Assignments

Perform a peer evaluation of teaching

One of the best ways to improve your teaching is to get feedback from your peers.  In fact, at most academic jobs, peer evaluations of teaching are required for promotion and tenure.  Visit a class to perform a peer evaluation of teaching, either for another graduate student who is currently working as a TA, or for a professor that you may know. You can use this web site to find guidelines for effective peer reviews.  Your peer review write-up need only be one page long, single-spaced, turned into the instructor (with a copy to the person you are reviewing).


Blog about an educational innovation

At UW-Madison, Chancellor Ward has been leading a campus-wide effort for more "educational innovation."  Pick something that you consider an educational innovation, from anywhere on the campus, and write a 500-word blog post about it, describing its potential for teaching and learning improvement.  Base your investigation on either a brief interview with an instructor, on documents describing the innovation (such as from the local student media or UW press releases), or on your own personal experience with the innovation as a student or TA.


Compare different syllabi for the same course

Pick a topic that you are interested in and search the Web for university course syllabi on that topic (including any courses here at UW-Madison).  Gather at least five different syllabi for the courses.  (They don't have to exactly match in title and topic, but they should be roughly comparable.)  Write a blog post of 500 words detailing the most interesting similarities and differences that you found, and providing links to each syllabus.


Compose a teaching philosophy

For your final assignment, you will write a one-page single-spaced "philosophy of teaching" that makes claims about the kinds of teaching and learning goals and practices which matter most to you.  Besides turning a copy of this teaching philosophy into the instructor for credit, deliver a copy to your faculty thesis adviser (if you have one) for their feedback.