Dear LFS TAs,

We hope you are keeping well and safe.

We are interested in your experiences of online teaching assistance (both new and returning TAs). If you are not working this summer but have questions for Fall, this sessions is also for you.

Please join us online in the next community of practice meeting to share ideas, shape perspectives, and enhance practices.

NB: We are fortunate to be joined by Dr Cyprien Lomas, Director of LFS Learning Centre

WHEN: June 5th 2020

Dear TAs,

I‘d like to thank you all for devoting time and energy in TAing or applying for TA positions for the Summer and Winter courses.

UBC CTLT has committed to support our TAs at this unprecedented time.  CTLT has organized a series of workshops for graduate students and undergrad TAs.  You can find the list of workshops and the links for register at this site: https://institute.ctlt.ubc.ca/ta-institute/may-2020-ta-institute/.  I would like to strongly encourage you to sign on as many workshops as you can.

Thanks,

Zhaoming

Zhaoming Xu, PhD
Associate Professor in Nutritional Biochemistry
Associate Dean, Academic
Program Director, Food, Nutrition, & Health Program
University of British Columbia l Vancouver Campus l Musqueam Traditional Territory
2205 East Mall
Vancouver, BC
T: (604) 822-6253

E: zxu@mail.ubc.ca

CTLT Teaching Assistant (TA) Institute

Background

The CTLT Teaching Assistant (TA) Institute is four days of free professional development workshops open to any graduate student and undergraduate TA. The TA Institute from May 25 – 28, 2020, includes a collection of workshops designed to support TAs as their roles change with the move to online summer courses. Sessions include; TA well-being, equity, diversity and inclusion in online learning, time management and workflow in an online environment, preparing for and managing technical difficulties, and leading both asynchronous and synchronous discussion groups. View the full schedule of events and learn more at https://institute.ctlt.ubc.ca/ta-institute/may-2020-ta-institute/.

Hello LFS TAs,

We hope you are all doing well. The 2019-20 academic year has surely been interesting, and we’d like to commend you all for your continued hard work as LFS Teaching Assistants. Please see below for some announcements.

Program Evaluation

All LFS TAs are invited to share feedback on the LFS TA Training Program. Whether you’ve used several of our resources or none at all, were a TA for the first time this year or graduating this summer – your feedback is important! The evaluation takes minutes to complete, and consists of 3 sections:

• Usage and impact of TA Training Program events and resources
• Delivery of current programming
• Feedback and ideas on how future programming could better prepare you for your TA roles and duties

Please complete your anonymous evaluation by Thursday, April 30 to enter the prize draw for LFS swag:
https://bit.ly/LFSTA_Eval

Your feedback will help us immensely with the 2020-22 TA Training Program Funding Application.

Summer TAs: Online Teaching Webinar (Save the Date!)

The 2020 Summer Term begins in less than a month, and are currently working with The Learning Centre to survey summer instructors on what content would be most helpful for summer LFS TAs. A similar survey for summer TAs will be disseminated later this month. In the meantime, online training is scheduled for Thursday, May 7th at 2 PM, and we will contact all summer TAs with more information closer to the date.

Community of Practice
The final Community of Practice for the 2019-20 academic year will be Friday, April 24th at 10 AM.

https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1BnobefDRVT5jQp

Best regards,
Tebby and Lennie

Dear LFS TA’s,

We hope you are keeping safe and enjoying the beautiful weather when possible.

As your TA Training Program Coordinators we are aware of the unanticipated changes that have been brought about by the COVID-19 guidelines and precautions. We would highly appreciate your feedback in the form of your experiences and emerging needs of TAing online. How have you adjusted to the shift from classroom to online teaching and learning? Has this affected your work or roles in any way? What are some of the highlights that you would like to share with others as we all aim for effectiveness in our work?

Please join us online in the next community of practice meeting to share ideas, shape perspectives and enhance our practice.

Dear all,

We hope you all keeping safe. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 we have seen new developments in teaching and learning globally, specifically the adoption of online learning as an alternative. This meeting would therefore give us an opportunity to reflect and forge future strategies to ensure effectiveness in our roles throughout.

Please join us online next week to share experiences and ideas.

WHEN: Friday 03rd 2020

TIME: 10 AM

WHERE: Online, a link will be sent out to the responders in due time.

If you interested in being part of this discussion, use the link below.

https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eA1eApYsS1rJNLn

Wishing you the best,

Lennie and Tebby

The NEW LFS TA Application opens March 31st for Winter Session 2020/21, posting TA positions for all Winter terms.

The TA App will be open from Tues., March 31st through Thurs., April 30th, 2020.

After it closes April 30th, you will not have access to apply unless you have been asked to do so by an instructor or administrator.

The TA Applicant guide for the new TA Application can be found in the LFS TA Portal, here:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/lfsta/online-ta-application/user-help-applicants/.

If you are off-campus you must use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access the website.
Check the UBC IT website for VPN help at: https://it.ubc.ca/services/email-voice-internet/myvpn

Questions? Email lfs.ta@ubc.ca