Resources and events to get ready for the spring semester
Pre-semester Checklist
These 7 steps will help you get organized and ready to welcome your new students. To save time, each step links directly to campus resources.
Help with Canvas
DoIT’s Learn@UW team has a series of drop-in workshops to assist you.
Helpful guides
Navigating Classroom Dynamics & Disruptions
This guide will help you prepare for and respond to in-class conflicts and challenges – everything from inappropriate behavior to impacts from politics and current events.
Generative AI
- Share your expectations with students via an AI syllabus statement.
- Check out the AI Prompt Cookbook for a collection of starter prompts to create and organize course content, brainstorm assignments and activities, and more.
Accessibility and Accommodations
- Use Grackle to create accessible Google docs, slides and sheets. (And see more tips for course material accessibility.)
- Consult instructor resources from the McBurney Disability Resource Center.
Curricular resources
Go Big Read
Discussion guides, sample assignments and more focused on this year’s selection, “Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body.”
Libraries
Reserve course materials, add info to your Canvas course, request library instruction, and more.
Center for Campus History
Teaching guides with primary sources, readings, and discussion questions about historical moments of discrimination and resistance at UW–Madison.
Cross-campus events
- February
- February 11Enhancing Online Education: Fostering Community micro-courseCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring8:00 AM, Online
- February 14Engage Students in Large Enrollment CoursesCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring10:30 AM, Online
- February 14Innovative Models for New Instructional Materials in Less Commonly Taught LanguagesA Language Institute brownbag for language educators12:00 PM, Online
- February 28Enhancing Online Education: Designing Assessments webinarCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring9:00 AM, Online
- February 28Teaching at UW: Wellbeing with WritingCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring10:30 AM, Check T.I.T.U., Union South
- March
- March 4Enhancing Online Education: Designing Assessments micro-courseCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring8:00 AM, Online
- March 5Exploring AI in Teaching: Supporting Student SuccessCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring12:00 PM, Online
- March 7
- March 7Generative AI and Writing: A Conversation with Emily HallA brown bag with Emily Hall, Department of English, UW-Madison12:30 PM, 1418 Van Hise Hall
- March 14Teaching at UW: Avoiding Pitfalls in Group WorkCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring10:30 AM, Zoom
Also offered online - March 14Strategies for Effective Management of Language ClassroomsA brown bag for UW-Madison language teaching assistants and instructors12:00 PM, 1418 Van Hise Hall
- March 28Enhancing Online Education: Cultivating Inclusivity webinarCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring9:00 AM, Online
- April
- April 1Enhancing Online Education: Cultivating Inclusivity micro-courseCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring8:00 AM, Online
- April 4
- April 4Seeds of Peace: Cross Cultural Communication in the Middle EastA presentation for language educators3:00 PM, Online
- April 10Spring Conference on Teaching & LearningUW System Office of Professional & Instructional Development (OPID)8:30 AM, Check T.I.T.U., Memorial Union
- April 11Spring Conference on Teaching & LearningUW System Office of Professional & Instructional Development (OPID)8:00 AM, Check T.I.T.U., Memorial Union
- April 11Teaching at UW: Managing Flexibility ExpectationsCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring10:30 AM, Zoom
Also offered online - April 17
- April 25Teaching at UW: Teaching with the ChazenCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring10:30 AM, Chazen Museum of Art
- May
- May 122025 UW–Madison Course Design InstituteCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring9:00 AM, Pyle Center
- May 132025 UW–Madison Course Design InstituteCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring9:00 AM, Pyle Center
- May 142025 UW–Madison Course Design InstituteCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring9:00 AM, Pyle Center
- May 152025 UW–Madison Teaching & Learning SymposiumCenter for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring8:00 AM, Check T.I.T.U., Union South
Teaching Academy Winter Retreat
Join the Teaching Academy for conversation and community around the topic “Cultivating Students’ Professional Skills and Identities” on Feb. 7 from 9-11:30 a.m. This hybrid event will include a series of short presentations as well as opportunities to consider how to bring what you’ve heard back to your campus context.
Learn more and register