Teaching Assistant Training

Whether you're a new or returning TA, join representatives of AGSEM, the Office of the Dean of Students, the Student Wellness Hub, and Teaching and Learning Services for a panel discussion about being a TA at McGill.

Note: Participation in the info-session does not count toward the maximum of 3 hours of paid training for first-time TAs. 

Want to learn how to apply learning-centered principles to prepare and deliver effective lessons? In this session, you will learn a range of teaching strategies to promote student engagement and develop a preliminary plan of how to implement them in various course settings.

By participating in this interactive session, teaching assistants will cultivate a greater understanding of anti-oppression, anti-racism and how these systems operate within learning institutions. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on their relationships with positionality and power and how they may leverage these in service of removing barriers to equitable classroom participation. Teaching Assistants will also practice bias interventions and engage in action planning to make their remote classroom environments and the campus, more inclusive.

This workshop offers practical tips for increasing accessibility in teaching that TAs can implement in the courses they support. The session is designed to increase participants’ awareness of barriers that students with disabilities experience in the classroom, and show how TAs can facilitate and promote equitable access to learning. Participants will also learn from the Accessibility Advisor about the resources available to them, as employees, to manage their own access needs in their work.

In this workshop, we will discuss the role of the TA in complex lab scenarios. Participants will learn how to meet the conceptual and procedural challenges of labs, and will understand how to create equitable and interactive student-centered environments that promote deep learning.

Successfully learning to lead and guide engaging and impactful student discussions requires a range of fairly sophisticated communication skills. Typically people employ strategies using trial and error as they have never been trained to facilitate discussions. This workshop will give participants an opportunity develop practical insights, skills and learn tools that lead to facilitating group discussions. Leadership, presentation and communication skills are threaded through this interactive session; learn how to be the guide on the side and not so much the sage on the stage!

In this workshop, we will discuss the importance of student assessment in higher education. Participants will dissect and analyze rubrics and provide constructive feedback to students in collaborative scenarios.

In this interactive workshop, participants will learn about the role of assessment in courses, the importance of feedback for student learning, how to develop criteria and standards for assessing written assignments, and strategies for dealing with plagiarism.