There comes a time in every graduate students’ journey when they have to make a couple of transitions: from solving problems that have known solutions, like those in coursework and homework, to solve problems that haven’t been solved yet in independent research. Later, we make another shift from working on […]
Yearly Archives: 2024
This year’s GTA Training Activity focused on how we as teaching assistants can better elicit, shape, and respond to student contributions. GTAs are often responsible for managing student contributions, whether in the classroom, office hours, or recitation. In this training activity, we discussed how various strategies for eliciting certain kinds […]
At all levels, example-based reasoning is central to learning and understanding mathematics. In particular, canonical examples-those which can be used to represent an entire class of objects that possess certain properties-are especially valuable in understanding new mathematical concepts. Mathematicians have been shown to productively leverage example-based reasoning for a variety […]
Hi grads (and other readers)! In our last SGTA seminar, we talked about burnout, where it comes from, and how to mitigate it. If you couldn’t attend the seminar, don’t worry. Here are some of the key takeaways from our discussion. First and foremost, what is burnout? It’s a feeling […]
Hi grads! In our last SGTA seminar, we highlighted the crucial role of collaboration outside of your own department in being successful as a professional mathematician. Here’s a summary of the key takeaways. Our panelists included one professor, Dr. Serkan Gugercin, and two current doctoral candidates who are currently finishing […]
Hi grads! In our last SGTA seminar, we highlighted the crucial role of collaborating with peers in being successful during grad school. Here’s a summary of the key takeaways and strategies we discussed. One of the central themes was the importance of forming and maintaining effective class groups. We encourage […]
Our third Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant (SGTA) Seminar of the Fall 2023 Semester was titled ‘Research and Teaching Statements’. During this seminar we not only discussed the length, content, and structure of such statements, but general advice and methods of preparing the statements throughout a graduate student’s tenure. Additionally, in […]