Teaching Award - Graduate Instructor
GSG Outstanding Instructor Award
Description
This $300 monetary award honors a graduate student who has excelled as an instructor and has great pedagogical potential. The burgeoning success of graduate instructors who have the privilege of formally teaching before being awarded their PhDs deserves to be recognized. One or more $100 honorable mention may be awarded at the discretion of the judging committee. The judging committee will be comprised of a jury of peers comprised of graduate students representing all the colleges in the graduate school. Applications will be accepted from March 1 - March 25, 2024 for a course taught in 2023. Post-docs may apply for teaching positions held when they were graduate students.
Application Requirements
Items I to III should be typed directly into the form in the Google form in the "Submissions" section below. Item IV should be forwarded to the students, as indicated.
I. Applicant’s Personal Statement (500 words max)
Please begin this statement with your philosophy of education, explaining the principles which guide your approach to teaching. Then, provide detailed information evidencing the criteria listed in the rubric for this award, e.g.:
How do you prepare for your courses?
Which evidence-based teaching strategies do you use and how?
How do you communicate with students, and support them individually?
How do challenge students to become independent learners?
How do you make your classes engaging?
What steps have you taken toward self-reflection and improvement as an instructor?
II. Course Syllabus
A course syllabus of, preferably of your own design, with 2-5 annotations highlighting important parts of the syllabus and how they contribute to student learning.
III. A questionnaire completed by 2 students in your class. (This is mandatory regardless of a self-nomination or nomination by a student)
Last updated: February 2024
Outstanding Graduate Instructor of Record FAQs
How long should my supporting statement be?
There is a word limit of 500 words in the form, which is roughly equivalent to 1.5 pages single-spaced. You need not utilize the word count completely.
How should I annotate my course syllabus?
You may make notes in a word document on your syllabus, as long as you highlight them for the committee to find easily. You should then turn the Word document into a pdf to upload it (File -> Save As -> PDF). You may also annotate the syllabus by hand, scan it, and then upload it as a PDF.
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