Course description:   This seminar is a series of weekly meetings for graduate students in the Department of History & Religion who will begin teaching department courses. An introductory look at issues faced in the classroom, the seminar will address a broad array of techniques and tools to enhance one's teaching.   In addition, there will be periodic classroom observations followed up by oral and written comments.

Grading Policy:   As a one-credit course, this seminar is not meant to be a substantial burden on your time, rather it is hoped it will be a forum to think about, critically examine and hone your teaching.   As such, the primary requirement is that you attend the class regularly and offer substantive contributions to the discussions and actively reflect on your teaching.  

There will be no written assignments.   However, every Sunday evening I will e-mail several questions that I would like you to think about prior to Monday's seminar.   These questions will range from the philosophical (“Do I teach better when I wear my green sweater?”) to the very specific (“How does one put documents on e-reserve?”).  

Schedule of Meetings:

Useful Certificates:
- Graduate School Teaching Certificate
- Teaching with Technology Certificate

August 15 (11- 4 p.m.) – Introduction, the ‘Fine Print, e-Resources & Syllabus Guidelines

- College of Liberal Arts Academic Integrity Resources for Faculty
- Turnitin.com at Penn State
- PSU Statement of Nondiscrimination

August 17 (1:30- 4:30 p.m.) – Structuring your class: Plagiarism, Lectures and Exams

- Resources for creating a Syllabus:

+ Statement on Syllabi
+ TLT Center's Tips for an Effective Syllabus
+ College of Liberal Art's Syllabus Guidelines
+ The Chronicle: The Promising Syllabus (August 8, 2006)
+ Welcome to My Classroom (August 24 2010)

-Resources for Plagiarism:

+ TLT Center's: Plagiarism Tutorials for Students
+ Penn State's Policy on Academic Integrity
+ Penn State's Plagiarism ANGEL Quiz Bank
+ Plagiarism Guides for Instructors

August 18 – Using e-Lion, Angel and Penn State Technology to Your Advantage

- Making Your Own Webpage
- PSU Download Page
- Resources for ANGEL: ANGEL Help Guide

September 2 – Teaching, Grading and Creating a classroom environment

- Cheating and Web-Based ExamsThe Teaching Professor, February 2005)
- Tell Students They're Wrong (The Teaching Professor, April 2006 )
- Creating an Effective On-line Quiz

September 9 – How to Build a Web page

- New Tech Tools in the Classroom(Chronicle 2010)
- Teachers Pick Their Top 5 Back-to-School Tech Tools(Read, Write, Web 2010)
- College 2.0 - Teachers without Technology Strike Back (Chronicle 2010)

Observation & Evaluation Session – Set time with professor before Oct 31

BONUS: Some of my favorite blogs:

1) H-Net (and sooner or later: H-Net Job Guide which should always be used in conjuntion with a site like this)

2) The Chonicle of Higher Education

3) ProfHacker a blog on technology and teaching

4) BBC's History of the World (and one of my favorite podcasts: History of the World in a 100 Objects)

5) A Few of my fav "professor blogs":

- Penn State's own Michael Bérubé

- Timothy Burke's Easily Distracted (Swarthmore)

- History News Network's Cliopatra

- Tenured Radical