Artifact #12: Learning Community Reflection
In Spring 2018, I participated in a learning community called Exploring Practices in the Classroom (EPIC): A learning community for TAs. I was interested in this learning community specifically because this section was designed to focus on students who taught or were teaching in WisCEL spaces. WisCEL spaces are unique because they are technology-focused classrooms that deviate from the regular lecture hall and provide its own teaching challenges. As someone who has taught in a WisCEL space, I wanted to be able to share my experiences with others to hopefully improve their teaching. While the section ended up not having anyone from a WisCEL space, I still found it valuable to work with a community of peers to develop, improve and reflect on my skills as an instructor throughout the semester. Below is reflection on participating in the learning community and what I've gained from it.
I have rather enjoyed my experience in EPIC during the past ten weeks. While many of the topics we have covered were familiar to me and have been addressed in other classes or experienced during teaching, it was really interesting to learn from other disciplines. We have students from linguistics, Scandinavian studies, chemistry, engineering and genetics, so it provides a wide range of experiences and challenges that we have discussed. It has also sparked my imagination of using some of these techniques from non-STEM courses and changing them to apply in my classroom in the future. I also feel that I've been able to contribute to the seminar as a person with more experience than can help individuals who are TAs for the first time or soon will be. It has helped me realize how far I have come in the past year as far as my teaching experience-- through all of the Delta, WISCIENCE and CIRTL classes and workshops I've learned a lot about effective teaching strategies and things to be aware of in the classroom environment to help increase student's learning.
One of the things I enjoyed most from the learning community is developing an IDP for my teaching. While this is encouraged for us as students for our graduate career, I had never considered doing it for my teaching. It made me reflect and decide what I felt I still needed to work on to be a better instructor and how to make an actionable plan. Some of the areas for growth I have highlighted have been easier than others because I am not teaching this semester, but I am participating in professional development workshops and classes focused on teaching and learning. One example is that I was interested in learning from other disciplines about incorporating active learning techniques and writing assignments into lesson plans, and this has been easy to accomplish after taking Writing Across the Curriculum and participating in this learning community. However, working on my communication skills while I instruct is a little harder. I had been able to practice that a little with the facilitation workshop I participated in because a part of the workshop made us prepare a 10 minute discussion we facilitated ourselves using the techniques taught to us, but that was a limited case.
Overall, I am glad I participated in this learning community. It has helped me feel that I have come somewhat full-circle, and I am able to give back to help share my knowledge with younger graduate students. I think the seminar gave a comprehensive view of topics TAs and instructors should be conscious of when in the classroom environment, but it only skimmed over the ideas. If interested, I would highly encourage my other classmates to participate in Delta or CIRTL courses, or even apply to be a WISCIENCE Scientific Teaching Fellow if it fell within their discipline.
I have rather enjoyed my experience in EPIC during the past ten weeks. While many of the topics we have covered were familiar to me and have been addressed in other classes or experienced during teaching, it was really interesting to learn from other disciplines. We have students from linguistics, Scandinavian studies, chemistry, engineering and genetics, so it provides a wide range of experiences and challenges that we have discussed. It has also sparked my imagination of using some of these techniques from non-STEM courses and changing them to apply in my classroom in the future. I also feel that I've been able to contribute to the seminar as a person with more experience than can help individuals who are TAs for the first time or soon will be. It has helped me realize how far I have come in the past year as far as my teaching experience-- through all of the Delta, WISCIENCE and CIRTL classes and workshops I've learned a lot about effective teaching strategies and things to be aware of in the classroom environment to help increase student's learning.
One of the things I enjoyed most from the learning community is developing an IDP for my teaching. While this is encouraged for us as students for our graduate career, I had never considered doing it for my teaching. It made me reflect and decide what I felt I still needed to work on to be a better instructor and how to make an actionable plan. Some of the areas for growth I have highlighted have been easier than others because I am not teaching this semester, but I am participating in professional development workshops and classes focused on teaching and learning. One example is that I was interested in learning from other disciplines about incorporating active learning techniques and writing assignments into lesson plans, and this has been easy to accomplish after taking Writing Across the Curriculum and participating in this learning community. However, working on my communication skills while I instruct is a little harder. I had been able to practice that a little with the facilitation workshop I participated in because a part of the workshop made us prepare a 10 minute discussion we facilitated ourselves using the techniques taught to us, but that was a limited case.
Overall, I am glad I participated in this learning community. It has helped me feel that I have come somewhat full-circle, and I am able to give back to help share my knowledge with younger graduate students. I think the seminar gave a comprehensive view of topics TAs and instructors should be conscious of when in the classroom environment, but it only skimmed over the ideas. If interested, I would highly encourage my other classmates to participate in Delta or CIRTL courses, or even apply to be a WISCIENCE Scientific Teaching Fellow if it fell within their discipline.