Empowering Instructors | Supporting Excellence
This event is free and provides an opportunity for teaching assistants (TA's), graduate assistants (GA's) and students in instructional roles to learn about the critical role they play in helping to improve student experience and advance the university’s mission of academic excellence.
The new TA Orientation event is designed to equip first-time teaching assistants with the essential knowledge and confidence they need to navigate the initial weeks of teaching at UB. The program introduces foundational pedagogical strategies and classroom expectations, ensuring TAs are well-prepared for their instructional responsibilities from day one. In addition to practical teaching insights, the orientation highlights key instructional support services and resources available through UB and the Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation (CATT). By connecting TAs early with these tools and opportunities, the event also serves as an entry point into CATT’s broader suite of professional development programs tailored to teaching assistants.
The 2025 TA Orientation will take place on August 21st, 2025. Check back soon to register!
ABC's of Brightspace
The Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Transformation will provide you with the ABC’s of Brightspace: essential training and information related to UB’s learning management system, UB Learns. During this session, you will learn how to access Brightspace, navigate your course pages, create course content, assess and grade, and ways of engaging with your students through the system.
Grading with CARE: Best Practices in Evaluating Student Performance
In this session, presenters will review the steps for ethically and accurately designing and evaluating student learning. There will be opportunities for attendees to ask questions and share experiences with each other during the presentation. By the end of the session, attendees will be able to recall the value of assessment in the classroom, provide examples of formative and summative assessment methods, and identify resources for additional assistance.
Keynote Address | Active Learning & Teaching
In the keynote, you will learn about ways to jump-start your teaching by exploring the roles of your expertise, pedagogical empathy, the learning environment, and equity issues. Techniques for active learning and developing a student-centered classroom will be explored.
How to be a TA
Being a TA is an excellent way to gain valuable insight into what it's like to facilitate learning in Higher Education. From grading assignments to answering student emails, this session will teach you various key skills to have a successful semester as a TA at UB.
TA Panel Discussion
This is your opportunity to ask your questions about what it is like to be a TA and gain insights into the best practices on being a successful TA here at UB.
Our panel consists of current and former teaching assistants, including
previous winners of the Excellence in Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching Assistants.