Graduate Student University Teaching Days (GSUTD) 2021

This will be the third annual Graduate Student University Teaching Days (GSUTD), which will again be offered in a completely remote format. This week (Monday August 23rd – Thursday August 26th) is a series of teaching development days designed to support graduate students in improving their teaching skills and building connections with other instructors at the University of Guelph.

Whether you are a graduate student, teaching assistant (TA), or sessional lecturer, we invite you to attend our week-long programming to learn with and from others as we all prepare for the upcoming academic year. Each day of the week features two teaching workshops to choose between, one plenary session, one round table discussion, and one networking event (you can find brief descriptions below). This week has been designed to allow you to attend as much or as little as you would like so that we can accommodate the various schedules and needs of graduate students.

Teaching Workshops: These are divided into two streams, one stream for new TAs (Stream A) and one stream for TAs with previous teaching experience (Stream B); although, you are welcome to attend any workshop you like. The workshops are designed to be highly interactive, engaging all participants in different activities to help promote learning. They will also provide many opportunities for peer-to-peer collaboration and discussion.

Round Table Discussions: These sessions, which occur daily from 12-1pm, will provide an opportunity to discuss exciting teaching topics with other graduate students. Each session will include a brief introduction to each topic as well as small group discussion to learn from each other. No prior experience or knowledge is required to participate.

Plenary Talks: The plenary talks will allow participants to hear from a wide range of engaging speakers. This includes our Spotlight Speaker Series, Experienced TA Panel, Microteaching Masters, and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Networking Events: These events are designed to provide fun and welcoming networking opportunities, ranging from professional development to community building activities.

The full schedule can be found in the image at the bottom of the page, and a detailed description of all workshops and events is available at https://otl.uoguelph.ca/gsutd.

Please note: Registration will be capped at 300 participants. However, there is a waiting list enabled so you can add your name to the waiting list and will get the opportunity to register if a spot becomes available. Registration closes at 11:59pm on Wednesday August 18th.

Learning Outcomes for GSUTD:

By the end of GSUTD, participants should be able to:

1) Feel more confident and prepared as a teaching assistant in higher education

2) Identify and implement diverse evidence-based teaching strategies

3) Connect with teaching peers to develop a teaching community for support, advice, and a network for sharing teaching challenges and successes

4) Locate resources to support teaching assistantship work, growth, and success at the University of Guelph

University Teaching Foundations Waiver Through GSUTD Participation

If you are interested in receiving the Foundations Waiver for your participation in the 2021 GSUTD (i.e., waiving the requirements for two Foundations workshops – the “Reflective and Career Readiness” and “Elective” workshop requirements), you will need to participate fully in a minimum of four workshops throughout GSUTD in addition to completing the GSUTD response paper, which will be emailed to eligible participants after GSUTD is complete. Please note that you can only receive the GSUTD Foundations Waiver once; if you have used this waiver previously, we still encourage you to attend and participate in GSUTD this year, but it will not waive any additional Foundations workshops.