Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award & MAGS Nominee

The Graduate Council’s Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award recognizes and rewards Missouri State graduate students for exemplary teaching assistant performance.

The recipient of this award will automatically be the university nominee for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award.

 

Who is eligible for this award?

To be eligible for this award, a nominee must:

  • Have been a teaching assistant during the academic year.
  • Have been a teaching assistant at least two semesters.

Requirements

Each academic department that hires teaching assistants may submit one nomination for the award.

Nomination deadline

All nomination materials must be submitted to the Graduate College by October 1st. (If October 1 falls on a weekend or holiday, nominations will be accepted on the next working day).

Materials to submit

  • Letter of nomination from the department head. This should include:
    • a description of any institutional awards/honors presented to the graduate student for teaching excellence.
    • opportunities for teaching assistants to assist in curricular development.
    • opportunities for an experienced TA to mentor new teaching assistants.
  • Current curriculum vitae.
  • Teaching in action video (maximum 10 minutes). Follow the instructions provided.
  • Nominee’s teaching portfolio. Please use the following headings:
    • Statement of teaching philosophy. References are allowed if personal philosophy aligns with known theories.
    • Evidence of instructional design, innovation, delivery, course management and student learning.
    • Student evaluation of teaching. Please indicate courses taught as a graduate teaching assistant at this institution, number of students, instructional responsibility and a summary of student evaluations.
    • Evidence of scholarship in teaching/learning. Include publications/presentations or grant proposals submitted/funded which focused on teaching/learning; evidence of how pedagogical research informs your teaching.
    • Evidence of effective student/colleague mentoring.

Please note: Excluding nomination form, letters of nomination and support, and vitae, the nomination (teaching portfolio) is limited to six (6) double spaced pages, 12-point font. Applications which do not adhere to submission requirements, including deadlines, page limits, formatting, and video length, will be ineligible for consideration.

All nomination letters and student application packets should be submitted to the Graduate College electronically at GraduateCollege@MissouriState.edu. Please send documents that are in either Word or PDF format only.

A short video must be submitted with the nomination information. If additional video is necessary, this will be done late in the fall semester or very early in the spring semester.