• Training TAs at three universities to become the best teachers they can, endeavors guided by my belief that graduate students are my colleagues as TAs and will soon to be my colleagues as faculty members at other institutions.
  
• Conducting teaching workshops in many different contexts, including national and regional conferences, language departments at other universities, various U.Va. departments, and high school systems. My central goals in facilitating such workshops include bringing the latest research results to teachers, with pertinent suggestions for implementing them in the classroom, while taking great advantage of all the experience and expertise participating teachers bring to the discourse.
  

I established the Teaching Resource Center at the University of Virginia in 1990 to promote effectiveteaching here in a variety of ways, including—for both faculty members and TAs—

• individual confidential consultations
  
• workshops given by excellent teachers to their colleagues, and programs centered on distinct teaching situations, for example, workshops for new teachers, departmental workshops, the Teaching Portfolio Workshop
  
• programs for specific faculty groups: University Teaching Fellows (junior faculty designing improved courses, the Teaching + Technology Initiative Program for faculty doing cutting-edge teaching with technology, and the Excellence in Diversity Fellows Program, aimed to improve retention of diverse faculty members
  
• publications about teaching, including an introductory handbook to teaching, a handbook about teaching a diverse student body, a newsletter, and occasional papers on teaching
  

Repeatedly, colleagues who participate in workshops or conversations in one of these interdisciplinary programs find exceptionally valuable the sharing of ideas and perspectives across disciplinary fields (see, for example, comments from University Teaching Fellows and post-workshop comments from teaching portfolio writers [2003 survey results]).

In both working at the TRC and in training TAs, I have frequently consulted confidentially with individuals about their teaching, using as documents their videotaped classes, my in-person observation notes, and their students’ comments. As with workshop participants, I use individual consultations to provoke teachers to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and to tackle problems. I ask a good many questions and provide possibly helpful perspectives and techniques in answer to their perceived needs. Such one-on-one consultations require the same exquisite level of teaching as tutorials.