The Graduate Center’s Teaching and Learning Center is pleased to launch two new initiatives to support the work of Graduate Center Teaching Fellows and adjunct instructors: the Teach@CUNY Handbook and the Teach@CUNY Summer Institute.

The Teach@CUNY Handbook, compiled and written by the staff of the TLC, provides a primer to teaching in CUNY’s classrooms for those early in their college teaching careers. The first edition of the Handbook has been printed for distribution at Teach@CUNY Day. It is not intended as a static or a comprehensive document, but rather as a collection of tips and suggestions to support the work of beginning CUNY instructors. There’s much we’ve missed and that we can improve, and the TLC will continue to refine and revise the Handbook. To facilitate that work we have launched an annotatable web version at http://cuny.is/tcuny-handbook. We encourage and look forward to your feedback.

Also, from August 7-18, the Teaching and Learning Center will be hosting the first Teach@CUNY Summer Institute, a comprehensive, hybrid course-preparation seminar for Graduate Center Teaching Fellows. Participants will have the opportunity to work with TLC staff and each other to build community and discuss a wide range of issues related to teaching in the CUNY undergraduate classroom. The institute’s design and format will accommodate both the summer schedules and varying degrees of time commitment possible among Graduate Center students, and will help those preparing their courses for the Fall 2017 semester to hit the ground running.

In the first week we will share and discuss readings on CUNY’s history, students, and curriculum, and address key topics such as course and syllabus design, assignments and assessment, and inclusivity and accessibility. During the second week, participants will choose from a number of web-based inquiry channels, including educational technology, creative and place-based assignments, instructional modes, discussion strategies, and discipline-specific pedagogy. Other channels will address teaching as an international student, managing challenging classroom situations and anxiety, universal design, and evolving your pedagogy as a college instructor.

The institute will combine web conferencing and face-to-face meeting opportunities with both synchronous and asynchronous online discussion using various digital tools, and will accommodate attendees who are both in and outside of New York City. Each week will conclude with an informal meet-up at the Graduate Center, for those who can attend.

Stay tuned for more information about the Teach@CUNY Summer Institute!