Welcome to Berkeley. This is a wonderful place to teach and do your research, and we at the Office of Educational Development want to do everything we can to help you make your first years productive and rewarding.
We hope that you’ll consider us your first resource for questions, especially aabout teaching, of course, but feel free to call on us if you just don’t know where to go for information. We’ll try to track it down for you, or put you in touch with the appropriate people.
Although all of the materials on teaching.berkeley.edu are important, we’ve singled out some for this page that you might find especially helpful as you begin your teaching at Berkeley. In particular, we hope that you’ll take advantage of the New Faculty Teaching Newsletter, the Teach-net maillist, and our consultation, observation, and videotaping services. All these are designed to help you become a member of the teaching community at Berkeley and to hone your craft.
We especially invite you to three get-togethers in which you can meeting colleagues from around campus and discuss your teaching (or anything else!) in an informal atmosphere.
Late afternoon hors d’oeuvres
Lunch
Breakfast
The Office of Educational Development: We’re here to help!
Teach-net maillist: Through this Berkeley list, you can ask questions of your colleagues, get announcements about workshops and colloquia, and participate in discussions about teaching at Berkeley.
New Faculty Teaching Newsletter. Once a week, we send all new faculty information that is designed to help them at particular points in the semester. If you are not already on this list, please email Steve Tollefson.
Individual consultation, classroom observation, and videotaping. We strongly encourage all faculty, not just new faculty, to arrange for a classroom observation, and perhaps videotaping. This should not be reserved only for times you may be having difficulty. It’s a wonderful way to just check-up on your teaching. And we are available for consultations on any aspect of your teaching, from developing a new course, to preparing syllabi and exams, to particular problems.
The Faculty Guide to Campus Life: Many of your questions, not only about teaching, but about research, services, and campus rules and regulations, can be found here. Good search feature.
Other campus resources: From the Media Resources Center to the Graduate Student Instructor Teaching Center, the offices and people who are ready to help.
Tomorrow’s Professor Maillist and Archive: Housed at Stanford, this excellent maillist provides fascinating and helpful articles on teaching. In addition to a section on teaching, it also has sections on graduate students and on research.
Advice for New Faculty:
Seven Attributes of Successful New Faculty: A short article about the practices and attitudes that make new faculty happiest and most productive.
"The Top Ten Things New Faculty Would Like to Hear from Colleagues"
New Faculty Talk About Stress
Advice for New Faculty: Everything in Moderation
Some basics for your teaching:
Your Syllabus
Components of a Course Syllabus [pdf]
Questions to Ask About a Syllabus
Guidelines Concerning Scheduling Conflicts [pdf]
Statement on Accommodation of Religious Creed
Statement on plagiarism
Content Tyranny
Faculty and GSI Tips on Cheating in the Classroom
Suggestions for Early Feedback [pdf] and Sample First Day Questionnaires
Midsemester Evaluations
Assessing and Evaluating Your Teaching
All these and many more subjects are covered in the various parts of teaching.berkeley.edu.