Class is held: Mondays from 5-7pm in Hearst Field Annex, Room B1.
The Bootcamp is held: Tuesday, Aug 23 and Wednesday, Aug 24 from 3-5pm in Hearst Field Annex, Room B5.
Instructors: Therese Jones (tjones@astro.berkeley.edu), Aaron Lee (a.t.lee@berkeley.edu)
Advising Professor: Imke de Pater (imke@astro)
The Syllabus. Make sure you read this!
The Electronic Big Red Binder. An important resource for GSIs. Reuse and modification of any and all of the materials in these resources is highly encouraged! So is contribution back to the EBRB of your improved materials! There is also an older physical copy (The Big Red Binder), located in the library.
Teaching Logs. Summaries of all teaching log prompts.
Assignments. Summaries of all assignments for Ay300.
Design(Improve)-A-Demo. Assignment summary.
(parenthetical statements are for C10)
UNIT ONE : THE BASICS
| Class Number | Date/Week of | Topics | Lesson Plan Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aug 23 | Bootcamp 1: Paper airplane activity/discussion ; What makes a good first section? General classroom setting, syllabus design, philosophy from the instructors | BootCamp Day 1 |
| 2 | Aug 24 | Bootcamp 2: First day activities, lecturing and boardwork (part 1), use of technology, class closings and assessment | BootCamp Day 2 |
| 3 | Aug 29 | Effective group work activities, interacting with students, teaching math | Class 3 |
| - | Sept 5 | Labor Day, no class | |
| 4 | Sept 12 | (Quizzes next week) Go over lesson plans, writing quiz questions, administering demos effectively, board work exercises,pick Design-A-Demo groups | Class 4 |
| 5 | Sept 19 | (Quizzes this week) Discuss group work and visitations, developing rubics and grading quizzes (bring in example questions/responses), writing worksheets, check teaching logs | Class 5 |
| 6 | Sept 26 | Discuss writing test questions, go over examples in class, DaD proposals, | Class 6 |
| 7 | Oct 3 | (Midterm reviews this week), Ethics, DaD presentations , boardwork (topic: midterm reviews) , | Class 7 |
| 8 | Oct 6, 5:30-6:30 | (C10 GSIs have to grade on Monday 10/10) Celia's meeting: midsemester evaluations | Class 8 |
UNIT TWO: DEVELOPING YOURSELF AS AN EFFECTIVE SECTION LEADER
| Class Number | Date/Week of | Topics | Lesson Plan Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Oct 17 | Special Topic 1: Motivation and dealing with student problems/inabilities, bias in the classroom, cultural differences, etc. | Class 9 |
| 10 | Oct 24 | (Quizzes this week) Special Topic 2: Identifying misconceptions, how wording can promote misconceptions, etc. , | Class 10 |
| 11 | Oct 31 | Special Topic 3: Teaching Thinking | Class 11 |
| 12 | Nov 7 | (Review sessions this week) Discuss visitations, Midterm Board Work | |
| 13 | Nov 14 | No class, C10 GSIs have to grade |
UNIT THREE: BIGGER PICTURE IDEAS
| Class Number | Date/Week of | Topics | Lesson Plan Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Nov 21 | Special meeting at Celia's , Other GSIs visit (McBride, Fornasini) | |
| 15 | Nov 28 | Special Topic 4: Teaching Portfolios, Teachers visit (Filippenko, Quataert, Stahler, Davis), Check teaching logs this week, Wrap Up | Class 14 |
Strategies for Astro 101 by Tim Slater and Jeff Adams. (Amazon) A great affordable book on designing Astro 101 (Introductory Astronomy for non-majors) courses. Applied to the course as a whole, but a lot of this book applies to running sections as well.
McKeachie's Teaching Tips by Marilla Svinicki and Wilbert McKeachie. (Amazon) Almost biblical in the pedagogy world, this book covers almost anything you need to know about teaching. If you want to shell out the money, this is the book to get. It covers everything in Slater and Adams and more (no need to buy both…).
How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Ambrose et al. (Amazon) An interesting book that covers seven very real problems that you will experience in section. Applied to teaching a course as a whole, many of the book discussions can also be applied to sections.
AY C10 (Filippenko/Keating)
Graduate Student Instructors
Undergraduate Student Instructors
AY 10 (Davis)
AY 7a (Chiang)
AY 160 (Quataert)
Astronomy in the News - A list of interesting astro-related news articles and websites (usually with more of an emphasis on pop-culture type stuff). It be great if everyone in the class could update this on occasion.
Quick recap of Fall 2009 semester, with comments on pieces of the curriculum and recommendations for this upcoming semester.