This new program allows graduate students in good standing who have already completed some of their teaching requirements to serve for one semester as an "apprentice" to a professor giving a class in or near the student's interest area. The student will shadow the professor and help with planning and organizing the course as well as possibly giving lectures and writing or grading final exams/papers. The purpose of this program is to diversify the student's teaching portfolio and give him/her experience teaching in his/her area of specialization, before entering the academic job market.
The Graduate School hopes to make this type of program more widely available to other departments interested in providing their graduate students with broader teaching possibilities. Please contact the 2008-2009 academic year GSA rep to the French department (tara.golba@yale.edu) for more information if interested.
More information is now on the Yale French Department's grad program website. It is here: http://www.yale.edu/french/grad.html
Yale Grad School Dean Butler has told GSA that the Graduate School is keen to support such initiatives in other departments.
This is promising news for graduate students who are looking for greater responsibility and more opportunities to develop their teaching skills and experience.