You’ve just been appointed for the first time as a GSI at UC Berkeley… Now what?

Come to the next Teaching Conference for First-Time GSIs to find out! The Teaching Conference is held at the beginning of each semester to orient graduate students to their GSI role and equip them to begin teaching. Discipline-Cluster (D-C) workshops led by experienced GSIs address pressing questions such as how to get started as a GSI, what to do on your first day of teaching and beyond, practical strategies to enhance learning, and more.

Click here for Spring 2024 GSI Teaching Conference Information

"First-time GSIs in Fall Teaching Conference workshop"
Peg Skorpinski photo.

Here’s what GSIs have said about past GSI teaching conferences:

“Outlined what I will need to prepare and
know in my first weeks of GSI-ship.”
— Media Studies

“I just learned a lot from this. In such a short time I became clearer at how to be a good GSI.”
— Chemistry

“I feel much more at ease about being a teacher or grader and feel better prepared.”
— Civil and Environmental Engineering

“It was perfect! Got so much more out of it than I expected.”
— Comparative Literature

“Though I had taught before, I was still able to learn new techniques and resources.”
— Integrative Biology

Background

Because graduate students do a lot of teaching at UC Berkeley, the preparation of GSIs for teaching is essential to the campus’s educational mission. The Graduate Council of the Academic Senate has set up a policy naming three requirements by which graduate students prepare themselves for their first GSI appointment: the conference on teaching as a GSI, the online Ethics Course, and the 300-level pedagogy course offered in departments.

The teaching conferences are organized by the GSI Teaching & Resource Center. The fall conference takes place the week before classes start. The first day (Thursday) is for new international GSIs and addresses teaching in the U.S. classroom. The second day (Friday) consists of intensive teaching preparation for all new GSIs, international and domestic. The spring conference takes place on the Friday before classes begin.