The Teaching Awards Ceremony: All You Need To Know!

Hey McMaster!

The annual Teaching Awards Ceremony is being held this Thursday, March 28th, from 5:00–6:30 pm in CIBC Hall in MUSC. The teaching awards are an exciting, MSU-operated phenomenon, created to recognize the outstanding faculty and teaching assistants we have here at McMaster. Can’t make the ceremony in person? Excitingly, the ceremony is being live-streamed this year, so you can watch the event from home, or wherever you’ve holed up on campus for this round of midterm grinding. Sign up to watch using this link, or check out the Macademics Instagram for updates leading up to the ceremonies.

The awards being presented this year include:

Student-Nominated Awards:

You would have seen advertisements around campus, on social media and on Avenue to Learn to encourage you to nominate your professors and TAs for the semesters. This is the culmination of those efforts, with our TAC community having been tirelessly tallying up results over the past year for:

• Top TA per faculty
• Top Professor per faculty

Teaching Awards by Application:

These awards are evaluated based on supporting letters from leaders of the applicant’s faculty or program, letters of reference from students or community members, and the applicant’s CV.

• Teaching Assistant of the Year Award: Awarded to one teaching assistant from the current academic year who demonstrated exceptional teaching capabilities and content delivery, organization and preparedness, and exhibited overall amazing assistance and accessibility towards their students.
• MSU Award of Distinction: All teaching faculty are eligible, and evaluated based on their commitment to McMaster’s Principles of Community Engagement, their impact on student life, and their overwhelming dedication to furthering learning and teaching excellence at McMaster. Selected by the MSU Board of Directors.
• Innovation Award: one or two instructors or group of instructors that have exhibited innovation in their teaching with applications to the broader community. Evaluation based on the integration of current pedagogical strategies, commitment to enhancing student engagement, and collaboration to support improvements in learning and teaching within as well as beyond the McMaster campus
• Lifetime achievement: awarded to a professor who has been at McMaster for a minimum of ten years and has contributed highly to the student and academic community in and off campus
• Merit Award: presented to one or two new professors who have shown dedication and passion, and made an impact with their teaching during their first two years of teaching at McMaster.
• Community Engagement Award: presented to instructors or a group of instructors who have demonstrated exceptional community engagement and inclusivity

Come on out (or tune in!) on March 28th to support the phenomenal teaching staff making Mac a brighter place!