In addition to regular teaching assistantships and the Smith Fellowship, the School of History and Sociology (HSOC) and Georgia Tech offer many opportunities for graduate students to expand their teaching skills and experience.
Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)
Georgia Tech's Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) conducts a variety of programs intended to help graduate students develop their teaching skills. Activities range from seminars covering the basics of running discussion sections to videotaping and coaching individual instructors. CTL regularly offers training for graduate teaching assistants in the use of the latest instructional technologies. The Center’s fellows program also gives a select group of graduate students a chance to pursue their own novel initiatives in education.
Teacher Apprenticeship Program (TAP)
Created with a GT-FIRE (Funding Innovation in Research and Education) award in 2016. TAP provides several doctoral candidates each year with the opportunity to advance their college teaching skills and experience while working on their dissertations. A TAP award provides fall, spring, and summer support to candidates at the dissertation writing stage of their program. During the fall semester, they work one-on-one as an apprentice with a faculty mentor on a course of interest. Spring semester, TAP participants develop their own course with support from their mentor and from the Center for Teaching Learning (CTL). After completing CTL courses or workshops in course design and teaching and learning, participants teach the course they designed during the summer term at Georgia Tech. The TAP program helps Ph.D. candidates make significant progress on their dissertations while providing teacher training and classroom experience, enhancing their ability to compete in the academic job market.
Georgia Stories
Georgia Stories is an ongoing collaborative venture between HSOC, Georgia Public Television (GPTV), and Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) and gives students an opportunity to develop Web-based historical archives and teaching materials aimed at secondary schools and colleges. Now over a decade old, Georgia Stories stands as a model both of educational outreach and of Web-based education in history and the social sciences. During the project, HSOC students locate appropriate archival materials for the site and work with professional educators to develop study questions and other teaching tools that utilize the available documents.
Center Internships
Several academic centers affiliated with HSOC, such as the Center for Women, Science, and Technology (WST), regularly employ HSOC graduate students to assist in their educational programs. Through such internships, students gain experience in a variety of instructional endeavors, such as organizing academic conferences and seminar series, running student workshops, and conducting outreach activities aimed at the broader public.
Teaching Opportunities at Local Institutions
Several colleges and universities in the Atlanta metropolitan area regularly employ advanced graduate students in part-time teaching positions. In recent semesters, HTS students have taught introductory courses at Kennesaw State University, Georgia Perimeter College, Rinehardt College, and the University of Georgia.