CAT is pleased to provide workshops, reading groups, and other programming and services designed to support graduate students in their teaching. Whether you are an experienced teaching assistant looking for additional professional development opportunities or completely new to teaching, we have a variety of events to connect you with inspiring colleagues and develop your pedagogical skill set.
Required TA Training
If you are looking for the Essential Policies & Practices for TAs, a fully online training required for Categories 1–5 TAs who need to get certified to teach, please see our webpage for upcoming training offerings and more information.
Workshops
CAT teaching workshops are interactive sessions (typically 1.5 to 2 hours) led by a CAT facilitator or other subject matter expert. In addition to providing opportunities to learn about effective approaches to teaching, they are also opportunities to discuss ideas with other graduate students across disciplines. The following are our current workshop offerings:
Project Design
Many courses include projects—whether papers, presentations, proposals, videos, social media campaigns, or something else—that provide opportunities for students to develop skills while producing original work. In this interactive workshop, we’ll help you design projects that engage students in the kinds of thinking you’d like for them to do, and that help them to produce the kinds of work you’d like to see. We will identify key principles for designing and implementing projects within your courses to maximize students’ learning, and you will get practice in writing a project description that communicates your project’s design to students in a transparent and motivating way.
Facilitators: Jen Bartman, CAT Senior Associate Director, & Zach Lloyd, CAT Teaching Consultant
Email: teaching-assistants@fsu.edu
Date/Time/Location: February 18th, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m., Strozier Library, Graduate Instruction Classroom 005A
Designing Assignments in the Age of AI
How do you design assignments that make thoughtful use of AI tools while still promoting the deep learning you want students to achieve? In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore two complementary approaches to assignment design in today’s AI-rich learning environments. We will first examine ways to integrate AI tools into student work purposefully and transparently, helping students build critical, ethical, and discipline-appropriate AI literacies. Then, we’ll turn to strategies for creating AI-resilient assignments that maintain academic integrity and emphasize authentic, process-based learning. Along the way, we will also briefly touch on FSU’s privacy and accuracy guidelines related to AI. Participants will leave with practical frameworks, example prompts, and adaptable strategies they can apply across their teaching contexts.
Facilitators: Ameya Kolarkar, CAT Associate Director, & Darcey Liang, CAT Teaching Consultant
Email: teaching-assistants@fsu.edu
Date/Time/Location: March 27th, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Location TBD
More Workshop Topics Coming Soon!
Reading Groups
Reading groups are a great opportunity to connect with colleagues across disciplines and discuss great books about teaching and learning. Groups typically meet three times (approximately 1.5 hours each session) across three consecutive weeks and are led by a facilitator from CAT. Reading groups are a relaxed, discussion-focused environment that encourages participants to share their experiences and questions on the book topics.
See below for upcoming reading group offerings:
How Learning Works
The newly updated edition of this important book translates decades of scientific literature into practical advice, introducing eight general principles of how people learn. The authors draw on cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, as well as educational research, anthropology, etc. The discussion spans issues from memory to motivation, integrating theory with real classroom examples. Participants will develop strategies for strengthening their own teaching through the application of these principles of cognitive psychology.
Dates/Times/Locations: February 19, 26th, & March 5th, 12:00-1:30 p.m., Strozier Library Bradley Reading Room
Email: teaching-assistants@fsu.edu
What the Best College Teachers Do
In the beloved book, What the Best College Teachers Do, Bain shares how great teachers cultivate powerful learning experiences that leave their students fundamentally changed. He draws on fifteen years of research that highlights how exceptional teachers create environments where students feel intellectually challenged, emotionally supported, and genuinely curious. We will discuss the analysis and models of teaching Bain provides and consider how to incorporate the strategies into our own teaching.
Dates/Times/Locations: January 27th, February 3rd, & 10th, 10:00-11:30 a.m., in Diffenbaugh 432.
Email: teaching-assistants@fsu.edu
Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (2nd ed.)
Do you feel like you want to make some changes to your teaching, but you just do not have the time? The great news is that you do not need to make big, drastic changes. Instead, in this reading group, we can explore how to make small, incremental changes that will have a powerful influence on our students’ learning. We will discuss a variety of practical tools and techniques that are based on the sciences of learning and have been proven to be impactful.
Dates/Times/Locations: February 24th, March 3rd, & 10th, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., in Diffenbaugh 432.
Email: teaching-assistants@fsu.edu
Please Note — These reading groups are for graduate students only. If you have questions about a particular reading group, please email the email address listed for that reading group.