Graduate Students
Special notes for graduate students about documenting their teaching.
It's never too early to begin assembling a teaching portfolio. Among other things, it's an impressive way to show a prospective employer that you care about teaching.
Graduate students face special challenges--most notably, perhaps, in the typically limited spectrum of teaching opportunities. This usually means you need to be a bit more proactive about getting feedback and evidence of your teaching than would a typical faculty member.
A partial checklist:
- Be sure to get student evaluations of courses you teach, even if they are labs or recitation sections.
- Invite the professor teaching the course to visit one of your classes and provide comments, preferably written. You can help structure the occasion by providing some questions to guide observation. Okay, so this may involve some cajoling. Go ahead and use the guilt-trip about supporting your future employability, if necessary. Seriously, a mentoring professor, in particular, should be responsible in supporting you in this regard. But in the current academic climate, it will likely not happen unless you ask first.
- Go to seminars that discuss teaching. Keep a record for a section on "Professional Development."
- Engage in professional dialogue about teaching. Don't be afraid to ask questions of teachers you admire about their teaching.
- Begin thinking about and articulating your teaching philosophy, sometimes requested as a part of academic job applications.