During the workshop, participants will be provided with an introduction to being a GA/TA. Various topics will be covered, including GA/TA responsibilities to anticipate and complete prior to starting your GA or TA appointment, conditions that must be met throughout your appointment, and suggestions for communicating with the course instructor and the students.

Did you know that as a UWindsor GA/TA, you are automatically a member of CUPE 4580, a certified labour union? Do you know what your rights and responsibilities are in your role as a UWindsor employee? If not, that’s okay! During this workshop you will learn what it means to be a member of CUPE 4580 and how the union can protect your rights as an employee. You will also have the opportunity to meet with an executive member and ask any questions that you may need clarified.

Your GA/TAship is a valuable opportunity that provides you with skills and experiences that can help you with your career. In this session, learn about how you can identify and develop these skills and experiences and how you can effectively communicate and market them to potential employers.

What are the basics of planning a lesson? How do you use the time that you have in class effectively? How do you keep students engaged? This workshop will help GAs and TAs from all Faculties and departments to plan and deliver effective and engaging lectures and tutorials which can be used both in the classroom as well as in a virtual environment. The workshop will involve interactive exercises where participants will receive peer and instructor feedback on their teaching practices. Participants will leave with strategies for how to create effective PowerPoints, and how to structure and sequence content, among other skills and techniques to further aid in their teaching development.

This workshop will help participants to observe and apply skills that will help them to effectively lead and facilitate discussions both in the online and in-person environments. More specifically, this workshop will demonstrate how to create a classroom atmosphere that is conducive to discussions, develop and pose thought-provoking questions, effectively communicate with students, manage group dynamics and conflict, and how to subsequently evaluate the discussions.

Leading labs and tutorials present challenges that can be difficult to maneuver. In addition to the technical difficulties that are often present, it can be tricky to gauge whether your students learn from the presented information. This workshop aims to offer tips and advice for GAs and TAs from a student perspective to ensure students get the most out of their time spent in labs and tutorials. This workshop will include a review of student feedback on techniques implemented in labs and tutorials to see what worked for them and what was less effective.

Grading and providing effective feedback in response to student work is one of the most important GA/TA roles. While supervisors will provide different instructions for how they would like their GA/TA’s to complete these specific responsibilities, there are some common elements of these tasks that all GAs and TAs should have a basic understanding and consideration of. This session will explore subjects such as: What is an Assessment?; Why is it important?; Types of Assessments; Specific Elements of Grading Assessments (the how to dos of online grading and providing feedback); GA/TA’s Role in Assessments; Using Rubrics; Cheating in Student Submissions and What to do?; Effective Feedback – What is it? What does it look like?; Types of Feedback; How to give feedback.

Whether engaged in an online or in-person teaching environment, the dynamics must be managed by the Teaching or Graduate Assistant (TA/GA). This interactive workshop will support TAs/GAs to define and identify productive and unproductive conflict that may occur with students. The importance of developing strategies, such as detailing expectations for students, to prevent issues before they occur will be discussed in detail. De-escalation techniques will be reviewed, and case studies will be provided for participants to apply these strategies. We will conclude by considering what to do when things go awry, such as when to involve your supervising Professor as well as how to manage your own emotions and engage in self-care.

Designed for student leaders, this presentation covers mental health basics, stigma, resources for support, and simple caring, resilience, stress, and coping skills. Participants will learn strategies for maintaining mental health while balancing their responsibilities.

The words equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are commonly used, but their definitions and applications are often poorly understood. In this workshop, we will clearly define the various facets of EDI and discuss its role in creating respectful, responsive, and just learning environments. Participants will be provided the opportunity to engage in interactive activities to improve their confidence in implementing EDI principles, as well as guidance on the correct use of pronouns. Upon completion of this workshop, GAs and TAs will have a better understanding of how to engage, teach, and assess students in an equitable manner, and, ultimately, enhance students’ sense of belonging.

Few instructors have received formal training for intercultural learning or inclusive education (Paige, & Goode, 2009). However, there are many promising teaching practices that faculty can add to their teaching repertoire, which will improve their teaching of international students and are believed to result in high levels of student learning. In this session, you will learn about the best practices for teaching linguistically and culturally diverse international students, and how to select the most appropriate teaching and learning practices for your class(es). Participants will engage in an active learning experience where they will match an international student population (e.g., country of origin, age, study stage, program of study) with the most relevant teaching practices for enhancing both student learning and student satisfaction. It will be followed by a workshop-wide discussion focusing on the challenges of connecting teaching practices with student characteristics and student satisfaction.

Understanding accessibility and accommodations can go a long way to not only reduce and remove barriers to education but prevent barriers from the start. A panel of speakers will provide an overview on supporting diverse learners in the classroom to create an inclusive and welcoming space. Topics to be covered: Universal Design for Learning; ADHD and Neurodiversity; Making the Visual Verbal, and; accommodations and Student Accessibility Services.

In the workshop “Using Teams (to Add Value to Your GAship)” you will learn about the main features and functions of Teams – chat, virtual meetings and collaborating within Teams using posts, files and collaborating on documents, as well as an overview of Class Teams which are connected to a Blackboard course site. We will cover how to send a Teams meeting invite, how to modify Teams meeting settings to fit the purpose of your virtual sessions as well as introduce the Teams webinar function, allowing you to use Teams for professional looking presentations, webinars and virtual conferences.

Do you need to record a lecture/webinar? Do you need to meet with students online (as a group or privately)? The virtual classroom (formally called Blackboard Collaborate Ultra) can handle this and more. Best of all, it is available in every Blackboard site or can be set up outside of Blackboard and is free for faculty, staff, GAs, TAs, and students to use.This workshop will attempt to demonstrate everything you need to know to use the virtual classroom.

This session will provide an overview of key Blackboard tools and topics for GAs and TAs in the online environment. Our focus will be on communicating with students (announcements, discussion board), and grading the different types of assessments found on Blackboard (tests, assignments, and discussion boards) in addition to using the Grade Centre and related features. For optimum experience, you should be using Google Chrome for this session.

Join us at the GATA Networking Event (in CAW - Alumni Auditorium) where there will be an assortment of booths representing various services on campus, for instance, Leddy Library, Student Accessibility Services, the GATA Union (CUPE4580), the International Student Centre, and more! Come socialize with fellow GA/TAs and learn about how you and your fellow students are supported on campus. You can drop in anytime between 12:00 and 2:00 pm.

Free snacks and beverages will be provided by the Faculty of Graduate Studies!!