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The third edition of First Day to Final Grade: A Graduate Student’s Guide to Teaching is designed to help new graduate student teaching assistants navigate the challenges of teaching undergraduates. Both a quick reference tool and a fluid read, the book focuses on the “how tos” of teaching, such as setting up a lesson plan, running a discussion, and grading, as well as issues specific to the teaching assistant’s unique role as both student and teacher.
 
This new edition incorporates newer teaching and learning pedagogy. The book has been updated to reflect the role of technology both inside and outside the classroom. In addition, a new chapter has been added that discusses successfully transitioning from being a teaching assistant to being hired as a full-time instructor.

Every year, tens of thousands of graduate students walk into a college classroom for the first time with deep subject-matter expertise but little or no formal preparation for teaching. First Day to Final Grade has guided those instructors through three successful editions, offering clear, honest, and immediately usable advice for every stage of a course—from writing a syllabus and preparing a first lecture to running discussions, grading fairly, and handling difficult moments in the classroom. This fourth edition brings that trusted guidance fully up to date with new material on creating classrooms where all students can succeed and teaching with today’s technology. Whether read cover to cover before a first assignment or consulted in the middle of a challenging semester, this book is the practical companion new college teachers need.

In this new edition of First Day to Final Grade, readers will find:

• Equity-focused and inclusive pedagogy woven throughout the text;
• New material on transparency as a core inclusive and equity-focused practice, including explicit attention to surfacing the “hidden curriculum” for first-generation students;
• Advice on AI and generative tools, including designing writing assignments that account for AI, and a section on academic integrity, plagiarism, and inappropriate use of generative AI;
• New syllabus guidance on contemporary classroom management issues, including students requesting to record class sessions;
• Updated and consolidated recommended readings that address AI in teaching, equity-based pedagogy, student belonging, student mental health, teaching writing, and teaching when English is not one’s first language;
• Prescriptive guidance that explains the reasoning behind specific recommendations to help readers understand how particular practices benefit the learning environment and the instructor-student relationship.