March 21, 2024
Michigan EARTH Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award
What a delight to be recognized by my department and presented this award by my advisor, Dr. Sierra Petersen. It was a bittersweet night, realizing that I’m soon to leave the wonderful community I have found here at University of Michigan but also able to gather with everyone for celebrations, hugs, laughs, and tears.
March 4, 2024
Rackham Graduate School Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award
It is such an honor to be nominated for this award and to be selected from hundreds of worthy peers at the university. I have poured myself into the educational life of UM between my service as a GSM and my time as an instructor. It’s sad to leave, but I’m glad to know that I’ve had a positive impact on my students, my peers, and my department administratively. Unfortunately I had to miss the award ceremony at the very last minute because I had to fly to a consulate appointment about my postdoc visa (this afternoon was a comedy of panic), but I was cheering on the other Rackham awards recipients from the airport!
March 30, 2023
AY 2022-23 GSI Workshops
We had a solid year of good engagement with our GSI workshops. As always, we opened each evening with some open-ended reflection before delving into curriculum that the GSM team curated. Check out this year’s topical docket:
Student engagement in class and office hours
Teaching material you’re not an expert on
Diversifying your learning assessments
Grading strategies and Canvas tools
Dealing with academic misconduct
Things go wrong! Improvisation in the classroom
Self Care as a GSI
Many thanks to our wonderful single-term GSM, Xue Su, and to Cecilia Howard, who will be taking over as lead GSM next year! I’m so lucky to work with such a dedicated team.
February 16, 2023
Just Some Silliness During Lab
Listen, filling burettes without the aid of a funnel is a niche skill that I happen to possess. Actually, it’s usually not. Which is why I was getting very excited on a streak of several perfect fills. I cheekily started a tally on the chalkboard and the students got a kick out of this game I’d started playing with myself. As they were walking out the door after class a bunch of them stopped and added ticks to the “Allison is awesome count,” which truly just made my evening. Love my students.
February 10, 2023
Field Trip to Water Treatment Plant
I got to lead my students on a trip to our local drinking water treatment plant. The facility was so interesting and it all connected beautifully to our Environmental Geochemistry course content. I also got to use the intercom system on the bus, which I just thought was a fun little treat.
February 6-23, 2023
Another round of teaching observations
The busiest time of year is once again upon the Graduate Student Mentors. As always, very much enjoyed the exposure to more of the department’s undergrad curriculum. I finally got to sit in on a structural geology class, which gave me lots of undergrad nostalgia.
January 9-11, 2023
Unique Aspects of Winter Term in Michigan
My Environmental Geochemistry class went out to the Nichol’s Arboretum to collect water samples this week. Unfortunately, Michigan is as Michigan does, and what it does in January is “snow” and “be cold.” This made for a vaguely chaotic week of lab prep involving trips to multiple drugstores to locate hand warmers, setting up trail markers in the snow, and testing out the most easily passable trails. Passed some cross country skiers on the way…
Fortunately, the students had a blast! I gave everyone the option to just hang out in the classroom if they didn’t feel comfortable going, but everyone was so excited to get out there! I have an energetic bunch this term.
October 3-21, 2022
Fall teaching observations
More fun times lurking in back corners of classrooms with a clipboard! This year I thought we should start offering GSIs the option to have their students fill out paper mid-term evaluations that parallel the end-of-term final course evaluations. We gave it a shot this time around and some GSIs took us up on the offer. My team and I definitely got some good insights from the students that we could bring up with the GSIs during our follow-ups. I think we’re going to keep this addition going forward.
August 26, 2022
New DEI content in First Year Orientation
My team and I made some changes to the structure of new grad student/new grad student instructor orientation this year in response to feedback from last year. One thing I was excited to make space for more discussion of DEI during orientation.
We presented students the results of the Department DEI committee’s self study on department climate as perceived by undergrads. This helped us understand what kinds of gaps exist between our ideals as a department and students’ current experiences. GSIs were identified as critical influences for undergrads, since they tend to work even more closely with GSIs than faculty instructors.
We also had a full hour-long module reflecting on how our identities influence our comportment in the classroom and how our students engage with us. We provided resources and discussion of best practices for creating a welcoming and anti-racist classroom environment. I hope that these modules will stay with orientation in future years when I’m no longer lead Graduate Student Mentor.
April 7, 2022
AY 2021-22 GSI Workshops
We’re still working in a hybrid world, but we got excellent turnout and engagement for the GSI workshops both in person and online. We had open discussions to troubleshoot any particularly tricky issues GSIs have been dealing with, and then pivoted to some curriculum. Check out the lineup of topics we developed this year:
Staying ahead of the curve
Things go wrong! Improvisation in the classroom
Cultivating a “brave space”
Assessing Learning
Tech Help – Running hybrid classes; Canvas tools
Self care as a GSI
Grading strategies
Student engagement strategies
Taking stock and setting up for success
Huge thanks to my co-GSMs Olivia Walbert and Madelyn Cook. This was a dream team! I’m so excited to take over as lead GSM next year, and more importantly, I feel prepared!
February 14-25, 2022
More Teaching Observations
We only have a handful of first-time GSIs this term, which makes for a much more mellow midterm period as a GSM. It’s nice to be reminded of the breadth in our department’s curriculum. I especially loved sitting in on the Mineralogy lab sections! A lot of our classes are still using a hybrid format, so engagement with remote students is definitely something to keep an eye on.
January 4, 2022
Michigan Earth Grad Student Instructor Handbook Goes Live
In the culmination of years of effort from past GSMs, student volunteers, and two Graduate Chairs, the Grad Student Handbook is finally up on the Michigan Earth website. We hope that this living document can serve as a sort of template for other departments around the College of LSA. Moreso, we hope that this will be a touchstone for new grad students, new GSIs, and even faculty in this department to help every aspect of GSI work run more smoothly.
November 11, 2021
Advancing to Candidacy!
Many thanks to my qualifying exam committee: Sierra Petersen, Naomi Levin, Joel Blum, and Larry Ruff for their thoughtful questions and feedback. Ready to keep moving forward!
Sierra and I walked immediately from my exam to lecture for Primitive Navigation and Wayfinding, and the students all gave me a big hooting round of applause for passing. It was actually very funny and heartwarming.
October 11-29, 2021
Mid-semester Teaching Observations
I had a wonderful time sitting in on GSI-led classes these past few weeks. We have a massive cohort of over 20 first-time GSIs in our department who all need to be observed. It has been jam-packed but I’ve had really productive follow-up meetings with our GSIs to discuss personalized teaching and evaluation strategies. It was great to see all our classrooms full of life again!
September 1, 2021
Primitive Navigation and Wayfinding in the Natural World
I can’t wait to teach this class again this semester, tentatively in person but always with a hybrid option. We’ll stay flexible and just go with the flow of the term.
I have quite a few ideas for how to improve some of the assignments, taking lessons from our first time around. Definitely the right move to offer this class in the Fall term from now on…some of the outdoor components will be more enjoyable when they’re not competing with the Michigan winter!
August 25-27, 2021
First Departmental Teaching Orientation as Graduate Student Mentor
We had a blast with Departmental orientation and practice teaching feedback for this Fall’s new cohort of Earth grad students and new Graduate Student Instructors. It’s our first in-person orientation since COVID-19 first took hold, and the energy in the room was off the charts! Seems like everyone is very happy to be here. Us too!
This kicks off my first year as a Graduate Student Mentor in the Department, and I’m looking forward to working with my wonderful colleagues Madelyn Cook and Olivia Walbert this year to support teaching in the department
April 21, 2021
Heartwarming Class Sendoff
These students somehow managed to be so engaged during a semester of Zoom breakout rooms. Today was the last day of class, and the students did the viral TikTok trend where they all turn their cameras on at the end of class and hold up “thank you” signs for the teaching team. Definitely misty-eyed. I miss having the students around so much, and I know they wish they could be here, but we’re all doing what we can.
January 19, 2021
Intro Oceanography (again!)
I’ll be grading for Intro Oceanography again, this time with Prof. Brian Arbic. I’ll be taking more of an active role facilitating discussions in Zoom Breakout rooms this term. Looking forward to connecting with another big group of students!
September 1, 2020
Intro Oceanography
Looking forward to grading for Intro Oceanography with lecturer Michela Arnaboldi this term. This will be a great chance for me to brush up my own knowledge of physical, chemical, and biological oceanography for my own paleoclimate research. We’re still in Zoom University, but I think we have a better handle on how things are going to go this term.
April 21, 2020
Wrapping up the end of the “Zoomester”
We definitely got thrown for as much of a loop as everyone else this semester as the whole University transitioned to remote learning in March. We moved around a few assignments and tried for some synchronous online lessons. I managed some wonky camera angles to film a demo on measuring the altitude of the sun out of my (fortunately south-facing) apartment window rather than taking the students out onto the Quad. Overall, empathy and community takes precedence and we heard a lot of appreciation for our flexibility.
The students put so much effort into their final projects. We let them pick any topic at all to do a deep dive on, and we saw students building homemade navigation tools, drawing their own maps, and giving presentations on ancient history. Seems like they appreciated the opportunity to get a little creative as the days seem to grow very monotonous.
March 2, 2020
Lab in the Planetarium
I get to teach celestial navigation labs in the UMich Natural History Museum’s planetarium today. The students absolutely loved it! I think they’ll be well prepared to do their actual nighttime sky observations over the course of the next week.
January 13, 2020
Prepping Content for Primitive Navigation and Wayfinding in the Natural World
Super excited to be teaching “PrimNav” with my advisor, Prof. Sierra Petersen. It’s such a unique topic and I definitely have firsthand experience I can bring to the table from some of my remote fieldwork adventures.
This is the first time the course is being offered at UMich, though it’s based off a course Sierra TA’ed at Harvard. I’m putting in a lot of legwork up front to type up the weekly lab assignments and update supplemental readings. So far, the students seem super enthusiastic about this class and I can’t wait for us to start the skill-building labs. I think it will definitely be unlike any class they’ve taken before!
Dr. Allison Nicole Curley 