Detailed Teaching Responsibilities at Syracuse University Fall 2018 – Spring 2022
Fall 2018, Spring 2019
I have been teaching at Syracuse University since the Fall of 2018. My first year I was responsible for keeping track of grades and attendance for 75 Sociology 101 students each semester. I was also responsible for grading around 65 essay and multiple choice exams twice per semester, weekly multiple choice quizzes, holding office hours, and responding to student emails. The most time consuming and most rewarding task while working with Dr. Flad’s large Introduction to Sociology classes was the weekly discussion meetings. Every Friday during the semester, I taught three discussion sections of 25 students each. I was thrilled that the planning of these sections, outside of distributing the 10 minute quiz, was left up to each TA. This was an excellent chance for me to engage with the material and the students in a different way. I enjoyed this setting as I was able to work more closely with students, plan activities, encourage critical thinking, and tailor my plans to each section and the material. One way that I tailored these sections is that I would check in with students through written feedback partway through the semester. I would ask them to report what was working for their learning, what wasn’t, what I could do to foster their learning in the course, and what they could do to foster their learning for the remainder of the semester. This proved to be invaluable as some semesters students like certain activities more than others. For example, some students loved having a silent discussion, while others found they preferred to talk about topics in small groups and this feedback allowed me to adjust my teaching to suit the needs of the currently enrolled students. I also found that students were excited to take part in their own learning and found it empowering to know their TA for the sections was receptive to their voices. Dr. Flad also invited me to guest lecture the class of 150 students for the 50 minute class. I enjoyed that opportunity, building on her materials for Medicalization, Disability, and Impairment: The Social Construction of Illness. Dr. Flad gave me the choice to have her observe and provide feedback or to allow me to lecture without her supervision. I chose to have her stay and received helpful written feedback on my teaching.
Fall 2019, Spring 2020
My second year at SU I TAed for Dr. Jackie Orr, helping teach Introduction to Sociology and Science, Technology, and Society. The smaller size (50 students) of these classes and Dr. Orr’s pedagogy provided a new learning environment for me. I worked closely with Dr. Orr on grading student essays and providing substantial written feedback to each student. I again tracked student attendance, participation, and grades. Dr. Orr also invited me to guest lecture for Sociology 101, offering a few new readings to select from. I developed an 80 minute interactive lecture, “Images & Power: (Re)Constructing Realities through Media – Internet Memes and Social Movements.” Dr. Orr met with me following the lecture to give feedback on my teaching. I had similar duties with Science, Technology, and Society when the entire campus moved to online only teaching due to Covid-19. Dr. Orr, having not taught an online course previously, encouraged me to share my thoughts and ideas on the transition and I created much of the Blackboard structure for now fully online course.
Fall 2021, Spring 2021
The following fall, I worked with Dr. Orr again on Sociology 101, now fully remote. I tracked student attendance using zoom outputs, monitored zoom chats, and transitioned my guest lecture on memes to an online format. Additionally, Dr. Orr and I developed a plan for how to encourage student engagement in this new virtual classroom. We decided to work with split “sections” once a week where we would each take half of the students and lead discussions, create activities, and use smaller groups to facilitate student learning and engagement. Every week I would facilitate online synchronous discussion with 25 students for 80 minutes. These meetings also included brief lectures, clarification of course content, and answering student questions. Students responded positively to this set up in course evaluations.
In Spring 2021, I TAed for Dr. Rebecca Schewe’s Sociology of Gender and Sex course. The course is entirely online with synchronous and asynchronous content. I have been tasked with holding online office hours for one on one student meetings, attending and participating in class lecture and discussion, grading weekly grading quizzes, tracking and recording video quiz participation and synchronous online classroom participation, grading written and oral assignments, and responding to student emails.
Fall 2021, Spring 2022
In academic year 21-22, I applied to teach with the Women’s and Gender Studies department. My application was accepted and I taught Introduction to Women and Gender Studies in Fall 2021 and Global Feminisms in Spring 2022 as instructor of record. WGS 101 and WGS 201 are both writing intensive courses with 16 pages of required assigned writing. I taught two sections of WGS 101 and one section of WGS 201, each with 20-25 students. WGS provided a skeleton syllabus for both courses and workshopped syllabi and assignments together.
Dustin J. Satterfield 