The first Teaching Assistant Forum in Fall semester 2010, held by Center for Learning and Teaching, took place at Ching-sheng International Conference Hall from Sept. 28 to 30. During the three-day meeting, 58 outstanding teaching assistants were praised for their great performance, and some of them also gave a small talk to share their teaching experience. Each outstanding teaching assistant received a certificate of merit and books gift certificates on the last day of the meeting, awarded by Dr. Yu Gwo-hsing, Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Dr. Yu indicated that being teaching assistants could benefit not only students but also assistants themselves. He hoped that these outstanding teaching assistants could maintain their passion toward teaching and work harder in the future. “We began to select outstanding teaching assistants in the 2009 academic year. The candidates must be evaluated by their teacher, department, and college according to their teaching performance, their participation of seminars, and their assistance to the teacher. We hope that through this evaluation system, good teaching assistants can be encouraged, and as a result, the quality of teaching assistants can be improved at the same time,” said Dr. Sung Hung-yen, Section Chief of Teacher Professional Development Section.

One of the award-winners Tang Shih-chia, a third-year master student of English Dept., expressed that it is very challenging to be a teaching assistant of non-English major English course because she needs to teach the class on her own just like a real teacher. She sets up the rules for herself to follow such as she can never be late for the class, and she should always be well prepared for the class. When she designs the course, she will consider students’ need first. Tang hopes that her teaching can inspire students and make them like English more. ( ~Shu-chun Yen )