January 4 – 7, 2022 | Zoom (*note change in location)
The TA conferences are a great opportunity to learn the foundational skills you require to successfully perform your teaching assistant (TA) duties and support student learning. You will have a chance to share ideas with graduate students from all faculties, as you professionally and personally develop your skills and knowledge about teaching and learning in higher education. Each conference devotes one day to support international TAs. These conferences are free to all TAs and graduate students at UVic.
These conferences are offered every Fall and Spring terms.
Did you know?
There is funding available for TAs to feel prepared to teach with new learning technologies. This instruction is called Learning and Teaching Together with Technologies (L3T).
Schedule of Events and Certificate
Attend six (6) or more individual sessions throughout the whole conference and write a 3-page reflective piece and you will receive a certificate acknowledging your commitment to enhancing your professional development. The certificate will be e-mailed to you about three weeks after the conference.
Session Tracks
We have several tracks for our conference sessions. Tracks are open to everyone but we have coded the workshops based on the following areas:
All TAs
International
L3T
Browse by date:
Day 1: Jan 4
Day 2: Jan 5
Day 3: Jan 6
Day 4: Jan 7
Day 1:
Tuesday January 4, 2022
All TAs
8:30am – 9:00am
Check-in
-
Check your Zoom links, audio, and video connections
Log into the sessions with your UVic Zoom account
9:00am – 10:30am
S1: Strategies for Active Learning in the Blended Classroom
In this workshop, you will engage in discussions of active learning and why it is important. You will participate in activities where you will have the opportunity to create active learning strategies to implement in your classroom. This workshop will focus on active learning in blended learning environment both in person and online. You will learn tips and hear from the experiences of TAs who have successfully implemented active learning strategies in their classrooms as well as collaborating with other TAs. By the end of the workshop, participants will recognize how to apply active learning strategies in their teaching.
10:30-11:00am | Break
11:00am – 12:30pm
S2: Using and Creating Rubrics for Clearer Assessment of Student Work
Rubrics are significant tools in the assessment of students’ work for a TA. It helps to be efficient and fair in evaluating students’ work and managing your time. In this workshop, you will discuss different types of rubrics and how to create rubrics for different purposes. Some tips regarding how to design and develop rubrics will be discussed. You will find that rubrics are significant and helpful in marking and being consistent and transparent in the assessment of students’ work. Rubrics make it easier to use grading guides in marking and provide constructive feedback to students.
12:30 – 1:30pm | Break
1:30pm – 3:00pm
S3: Supporting Student Learning Through Inclusive Classrooms
How can we design classrooms to effectively support student mental health and well-being? As TAs, we may not be able to control many aspects about the courses we teach, but we can shape our learning environments to support students and help them achieve academic success. This workshop will discuss approaches to creating inclusive classrooms such as the Universal Design for Learning, mental health and accessibility, and teaching with compassion as well as offer several activities for TAs to collaborate and share ideas with their peers. By the end of this workshop, TAs will identify the various barriers to learning that post-secondary students face and learn about strategies for creating inclusive classrooms to implement in their teaching.
3:00pm – 3:30pm | Break
3:30pm – 5:00pm
S4: An Introduction to Lesson Plans
Leading a class, lab, tutorial, or other session with students can be overwhelming. Leading such sessions with engaged and active students can be even more challenging! In this workshop, we will discuss and practice different approaches to lesson planning (BOPPPS and ASSURE) that will help you feel more prepared and help create a culture of engagement in any session that you facilitate.
Day 2:
Wednesday January 5, 2022
All TAs
8:30am – 9:00am
Check-in
-
Check your Zoom links, audio, and video connections
Log into the sessions with your UVic Zoom account
9:00am – 10:30am
S5: Tips on How to Resolve Intercultural Communication Issues and Conflict Resolution in Your Canadian Classroom
Facilitator: Moussa Magassa
Conflict is a normal part of humans as we are cultural beings socialized in different social identities, worldviews, value systems, etc. Conflict occurs in all human relationships – at community, home, work, and interpersonal levels. It is evident in our classrooms, workplaces, families, friendship groups, and social organizations.
The purpose of this workshop series is threefold, to help you:
1. develop your interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills;
2. learn strategies in analysing intercultural communication conflict issues; and
3. develop critical competencies to assist you to confidently resolve intercultural conflicts with your students, peers and co-workers from different cultures
To do this successfully, I will provide you different opportunities to analyse the impact of culture (your own and others’ culture) in your interpersonal relations and how it informs both your own and other people’s interpersonal communication styles and perceptions; and consequently to develop strategies for managing intercultural communications and conflicts in professional and social relationships and interactions.
This interactive and practical two steps workshop series will lead you then– within a cultural/ intercultural framework – through a series of intellectual, cognitive and case study based exercises, to learn, apply, practice and embody the different concepts, tools, methodologies and approaches of cultural intelligence, intercultural communication and cross-cultural conflict resolution methods.
10:30am – 11:00am | Break
11:00am – 12:30pm
S6: Finding Support and Care in Our Community: Well-being and Stress Reduction Strategies for TAs
Facilitator: Xue Ma
Being a TA can be stressful sometimes, especially when you are simultaneously carrying other personal responsibilities that require you to make time for everything. This workshop will walk you through the common stressors you may face as a TA through reflective and interactive group activities. Through learning tips on time management, and resources on mental health you can access on campus, you will walk away with practical strategies that support your mental health and well-being, as well as new considerations on how self-compassion may help us grow.
12:30pm – 1:30pm | Break
1:30pm – 3:00pm
S7: Conflict Resolution and Communication Strategies for TAs
In this workshop, we will discuss effective strategies for conflict resolution and communication management. You will discuss what communication strategies are appropriate, depending on different contexts. You will further engage with and practice a range of conflict resolution methods that will help you resolve conflicts in any situation. The main emphasis will be on learning to read situations correctly in order to apply appropriate communication methods to avoid any conflicts. Campus resources offering support in conflict situations and communication skills development will also be shared and discussed.
3:30pm – 5:00pm
S8: Supporting Student Learning Through Effective Feedback
Facilitator: Harini Kapali
In this workshop, we will discuss examples for providing effective student feedback. We will discuss the feedback sandwich method, along with the five key components that are helpful to incorporate when providing student feedback (applicable, focused, timely, neutral, and planned). Through reflective small and large group discussions, you will analyze the effectiveness of your approach in different scenarios. You will also take-away several tips to help guide the process of providing written student feedback.
Day 3:
Thursday January 6, 2022
International
8:30am – 9:00am
Check-in
-
Check your Zoom links, audio, and video connections
Log into the sessions with your UVic Zoom account
9:00am – 10:30am
S9: You Are Not Alone: Recognizing Common Challenges in International TA Experiences and Strategies to Support
Being an International TA (ITA) can be challenging: you are not only learning to be a teacher but also navigating the various challenges posed by cultural differences. This is a workshop for reflecting and sharing common challenges that cause concern and stress in your teaching in a new cultural environment. Through the interactive scenario-based activities in this workshop, you will recognize similar challenges you face in your ITA role and develop new strategies and considerations for conquering these challenges in future TA work.
10:30am – 11:00am | Break
11:00am – 12:30pm
S10: Where Am I? What Am I? Who Am I? Understanding your Role as an ITA in the Canadian Classroom
Where are you as an International TA (ITA), who are you as an ITA, what do you do, and how do you do it? As you enter your role as an ITA in Canada, this workshop will help you reflect on and recognize the cultural context of the Canadian classroom and what the expectations of a TA are. By engaging in these topics, challenges, and the potential supports open to you, you will walk away with strategies that will help you answer the question of who you are as an ITA.
12:30pm – 1:30pm | Break
1:30pm – 3:00pm
S11: Enhancing Communication as a TA: Different Cultures and Principles for Effective Communication in the Canadian Educational Context
Facilitators: Hanh Pham and Luke Lavender
Have you ever encountered conflicts when communicating with people coming from different cultures? This workshop is for you. In this session, you will identify and discuss different cultures as low- or high- context, and how they affect communication. You will also identify principles for effective communication in general and with students in particular. Through interactive exercises, you will take away practical techniques to foster your communication skills inside and outside the classroom.
3:00pm – 3:30pm | Break
3:30pm – 5:00pm
S12: Learning-Centred Approach to Teaching: Strategies to Create Engaging Activities and Enhance Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in Canadian Classrooms
In this session, you will have a chance to reflect on your experience as a learner, a TA or a teacher. You will identify and analyze Bloom’s taxonomy, a framework helping you create engaging activities and ask thought-provoking questions to develop stronger critical thinking skills among your students. You will also apply different techniques to enhance a learning-centred teaching approach in your TA work and future teaching career.
Day 4:
Friday January 7, 2022
L3T
8:30am – 9:00am
Check-in
-
Check your Zoom links, audio, and video connections
Log into the sessions with your UVic Zoom account
9:30am – 10:30am
S13: Using Technology for Your Grading or Marking Tasks
What if you have to grade assignments, discussions, and quizzes in Brightspace? What if you are tasked with providing feedback to students for their assignments? How can you use technology to provide audio, video, or written feedback? The instructor you are a TA for has asked you to develop a rubric. What is a rubric and how do rubrics work in Brightspace? In this session, all your questions about the intersection of grading and technology will be answered.
10:30am – 11:30am | Break
11:00am – 12:30pm
S14: Getting the Most Out of UVic’s Educational Technologies to Support Student Learning
Join us in this session to learn the ropes around the different instructional tools available to facilitate active student learning. In this session, you will learn the multiple ways that you can support student learning, such as:
- with self-assessments, assignment drop-boxes, discussion forums, and quizzes in Brightspace;
- how to create video quizzes (as self-assessment or for marks) and other pre-recorded videos to support students;
- how to generate short weekly video announcements to create community within your class;
- and more!
12:30pm – 1:30pm | Break
1:30pm – 3:00pm
S15: Key Considerations to Encourage Student Engagement – Using Technology Effectively
This engaging session will highlight key features of UVic’s Learning Management System (Brightspace), and other educational technologies including Echo360, MS Teams, and Zoom to actively engage students in their courses. In this session, you will learn how to prompt student engagement with probing questions in discussion forums or channels; encourage students to collaboratively learn and engage with peers in class, labs, studios, tutorials, performances, and office hours; and how to provide scaffolded support for students in group projects and other collaborative exercises.
3:00pm – 3:30pm | Break
3:30pm – 5:00pm
S16: Supporting Students and Instructors with Technology as a TA
In this session, you will learn how you can proactively support your course instructor or your students with the technologies that will be used in the course. For example, how to assist instructors with invigilating exams taking place online, how to review settings or provide feedback on course design elements from the student perspective in Brightspace, and assist both students and instructors with troubleshooting any aspect of UVic’s educational technologies (Zoom, Brightspace, MS Teams, or Echo360). We will also discuss how to support students with common questions that arise related to assignment submissions or accessing their grades.
