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GSI Teaching & Resource Center
University of California, Berkeley
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Plan a Pre-Semester Course Orientation
Use this meeting as an opportunity to get acquainted with GSIs and to provide a general overview of your course. Faculty members are almost unanimous in endorsing the importance of pre-semester planning. GSIs benefit from knowing faculty members' course objectives and goals for students and the role GSIs can play in helping to achieve those goals. A pre-semester orientation also provides GSIs with a chance to examine the syllabus and plan ahead for labor-intensive teaching or grading weeks.
- Plan a pre-semester course orientation.
- Know your GSIs.
- Meet weekly with GSIs to talk about teaching.
- Build into the weekly meetings specific pedagogical goals.
- Encourage your students to keep a teaching journal.
- Observe your GSIs in the classroom.
- Encourage GSIs to be videotaped in the classroom.
- Set up a peer observation program.
- Encourage your GSIs to get ongoing feedback on teaching and learning from their students.
- Recommend participation in teaching-related events.
- Help GSIs construct a teaching portfolio.
- Encourage your GSIs to read pedagogical literature.
- View your course as one step in helping GSIs to prepare for their own future roles as professors.
- Take part in the programs for faculty of the GSI Teaching and Resource Center.
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