3:25 p.m., Aug. 7, 2007--UD's annual conference for graduate teaching assistants (TAs) is being held Monday-Wednesday, Aug. 20-22, in the Trabant University Center and Gore Hall, with registration starting at 8 a.m. in Trabant. The conference is designed to help orient newly appointed TAs to their instructional roles and responsibilities.

Senior graduate TA fellows and faculty and staff from departments across the University, who draw on their expertise and instructional experiences, will lead 26 sessions on various teaching topics. The concurrent sessions are designed to demonstrate and discuss effective teaching practices, provide access to resources and to offer an open forum for discussion and interaction with peers. Concurrent sessions are followed by discipline-specific training at the department level.

The conference is part of an orientation series for new graduate students cosponsored by the Office of Graduate Studies, the Graduate Student Senate and the Center for Teaching Effectiveness (CTE).

"Since the event brings together TAs from across disciplines and with varied teaching appointments, we strongly recommend that departments highlight those sessions that are most pertinent to their TAs' instructional roles," Gabiele Bauer, assistant director of CTE, said.

For more information, visit [http://cte.udel.edu/tacagenda2007.htm]. To register, call (302) 831-2027 by Friday, Aug. 10, or register online at [http://cte.udel.edu/tacreg_form.html].