Are you concerned that students are struggling to understand the structure of their course and their responsibilities? The TaP student will read over your syllabus and provide suggestions on areas where further clarification or additional information is needed. They will not only provide their expert opinion as students, but they have also undergone training in effective syllabus creation. 

At the beginning of the semester, TaP students will help you set up goals for your semester-long collaboration. Goals might range from increasing engagement and interest in the subject matter to redesigning and restructuring coursework. As long as it is feasible, Tigers as Partners (and The Collaborative for Learning and Teaching) can make it happen!

The most essential part of the TaP program is the in-class observations and feedback sessions. At least once a week, your TaP student will sit in on a class period and observe teaching practices and student engagement/responses. The TaP student spends a period of time reflecting and thinking on their observation before sending you their notes. After receiving these notes, you will meet with your TaP student for a 30-60 minute in-person meeting. During that meeting, you and the student can talk through their observations and collaborate on future adjustments in the course. This is the bread and butter of Tigers as Partners and the most essential tool to becoming better educators.

Another important service that occurs each semester with your TaP student is the facilitation of mid-semester feedback. Rather than wait until the end of the semester when student feedback can only be implemented the next semester, mid-semester feedback allows you to make just-in-time adjustments or reinforce strategies that are working. Your TaP student can either facilitate feedback in class which encourages participation, or they can design a custom Mid-Semester Feedback survey that will answer all your needs!  Or they can help you craft other surveys for your students if you feel that your students are not responding well to your surveys.

Heat maps are an effective way to get a better understanding of your classroom dynamics. It is difficult to simultaneously teach and be completely aware of what is going on in the classroom. TaP students can graph class participation, class distractions, or other visible student behaviors in class and present them to you in a visualized manner.

At the end of the semester, your TaP student will leave you with a fantastic gift to wrap up your time in the program. All TaP students spend some time before their final meeting compiling a sheet together that features some of the most consistent items to keep an eye out for future teaching opportunities, a list of pedagogical strengths to lean into further, or plans to implement in future iterations of the course. This is one of the best things to have to continue to hone and improve your craft as an educator.