Preparing staff for their teaching responsibilities is one of the core but often underemphasized responsibilities of the heads of staff. Shadowing a section is the best way to provide feedback to other course staff members. For larger staff, consider grouping staff members into “families” so that staff members within each family can shadow and provide feedback to each other.
Computer Science Mentors
The Teaching resources folder, managed by Computer Science Mentors, contains a selection of teaching materials accumulated over the years. A few particular highlights include,
- So You Think You Can TA (Jon Kotker)
- The Torch or the Firehose: The MIT Guide to Section Teaching (MIT)
- CS 61B Discussion 1 Script (Josh Hug)
- CSTeachingTips.org
Depending on the course’s material and what resources already exist, you’ll want to adapt these resources to suit your specific needs. First-time TAs are very likely to benefit from these materials, especially since CS 375 or EE 375 tends not to start sessions until after the critical first few sections.
GSI Teaching & Resource Center
The Graduate Student Instructor Teaching & Resource Center is an academic unit of the Graduate Division at UC Berkeley that prepares GSIs for teaching undergraduates at UC Berkeley. They provide conferences, workshops, seminars, certifications, confidential consultations, classroom observations (with or without video-recording), grants, awards, an online teaching guide, and a robust web-based course on professional standards and ethics in teaching. They also provide language testing and specialized courses for current and prospective international GSIs at UC Berkeley. For more information, please visit the GSI Teaching & Resource Center.