Feedback from GRDSCH 630 Students

We occasionally receive e-mail messages from 630 students a while after they have taken the course, reflecting on what they learned in the course. This page provides recent examples of messages we have received.

• Return to End-of-Quarter Course Feedback

I hope ... that the GRDSCH 630 courses continue to be offered. These were immensely valuable to me for

• learning approaches used in other disciplines from my fellow students
• learning about career options
• earning to write a teaching statement and annotate portfolio artifacts
• confronting issues such as diversity that don't necessarily come to a conscious level in day-to-day teaching
• having a "support group" outside my department when teaching my first class at UW -- and a place to reflect on my teaching rather than just doing it
• building a relationship with a member of CIDR -- which proved useful later when I needed help to look at my student ratings objectively, and again when polishing up my teaching statement for a job search

"I didn't even know what a teaching portfolio was until I took that course. The head of the first search committee I had contact with when I applied for a teaching position asked me for a teaching portfolio right off the bat. Fortunately, I had organized and prepared my portfolio as a result of taking this course so I was able to affirm that I had one ready to send. I continue to update and use this portfolio."

Dear Wayne and Debbie,

I was recently telling a friend about GRDSCH 630 and some of the ways it has continued to help me, and wanted to update your feedback section, in case you need more. This was my third year of teaching, and so I was required to go through a fairly extensive third year review process in which so many of the ideas we had talked about in GRDSCH 630 came back into focus. I went back to my class notes many times, and found the content and discussion we had had related to the question of "How do we know that students have learned?" to be particularly useful as I looked through my evaluations and course changes to try to articulate this to my review committee more clearly. Had I not had the class, I feel like I would have been much less prepared to know how to prepare, much less provide evidence of student learning.

Additionally, I have come back to our portfolio discussions and content over and over again as a way to better organize myself and develop a clearer plan for addressing my own teaching goals. It has become an on-going "living document" that I have found incredibly useful for my professional development. Again, having had the content
and practical application in GRDSCH 630 put me at a great advantage in building on that foundation for my review process here.

I'm not sure if I've ever had a class that has continued to be so helpful and relevant to me over time as GRDSCH 630. As they say in Spanish, MUCHAS GRACIAS!!

All the best,

>Hi Wayne.
>
> It's been a while, so I'm not sure if you'll remember
> me... I took the Grdsch 630 course a year or two ago when you and
> Debbie taught it, and I think I saw you one time the following quarter
> when you gave me some comments on my teaching philosophy statement.
>
> Anyway, I thought I would just let you know that I recently went
> through the job search process, and had pretty darn good luck. I
> ended up taking a tenure track job at a small liberal arts college. It was
> exactly the kind of job I wanted, and I ended up being able to select
> from a few offers, so obviously I am really happy with how it turned out.
>
> A few months ago when I was still doing lots of phone interviews, I
> always asked at the end (when they allowed me to ask questions of
> them) "So, what was the one thing that stood out in my application
> that made you think you might want to hire me?" The idea was that
> it would be good for me to know what they liked about me, so I could
> figure out whether we might be a good match for each other. Well,
> almost without fail, every single place mentioned my teaching
> philosophy statement as something that they thought was really good
> and set me apart.
>
> So I thought I would just say thanks for your help both in getting
> us all to start early on that statement (for the course) and for
> your more specific suggestions later about how to improve it. It
> is pretty obvious now in retrospect that the effort that went into
> the teaching philosophy statement was well worth it, so thanks!
>
> Also, if you would like, I would be happy to send you a copy of the
> final version I sent as part of my application, in case you think
> future grad students might benefit from it.
>
> Best,
>
>

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