by Lauren Girouard-Hallam, GSTA Chair

The GSTA is excited to return in 2024 for all your graduate student teaching assistant (or instructor of record) needs. We wanted to start this year’s Corners by highlighting some of the goals that we discussed in our February GSTA meeting, our first meeting of this calendar year.

Goal One: To support graduate student teaching needs through virtual outreach events.

New this year, we plan to offer one or more opportunities to engage with experts on higher education teaching and learning. In parallel with STP President Loretta McGregor’s Presidential Initiative for 2024 (“Cultivating the Next Generation of Psychology Educators”), while these virtual sessions will be intended primarily for graduate students, they are open to any interested educators or educators-in-training, including undergraduate teaching assistants.

Our first workshop will be led by Skyler Mendes, former chair of the GSTA and recent Wilbert J. McKeachie Award for Teaching Excellence winner. The workshop will focus on how we can leverage the science of learning to meet the needs of students in the classroom. Date, time, and official announcements about the event will follow shortly, so stay tuned for more information!

Goal Two: To build a community of graduate student teacher-scholars interested in honing their pedagogical skills.

We would love to connect with more graduate students this year than ever before, and to accomplish this, we will be focusing our efforts on two main initiatives: First, we plan to distribute a survey to current graduate students about when, where, and how they teach, and what sorts of mentorship or opportunities they are looking for in relation to their teaching. Second, we plan to build opportunities for current graduate student members of STP to engage with one another and ask questions, swap tips, or even just share teaching related news and updates. We’re still brainstorming what form(s) this might take but are looking forward to bringing you more opportunities to connect soon.

Goal Three: To grow the current GSTA group by bringing on new committee members.

We’re currently looking for individuals interested in joining the GSTA in the 2024 year and look forward to introducing new members soon. Stay tuned for more information on how to apply releasing in mid-March!

The GSTA is looking forward to a new year of opportunities to serve graduate student members of STP.