Teaching Responsibilities
During my time as a student in the Computer Science Department at NC State, I have had the privilege and responsibility of working as a teaching assistant (TA) at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. I have also had the opportunity to teach classes independently as well as under a mentor's supervision. As I have matured in my understanding of the discipline, I have accepted additional responsibilities for developing and organizing course topics, supplemental materials, written assignments, and tests. This has culminated in the development of a "Special Topics" course called Perspectives on Software Systems Design. This course was created and taught as a central part of my Preparing the Professoriate (PtP) experience under the supervision of a faculty teaching mentor. The development and delivery of two iterations of this course was challenging and rewarding, and (for myself) a fitting capstone for my PtP program.
I have had the priveledge of working atthe Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL) as a research assistant for the 2007-08 academic year. My focus for this position has been to research and evaluate training and development programs for graduate students with teaching responsibilities. I have also had the opportunity to develop, refine, and facilitate workshops for the Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching (CoAT) program for graduate students.
In this section of my portfolio, I will discuss some of the important experiences I have had as a teaching assistant, instructor, and workshop facilitator. The discussion generally follows a chronological ordering to highlight my learning and growth as a teacher. Unless otherwise noted, referenced materials that emphasize and illustrate important lessons I have learned from these teaching experiences are collected in Appendix A: Exemplars of Course Materials.
Teaching Assistant
My experiences as a teaching assistant (TA) have helped my learn more about Computer Science than I would have learned as just a student, and they helped me develop some basic teaching tools and techniques that continue to serve me well as my teaching responsibilities have increased. In this section I reflect on the most important lessons I learned and on some of the contributions that I have made to the courses I worked with. more...
Instructor
I thought I was ready to teach when I requested my first assignment as "Instructor of Record" for a summer session class. What I learned was that although I was a master of the material and could help individual students learn it, helping an entire room full of students learn at the same time was a different situation altogether. This section follows my growth as a "traditional" classroom teacher and the important lessons I have learned. more...
Workshop Facilitator
Facilitating a workshop is similar to teaching a single lesson in a more traditional course, but it is also different in many ways. For example, attendees at a workshop tend to have a greater expectation of learning than many students - they are taking time away from their normal responsibilities to aquire new knowledge or skills that they can use to improve their job performance. Also, you have a single window of time for a workshop - you cannot "run over" into the next class period if the lesson takes longer than expected. more...
