This month’s staff profile features Kelly Ford, senior assistant director for TA development and recognition with the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Kelly joined UGA in 2015, and in her current role, she manages the GradTeach portfolio, which provides resources, support, and development opportunities for graduate student teaching assistants. Kelly also provides support and resources for faculty who support TA instructional development.
Q – Can you talk about your career path? How did you transition from a background in French Linguistics and Romance Languages to the Center for Teaching and Learning?
A – Prior to grad school, I was an adjunct at University of Louisville and Indiana University Southeast, and I started my career as a high school French teacher. My PhD is from Indiana University, Bloomington. It’s one of the few places that you can study French linguistics in the country, and IU is known as a great place to study language.
My first faculty position was as the French Elementary Language Program Supervisor in the Department of Romance Languages here at UGA. When I was on the job market and I saw that UGA was already using “Chez Nous” as their elementary French textbook, I was delighted because it was authored at IU (I was actually the research assistant for the first author).
I had—what I felt was—a solid, established background in foreign language pedagogy and how speakers of American English acquire French as a second language. What I discovered at UGA was how narrow my scope really was; there are so many other things that go on in the classroom, which affect the learning process, that I had never even considered. It fundamentally changed my approach to teaching.
Although I taught for a long time before grad school and UGA, I found certain parts of my transition challenging, so I began regularly attending CTL workshops. I was then accepted into the 2019 cohort of the Active Learning Summer Institute, and I loved our interdisciplinary conversations and figuring out what and how I could apply in my context.
At that time, I worked extensively with TAs since so many teach the basic and intermediate language classes (e.g., FREN 1001, 2002), so I also shared these teaching ideas with them and helped them develop their own. When this position opened in 2021, applying seemed like a perfect next step. As post-PhD paths are shifting, I get to help TAs hone this tremendous skillset they acquire through teaching, and it’s really rewarding.
I love working with grad students, and any part of my job that allows me to work with them is my favorite. I see them as super spreaders of good teaching, be it within their own departments or in future positions in higher ed. As post-PhD paths shift, I feel that teaching equips TAs with so many transferable skills and competencies that they can use as they’re finding their own paths. I had an amazing graduate school experience, but there is a liminal space to navigate between graduate student status and junior faculty. I like being a place of support during that transition.
Q – Can you go into some more detail about TA Development and Recognition at UGA? What programs and services are offered through the CTL to support students?
A – We offer a wide range of programs and services within the scope of teaching for all graduate students. At the start of a teaching assistantship, we provide TA Orientation, which fulfills a requirement of UGA’s TA Policy; we can help graduate students find an interdisciplinary section of GRSC 7770, a one- to three-credit hour course that provides TAs with knowledge of pedagogical approaches, relevant UGA policies, and available support systems; and we can answer questions about TA policy, language proficiency, etc.
Once TA’s are settled in their role, we have a variety of programming and services. We offer workshops and TA Cafés (we usually hold about 10 a semester); the GradTeach Certificate, the courses GRSC 7800 and 7900 to further develop teaching; 1:1 consultations, and a mid-semester formative evaluation, or an observation to get feedback on your teaching. Finally, when TA’s near the end of graduate studies, they can apply to participate in the Future Faculty Fellows Program, and set up a consultation to get feedback on academic job materials.
We also help honor and recognize TA teaching accomplishments. We host the Spring Teaching Celebration, which celebrates the tremendous contributions TAs make to UGA’s instructional excellence, and we oversee the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award and manage the selection of the Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Q – Are there any new TA Development programs or initiatives that you are working on?
A – Always! I am currently facilitating a new faculty learning community, Teaching TAs How to TA, and I am finalizing a Teaching Philosophy Statement resource that will be housed in eLC. We have two things that we’re developing and hope to Iaunch in August 2024, so stay tuned. I typically have no less than 10 ideas in my head at any given moment.
Q – What keeps you busy outside of work? What sort of hobbies or organizations are you involved in?
A – I have a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old who keep me pretty busy outside of work! I also am an avid exerciser, and I love to read. I just finished the audiobook “Finding Me” by Viola Davis (it’s her memoir, and I highly recommend), and “The Latecomer” by Jean Hanff Korelitz (which is very good if you can make it through part II when all the characters are so awful). My best reads from 2022 were: “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus; “Station 11” by Emily St. John Mandel, and “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby van Pelt. I read a little of everything, but you can’t beat a really good domestic drama, cozy mysteries (best as audiobooks), an unreliable narrator, or an unconventional protagonist.
I also love being in the kitchen. My family’s favorite meal is chicken parmesan meatballs from “What’s Gaby Cooking.” I would love to say that I regale my family with French cuisine, but nope – maybe one day!
Q – What is a fun fact about you that your coworkers might not know about you?
A – When I was 2, I got a black eye from jumping on the bed (my older sister was supposed to be watching me). It became a goose egg, and, of course, I was supposed to have pictures taken that week. Instead of canceling the photos, my mom had the brilliant idea to put me in my older brother’s baseball uniform. One of pictures from that session won a national award.