Strategies for Teaching Assistants: Reflecting and Refining your Teaching

Published November 15, 2023

Balancing being a TA and being a graduate student can be a stressful experience, especially during the mid-semester grind. In this video, Ph.D. students Kristen D'Alessandro Merii and Jessica Mencia reflect on how their semester is going and discuss strategies for reflecting and refining teaching skills.

About This Week’s Hosts:

Kristen D'Alessandro Merii

Kristen D'Alessandro Merii (she/her) is a student in the Graduate School of Education’s Department of Learning and Instruction, where she is pursuing her doctoral degree in Language Education and Multilingualism. She currently teaches Spanish here at UB and facilitates professional development workshops centered around World Language NYS Standards, Curriculum and Instruction. An accomplished researcher, Kristen studies the evolution of dialects and has recently published work on an emerging American dialect in South Florida.

Jessica Mencia

Jessica Mencia (she/her) is a Ph.D. student and instructor in the School of Social Work. Her research focuses on abortion accessibility and adolescent sexuality. Jessica also serves as a Peer Educator with the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Unit at UB. In addition to her academic work, she is also a strong activist, serving as an Associate Board member for the New York Birth Control Access Project (NYBCAP), advocating for an increase in accessibility across New York State, and also works with an organization called the Survivor Fund Hub to better understand the needs of student survivors across the US.

Takeaways

Here are some things to take away from this week’s podcast:

Student success in the classroom is a priority – keep your assignments, assessments, and activities relevant and beneficial to your student’s needs.
Reflecting and refining your course is an ongoing process. Changes can happen as you teach the class or before your next iteration of teaching. Be sure to get feedback from your students frequently to help gauge your student’s overall progress and understanding of the materials.
Remember that you were once in their place – reflect on your own student experiences and bring that into your teaching!

Designing Assessments

Building Assessments

Designing Activities

Building Activities

Building Accessible Content

Instructional Delivery Modes

Equitable and Inclusive Teaching

Situational Factors

Best Practices for Teaching First-Time College Students

Learning Environments

Evaluate Your Course

Getting Started with Reflective Practice (Cambridge International Education Teaching and Learning Team)

Reflective Teaching (Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning)

Challenge

Think of a time when you were an undergraduate student and struggling in a course. What were the circumstances surrounding this situation? How did your professor(s) and TA(s) react? Were they supportive? If a student came to you with a similar situation, how would you react now?

Conclusion

We hope this conversation helps you on your journey as a TA! To join the discussion with CATT staff and your peers, consider joining the TA Discovery Community.

As always, if you need support, CATT is here to help. You can reach our office anytime by emailing ubcatt@buffalo.edu.