The Teaching Assistant: A teaching assistant is a registered
graduate student in full-time residence, chosen for good scholarship
and promise as a teacher, and serving an apprenticeship under the
supervision of a faculty member and the Supervisor of Technical Labs.
Workload: Teaching Assistant workloads are intended to allow TAs to fulfill their academic obligations. TAs employed half-time (.50 FTE) are expected to devote 15 - 20 hours per week to TA duties during instructional and examination periods. These hours include all time spent in preparation (including the weekly meeting which previews the upcoming lab), classroom and laboratory teaching, office consultation, and grading student papers. Incidentally, since a half-time appointment for a TA is normally maximum, a 50% TA is frequently called a full-time TA (as contrasted to a half-time TA with a 25% appointment).
Duties:A teaching assistant is responsible for the conduct of discussion and/or laboratory sections, and for being on time and present for the full scheduled period. The student will be under the supervision of a faculty member to whom final responsibility for the course's entire instruction, including the performance of his [or her] teaching assistants, has been assigned. Students should consult with this faculty member about grading policies at the beginning of each semester.
Students are expected to grade promptly and critically student papers such that students receive constructive feedback. GTAs should keep good records of lab grades for each student and be able to give these to the supervising faculty member upon request.
A teaching assistant is not responsible for the instructional content of a course, for selection of student assignments, for planning of examinations, or for determining the term grade for students.
Supervision and Review: The selection, supervision and training
of all student teachers is an important responsibility of the teaching
department. All candidates for appointment and re-appointment will be
subjected to an annual review based on student evaluations and faculty input.
Satisfactory progress toward degree will also be part of the review.
Failure to conduct your duties in a satisifactory manner may be grounds
for the termination of a teaching assistant's contract.
Average Time/Week During the 16-week Semester
Often, TAs want to know about how much time they should be spending
on different duties. Your average weekly load during the 16 weeks
of class for a 50% appointment should be approximately that listed below.
Contact with Students:
1 Discussion Section 1.0 hrs
2 Laboratory Sections 4.0 hrs
Office Hours 3.0 hrs
Total: 8.0 hrs
Preparation:
(Teams will decide how to structure this between team meetings and individual prep.)
Laboratory 1.0 hrs
Discussion 2.0 hrs
Weekly Lab-Preview Meeting 1.0 hrs
Total: 4.0 hrs
Grading and Entering Grades:
Labs 4.0 hrs
Homework 1.0 hrs (average)
Tests 1.0 hrs (average)
Total: 6.0 hrs
Attending Colloquia and Journal Clubs:
Total: 1.0 hrs
Proctoring Tests:
Total: 1.0 hrs (average)
TOTAL 20.0 hrs per week**