From: Sharon Hargus (TA coordinator), David Goss-Grubbs (Lead TA)

To: Linguistics Department TAs (new: Jamie, Laurel, Ioulia, Azh, Kristi; continuing: Don, Dan, Bill, Darren, Galen)

Re: Autumn 2007 TA Orientation Schedule

Beginning of the year calendar for TAs

Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
Sept 17 CIDR training (new TAs)	Sept 18 CIDR training (new TAs)	Sept 19 CIDR training (new TAs)	Sept 20 videotaping (new TAs)	Sept 21 dept workshop (all TAs)
Sept 24 new grad students meeting		Sept 26 first day of classes

CIDR TA Training

All new TAs (for purposes of this flyer, this category is defined as TAs who are new to orientation, regardless of whether they have taught) are required to attend CIDR’s TA Conference on Teaching and Learning, Sept 17-19, 2007 (Monday-Wednesday). The program is available at http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/TAConference/2007/Program.html. In the very near future you will be contacted by CIDR, if that hasn’t already happened, and invited to attend the TA Conference.

Please attend the following workshops:

one from either of the categories “Assessing Student Work” or “Effective Teaching”

one from the category “Professional Development”

one from either of the categories “Online Tools for Teaching and Learning” or “Special Topics”

This should be a considered a mininum recommendation in terms of participation in the CIDR TA conference. There are lots of valuable workshops and we encourage you to take advantage of this forum for thinking about teaching. We would like you to formulate and write a question or comment for each workshop that you attend. We will collect these from you at the beginning of the departmental TA orientation, and will incorporate your ideas into either the current or future departmental workshops.

Continuing TAs are not required (but are welcome) to attend any of the CIDR workshops. You may have already been invited by CIDR to facilitate one of the workshops.

CIDR videotaping

New TAs are required to participate in a “microteaching” workshop organized by CIDR. This event will take place Thurs Sept 20, 1-4 pm, Chemistry Library 19. New TAs should come to this event having prepared a three-to-five-minute teaching segment on some topic of their choosing. The presentation will be videotaped and critiqued by the CIDR facilitator, the other new TAs, and by David as lead TA. (No other TAs or faculty will attend.)

Departmental TA workshop

All new and continuing TAs are required to attend the Linguistics Department TA workshop, Friday Sept 21, our departmental forum for the sharing of lessons about teaching linguistics. This event will take place in the seminar room, CMU 202, of the Simpson Center for the Humanities. All sessions will be jointly run by Sharon and David.

Continuing TAs (or TAs who have taught before) should come to the orientation with one or more written summaries of a difficult classroom scenario that you have experienced either as a teacher or a student. Time permitting, we will throw some of these out for discussion during the day (or save for a workshop during the coming year).

Here is a summary of the departmental TA training schedule as currently envisioned.

9:00	coffee and bagels, turn in written materials (comments/questions/situations)
9:15	Julia Herschensohn, welcome Sharon Hargus, objectives of TA workshop New TAs: questions from CIDR workshops; worries and fears about teaching; reflections on being videotaped
10:15	Laura McGarrity, LING 200 teaching archive
11	break
11:20	David Goss-Grubbs, “First day of class; lesson planning”
11:40	Don Baumer, “Incorporating the reading in lecture and class discussion”
12:00	lunch on your own
1:00	Michael Scanlon, “Handouts”
1:20	Chia-Hui Huang, 2002 UW Excellence in Teaching Award recipient, will share her personal philosophy of teaching
1:40	Galen Basse and Kristi Krein, “Effective teamwork”
2:00	Dan Jinguji, “Teaching subjects outside your area of specialization”
2:20	break (refreshments will be provided)
2:40	Bill McNeill, “Helping our students see the big picture”
3:00	David Goss-Grubbs, “Excel tips and tricks”
3:20	Darren Tanner, “Making time for your own work while teaching”
3:40	planning our next meetings
4:00	evaluation of training
4:15	break
4:30	union representative (UAW 4121) (new TAs)