Community

As they work to build community around teaching among their peers, Lead Teaching Fellows assess needs, make connections, and encourage graduate student pedagogical development in their home departments. They are their departments’ links to the conversations, resources, and programs offered to graduate students by the CTL.

In the fall semester, LTFs identify teaching needs, resources, and goals for engaging their peers, and they coordinate with DGSs and other pertinent faculty and staff in their home departments. In the spring semester, LTFs continue to build community, help recruit LTFs for the following year, and make recommendations to CTL for ways it can support teaching-related needs in the department.

Creating community via the Communiverse (Astronomy, 2024-25)

After their second year of graduate school, Astronomy students have limited opportunities to teach. Most do not step back into a classroom or engage with pedagogy until years later—if and when they become professors. To bridge this gap, current and former Astronomy LTFs, along with Astronomy lecturer Dr. Amanda Quirk, co-lead Communiverse, a bi-weekly departmental event focused on teaching, pedagogy, and communication in Astronomy. Open to graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, lecturers, and professors, Communiverse fosters a community of astronomers at various career stages who share a passion for effective teaching and communication. This semester’s lineup includes discussions on improv and its role in the classroom, a workshop on music and the arts led by jazz group Duo Extempore, a session on creating better presentation slides, a grant-writing boot camp, and special LTF-led events hosted by Max and Kiyan.

Recognizing and supporting shared instructional resources (French, 2024-25)

Through a survey of graduate student instructors in her department, LTF Eponine Senay learned that there was a unanimous appreciation for the “French Resources” site on Courseworks, where everyone can post their activities, powerpoints, and ideas for each course taught in the department. Recognizing the support such a resource provides to fellow graduate instructors, heading into Spring 2025, Eponine plans to focus her efforts on curating, organizing, and adding to this resource.

Assessing and amplifying graduate student needs (Political Science, 2024-25)​

Initial conversations with peers in her department illuminated to LTF Anna Garner the desire among first-time instructors for an expanded departmental orientation for new TAs. After sharing this finding with the department, and heading into Spring 2025, Anna is working with them to identify clear and actionable steps to support TAs and is also collaborating on a new survey to assess graduate students’ teaching-related needs and interests.

Bringing together Teaching Assistants via community-building and resource-sharing (Biomedical Engineering, 2024-25)

Noticing low awareness of teaching resources among engineering graduate students, LTF Sophia Windemuth (Biomedical Engineering) set out to bridge the gap through community-building events. She collaborated with department administrators to gather contact information for all teaching assistants and invited them to informal working sessions and group meals. These gatherings allowed Sophia and her co-LTF to introduce themselves as teaching resources and build rapport with the TAs. During a fall social event, teaching assistants shared questions about their role, which Sophia compiled into a “Frequently Asked Questions” page. She then worked with the department to distribute it to Spring TAs, helping them transition smoothly into their roles. In the Spring teaching assistant social event, Sophia and her co-LTF discussed more about how they may pursue more teaching opportunities and resources.