Information for the Departments

The Council for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) are pleased to sponsor Campus-Wide Teaching Assistant Orientation (TA Orientation) for academic year 2008-2009.  TA Orientation will take place on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 in Lecture Center A, located in the heart of the east campus. In response to your requests and the desires of your students, we have trimmed the Campus Wide TA Orientation to a single day.  Please click here for a copy of the preliminary schedule for this year’s orientation.  This year, we are focusing on the concept of community. Highlights of this year’s orientation include:

• Tips on making classes more engaging and energizing
• Streamlined SPEAK Test preparation and testing program
• Introduction to the many support services available to TAs at UIC
• Workshops on improving specific skills of interest to TAs

Departments and programs interested in having their TAs participate in TA Orientation are asked to do the following three things:

1. Provide a rough estimate of the numbers of that your department/program will be sending to the orientation. A form for providing this information is available by clicking here (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required). Though we prefer for TAs and graduate students to be registered by their department or program, a registration form for individual students is available by clicking here (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required) for departments or programs preferring to have their students register directly.
2. Identify a contact person for the summer in your department/program so we can keep you updated and informed of other orientation news. This can be done using the registration form above or by sending e-mail to teaching@uic.edu.
3. Nominate outstanding returning TAs from your department program to participate on a panel of experienced TAs and/or serve as peer facilitators. A nomination form is available by clicking here (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required).

If you have any questions regarding TA Orientation, please feel free to contact Laura Stempel at (312) 355-2499 or via e-mail at lstempel@uic.edu.