What is the TEACH Program?
The TEACH (Teaching Effectiveness And Career enHancement) Program, which is modeled after the national Preparing Future Faculty movement, is geared toward Ph.D. students with teaching appointments. The TEACH program assists graduate students in further developing teaching skills and exploring faculty roles on a college or university campus. Past TEACH fellows estimate that the program required 30 – 40 hours per semester for workshop attendance, videotaping, project work with a faculty mentor, and other program activities. Fellows selected for this program are paid a $500 stipend per semester for their active participation. Many departments at Texas Tech currently offer their TAs excellent opportunities for development and training. The TEACH program does not replace those programs in any way, rather it seeks to supplement their efforts.
TEACH Program Goals
The TEACH program offers individualized attention from consultants who specialize in pedagogical development and faculty mentors who are committed to teaching excellence. The program provides a myriad of opportunities for self-reflection through workshop participation, videotape observation, Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID), SoTL research, independent projects, and the development of a teaching portfolio. Through these experiences, each successful fellow can expect to:
- Identify and apply new instructional strategies to improve student learning in his/her courses;
- Acquire knowledge, develop skills, and prepare documents to facilitate the transition to a career in academia; and
- Develop relationships with university faculty, staff, and peers to maintain a spirit of collegiality in the pursuit of professional development.
TEACH Staff
Suzanne Tapp, M.A.
TLTC Assistant Director
Suzanne has been with the TLTC since its humble beginnings in the library basement and now serves as the TLTC Assistant Director and as a faculty development consultant. She loves attending classes around campus and helping instructors consider how to teach out of their strengths with methods that match their personal styles. Her research interests include active learning, classroom management strategies, and teaching portfolios. She is active in the Texas Faculty Developers Network and with the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD). When Suzanne isn't running around the TLTC, she's busily chasing two young children and a chocolate lab all around Lubbock.
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Allison Boye, Ph.D.
TEACH Program Director
Allison serves as director of the TEACH program and enjoys working one-on-one with doctoral students and faculty members to offer insights on effective teaching. She also provides consultation services for teaching philosophy statements and portfolios, leads the Faculty Book Club, and assists with the organization and facilitation of teaching and learning conferences and workshops. Some of her research interests include writing across the curriculum, classroom management, and active learning. Allison earned her B.A. from William and Mary, her M.A. from Bowling Green, and her Ph.D. in English from Texas Tech, specializing in contemporary American literature, Women’s Studies, and Cultural Studies. Her work examining the intersection of whiteness and the female body is currently under consideration for book publication. Allison has won a number of honors for scholarship and writing, including membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and has published both scholarly and creative pieces. In her free time she can be found voraciously reading and writing mysteries, watching The Office, or ballroom dancing.
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Steve Jackman, M.S.
Lead TEACH Program Consultant
In the TEACH program, Steve works with PhD students to improve their classroom teaching by providing feedback from videotaped classes and student questionnaire responses. His other roles include researching student learning styles, assisting instructors with gradebooks in Microsoft Excel, and learning about new technologies for education. Steve spent three years as a teaching assistant and full-time instructor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he taught introductory meteorology courses and earned an M.S. in Atmospheric Sciences. Steve is an avid storm chaser and golfer. He does his best to not mix the two.
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Micah Meixner, M.M.
TEACH Program Peer Consultant
As a consultant, Micah works with doctoral students enrolled in the TEACH program to help them improve their teaching abilities in the classroom. In addition to her role at the TLTC, Micah is working on completing her DMA in vocal performance through the Texas Tech University School of Music. Micah currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Voice at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, TX and has served as a teaching assistant at Texas Tech for five years. In her free time, Micah enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family.
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