Future Professor: Path to Teaching Excellence Workshops

These dynamic seminars are offered throughout the year and provide both new and experienced graduate students with valuable insights into the world of academia. The workshops in this series are constantly expanding and evolving with past sessions touching on topics such as: Teaching Your Own Course - Challenges and Possibilities, Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism, Teaching Critical Thinking and Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement.

Participating in at least ten (15 hours of training) Future Professor sessions (FPS) will satisfy the Western Certificate in University Teaching & Learning requirement.

Alternative FPS credits (link to bottom of page)

LATE ARRIVAL POLICY
If you want to receive credit for a Future Professor workshop for the Western Certificate in University Teaching, you need to arrive to workshops on time or early. Participants who arrive more than 10 minutes late for a workshop or those who leave more than 10 minutes before the end of the session will not receive credit toward the certificate.

Upcoming Sessions

 

 June Future Professor Sessions
Friday, June 15, 2012
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Teaching Support Centre, Room 121, The D.B. Weldon Library    

Integrating Technology into the Classroom
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Technology is rapidly changing the ways in which information is disseminated and social interactions are mediated.  In this session, explore a range of social media tools (Twitter, texts, blogs, wikis, and more) and learn ways in which these tools can be integrated into classrooms to support student learning.  This is NOT a technology how-to session; rather we will consider, in concrete ways, the benefits that diverse social media tools can offer students and instructors and develop a plan for integrating one or more of these into a real course.

The Interest-Based Approach to Setting Expectations
10:45 AM - 12:15 PM

The development of clear, realistic expectations is a valuable tool for preventing conflicts from arising.  This workshop will provide a model for setting joint expectations specifically adapted to the graduate student-faculty relationship in a graduate education setting.
Preparing a Teaching Portfolio
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

More and more frequently, applicants for faculty positions must submit a teaching portfolio/dossier along with their sample publications.  Join us to learn what types of materials may be included in a teaching portfolio and discuss strategies you can use to document your teaching successes. 

 

July Future Professor Sessions
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Teaching Support Centre, Room 121, The D.B. Weldon Library 

Sessions to be announced.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are working towards the Western Certificate in University Teaching, you can also gain Future Professor Series (FPS) credit for the following:

  • participation in the Winter Conference on Teaching (up to 3 FPS credits)
  • participation in the Spring/Fall Perspectives on Teaching Conference (up to 3 FPS credits per conference)
  • up to six hours of departmental teaching/professional development training (up to 4 FPS credits).
    • At the Teaching Support Centre, we recognize that each discipline has its own unique teaching culture and pedagogies and that training in these practices is critical to the development of well-rounded graduate students. Examples of such training include workshops offered by your department or faculty on responding to student questions in laboratories or tutorials, discussions of marking practices for a particular course or assignment and seminars on networking in your discipline. Please note that training which qualifies for FPS credit should focus on instructional skills or professional development and not on the logistics of teaching assistantships (i.e. GTA union rules, obtaining keys, safety procedures, WHMIS training, etc.).
  • participation in Teaching Master Classes (1 FPS credit per class, up to a maximum of 4 credits)

Please keep track of the FPS sessions you have attended with the Personal Progress Tracker.

List of previous Future Professor Workshops (2004 - 2011) (PDF)