Reflection Papers on Workshops
I attended these workshops as part on my Graduate Assistanship at Georgia State University. They were organized by the Center of Instructional Innovation, the Center for Instructional Effectiveness and the Department of World Languages and Cultures.
Teaching philosophy statement
November 10th 2014
On November 10th 2014, I attended a workshop organized by the department of Modern and Classical Languages about the Teaching philosophy Statement. The workshop was presented by Dr Swanson, associate professor at GSU.
Before going to this workshop, I was expecting to receive information related to the teaching philosophy statement that as teachers, we will have to write and update on several occasions. I was expecting details about that statement (what it was, how to write an effective one) and supplemental information about the teaching portfolio in which the teaching philosophy statement is usually included.
This workshop was very useful and I was not disappointed. Dr Swanson provided us with real details concerning the statement. He gave us a definition of what a teaching philosophy should be and gave us a non-exhaustive list of “dos and donts”. He reminded us of the aspects of teaching that we should highlight in the statement and on what occasion we could use it. He also introduced the advantages of having a blog in which we could put our very own teaching philosophy statement and portfolio. He answered all of our questions effectively. Although, I would have liked to see an example of Teaching philosophy Statement during the time of the workshop, I enjoyed it very much and I am glad I attended it. I will definitely use this information.
I wish that we could have another meeting concerning only the Portfolio that the GTAS are expected to build at the end of the year.
How to create a CV?
December 8th 2014
On December 8th 2014, I attended a workshop organized by the Department of Modern and Classical Languages. This workshop was presented by Dr Swanson and deconstructed step by step what a good CV looked like. He took his own resume as a reference and showed us what potential employers were looking for what they would look at on a CV. As many of us had never written a CV before, this workshop was very useful. We talked about the format of a good CV, things to include or not to include, etc. However, we did not talk much about how to phrase the descriptions (of jobs, awards, research, etc.) which might turn out to be important as I assume there is a particular style one must respect to create a good CV. Otherwise, this workshop was very interesting.
Integrating digital media in the classroom
November 20th 2014
On November 20th 2014, I attended a workshop organized by the Center for Instructional Innovation about the integration of digital media in the classroom. It was quite an interesting workshop. The teacher, who seemed to know a lot about digital media introduced us to Bloom’s taxonomy and what assessment is interesting to work on using media. We talked about our concerns, fears and successes regarding using digital media in the classroom. We talked about more theory than I would have liked to but I feel like it was needed. It was indeed fascinating however I think that another hour could have been useful to put the theory into practice and to talk about actual software, new technologies or flip classrooms videos. In this interesting workshop, we stayed almost exclusively on the side of the student: what can they do with digital media? Now I want to know, what can I do with digital media to engage (or even fascinate) my students? What are the new digital media that will spark their interest?
The end-of-the-year report.
December 8th 2014
On December 8th 2014, I attended a workshop organized by the Center for Instructional Effectiveness about end-of-the-year reports.
This workshop was extremely interesting. The teacher talked about the teaching portfolio as we were mainly only graduate students from the Modern Classical Languages department. He gave us the tools and steps to respect to create a great end-of-the-year portfolio (what to include, what not to include, how to gather the different elements, how to get organized during the year…). He talked about the common mistakes to avoid and gave us extra tips such as learn how to code to create an original website (which I am going to try to do). After a workshop like this, where the teacher gave us a lot of confidence, I feel like I can do it, I can create a great portfolio!
On the down side, although the teacher presenting knew a lot about reports in general, he was not a part of the MCL department and wasn’t aware of all of the exact requirements. I would have probably liked to see an example of a portfolio following the MCL department’s requirements. In teaching pedagogy, we are told to always model the task we expect the students to perform. In this situation, I think I would have appreciated a model of a good portfolio.