Your CSE 599 Portfolios should consist of a Google Drive folder which you share with me (jpolitz@eng.ucsd.edu) and Reshul Dani (rdani@eng.ucsd.edu). In this folder you will place the following documents (over the course of the quarter):
At the beginning of the quarter, you will use the ASES form to establish your roles and responsibilities as a TA. Documenting and assessing your activities as a TA will help you evaluate if you are spending your time and energy effectively and in line with the expectations of your instructor. On a weekly basis,
Record the number of hours you spent total on your TA duties, and how those hours were divided across various tasks. Each TA job is different, so your hour allocation may be different from others. Typical activities include: discussion section, lab, assignment writeup preparation, assignment administration (grading scripts, turnin scripts), general admin / prep, Piazza Q&A, lecture attendance, office hours, etc.
Celebrate a (small) victory. Find some aspect of your TA job that you did particular well or that worked particularly effectively this week. It’s important to reaffirm why we do what we do, and to take time to make note of even small accomplishments. Did you see an idea “click” for a student after you worked with him/her? Did you collaborate with your fellow TAs to come up with well-motivated, well-structured examples for discussion section? Were you recognized by a student on campus? (Of course, these are just a few examples, your victory may be something completely different.)
Plan to refine and iterate. What didn’t work as well as you would have liked this week? What can you do next week (or next term? or next year?) to improve it?
Minimum passing threshold: Each weekly entry must address all three components outlined above. The reflections must start by week 2 and there can be no more than a one-week gap between entries on your TA activities. For example, reflections on your week 1, week 3, week 5, and week 7, and 9 activities would meet the minimum passing threshold. But we expect you to reflect most weeks.
The next piece you will include in your portfolio is your assignment from Week 2: Your micro-teach video and reflection.
First, record yourself teaching a technical concept. You may choose any concept you wish. Possible examples include (but are not limited to): deleting an element from a linked list, analyzing the Big-O running time of an algorithm, a sorting algorithm, event handling in Java, etc. Make sure your topic is small enough in scope that the explanation reasonably fits into 3-4 minutes. The video must show your body and your voice should be clearly audible. You are expected to use a whiteboard or other visual aids as you would when explaining this concept in discussion section or office hours. The emphasis for this assignment is on basic skills:
This video is a starting point that you will build from over the course of the quarter, so don’t go overboard making the video perfect. You should prepare, and make sure that you know what you are going to say, but some mistakes and stumbles are OK. Just do your best at this point. Also, if you prepared a similar video as part of your TA application, feel free to use the same one or some modification of it.
Submit your video by placing it on YouTube or another file sharing service (e.g. github). You should all have a YouTube account through your eng.ucsd.edu account. You can make is a private video as long as you share it with me (cjalvarado@eng.ucsd.edu) and our TA (rdani@eng.ucsd.edu). You may also choose to make the video public. It’s up to you.
Next, the hard part. Watch the video. It’s always uncomfortable to watch yourself. But remember, everyone in the class will have to do the same thing. Use the Teaching Feedback Form (make a copy) for your reflection on your video, and make sure to include a link to the video at the top of this form. Relate your comments and observations to the Characteristics of effective feedback at the bottom of the form. Include the completed form/reflection in your portfolio.
Your portfolio must include a minimum of one reflection on your own teaching, and one reflection on someone else’s teaching. The exception to this rule is is that if you are not teaching a discussion section this quarter, you may submit two reflections of someone else’s teaching. You are welcome to have more.
For your observation of another class, your your assignment is to observe one of the classes listed below, or any other class using an active learning technique, and answer the questions listed below, and then post your responses to these questions in a reflection document that you will post to Piazza and include a copy of in your portfolio.
Each of these instructors have volunteered their class as one that incorporates some kind of active learning activity. The list will be expanded if/when I recruit other participating instructors, but if you want to get the assignment done early choose one of the classes below. You may also observe another class that you know uses active learning, but you may not observe a class that you are taking (OK to observe a class you are TA’ing for).
While you observe the class make sure to take notes. Questions you must answer as homework for week 6 are listed below, but you must also answer them in response to a discussion post on Piazza here, so you are welcome to take notes on your computer rather then on paper.
Here are your options for observation. Also, remember many of these classes have seating charts and/or are very full, so please allow students to take their seats first and fill in empty seats only a few minutes into class. Please don’t be late or leave early, as it can disrupt the class.
The questions to answer (post on Piazza, and include as a document in your portfolio)
The final piece of your Portfolio is a reflection to be done at the end of the quarter. This should be done anytime during week 10, by Monday of finals week. More details about this reflection will be posted as the quarter draws to a close.
Optional: Any other observations, reflections or thoughts you have
Finally, you are always welcome to include any other thoughts, observations, notes to yourself, etc in your portfolio. This portfolio is for you to compile what you know about effective teaching all in one place, so feel free to make it your own!