the Program For instructional excellence

The Program for Instructional Excellence (PIE), a unit of The Graduate School strives to enrich the learning experience for undergraduate students at FSU by supporting the teaching efforts of graduate student teaching assistants through its various services. PIE offers professional development programs that create opportunities to foster a sense of collaboration and community among all graduate student teaching assistants at FSU.

For more information about PIE please see our Informational Brochure.  

See below for more information about our upcoming Teaching Workshops, Conferences, Awards, TA Book Clubs, Recognition programs and more! 

Experienced TAs can apply to become PIE Associates and serve as a mentor for TAs in your academic department and university-wide.

The PIE Association is now offering Peer Teaching Observations. If you would like constructive feedback from other teaching assistants on methods to use in the classroom, please reach out to us. Check out the following link for more information: https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0vRg47IjQjbYmix

You can download the PIE Teaching Observation Form to learn about our peer observation criteria or use it to evaluate your own teaching.

PIE Coffee Hour & Teaching Workshop Series

Come join fellow TAs and instructors discuss strategies and techniques that promote excellence in teaching and learning – bring your questions, concerns, and ideas – the pie & coffee will be provided!

These workshops also count towards the PFF and/or PFP Certificates , as well as the Advanced PIE Teaching Training Recognition .

Our PIE Coffee Hour & Teaching Workshops will be held in the Nancy H. Marcus Great Hall (4th floor) of the Honors, Scholars & Fellows House (Chick Fil A is on the first floor of this building) on the following dates:

SPRING 2020 – PIE Coffee Hour & Teaching Workshop Series

Click here for a flier for SPRING 2020 workshops 

• Thursday, 1/23/20: 3:00-4:30pm - Supporting Students with Diverse Needs - Register here: http://bit.ly/PIE1-23-20-3pm

• Friday, 2/7/20: How to Create a Teaching Portfolio - Offered at two separate times:

•    Session 1, 3:00-4:30pm –register here http://bit.ly/PIE2-7-20-3pm

•    Session 2 - 5:00-6:30pm –register here http://bit.ly/PIE2-7-20-5pm

  *Please note, this is the same, identical workshop, just offered at two separate times- no need to attend both!

• Tuesday, 2/25/209: 2:00-3:30pm - TA Panel: How Digital Literacy Impacts Teaching & Research- Register here: http://bit.ly/PIE2-25-20
• Monday, 3/9/20: 2:00-3:30pm - Metacognition: Guiding Learners in Thinking About How They Learn - Register here: http://bit.ly/PIE3-9-20-2pm
• Wednesday, 4/8/20: 2:00-3:30pm - Leading Classroom Discussions - Register here:  http://bit.ly/PIE4-8-20-2pm

For more detailed workshop descriptions, registration links, and materials from all of our PIE workshops, please visit our "PIE Coffee Hour & Workshop Series" page .

We encourage pre-registration (so we can be sure to have enough pie & coffee on hand!).

*Please also note, The Office for Distance Learning (ODL) also offers workshops on teaching techniques & strategies that will assist with online teaching as well as face-to-face teaching.  To view and register for these workshops (which also count for PFF/PFP/PIE credit) visit: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=13235

PIE Associates and Graduate Students at the recent MCQ training

PIE has designed a series of online teaching modules to provide a continuation of the Graduate Student Teaching Conference. If you meet the specific requirements, you will earn the Advanced PIE Teaching Training Recognition.

How do I enroll in the training? Send an enrollment request email to pie-info@fsu.edu , and we will enroll you in the training. You will receive a notification email once you are enrolled.

When is the deadline for enrollment? It is suggested that you enroll within the first two weeks of any semester (including summer). However there is no actual enrollment deadline, but please keep in mind that once you are enrolled, you have two consecutive semesters to complete ALL requirements to earn the Advanced PIE Teaching Training Recognition.

What content is covered? The online training series consists of six content units: Developing a course syllabus; Knowing your teaching environment; Using Blackboard for introduction; Planning teaching-learning activities; Student assessment; and Course evaluation and revision.

How much time will I spend? You are expected to spend one hour on reading, and two hours on practicing, each week for 14 weeks.

Are there other activities offered/requirements for completing this recognition? Yes, there will be at least three PIE Coffee Hour & Teaching Workshops held each semester (including the summer) at the The Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House. Topics related to the course content will be presented and discussed.To earn the Advanced PIE Teaching Training Recognition, you are required to successfully finish each of the online Modules for the Basics of Teaching @ FSU and attend at least two of these workshops.

PIE coordinates the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards (OTAA). These awards recognize graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) for their distinguished contributions to undergraduate student learning through excellence in instruction. Recipients of the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards (OTAA) are recognized at the annual spring Celebration of Graduate Student Excellence event. Nominations for the 2019-2020 year are now open! Undergraduate students, faculty and staff may nominate a graduate student teaching assistant (TA) using the following nomination form: https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0Gj5SrjI15QaaBD

The deadline to nominate is Sunday, January 20, 2020 at 11:59pm.

For more details regarding the OTAA award and nomination process, please visit our webpage at: https://pie.fsu.edu/outstanding-teaching-assistant-award/otaa-guidelines-and-process

Please click here to see the recipients of previous Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards.

Reading groups are a great chance to meet and share ideas with graduate student colleagues from across the university. We’ll discuss great texts about teaching and learning, and generate practical ideas for enriching our own classroom practice. Each group involves a series of three meetings, so please check your calendar. We attempt to use books that are available online through FSU libraries.

Spring 2020 Reading Group

Teaching INTERCULTURALLY - Spring 2020 reading group

When: Wednesdays: 1/15, 1/22, and 1/29, 2-3:30pm,

Where: Honors, Scholars and Fellows House, Room 3009

Register to attend: http://bit.ly/PIE-reading-SP20

Book: TEACHING INTERCULTURALLY, by Amy Lee

How can I simultaneously support students' critical engagement with course content and develop their intercultural awareness?

Most faculty have multiple diversities present in any given classroom or academic program— whether from an influx of international students or an increase of students from low-income, first generation, and/or racial/ethnic minority populations— and are concerned about how to maintain a rigorous curriculum and ensure that all their students succeed, given disparate backgrounds and varying degrees of prior knowledge.

This book provides faculty and instructors with a theoretical foundation, practical tools, and an iterative and reflective process for designing and implementing an intercultural pedagogy. The authors bring to bear the expertise of their various disciplinary backgrounds to offer a responsive, integrative framework to develop and continually refine a pedagogy that both promotes deep disciplinary learning and supports intercultural outcomes for all students.

The authors offer a framework that is flexible enough to be responsive to the experience, environment, and particulars of a given teaching and learning situation. The text incorporates narrative text by the authors, as well as first-person reflections, classroom activities, and annotated assignments that illustrate the dynamic process of intention, experiment/implement, critique, and refinement that characterize pedagogy and intercultural interaction.

The authors bring to bear the expertise of their various disciplinary backgrounds, a deep knowledge of effective pedagogical practice, and their experience and grounding in intercultural practice: Amy in composition/writing studies, Mary Katherine in international education with rich experience as a faculty development trainer, and Bob and Catherine, respectively, an historian and a family scientist.

This book is intended both for individual reading as well as for collective study in learning communities.

Fall 2019 PIE TA Orientation/Teaching Conference

Wednesday and Thursday, August 21 & 22, 2019

The annual fall PIE TA Orientation/Teaching Conference is held the Wednesday and Thursday the week prior to the first week of classes each fall. This conference includes sessions that provide graduate students with teaching policy training requirements as stated in the University-wide TA Standards  along with best practices in grading, communicating with students, encouraging critical thinking in the classroom, and Canvas and technology usage. By the end of this training, participants will be able to explain and have procedures in place to address University policy issues related to the Academic Honor Policy, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Discrimination-Sexual Harassment-Retaliation. Participants will also be equipped with strategies to help navigate use of Canvas features essential to their role as a TA, communicate effectively with students, and provide productive student feedback.

Who should attend?

• New graduate student TAs (and new graduate students who do not yet hold a TA assignment, but will likely do so in the future)
• Returning graduate student TAs who wish to improve their teaching
• Any graduate student interested in teaching, or who will hold a TA position in the future
• Post Docs
• Faculty and staff are also welcome

Where: New Classroom Building (HCB 101)

When: Wednesday and Thursday, August 21 & 22, 2019

            -Wednesday 8/21/19, 8am-3:30pm (lunch will be provided on Wed. for those registering by 8/6/19)

            -Thursday 8/22/19, 8am-12:30pm

FALL 2019 PIE TA ORIENTATION/TEACHING CONFERENCE BOOKLET

FALL 2019 AGENDA

*Register to attend: https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3dVyFhrgnMiGKuV

To access to the conference presentations and handouts, enroll to the PIE Conference Fall 2019 Canvas site -The Canvas site will be open AFTER the conference is over.

AFTER PIE CONFERENCE

• Please let us know your experience at the 2019 PIE Teaching Conference by completing an evaluation survey for each day. Your responses are completely anonymous and will be important to improve our future events!
  • Day 1 evaluation: link not yet available
  • Day 2 evaluation: link not yet available
• You may also earn the PIE Teaching Training Recognition. Click here for more information.

If you want to earn our PIE Teaching Training Recognition, please visit the following webpage on our PIE website for detailed instructions:/pie-recognitions. Please note:The FSU University-wide TA Standards do not require that you submit the report to earn this recognition to be appointed as a TA, however some specific academic departments do---so you should check with your academic department if you are not sure if they require this. Nonetheless, if you did attend ALL (both complete days) of the Fall PIE Conference, submitting the report to obtain the PIE Teaching Training Recognition is something you can do for your own professional development, and is a great addition to your CV/resume!

The annual spring PIE Teaching Training Workshop/TA Orientation is a hybrid training that contains an online portion and face-to-face portion. The face-to-face portion is held the Friday of the first week of classes each spring. This workshop includes sessions that provide graduate students with teaching policy training requirements as stated in the University-wide TA Standards along with best practices in grading, communicating with students, and Canvas and technology usage. This TA training is delivered partly face-to-face and partly online via Canvas, the centrally supported course management system at FSU. By the end of this training, participants will be able to explain and have procedures in place to address University policy issues related to the Academic Honor Policy, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and Discrimination-Sexual Harassment-Retaliation. Participants will also be equipped with strategies to help navigate use of Canvas features essential to their role as a TA, communicate effectively with students, and provide productive student feedback.

Registration for the Spring 2020 hybrid PIE TA Orientation/Training is a 2-step process:

1. Register for the face-to face portion of the training here: https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bISKRBSHI7rSNed. The face-to-face portion of the Spring 2020 Teaching Policy Training/TA Orientation will be held Friday, January 10, 2020, 1:00-5:00 p.m., in The Nancy H. Marcus Great Hall on the 4th floor of the Honors, Scholars and Fellows House.

2. To register for the online portion of the training, please email your registration request to: pie-info@fsu.edu with subject line: 2020 Spring Online Policy Training Enrollment Request. The online portion of the Spring 2020 Teaching Policy Training/TA Orientation must be completed on Canvas prior to the face-to-face training.

Please Note: You need to complete ONLINE training (including receiving 100% on each module test) prior to this Workshop/Orientation if you are required to complete the University-wide TA policy trainings in FERPA, FSU Academic Honor Policy, Sexual Harassment and Discrimination, and American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Please consult your academic department for any questions regarding if you are required to complete these trainings through PIE.

This abridged workshop is primarily offered to meet the needs of new graduate students who will be teaching in the spring or summer and others who were unable to attend the annual fall PIE teaching conference because of exceptional, circumstances that have been documented by the graduate student's academic department (or the department that is appointing the student as a TA).

PIE hosted its first SYLLABUS BOOT CAMP in 2017!

One of the most important steps you can take to have a successful semester is making time to think through your course objectives, learning outcomes, and course schedule design. Join us for 4 sessions over a two week period where you'll get advice from experts, time to work on your own syllabus, and a chance to swap feedback & ideas from your peers. Come prepared with either a course in development or a syllabus that needs a makeover.

Attendance is free, but space is limited. Before you sign up, please make sure you can attend all sessions.

Schedule -- 2017 Syllabus Boot Camp

Week 1: Creating Realistic Course Objectives & Learning Outcomes with Kate Hill, PIE Associate for the department of Biological Science
July 18th and 20th from 10:00am-2:00pm with an hour lunch break from 11:30am-12:30pm

Week 2: Designing a Schedule to Meet Your Course Objectives with Dr. Vanessa Dennen, professor of Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies

July 25th and 27th from 10:00am-2:00pm with an hour lunch break from 11:30am-12:30pm

Syllabus Boot Camp Flyer

The annual spring PIE Teaching Training Workshop/TA Orientation is a hybrid training that contains an online portion and face-to-face portion. The face-to-face portion is held the Friday of the first week of classes each spring. This workshop includes sessions that provide graduate students with teaching policy training requirements as stated in the University-wide TA Standards along with best practices in grading, communicating with students, and Canvas and technology usage. This TA training is delivered partly face-to-face and partly online via Canvas, the centrally supported course management system at FSU. By the end of this training, participants will be able to explain and have procedures in place to address University policy issues related to the Academic Honor Policy, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and Discrimination-Sexual Harassment-Retaliation. Participants will also be equipped with strategies to help navigate use of Canvas features essential to their role as a TA, communicate effectively with students, and provide productive student feedback.

The face-to-face portion of the Spring 2020Teaching Policy Training/TA Orientation will be held Friday, January 10, 2019, 1:00-5:00 p.m., in The Great Hall on the 4th floor of the Honors, Scholars and Fellows House. Registration will open in mid to late October.

The online portion of the Spring 2020 Teaching Policy Training/TA Orientation is held on Canvas. Please email your registration request to pie-info@fsu.edu with subject line: 2020 Spring Online Policy Training Enrollment Request

Please Note: You need to complete ONLINE training prior to this Workshop/Orientation if you are required to complete the University-wide TA policy trainings in FERPA, FSU Academic Honor Policy, Sexual Harassment and Discrimination, and American with Disabilities Act (ADA). Please consult your academic department for any questions regarding if you are required to complete these trainings through PIE.

This abridged workshop is primarily offered to meet the needs of new graduate students who will be teaching in the spring or summer and others who were unable to attend the annual fall PIE teaching conference because of exceptional, circumstances that have been documented by the graduate student's academic department (or the department that is appointing the student as a TA).

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