2025 Developing & Communicating Your Identity as an Educator by

Opening Activity Directions

enewcombe3 — 2025-08-25 22:40:07 UTC

What teaching experiences have you had thus far?

Add a "sticky" for each teaching experience you would like to share by clicking the "+" sign in the bottom right corner.

Provide a brief description of what you did in each teaching experience. Set the color of your sticky based on category ➡️

University Teaching

enewcombe3 — 2025-08-25 22:40:07 UTC

Use a red sticky to describe a teaching experience in a college classroom

Examples include: working as a TA or instructor of record, giving a presentation to peers in a seminar, or a guest lecture in a university class

Teaching just not in college

enewcombe3 — 2025-08-25 22:40:07 UTC

Use a blue sticky to describe a formal teaching experience that is not in the college classroom.

Examples include: K-12 teaching, individual or small group tutoring, teaching for a certification or continuing education.

Non-formal teaching

enewcombe3 — 2025-08-25 22:40:07 UTC

Use a yellow sticky to describe a structured or organized educational activity that are not held to constraints of a formal educational context (e.g., does not always contribute to a degree/grade, may not have formal homework or a syllabus, etc.)

Examples include: mentoring students in the lab, facilitating a grant writing workshop for your peers, doing a demo of your research to kids at a local library. This can also include activities outside of your discipline such as working as a camp counselor.

2025-08-26 13:18:07 UTC

I was a tutor at the undergrad institution for 3 years. I w tutored various classes, including biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and statistics.

2025-08-26 13:18:08 UTC

TA for college course and for some lab courses

2025-08-26 13:18:10 UTC

Explaining research techniques to the undergrads in my lab during my gap year

2025-08-26 13:18:26 UTC

I’ve mentored a lot of undergrad research assistants ranging from teaching data collection best practices to analyses

2025-08-26 13:18:26 UTC

I was a subject area and study skills tutor for a variety of STEM courses in college. I was also a supplemental instructor for an introductory genetics course, which involved hosting twice weekly group tutoring / review sessions where I created worksheets, study guides, and activities.

2025-08-26 13:18:34 UTC

I have helped several friends study for courses I took in the past in undergrad.

2025-08-26 13:18:55 UTC

Tutoring incoming undergrads in their first semester.

2025-08-26 13:18:56 UTC

I was a TA for intro chemistry labs

2025-08-26 13:19:17 UTC

I tutored a variety of chemistry classes at my undergraduate institution.

2025-08-26 13:19:23 UTC

i’ve worked as a TA for a few different writing courses during undergrad.

2025-08-26 13:19:24 UTC

I mentor many undergraduate research assistants and co-op students in my lab

2025-08-26 13:19:26 UTC

I mentored undergraduate students in my lab during my senior year. I was able to walk them through protocol development, troubleshooting experiments, and data management.

2025-08-26 13:19:28 UTC

I was a tutor for 2 different people in intro STEM courses during my undergrad.

2025-08-26 13:19:35 UTC

I was a math tutor in undergrad

2025-08-26 13:19:41 UTC

Taught Spanish; taught lab protocols

Tutoring incoming interns at my former job

2025-08-26 13:19:56 UTC

2025-08-26 13:19:57 UTC

I used to be a French and chemistry tutor for middle school students.

2025-08-26 13:19:57 UTC

In high school, I was apart of a tutoring program.

Taught math

2025-08-26 13:20:06 UTC

2025-08-26 13:20:11 UTC

I was a tutor and supplemental instruction leader throughout college for biology, physics, calculus, etc, so I both tutored one-on-one and prepared/led practice questions and activities for groups

2025-08-26 13:20:11 UTC

I taught my lab partner the drama between Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett, and Sabrina Carpenter. It must’ve stuck because they still text me about them.

Teaching

2025-08-26 13:20:11 UTC

I was an undergraduate TA last semester.

2025-08-26 13:20:14 UTC

I was a swim instructor for 8 years and taught adults and children at various levels.

2025-08-26 13:20:22 UTC

Taught some brief classes in high school

2025-08-26 13:20:27 UTC

Teaching and consulting logo design in Adobe Illustrator

2025-08-26 13:20:39 UTC

I taught 4-6 year olds how to play t-ball!

University TA

2025-08-26 13:20:40 UTC

I was an undergraduate TA for 2 years with a professor who I had worked with for ~1 year. I primarily graded homeworkers and essays, and led study groups, but there was a couple of times I was trusted to lead the main lectures. I also led the exam(s) workshops, etc.

2025-08-26 13:21:03 UTC

My friends in my major never went to our classes so I would often show them my notes and try to teach them what we missed when we did homework together.

2025-08-26 13:21:18 UTC

I just have a non-formal teaching experience before. In my undergraduate period. The professor asked us to form a study group. So, I teach some of peers in the group, like help them to get review and finish homework.

Undergrad Interns

2025-08-26 13:21:21 UTC

I mentored undergrad interns as a research coordinator and as a project manager

2025-08-26 13:21:51 UTC

I tutored for a variety of classes throughout middle school and high school

2025-08-26 13:22:07 UTC

I was a teaching assistant in an educational center helping high school students preparing entrance exams to university

What do you wish you knew prior to starting?

2025-08-26 14:52:16 UTC

2025-08-26 14:52:17 UTC

How do you deal with students who aren’t happy with their grade?

2025-08-26 14:52:22 UTC

How do you manage your research with TA with classes ?

2025-08-26 14:52:43 UTC

How did you prepare for your first TA session?

2025-08-26 14:53:09 UTC

What boundaries do you set with you students?

2025-08-26 14:53:13 UTC

Some schools - the labs are really relaxed. Would you say it’s the same here?

2025-08-26 14:53:14 UTC

How do you deal with students who are not interested or refuse to engage?

2025-08-26 14:53:19 UTC

how are office hours and what do you usually discuss during those times?

TA Question

2025-08-26 14:53:22 UTC

What is the most challenging part of TAing?

2025-08-26 14:53:23 UTC

What is the best way to prepare before class? How can you best support student before exams?

2025-08-26 14:53:26 UTC

Have you ever had to handle a difficult student, and how did you go through that process with the professor?

How do you get students to talk to one another in a recitation/non-lab setting?

2025-08-26 14:53:33 UTC

Time/Effort Management

2025-08-26 14:53:38 UTC

How much time do you allocate to TAing a week? And is the amount of effort equal to the time spent (or is it low-effort)?

Do I need to give tutorial sessions teaching students to solve some questions when I work as a TA？

2025-08-26 14:54:40 UTC

Psych Specific

2025-08-26 14:54:58 UTC

Do you know of specific classes or specific instructors that would let TAs do guest lectures?