Mike posted a thread about this last year, but it related to Math TAs.

I will be a TA next year, but not at Mac: I'm an MA student in Carleton's Canadian Studies program. I have no idea what class I'll be teaching, but I assume it will be one of the second year Indigenous-related courses, or one of the first year seminars.

If you could give me some feedback, it would be great! Specifically:

What do you want from your TA?
How do you feel you should be graded for participation?
How should discussions of the course material work?
What have you liked about past TAs?
What have you disliked about past TAs?
How often should your TA respond to emails?

I will have more questions, but I think this is more than enough to start for now.

Originally Posted by lorend

Mike posted a thread about this last year, but it related to Math TAs.

I will be a TA next year, but not at Mac: I'm an MA student in Carleton's Canadian Studies program. I have no idea what class I'll be teaching, but I assume it will be one of the second year Indigenous-related courses, or one of the first year seminars.

If you could give me some feedback, it would be great! Specifically:

What do you want from your TA? Someone that will be fair but not a pushover.
How do you feel you should be graded for participation? You shouldn't.
How should discussions of the course material work? Open forum but based on interpretations of the text.
What have you liked about past TAs? See above
What have you disliked about past TAs? See above
How often should your TA respond to emails? Within 24 hours

I will have more questions, but I think this is more than enough to start for now.

There are on-line forums where TAs discuss their experiences and give best-practice tips.

I'm glad you are seeking answers to these questions. Too many people have accepted the position without considering such things. Teaching isn't a joke; you can make a difference in someone's life.

Humanities/Soc Sci TAs are so vital to your end grade... I suppose fair/clear marking would be the number one thing, and maybe clear expectations as well, considering you think you'll be doing lower level classes.

I like TAs that respond to emails before the next class, unless they're sent like the night before or its dealt with in the tutorial. I think that's reasonable, if the tutorials are about the same size as they are here.

I dislike TAs that nail you for silly things like grammar (even in English, I think its a bit ridiculous when an A+ paper gets dragged down to B or B+). It's one thing to be penalized for it, which is totally fine, but nailing someone, especially a first year, is nasty.

That's all I have for the moment, lol.

Thanks!

I'm super surprised at the number of people who have commented on this.

Consistency. My number one complaint about the Social Science department is that TA's and professors use different marking schemes and have different expectations for students completing the same assignments, which is ultimately reflected in the final grade. The best professors I've had, among other things, ensured that everyone had the same marking scheme. A simple concept, but you'd be surprised at how few professors do it for subjectively-marked assignments such as essays.

Originally Posted by lorend

Mike posted a thread about this last year, but it related to Math TAs.

What do you want from your TA?
How do you feel you should be graded for participation?
How should discussions of the course material work?
What have you liked about past TAs?
What have you disliked about past TAs?
How often should your TA respond to emails?

I will have more questions, but I think this is more than enough to start for now.

Participation: Some people are shy especially, in some of the bigger tutorial classes... I always appreciated that my TA's for psych also accepted webct participation for marks.

Discussion: Perhaps you can prepare discussion questions but don't stick too much to a plan

Likes: Flexible, gives good feedback, fair marking- open to different styles, letting the tutorial know things to bring /prepare for in advance by email, give feedback before essay is going to be handed in for someone else to mark

Dislikes: Putting people too much on the spot, letting kids take over (like I have had a prof in the summer who rushed the material and skipped the discussion part because one loud kid said he wanted class to be done early)

Email Frequency: daily... perhaps more frequently when it's close to assignment deadlines/presentations

Originally Posted by sinthusized

Participation: Some people are shy especially, in some of the bigger tutorial classes... I always appreciated that my TA's for psych also accepted webct participation for marks.

I'd like to add to this point.

If participation in tutorial discussion is a must for the class its best for the people who are shy about speaking up when the T.A. is as open, friendly and inviting as possible. Graduate TAs who are holier than thou, know it all, hard-ass cold and intimidating are the worst. The TA for me always made the most difference when it came to whether or not I would speak up in tutorial discussion, or feel comfortable making presentations to the group. The other students made little difference to me as long as I felt comfortable with the TA knowing they weren't thinking "this girl is a moron" and they were actually listening and open to discussion about my point of view.

I take a lot of History electives and participation in tutorial is always a factor and the TAs I liked best were ones where I knew they actually cared and made the effort to make people feel like they could speak up and join in the discussion.

For discussions of the course material I feel like a few prepared questions can always help to start the ball rolling for people. Sometimes, especially in first year students don't know exactly where to start a discussion of material. They think what points does the TA want me to hit on. If there's something important you think people should have gotten out of a particular reading or what have you ask a question about it to get ideas flowing. Get people thinking hey, what did I think of Point A or Point B.

I liked TAs who were knowledgeable and furthermore showed an interest in sharing their knowledge and personal interest about a particular area. Some TAs seem downright uninterested in teaching or imparting wisdom upon the younger students and are quite obviously just there for the paycheck. You are obviously quite passionate and knowledge about Indigenous Studies and showing this to the students will imo go a long way, at least for the ones who are also passionate and interested in learning about the topic.

Definitely have to agree with putting people on the spot. Don't do it. We know you want people to participate but quite frankly people don't like looking stupid or unprepared in front of their peers. If no one is speaking that can be a problem but calling on people can frustrate students. If people have something to say they will generally say it, shyer students might just need time before they feel they can add to the discussion. Calling on them and potentially embarrassing them if they have nothing to say or feel unable to say something can cause more harm than it will help people with their participation marks. In the end the participation marks are theirs to earn and if someone wants to sit there every week and say nothing and not earn any marks that's their business and their problem.

Definitely be clear about assignment expectations. Vagueness is frustrating and never helpful ESPECIALLY in the beginning of one's University career. When working through all kinds of different assignments and trying to balance things the assignments where you just have no clue what is expected of you just add a level of undue stress. I know Professors and TAs aren't hired to babysitting or hand hold and walk you through things step by step but some guidance and clear objectives go a long way in helping ease the stress on a student.

I never expected my TAs to respond to e-mails at the drop of a hat but found getting a response within a timely manner, say 24 hours to be beneficial. Time management is key for students so if they have a problem they need assistance with and they're bothering to e-mail their TA they'd probably appreciate a somewhat "fast" response. Its unreasonable to expect that anyone sits at their computer and checks e-mail 24/7 or expect responses late at night or what have you but when it takes days for your TA or Professor to respond to a problem you're experiencing it can get frustrating and yes some TAs and Professors take days to respond or sometimes don't respond at all. This is especially helpful if the e-mail is sent sometime far away from when the next office hours will be held, or if their is no class or tutorial coming up soon.

I've been lucky to have a lot of TAs I've actually liked and found helpful so I can't think of too many TA related dislikes. Its just attitude a lot of the time. People are easy to read generally and I can tell when they're not at all interested in helping me or educating me and its a turn off.

One of the TAs that I hated was the one that came to class unprepared. It feels like she didn't bother to spend anytime to plan stuff for the tutorial. She just kind of went with the flow, or tried to, and ended up spending most of the class standing there flipping through the text trying to find something to do or review and kept saying uhm. I wanted to strangle her.

The TAs that I absolutely loved came to tutorial prepared, with an agenda of what will be covered for that class. What I liked for one of my classes is that in the beginning of the year we signed up for two tutorials in the semester. My TA would email the class a week ahead with a list of about 5 questions regarding the material for the next tutorial. If it's the tutorial you signed up for you have to write a short response to one of the questions and present it to the class. That counted towards our participation marks.

I like if my TA can reply to my email within a day. So if I email them at night, it would be nice if I get a reply by the next night. I know there are times when the TA is really busy, one of my TAs would let us know in tutorial ahead of time that he may not be able to reply quickly. I liked that he gave me a heads up.

I've noticed that the TAs I liked are the ones that speak loud enough (not that loud like yelling), the TAs I couldn't stand were really quiet and reserved.
Having a TA that is more outgoing and friendly and actually smiles once in a while makes going to tutorial feel worth while. I couldn't help but feel like going to tutorials with TAs that are unprepared, quiet and boring a real drag. I ended up just ditching a lot of them or keep trying to find reasons to not go. xP

Hope this helps!!!!

Thanks for the responses, that helps so much! I will definitely keep a lot of that in mind.

I'm not 100% sure what classes I have (still!); maybe I will find out more when I pick classes on the sixth? I have no idea.


I have other questions:

- what makes a tutorial enjoyable?
- what makes a tutorial boring?
- how do you want your TA to engage in the class and to facilitate discussion?
- would a marking rubric be helpful?

Hi,

What do you want from your TA? I want to know what is expected of me and that they too are interested in being there, not just for the money.

How do you feel you should be graded for participation? I honestly find value in tutorial sessions (the vast majority anyhow) and participation marks are just a bonus in my book.

How should discussions of the course material work? I had a TA last semester who took the time to find an article or current event that was related to that week's topics. I found that extremely helpful in linking concepts to the real world. It also helped keep the conversation flowing.

What have you liked about past TAs? I like TAs who appreciate hard work and listen to points of view and concerns of their students.

What have you disliked about past TAs? I had a Bio TA who never attended a single lecture and I think the prof only gave her a brief overview of what we covered in lecture. She was a grad student and would often go into far more detail than our Bio 1M03 required. We, the students, often looked at each other with "wtf?" faces.

How often should your TA respond to emails? 24 hours is good. More is better but isn't expected.

Originally Posted by lorend

Mike posted a thread about this last year, but it related to Math TAs.

(:

I will be a TA next year, but not at Mac: I'm an MA student in Carleton's Canadian Studies program.

/cheer! But be sure to come visit once in a while.

I've never actually taken a social science course so I can't provide direct feedback...however, I just finished taking a graduate level teaching course, Education 750, where we talked about various necessities of teaching at the university level. I learned about the perspectives adopted in various faculties (since it wasn't specifically a 'math' course) inquiry guided learning, and so forth.

I've got some resources available if you'd like them, including some academic literature (which I found a bit dry to be honest) and some tips for implementing Inquiry, Problem-based learning, and even how to soup up your teaching philosophy/dossier.

Let me know if you're interested in anything like that...I could loan you the course packs and so forth, or even just have a chat about some of the soc sci specific things we covered.

While the material didn't 'directly' influence how I teach, the self-reflection was amazing, and hopefully I can put the things I've discovered to good use when I TA in the fall.

--------------

EDIT: I did want to mention however, that the grad student whose course design/presentation I liked the most was actually in soc sci (I believe she liked mine a lot also)...and the reason we clicked so well was because we had a similar teaching philosophy: break down student barriers, be approachable and down to earth.

I'd imagine the worst thing for a soc sci course would be feeling unable to ask questions or see your TA for support if you're having difficulties. Something to consider. (:

Good luck!

How do you feel you should be graded for participation?
Not at all! But if that's not possible, I really dislike when TAs start out the class by saying "If you don't participate, you will get zero. You need to say something at least once per week". It's very intimidating and makes me not want to come to class. Just tell the students that, unfortunately, they have to be graded on participation, but don't make them feel pressured. It's a million times easier to participate when the class is enjoyable.

If you can, it'd be good to set up a way for people to participate without talking in class (like handing in a weekly 3 page paper on the readings or something). I know tutorials are supposed to get students used to participating, but some people suffer from anxiety issues about this kind of stuff and it's really hard for them. Make it clear in the first class that you are more than happy to accomodate that kind of issue, but make sure the students know this doesn't mean they can slack off.

How should discussions of the course material work?
I like when discussions are more open and vague, as opposed to discussing exactly what is written in the reading, because that can limit what there is to say.
For example, if the reading is about Residential Schools in Canada, don't ask the class "What did the author say about [this]?"
Try saying something like "What affects do you think Residential Schools had on the Aboriginal community, and what are some ways the government could have solved this?"

What have you liked about past TAs?
My favourite past TAs have been pretty easy going and friendly. I ended up adding two previous TAs on Facebook and I'm very close with one of them. Just don't be a drill sergant and treat them as equal adults.

Make sure everyone is on the same page. In first year, there were a bunch of third and fourth year students in Political Science 1G06. They would always talk about stuff that the first years had no idea about, and the TA never stopped them. A lot of us had low participation marks because we simply couldn't participate. But the TA was approachable, so I asked her about it and she was more than happy to lead the discussion in a way that everyone could participate.

What have you disliked about past TAs?
I hate hate HATE when TAs complain about their job/pay/strike to the class. I think it's unprofessional and whiny. I think you need to find a balance between friend and teacher. I like when my TAs treat us as friends, but if the discussion is dead and they say something sarcastic like "Well this should be a fun class..", it's awkward because the TA is still my superior. I've had a few TAs that make snarky comments or they are rude and it's very uncomfortable.

And I can't stand it when no one is participting, and the TA just sits there and says "Fine, I won't say anything until someone else does. I don't mind waiting." It's so so so uncomfortable..

Like another poster said, I've had a TA who didn't go to any of the lectures. Every week she would ask "So what did you do in lecture this week?" It was weird to explain the class to the TA. And if we had any questions about what was covered in class, she wasn't able to help us.

Would a marking rubric be helpful?
I never really found these helpful. They all seem to look the same and they all say the same thing. I would rather be told about the marking scheme and what my TA is looking for, as opposed to reading "Good use of scholarly articles" or something like that, because I know I'm supposed to that stuff.

Please never call on someone who's hand isn't up and put them on the spot. Especially in the earlier years of university, depending on the class, it can be very embarassing and intimidating.

Sorry for the long post. I hope it helps!

some good tutorial moments: when my TA was very clear about expectations, was forgiving of first-year mistakes (not "caving in" to things we SHOULD know and handing out freebie marks to demanding students, but understanding when things came up that we DIDN'T know and adjusting for everyone so it was fair), was helpful and friendly and open to opinions, was prompt with email replies, was willing to admit they didn't know but took the time to go find out from someone who did


some bad tutorial moments: when for lack of anything else to discuss, my TA would make a statement and then say, "does anybody have anything to say about that?" while a large majority of the class ignored her and played on their laptops. when a group of TAs collectively agreed to not do handouts because it was not "environmental" and "wasted paper", so the students then had to scramble around furiously writing down the information ON PAPER so there was no time left for discussion or the hands-on experiential learning we were supposed to have

Bump.

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