Today I gave the keynote talk for the spring New Educator’s Workshop for teaching assistants at UW-Madison. I’m posting my slides here. My talk was entitled, “My teaching journey: there and back again.”
Abstract. I will talk about my journey from a painfully shy TA to a professor who is comfortable in the classroom and when talking to the media about research on the evening news. I will talk about strategies I used to be effective in the classroom given my strengths (and weaknesses). Topics include time management, active learning techniques, easy ways to teach with technology, tips for managing student expectations, and things I wish I knew when I was starting to teach.
Blog posts that inspired my presentation:
- Time management tips for assistant professors and everyone
- How college is like choosing between going to the movies and watching Netflix
- What I do for diversity in the classroom
- Teaching hack: student moderators for in-class presentations
- The flipped classroom
- Engineering systems: critical infrastructure and logistics
Punk Rock Operations Research 
January 12th, 2017 at 12:45 pm
Thank you for taking time out to give this insightful lecture. My first impression was that of a super confident alpha female professor who was trying to just show how awesome teaching is and lecturing about what to do and what not to do in class. Instead, i learnt to embrace my introverted-ness and learnt that it need not be a barrier
January 12th, 2017 at 6:54 pm
Nice use of LOTR images!! Certainly helped me to pay attention heh
January 13th, 2017 at 11:40 am
I like the idea of starting small and improving over the years. You don’t have to start out perfect. It is a process that takes years. Well said.
January 14th, 2017 at 5:33 pm
Excellent tips but I wonder how many students fully understand the reference in slide 12.