Review: “First Day to Final Grade: A Grad Student's Guide to Teaching”

First Day to Final Grade: A Graduate Student's Guide to Teaching
by Anne Curzan and Lisa Damour
Ann Arbor: U. Michigan Press, 2000, 197 pages
ISBN: 0-472-09732-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 0-472-06732-X (pbk. : alk. paper)

Contents

1. Becoming a Teacher
2. The First Day of the Term
3. Weekly Class Preparation
4. Running a Discussion
5. Problem Sets and Laboratories
6. Trusty Class Plans
7. One-on-One Interactions with Students
8. Grading
9. Feedback from Students
10. The Balance of School and Teaching

Graduate Teacher Program (GTP) at U. Colorado

I had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. Laura Border of the U. Colorado Graduate Teaching Program at the STLHE 2007 conference in Edmonton. She introduced herself following our PBL workshop on Thursday, and graciously pointed us to some resources she thought would be of value to our program.

1. The first resource is her own departmental website, which includes a fantastic handbook of pedagogical issues of interest to TAs and "Graduate Teachers". This can be found at:
   [ http://www.colorado.edu/gtp/training/publications/handbook/index.htm ]
2. She also recommended a great read called "First Day to Final Grade: A Graduate Student's Guide to Teaching" by Anne Curzan and Lisa Damour. Not too expensive, either--at least on Amazon.ca:
   [ http://www.amazon.ca/First-Day-Final-Grade-Graduate/dp/047206732X ]

[I've ordered it, and I promise I'll post a review once it arrives.]