Teaching Opportunities

Teaching Assistant (TA) experience at UCSD is a major avenue of training for future academic careers. Our curriculum at both the masters and doctoral level includes a teaching apprenticeship. Each year, graduate students fulfill this requirement through employment as a teaching assistant in a variety of undergraduate Music courses. Under faculty supervision, responsibilities may include conducting discussion sections, holding office conferences with students, preparing materials for classroom instruction, assisting professors in designing courses, preparing tests, and grading written papers and examinations.

A service program devoted to the improvement of all aspects of teaching, The Center for Teaching Development (CTD) is a reflection of the university’s commitment to educational excellence. It includes the Teaching Assistant Development Program, International Teaching Assistant Program, Instructional Technology Center, and Faculty Instructional Resource Center. CTD works closely with academic departments to enhance instructional effectiveness and provides ongoing thematic workshops including course and syllabus design, classroom management, public speaking, instructional technology, cognitive learning strategies, preparing teaching portfolios, and long-term professional development. Other services include observations, classroom videotaping, language assessment, and consultation. International student TAs must be certified as having requisite English language skills. http://ctd.ucsd.edu

Campus-wide and department-based orientation is provided to new TAs. We also have a departmental Faculty TA Advisor and graduate student Senior TA, responsible for coordinating training and serving as mentors. TA Excellence Awards are given annually to recognize outstanding teaching performance in music.

Outside the Music department, there are opportunities for teaching experience in UCSD’s six undergraduate college writing programs and core courses. In recent years, topics have focused on culture, society, the arts, humanities, technology, cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary studies. Music students are desirable applicants for these positions and often find subject areas related to their own research. The experience is a positive addition to their teaching portfolio.

The Music department also employs a small number of advanced doctoral students as teaching associates for instrumental instruction and occasionally to substitute for regular faculty to teach a lower division course. Doctoral students may also submit grant proposals to teach Summer Session music courses and some of our students teach independent course offerings through UCSD Extension. UCSD’s Preuss School, a charter middle/high school, and ArtsBridge programs offer instructional outreach opportunities in K-12 arts education.http://preuss.ucsd.edu

In addition, the department maintains an active Musician Referral List for private teaching and tutoring basic skills.