Norris and Eye Named Outstanding TAs

Two WP nominees have been awarded 2007 Outstanding Teaching Assistant awards. The award recognizes teaching assistants who demonstrate excellence in significant instructional capacities. Selection for the Outstanding TA award is made by a university-wide committee of faculty recognized for their teaching excellence, and is given to approximately the top 4% of all TAs campus wide. The award will be presented at a ceremony in April.

Congratulations to Elisa Norris, a 4th year PhD student in the CCR program, for being awarded a 2007 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. In her nomination letter, Margaret Himley, Director of Undergraduate Studies and faculty advisor for the WRT 670 practicum team, praised for Norris’s teaching ad course design: "Elisa has been very successful in these courses, both in terms of how imaginatively she designs her particular versions of the courses and in terms of how effectively she delivers them.  In reading through her evaluations, for example, I noted that almost every student praised Elisa for her knowledge, enthusiasm, commitment, and generosity as a very capable writing teacher—some calling her their favorite teacher, others saying it was the best writing course they had ever had.  I have enjoyed and learned from many conversations with Elisa about classroom experiences and pedagogy.  She is deeply and passionately engaged in these questions, probing beyond surface interpretations and responses and pushing toward a sophisticated theory of teaching writing, based clearly and forcefully in the everyday life of the classroom."

Congratulations to David Eye, a second year graduate student in the MFA Creative Writing Program, and a second year TA in the Writing Program, for being awarded a 2007 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. In her nomination letter, Anne Fitzsimmons, Teacher Training Coordinator, says of David's WRT 205 course, " [the course] focused on gender and sexuality—risky topics of inquiry even for a veteran teacher of writing, and particularly challenging for a new teacher, and yet David's first WRT 205 course was an unqualified success. Students say in their evaluations of the course, 'I think all [WRT 205] sections should be topics like gender and sexuality, things with real depth'; and 'the content [of the course] was challenging because it made me questions my beliefs, but it was very rewarding'; and 'David used a very controversial subject and made it fun, comfortable, and thought provoking'; . . . and 'I feel that with [David's] guidance I have become a better writer and a better person…This is one of those classes which I will remember for a long time.'”

David Eye