The Graduate Teacher Program provides professional development opportunities, career consulting, videotape consultation, and teacher training for all graduate students. Because teaching skills prepare graduate students for any career, all graduate students, including those with no teaching appointments, TAs, GPTIs, and RAs are welcome at GTP workshops on teaching, research, service, and personal and professional development. Workshops are held prior to both fall and spring semesters, throughout the academic year, and during summer session. Topics range from preparing a syllabus, diversity issues, effective approaches to research, academic service, and conflict management to preparing for an academic job interview.
The Graduate Teacher Program offers three certificates: the Certificate in College Teaching for graduate students who actually teach; the Professional Development Certificate for Preparing Future Faculty (PDC/PFF); and, in collaboration with Career Services, the Professional Development Certificate for graduate students who are considering nonacademic career paths in business, government, industry (PDC/BGIA), or the arts. Requirements for each are posted on the GTP website at gtp.colorado.edu.
The Lead Graduate Teacher Network offers academic leadership training to 50 graduate students each year. Leads receive the Best Should Teach Silver Award, spend one week in extensive training, and assist departmental faculty with discipline-specific TA training.
International graduate students may benefit from the pre-fall-semester Cultural Intensive, workshops throughout the year, individualized consultation on teaching and career planning, and referrals to ESL services.
The Graduate Teacher Program’s Collaborative Preparing Future Faculty Network (COPFFN) provides professional development opportunities for graduate students and faculty. PFF fellows may attend site visits on partner campuses, identify a faculty mentor on a partner campus, work on technology projects, and pursue the PDC/PFF.
The Graduate Teacher Program collaborates with the University Libraries to provide Provost’s Fellowships to graduate students who wish to explore academic librarianship as a career.