Talking Points from a TA Salon for New Teaching Assistants


	[For Staff Only] Talking Points from a TA Salon for New Teaching Assistants

	[僅供職員] 大學助教沙龍重點回顧

Ref. No :	CFUN-BU8BSC	Posted by :	ChrisFulton/UMAC
Department :	CTLE	Posted Date :	09/10/2020
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Talking Points from a TA Salon for New Teaching Assistants

Half-day Salon where new TAs got together, online, and interacted and exchanged teaching practices with faculty members and experienced TAs

As part of an online TA Training Workshop Series, CTLE successfully held a TA Salon that consolidated key points and issues from past workshops for over 450 new teaching assistants. This innovative event on 7 October was also an opportunity for participants in the online TA training to interact with distinguished professors and experienced teaching assistants.

For this TA Salon, there were three faculty panels in which faculty members and experienced teaching assistants led conversations and responded to questions posted on an online platform, Slido.

In the first panel on “Preparation and Interactions”, Prof. Katrine Wong, Prof. Rose Lai, Mr. Yang Shen and Mr. Zongyuan Li talked about issues relating to how to interact with students. The panelists shared a few ideas on how to maintain effective working relationships with students. The online participants were actively engaged and answered polls and open-ended questions. A few of the polls used to facilitate discussion at the online event are below.

In the second panel, which reviewed ways to lecture and facilitate discussions, Prof. Garry Wong, Ms. Miranda Ma, Ms. Xinyu Kong and Ms. Wen Li reviewed key points made in the online TA training workshops. One talking point was that new teaching assistants may benefit from planning their lectures or presentations and having strategies to facilitate face-to-face discussions.

In the third panel, which looked back at assessment and teaching tools, Dr. Alice Lee, Dr. Chris Fulton, Ms. Runrun He and Ms. Yinyan Ruan talked about tools that teaching assistants might find helpful in their work. A poll indicated that many new teaching assistants thought that online quizzes would be a tool that they could use to make their job easier.

This concluding event for the 2020 CTLE TA Training Workshop Series wrapped up with the participation of over 450 participants. The organizers would like to commend postgraduate students who have learnt core skills needed by those who are involved in teaching or may go on to work in academic institutions in a teaching or an instructional capacity. 