The Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT) provides varied resources and programming to graduate students and postdocs who are or will be teaching. All programming and resources listed below are open to teaching grad students and post docs. For graduate specific information please visit the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies web site.
Programs
CELT, in partnership with IT’s Innovative Learning Center (ILC), are hosting in person Classroom Demonstrations next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The purpose of these trainings is to familiarize faculty and staff with Tulane’s technology enhanced learning spaces. For more info, please visit the Teach Anywhere toolkit.
Teach Anywhere Office Hours
These are open office hours for faculty to meet with the CELT and ILC staff. We will be holding consulting hours for you to drop in online and work with us directly on your course content.
Fall 2024 Office Hours | Mondays and Thursdays | 12PM - 1PM | via ZOOM
Ready, Prep, Teach: Graduate TA and Postdoc Workshop
CELT, in partnership with the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (OGPS) offer a day-long teaching workshop in mid-May for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who have or anticipate having a teaching assignment. The workshop will offer both large format discussions as well as smaller, breakout sessions. Workshop topics typically include classroom management and setting boundaries, leading discussions, collaborative/group work, grading, and active learning.
If you have any questions about Ready, Prep, Teach please, email Donata Henry.
3 Semester Graduate Pedagogy Program
- The first course is theoretical/general; the second course applies the theoretical to the practice of teaching; and the third course is a teaching practicum.
- Each course is worth 1 credit with all additional course fees waived
- Courses 1 and 2 would be taken sequentially in the year before a student begins teaching.
- Course 3 would be taken while the student teaches.
CELT 7010 | The Essentials of Teaching & Learning
This course is one of the series of 3 1-credit hour courses with this course being the first of the series. The nature of this course will comprise the theoretical underpinnings in effective teaching and learning. This course provides the framework upon which excellence in teaching is built. We will approach to better facilitate student learning and improve teaching practices. Students will investigate the science of learning, identify strategies of effective teaching practices, discuss ways to ensure inclusive and diverse classroom environments and the pedagogy or service learning. The course will culminate with the writing of a Teaching Philosophy and creating a Teaching E-Porfolio.CELT 7020 | Practical Course Design & Teaching Skills
This course building on the theories presented in CELT 7010, will focus on the practical applications of course design, classroom management techniques, the appropriate inclusion of technology and the development of learning-based assessments.CELT 7030 | Teaching Practicum
This course is designed to provide students feedback on actual teaching opportunities. Some students maybe the faculty of record for a course in their department, others will be a guest lecturer or give lectures to peers.
Awards
President’s Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching
“The Teacher Who Changed My Life”
Every year, Tulane University bestows two faculty with one of our most prestigious awards – the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
As a member of the Tulane Community, you are uniquely positioned to tell us who should win these awards.
- Who has changed your life?
- Who has gone the extra mile for you?
- Who has supported and mentored you in a meaningful way?
Nominees should have achieved success in:
- Making distinctive contributions to teaching such as challenging and well organized presentations of the subject, adaptability to the learning needs of students, innovative approaches to course materials, creation of scholarly materials for student use, and availability to students outside of class.
- Influencing students beyond the formal role as a teaching such as advising or mentoring individual students, advising student organizations or groups, serving on teaching and curriculum committees, interacting informally with students.
- Helping students such as aiding in case of illness or other emergencies, advising students confronted with personal problems.
2024-2025 Award Nominations to Open now through February 10, 2025.
Resources
The Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT) is committed to supporting all Tulane graduate students and postdocs with a teaching position. In partnership with other University offices, we assist in providing the services and guides listed below. These are subject to change to reflect the needs and desires of Tulane’s faculty. Please email celt@tulane.edu if you would like to recommend a guide.
Peer Observations are a completely no-stakes, 100% confidential way to improve and enhance your teaching through constructive, formative feedback. It is the process through which a peer provides thoughtful, informed feedback to a colleague for the purpose of enhancing the quality of that individual’s (classroom) instruction.
The process and confidentiality:
Peer Observations consist of a pre-observation meeting, a classroom observation, a conversation between your students and the Peer Observer (PO) during the last ten minutes of the class, and a post-observation meeting. After the final meeting, the PO will delete all information from his or her computer. Further, neither CELT nor anyone else will be privy to the conversations regarding the process.
Additionally, you are never paired with a PO from your department and we attempt to pair you with someone outside of your school, thus the content of the class a non-issue.
Why participate?
- To improve classroom teaching through constructive, formative feedback.
- To promote the professional development of individual faculty and instructors.
- To build a culture of faculty who genuinely care about becoming better teachers.
FAQs:
Q: Who can participate in Peer Observations?
A: Anyone who is teaching a course at Tulane University is invited to participate, including faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students. However, as space is limited and faculty participation will be prioritized.
Q: Who Can Benefit from Peer Observations?
A: Everyone from first year instructors to long experienced full professors, and of
course, ultimately the students.
Q: Who qualifies as a peer?
A: A full-time Tulane faculty member outside of one’s home department and ideally from a different school.
Q: What qualifications does the Peer Observer possess?
A: Each of CELT’s Peer Observers are thoroughly trained, have been observed themselves, and have conducted multiple observations.
Q: Is the outcome of the process confidential?
A: Yes! The information passed between professor and Peer Observer will remain
strictly confidential. Only the professor will receive the final report, both in hard and
digital copy.
Email Donata Henry at droome@tulane.edu to work with a Peer Observer in your classroom.
CELT offers one-on-one consultations with Eunice Ofori, CELT's Senior Instructional Designer. Eunice earned her PhD from Virginia Tech in Instructional Design and Technology. These consultations are meant to provide you and/or your colleagues the opportunity to confidentially discuss course design, syllabi construction, active learning activities, assessment creation, classroom management, educational technology, etc.
CELT offers a growing library of teaching guides. If you would like CELT to make a guide on a certain subject please email your idea to celt@tulane.edu.
CELT has an ever growing Lending Library filled with books on diverse topics all relevant to teaching - pedagogy, classroom management, assessment techniques, mentoring undergraduates, the science of learning, etc. Please, visit our lending library in B23 of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library (7001 Freret Street, NOLA, 70118) if you would like to check a book out.
If you would like to suggest an additional acquisition, email CELT.
E-Books (Please note that off campus access might require login with your Tulane ID and password.)
Specifications Grading
Linda Nilson
Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time
Creating Engaging Discussions
Editors: Jennifer H. Herman and Linda Nilson
Strategies for Avoiding Crickets in Any Size Classroom and Online
Teaching at Its Best, Ed. 4
Linda B. Nilson
A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors
Online Teaching at Its Best
Linda B. Nilson and Ludwika A. Goodson
Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research
Small Teaching Online
Flower Darby and James M. Lang
Applying Learning Science in Online Classes
Minds Online
Michelle D. Miller
Teaching Effectively with Technology
The Blended Course Design Workbook
Kathryn E. Linder
A Practical Guide
Make It Stick
The Science of Successful Learning
Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel
Resources for you:
Tulane Academic Alert System: If you are concerned about a student for academic reasons and want to let Tulane know, you may report your concerns through the online Academic Alert System.
Tulane Concerns: Non-academic concerns should be filed through Tulane Concerns.
Code of Student Conduct: This Student Guide includes the most frequently referenced policies related to student misconduct and is update every summer.
Student Code of Academic Conduct: This Code applies to all undergraduate students, full-time and part-time, in Tulane University. The Mississippi campuses of the School of Continuing Studies will use this Code but will constitute their own Honor Board panels for those campuses.
Tulane Provost: Faculty Development and Mentoring
Resources for your students:
Tulane Academic Success Center
