Jan 9th, 2020
Adapted from material originally developed by Andrew Kuipers, Leanne Wu, Jonathan Hudson, and Tyson Kendon and Zain Rizvi
Help and mentor teaching assistants
Observations:
All feedback is confidential
Only intended to be an instrument for improving your teaching & classroom interactions. Neither the department, your supervisor nor the course instructor will be informed of any results
Before the visit
During the visit
After the visit
Generally
What is a TA?
What do TAs do
(some combination of these)
Meet with course instructor regularly
Know the course material
Plan your tutorials
Develop supporting materials
Motivate the material
Engage the students
Be flexible
Admit when you don’t know something
Make Mistakes
Let your passion be infectious
Confidence is important
Prepare beforehand
It WILL take a lot of time!
Have a detailed marking guide
Be prepared to defend the mark you give
Grade fairly and objectively
Provide written feedback
Most of you will be expected to interact with students outside of class:
Set and follow ground rules
Be ready for the time
Be ready for the students
Be organized and fair
AV Equipment
CPSC Labs:
MyUofC
D2L
CPSC Technical Resources
Building your own webpage
Department servers
Tech Support Help (start support ticket via) cpschelp@ucalgary.ca
The Physical Dropboxes
Your teaching team
Good and Bad TA Habits
Good:
Bad:
Challenges of being a TA
Your sections will be diverse! Some of the diversity groupings that are the most obvious may be:
No assumptions about the performance or abilities of any student based on these factors!
You’ll note that we are also a diverse group… so remember assumptions may go both ways.
Students also have diverse needs
When grading, more feedback is always better than less
Tell them about your experiences inside and outside of school
Don’t be too shy to talk about yourself and your research
12 hours a week (average)
Balance
Teamwork
Expectations
A set of consistent rules which you advertise through the semester
Reinforce these throughout the semester
The following may be items you are asked to cover during your first tutorial:
First tutorial: What sort of basic information should you give out before any course material?
Introduce yourself
Before tutorial:
During tutorial:
After tutorial:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/security/safewalk
http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/tech_support
Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning
Read
Practice