2012 TA Award winners with Dr. Ralph Wilcox, USF Provost and Executive Vice-President. From left to right: Shana Hughes, Sandra Pettit, Dr. Wilcox, Jonathan Weaver, Ross Krawczyk, and Marisa Iglesias.

Twelve teaching assistants received a Provost’s Commendation for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Teaching Assistant:

Kristen Blinne (Communication)

Patrick Dillon (Communication)

Pamela Fay (Cell, Micro, & Molecular Biology)

Andrea Gelfuso (Childhood Education & Literacy Studies)

Laura Hennessey (English)

Jacob Jenkins (Communication)

Susana Lopez (Chemistry)

David MacQueen (Psychology)

Christine McGuire-Wolfe (Global Health)

Megan McIntyre (English)

Chris Patti(Communication)

Tony Pham (Chemistry)

 Thirty-two teaching assistants received from the Provost a Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Performance as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

 Alrazi Abdeljabbar  (Mathematics)

Chighaf Bakour (Epidemiology & Biostatistics)

Aarti Bellara (Educational Measurement & Research)

Justin Brecese (Humanities & Cultural Studies)

Fethullah Caliskan (Industrial & Management Systems Engineering)

Teresa Chavez (Educational Measurement & Research)

Neranga Fernando (Mathematics & Statistics)

Todd Gatlin (Chemistry)

Stacey Gelsheimer (Economics)

Joseph Gill (Chemistry)

Maria Laura Habegger (Integrative Biology)

Mark Horwitz (Geology)

Chen Kan (Industrial & Management Systems Engineering)

Vindya Kumari (Mathematics & Statistics)

Chris Skyler Lauderdale (Sociology)

Pangri Mehta (Sociology)

Kenneth Michniewicz (Psychology)

Mike Middlebrooks (Integrative Biology)

Perry Mitchell, Jr (Chemistry)

Justin Moses (Chemistry)

Janel Norton (Mass Communications)

Demetrios (Jim) Pantages (Chemistry)

Kate Pantelides (English)

Keshav Pokhrel (Mathematics & Statistics)

Daniel Richards (English)

Benjamin Russell (Communication Sciences & Disorders)

Shyam Seetharaman (Psychology)

Keith Stokes (Integrative Biology)

Kurt Van Horn (Chemistry)

Stephanie Wack (Child & Family Studies)

Josanne-Dee Woodroffe (Chemistry)

Christi Young (Chemistry)

Thank you to all the TAs nominated and their faculty mentors for their dedication to teaching USF students!

The Teaching Philosophy Statement is a brief (1-2 pages) reflection of your values and beliefs about teaching and learning. It should provide the reader a concise description of, as well as a rationale for, your teaching style and strategies.

For more information about writing your Teaching Philosophy Statement, see:

• Haugen, Lee. (1998) Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement. Center for Teaching Effectiveness, Iowa State University.
• Montell, Gabriela.(2003, March 27). How to Write a Statement of Teaching Philosophy. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
• O’Neal, Chris, Deborah Meizlish, and Matthew Kaplan. (2007). Writing a Teaching Philosophy for the Academic Job Search. CRLT Occasional Papers. No. 23. Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan.
• Writing a Philosophy of Teaching Statement, University Center for the Advancement of Teaching, The Ohio State University.
• Teaching Statement. Center for Teaching. Vanderbilt University.

Your teaching portfolio should be written in a clear and concise manner, with enough information to reflect your teaching and to illustrate your very best work. Teaching Portfolios should include:

• Table of Contents with a List of Appendices
• Narrative Statement (maximum of five pages) including
• description of your teaching duties
• your teaching philosophy, including teaching goals and your way of
• conceptualizing learning and teaching
• instructional methods used to implement your teaching philosophy
• Appendices containing original teaching materials in support of points mentioned in your narrative statement. These materials should include:
• A syllabus for each course you’ve taught
• Your written interpretation of the meaning and implications of your student rating results
• Samples of students’ work related to your teaching (if available)
• Representative tests, quizzes, and/or assignments you have created
• Sample teaching activities, student handouts, instructional materials
• Evidence of activities completed to improve your teaching

For more information about developing your teaching portfolio see:

• Seldin, P (2010). The teaching portfolio: A practical guide to improved performance and promotion/tenure decisions (4th edition). Boston: Anker. E-book available via USF Library Earlier editions of this book also available at the USF Tampa Library

• Rodriguez-Farrar, H.B. (2006). The Teaching Portfolio: A Handbook for Faculty, Teaching Assistants and Teaching Fellows. The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University.

• Assemble your Teaching Portfolio. The Center for Teaching and Learning. The University of Texas at Austin.

• Teaching Portfolios. Center for Teaching. Vanderbilt University.

• The Teaching Portfolio, University Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The Ohio State University.

TA Eligibility

All USF Tampa (Tampa Academic Affairs and USF Health) departments are eligible to submit nominations.

TAs are eligible for nomination if they have

1. completed a minimum of one year of graduate study at USF,
2. been a TA in at least two USF course sections prior to the time of nomination,
3. been nominated by a faculty member who has supervised their teaching for at least one semester prior to the nomination, and
4. been a TA for Fall and/or Spring of the current academic year.

Nomination for the 2012 Awards are due: Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Faculty can email one or two sentences of nomination for up to three outstanding TAs who meet all eligibility requirements to dianew@usf.edu by Wednesday, February 8, 2012.  Please include the name, department, mail point, and email address for each nominee.  Upon receipt of this notification, the Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence will send nominees the application guidelines and invite them to submit complete applications by Monday, March 19.

Awards will be announced at the Provost’s TA Award Reception, which will take place Thursday, April 12, 3:30 p.m., Marshall Student Center, room 2708 (Plaza Rm.), Tampa Campus, University of South Florida.

2012  Provost’s Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Teaching Assistant – Call for Nominations Flyer (PDF)

• Higher education has been very slow to embrace the fact that knowing, teaching, and learning are communal enterprises, and to reflect that reality in the way it pursues its mission. But the pace of change has been picking up over the past two decades, and the learning communities movement has been at the forefront of that quickening.Parker J. Palmer (author of The Heart of Higher Education, The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, and A Hidden Wholeness) http://celt.muohio.edu/lcj/

• Extensive documentary evidence suggests that effective learning communities have important benefits for students and faculty. . . .  Faculty benefits include diminished isolation, a shared purpose and cooperation among faculty colleagues, increased curricular integration, a fresh approach to one’s discipline, and increased satisfaction with their students’ learning.Lenning, O. T., & Ebbers, L. H. (1999). The powerful potential of learning communities: Improving education for the future(ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report Vol. 26, No. 6, p.iv). Washington, DC: The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

• There is a deep hunger among faculty members for more meaningful collegial relationships and more ‘conversational structures’ in our institutions.Gabelnick, F., et al. (1990) New Directions for Teaching and Learning: Learning Communities- Creating Connections among Students, Faculty, and Disciplines. Vol. 41, p. 86.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

• The growth of any craft depends on shared practice and honest dialogue among the people who do it. We grow by private trial and error, to be sure — but our willingness to try, and fail, as individuals is severely limited when we are not supported by a community that encourages such risks.  Palmer, P. (1998).  The Courage to Teach.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  (p. 144)

Quotations from USF Faculty Focus Groups Student Success Task Force, December 2009

•     The thing I find most helpful is other faculty who exchange ideas . . . .  There’s nothing better than to ask a colleague.

•     We mentor other faculty and we become a community . . . .  We share – how did you do that?  I think that is really helpful for faculty.