Laurie Gries
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Congratulations to Laurie Gries, a third year PhD student
in the CCR program, for being awarded a 2009 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. In her nomination letter, Anne Fitsimmons, Teacher Training Coordinator says, "Laurie's teaching strengths, as well as her interest in pedagogy, made her a perfect candidate for membership on the new TA training team, a responsibility she took on in 2007-2008. As a graduate student supervising other graduate students Laurie was in a rather challenging and sometimes precarious position, but her deep knowledge of composition and rhetoric, her years of teaching, and her poise and thoughtfulness, helped her establish the necessary authority to engage in meaningful and generative relationships with her group members. Laurie led several new TA workshops throughout 2007-2008, including a presentation to new TAs during Writing Program Orientation in August 2008, and the most memorable and impressive component of each presentation was her ability to link the abstractions of teaching (imagining an appropriate topic of inquiry, for example, or complicating notions of 'teacher stance') with more concrete and practical elements, like articulating clear learning goals, or constructing effective lesson plans. Laurie isn't just a superb teacher; she also knows how to spark and sustain meaningful, illuminating, provocative teacher talk. She set the bar high for any other graduate student following her footsteps into Writing Program TA mentoring.
Laurie was unable to attend the ceremony.
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