Tips and Tricks to Teach
Tips and Tricks to Teach
Cherisse Francis and Laura Lammasniemi
5th Dec 2022
Project Support
Executive Summary
This project was supported to organise a Zine making workshop for Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) employed at the Law School. The aims of the project were two-fold: firstly to foster a sense of community amidst existing hourly paid staff, and secondly, to create zine ‘Tips and Tricks’ manual for new teachers.
GTAs are an important part of the life and teaching at the Law School but some report that they do not feel a sense of belonging. Furthermore, based on formal and informal feedback, it has become clear that the GTAs have varied experiences of teaching as part of module teams and that they have diverse training needs. Many academics take their first steps into teaching as GTAs. This can be emotionally and administratively difficult, and even overwhelming for some, yet, it is a crucially important stage as we develop into full-time educators. The Law School is putting in place various measures to think about GTA training needs more holistically and formally.
The zine project complemented the ‘formal’ training and was organised by the GTAs, for the GTAs, but supported by a faculty member.
The first aim of the project is to foster a sense of community. The project hosted a workshop that was a creative space to collaborate for the GTAs and other hourly paid teaching staff. The workshop was facilitated by an experienced zine maker, and focused on co-creation. The workshop provided a space for the existing GTAs to reflect on their experiences, foster community spirit, and to pass their knowledge on to future generations in a creative way. In this way, GTAs were able to write down the questions they had when starting this role, tips for new starters while being able to reflect on their own practices in a safe space.
After the workshop, the zine pages were compiled into the manual available both as hard copy and electronically. This was the second aim of the project.
See the right side for copies of the 'Teaching Tips and Tricks' manual, a blog about the project idea and experience, and a link to a nano-presentation at the 2023 Warwick Education Conference.