzzah! Now you can focus on the grading criteria which will fill in the blanks.
RubiStar Free Rubric Creation Tool: While this site allows you to create free rubrics, which is cool, be warned that you may need to come up with more advanced guidelines for projects (we doubt your students are designing book covers!). But it's another quick way to start creating a great rubric.
4. Course and Syllabus Design
Writing A Syllabus Great resource! Includes questions and thoughts for what you might include in each section of your syllabus, as well as a long list of additional readings and templates.
Actions Words for Different Levels of Bloom's Taxonomy Bloom's taxonomy describes different levels of student engagement with material. These words can give you insight into what level of participation you are asking students to engage with.
5. Effective Discussions and Lectures
Creating an Interesting Lecture
Changing Up Lectures Most classes are 50-75 minutes long. A student's attention span is typically 15-20 minutes. See the problem? In their article "The Change-Up In Lectures," authors Joan Mittendorf and Alan Kalish suggest different strategies for maintaining attention during lectures. (As a bonus, author Stephen Brookfield shares his thoughts on critical thinking in the second half of the pdf).
"Powerpoint: Possibilities and Problems" Powerpoint presentations may be a great way to disseminate information, but they also have many pitfalls. In this short article, authors Eugene V. Gallagher and Michael Reder discuss why we should be wary of PowerPoint, and how we might use it effectively in the classroom.
Notes on Lectures While aimed at guest lecturers or those who are only lecturing for a few sessions (the way the British University System runs), this site has many helpful lecture suggestions that you can adapt to your particular situation.
Conducting Effective Classroom Discussions Article from the Journal of Reading by James Barton which suggests specific techniques for becoming "effective discussion facilitators."
Leading Difficult Discussions
Controlled Fission: Teaching Supercharged Subjects Using examples from his own teaching experiences, author David Pace offers 10 strategies for teachers to maximize productive discussion of controversial topics in their classrooms.
Discussion Guidelines for Hot Button Topics Although this page purportedly deals with discussions of cyberbullying and anti-gray sentiment, the information is pertinent to any "hot button" topic. This site focuses on laying the groundwork for potentially contentious topics, and gives concrete steps instructors may take to maximize the productivity of difficult discussions.
6. Georgetown Specific Resources
Georgetown University Teaching Commons An incredible resource! Use the Commons to create a class blog, build an e-portfolio, find tips for integrating technology into the classroom, and read stories of successful classroom practices.
Teaching While Learning: A Resource for Teaching Assistants Written specifically for graduate students, this is CNDLS own version of a teaching handbook for graduate students. Includes plenty of handy teaching tips and useful principles for becoming a top-notch student teacher.
7. Graduate Student and Teaching Blogs
Grad Hacker Diving into academia can be overwhelming at times. This blog offers practical advice, news, and tips from fellow graduate students on everything from grading and applying for grants, to advice on procrastination. Check it out!
The Scholar as Teacher: Graduate Student Blog This is an enjoyable and insightful blog from a Graduate Student Instructor at Princeton. As Roblin Meeks writes a series of posts about her experience teaching a class, she offers a lot of good advice and suggests thought provoking questions. It's nice to know that you are not alone!
"Three Resources for Writing Letters of Recommendation" Includes three helpful links, including tips on how to set limits for students during the recommendation process, an article from "The Chronicle of Higher Education", and a list of helpful vocabulary to use in letters.
Berkeley Career Center Offers guidelines for writing letters for Academic Graduate Schools, Business Schools, Law Schools, Health Profession Schools, and Medical Schools. Not specific to graduate students.
Shriram Krishnamurthi: Writing Letters for Academic Graduate Programs Although Krishnamurthi's post is dedicated to writing letters of recommendation for computer science programs, he has a lot of advice that works for any academic graduate program. His advice goes beyond the basics into some of the trickier aspects of letter writing.
Guide for Teaching Fellows on Writing Letters of Recommendation While many of the suggestions offered in this resource are fairly standard, they do include several examples of letters of recommendation which you might find helpful if you are struggling with appropriate phrasing for your letter.
Examples of FERPA wording for Letters of Recommendation If you plan on using specific references to the student's academic record, it is required that the student sign a release form. Additionally, many schools consider it best practice for students to sign a release stating that they have no claim to see their letters of recommendation. Below are two examples of wording that students might use in these situations: University of Denver FERPA Release Owens Community College FERPA Release
9. Large Classroom Dynamics
Encouraging Civil Behavior in Large Classes A large class can be a disorienting, alienating experience. This, in turn, may lead students to act out, or take the class casually. In this short essay, author Mary Deane Sorcinelli reviews strategies which can encourage civil and polite behavior in large classes, and discusses dealing with students arriving late/leaving early, decreasing anonymity, and talking during the lecture.
"Teaching Large:" Resources, tips, and activities for large college classes A series of helpful, engaging videos from the University of Texas at Austin. Teachers of large classes share their strategies in making lectures a more active learning experience. This well designed site includes videos and pdfs of activities. It also includes an interesting model for group work.
10. Learning Styles
Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire Discovering what kind of learning style works best for you can be a helpful component of your course design. Specifically, while you may prefer one style of learning, in the classroom you should reach out to students who learn in a variety of ways. Knowing what works for you allows you to examine the, perhaps, unconscious bias in your course design, and allow you to create a more inclusive classroom.
11. Pursuing Excellence in Teaching
Yale Graduate Teaching Center: Teaching Modules A series of modules covering topics such as diversity, teaching journal articles, and helping students write better papers. While these modules tend to be fairly brief (and some are mostly Yale-specific), they are worth glancing through for some helpful tips, links, and worksheets.
Stanford Teaching Tips A series of helpful handouts from Stanford on topics such as "Asking Effective Questions," "How to Get Students Talking in Class," and "Designing Problem Sets." Concise and useful!
Teaching Goals Inventory What goals do you have in the classroom? What skills do you consider most important for you students to learn? This short survey lists 53 common classroom goals; after filling out the survey, the site generates a short report on what skills you consider most important for your students to learn, allowing you to better design overall course goals.
The Scholar as Teacher: A Tip-Sheet Series from Princeton Pretty incredible resource. Check it out! Tip-Sheets divided into four overarching categories: Teaching Lectures and Discussions, Grading Students and Course Assessment, Understanding Student Learning, and Advising and Mentoring Students. You can subscribe to the tip sheets via email if you wish, or simply check out what they have posted.
A Brief Summary of Best Practices in College Teaching While "brief" may not be accurate, Tom Drummond's compilation is useful. It is divided into twelve sections, including: "Lecture Practices," "Group Discussion Triggers," "Thoughtful Questions," "Reflective Responses to Learner Contributions," "Rewarding Learner Participation," "Active Learning Strategies," "Cooperative Group Assignments," "Goals to Grade Connections," "Modeling," "Double Loop Feedback," "Climate Setting," and "Fostering Learner Self-Responsibility." Some similar tips, some new ones.
Foreign Language Teaching Methods From the University of Texas at Austin, this site offers "professional development modules for foreign language instruction at the high school and college levels" (we couldn't say it any better than that!). Modules include teaching grammar, vocabulary, and using technology in the classroom.
Science Teaching Reconsidered: A Handbook This handbook from the Committee on Undergraduate Science Education is presented here in e-book format. It covers general principles and questions that science teachers may have as they enter the classroom.
12. Teaching Handbooks
Brown University Handbooks Brown offers handbooks on a variety of topics including: Constructing a Syllabus and The Teaching Portfolio.
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Bloom's Taxonomy is over 60 years old, and in recognition of today's changing educational environment, has been updated to include technology. What might your educational objectives look like using this new, action-oriented taxonomy?
"Wired Campus" Blog Stay up-to-date with the latest on education and technology in this blog from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Kairos Interested in the relationship between writing and technology? Kairos is an online journal with dozens of articles about writing, rhetoric, and technology.
14. Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement
Sample Teaching Philosophy Statements Struggling to write a teaching philosophy because you're not sure what one looks like? This compilation of several sample statements from the McDougal Graduate Teaching Center at Yale gives you a good feel for the standard elements of a statement.
