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Four GSE Students Win Outstanding Teaching Award Four doctoral students in the School of Education received the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) Award this year. The honorees are Jeff Duncan-Andrade, Ernest Morrell, Jennifer Trainor, and Elisabeth Woody. They were chosen for their overall effectiveness, their capacity to motivate and inspire students, and their command of the subject.
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| Jeff Duncan-Andrade, a doctoral student in ELLC, received the Outstanding GSI Award for his work in Education 40, Experiencing Education: Race and Ethnicity Inside Schools. Duncan-Andrade explained that this was a large lecture class, but "I tried to make the course personal by being available to the students at all times. I tell them I'm a graduate student, I'm up late. A diverse group of students who were going to give a presentation the next day called me on a speakerphone at 1:30 in the morning. We talked for an hour. Their concerns dealt with their own educational experiences, as well as their particular presentation, but I feel this course shoud help them question the process of education in their own lives as well as in the lives of others." |  Jeff Duncan-Andrade |
| Ernest Morrell also taught in Experiencing Education: Race and Ethnicity Inside Schools. Ernest is almost finished with his Ph.D. in ELLC. He took a unique approach to the subject by having his discussion section culminate in a "press conference," where students took the roles of administrators, teachers, and parents, researching the positions of those groups on controversial issues in education. "The students felt they had a say," Morrell commented. "About a quarter of the students in my section elected to pursue an Education Minor, and many have decided to go into teacher education programs." | |
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Jennifer Seibel Trainor was given the Outstanding GSI Award for College Writing 1A, an intensive course for incoming freshman, designed to help them meet UC's basic writing requirement. "I use a student-centered pedagogy," she explained. "I take students really seriously, and listen to their opinions when I plan the week. I always treat them with respect." She's taught College Writing for four semesters. Her class is self-reflective, and stresses the students' own histories as writers. She has them write about the different voices that have influenced them throughout their education. "I have them examine their education in English from the beginning onwards. I learn a lot about teaching from the students, and about the ways they interpret the world."
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 Jennifer Seibel Trainor |
| Elisabeth (Betsey) Woody won the Outstanding GSI Award for her work in two different classes: Gender Issues in Education, and Current Issues in Education. The course on gender she designed herself, with the support of a Graduate Mentorship Grant. She offered it for the first time in spring 1999. "Student interest was overwhelming," Woody said. "I think there is a significant need to provide undergraduates interested in teaching with courses that explore topics such as gender in greater depth than a survey course." She also uses innovative teaching techniques in her classroom, letting the students play a major role in the course: "Each semester I learn more and more from my students about how best to lead them through the process of creating a democratic classroom. I've learned to take that great leap of faith and trust that they are capable of the challenges and responsibilities of sharing power in the classroom." |
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