Rebecca Miller Brown, Assistant Director, Graduate Student Programming, Derek Bok Center
Lauren Davidson, Assistant Director of the Learning Lab, Derek Bok Center

What makes for an effective discussion in your discipline? How do you balance your goals for the session with student questions and interests? How do you navigate challenges, such as a conflict or tangent you’re not sure will pay off? Join us for a discussion of these and other questions about how to make discussion more meaningful and engaging, even in Zoom. We’ll...

Tamara Brenner, Executive Director, Derek Bok Center

Problem solving is a central activity in science, engineering, and math classes. In this workshop, designed for both new and experienced TFs in the STEM disciplines, we will explore strategies for teaching with problems, with an emphasis on online teaching. How and why might you encourage students to work in groups to solve problems? How can you enable a variety of students to participate and share their answers and ideas with the class? This workshop will provide you with practical methods...

Pamela Pollock, Director of Professional Development, Derek Bok Center

How can you plan your section to keep students active and engaged from beginning to end? What Zoom tips and tricks do you need to know? How do you know if your students are really learning? How can you find out how you are doing as a TF? In this interactive session you will 1) get some concrete strategies for planning your section 2) understand how these strategies actually improve student learning, and 3) discover how to use these techniques to get feedback on both how you...

Seth Avakian, Program Officer for Title IX and Professional Conduct
Erin Clark, Program Officer for Title IX and Professional Conduct

This session addresses principles of professional conduct and classroom management for teachers as it relates to sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct and Harvard’s commitment to gender equity.  We’ll discuss how one balances Harvard University’s commitment to the free exchange of ideas while maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the...

Eleanor Finnegan, Assistant Director, Faculty Programming, Derek Bok Center

As an experienced TF, how do you reflect on your teaching experience, and prepare job market materials that tell the story of the teacher you are and the teacher you want to become? Specifically, how can a syllabus function in this way? Most tenure-track job postings request a sample syllabus. How do you go about creating one? This workshop introduces a method of curriculum planning called backwards design. The idea is simple: you can’t start planning how you’re going...

Are you interested in working at the Bok Center? Our graduate student fellows engage in a range of activities, from working as peer consultants, to designing creative assignments, to supporting STEM outreach. Stop by to learn more about all of our fellows programs for GSAS PhD students, including the Pedagogy Fellows, Media & Design Fellows, and ...

Adam Beaver, Director of Pedagogy, Derek Bok Center

In this workshop we will explore the relationship between stand up comedy and teaching, and how lessons and dynamics that occur in successful comedy routines could be relevant to the classroom. To be a good comedian, you have to be able to persuade your audience to let you show them a new perspective on things—to welcome a diverse crowd, to establish some shared premises, to think about questions which have never occurred to them before, to see the world as an outsider would, and to wonder...

Sarah Emory, Assistant Director for International Teachers and Scholars, Derek Bok Center
with an experienced panel of undergraduate Culture and Communication Consultants

Are you a TF who got your undergraduate degree at an institution outside the U.S.? How might the undergraduate experience at Harvard differ from your own experience? What does it mean to be a teaching fellow (TF) and what do Harvard undergraduates expect from TFs? In this interactive...

Pamela Pollock, Director of Professional Development, Derek Bok Center

How do you respond when someone asks you what you are working on? How can you describe your high-level research to your introductory students? Do you struggle to get out of the weeds and explain the big picture? In this session we will build upon what you learned in Erika Bailey’s Engaged Communication session to practice and get feedback on communicating your research. We consider how the basic principles of good pedagogy are also the basic principles of effective and...

Erika Bailey, Head of Voice and Speech, American Repertory Theater; Lecturer on Theater, Dance & Media

Description coming soon.

This session is part of Winter Teaching Week, which is designed to prepare new and experienced graduate student teachers for their roles as Teaching Fellows in the FAS. Pre-registration is required. Learn more here.

Jonah Johnson, Assistant Director for Writing Pedagogy, Derek Bok Center; Head Preceptor in the Writing Program

Have you graded a thousand papers and need some new ideas? Are you worried about how much time you spend grading? How can you make sure your feedback is accurate, consistent, and actually useful for students? In this session, we’ll discuss best practices for responding to student writing, which will help you grade that next stack of papers more efficiently and effectively. We’ll discuss general principles of giving feedback along...

Noelle Lopez, Assistant Director, Equity and Inclusion, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
Veronica Dea Santana, Assistant Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

In this session we’ll introduce some key concepts from the research on inclusive teaching, consider common challenges to fostering equitable and inclusive learning environments, and discuss approaches and strategies you can use to create conditions conducive to helping your students feel both welcome and...

Graduate student teachers are invited to take advantage of the opportunity to practice presenting a short lesson in Zoom and get feedback from an experienced facilitator and a small group of your peers. Practice teaching sessions will run daily from January 19 to January 22.

This session is part of Winter Teaching Week, which is designed to prepare new and experienced graduate student teachers for their roles as Teaching Fellows in the FAS. Sessions are capped and pre-registration is required. Learn more...