Teachfest Royale: An 8-Minute Didactic Challenge

February 4, 2025
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Date/ Time: Tuesday, 2.4.25 @ 12:00p

Location: In-Person (Calendar invite sent with location)

Register: Please notify the Academy of Educators via email at academyofeducators@wustl.edu by Monday, December 9th, 2024 if your department/ division/ program plans to participate.

Overview: The Academy of Educators would like to invite your department/ division/ program to choose one faculty member (via an internal competition – more details below) to compete in a school-wide Academy of Educators: Teachfest Royale- An 8-Minute Didactic Challenge to be held on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 at 12:00pm.

The Internal Competition

Each participant prepares an 8-minute teaching talk on an assigned theme.  This year’s theme is “Things We Do for No Reason”.  Your department/ division/ program will arrange for 3-4 faculty judges who will use a rubric to rate the presentation on design, content, delivery and time.  The participant with the most points wins.

All faculty, but particularly junior faculty, are encouraged to participate!

Participating divisions will receive more details.  We are also available to answer questions or help find faculty judges from outside your division. 

School-Wide Competition

Winners from each internal competition will give that same presentation (revisions in the interim allowed) at the WashU School of Medicine school-wide competition, which will be held on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 at 12:00pm & will utilize the same format described above.  The winner of the school wide competition will be rewarded with a new and impressive listing on their CV, bragging rights for him/her/themselves, bragging rights for their department/ division/ program, and the honor of hosting the competition trophy in their office for the year.

This competition is inspired by a similar competition which has been held for many years at Emory University.  Below are examples of the type of presentations we are looking for:

  1. Emory DHM’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@emoryhospitalmedicine3833
  2. The winning presentation from the Emory National Teaching Invitational can be viewed at this timestamp: https://youtu.be/fvxH0GFV7BU?si=1CTisJTXfPlCKQKA&t=4094

We hope you will take this opportunity to showcase your amazing educators!