Policies for Teaching Assistants

[nataliek at UALBERTA.CA]

Since there hasn't been much of a response to this query, I thought I  
would put in my 2 cents.

I supervise both RAs (research assistants) and TAs (Teaching  
Assistants).  Research assistants work in our archive and put in a  
certain number of hours (usually 12) on site.  They have to be  
physically present in the archive to do their work.

Teaching assistants for me run the discussion sections of a large  
lecture course.  I am the lecturer.  Teaching assistants attend the  
lectures that I give.  We also meet once a week as a group to plan the  
discussions that the TAs will conduct that week.  These meetings serve  
both to keep us all coordinated, so that we all cover roughly the same  
material.  I also use these meetings as a way to teach the assistants  
how to teach.  The meetings allow us to discuss effective pedagogy,  
problems, should they arise, etc.  Outside of the classes that they  
run, the lectures they attend, and our weekly meetings, TAs are on  
their own with respect to the time that they put in.  One more thing -  
TAs, like me, keep office hours.

Natalie Kononenko
Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography
Editor, Folklorica
University of Alberta
Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
200 Arts Building
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E6
Phone: 780-492-6810
Web: http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/


Quoting "Brewer, Michael" <brewerm at U.LIBRARY.ARIZONA.EDU>:

> All,
>
> For those of you with graduate programs, do any of you require your  
> teaching assistants (not research assistants, but teaching  
> assistants that are either responsible for an entire course, or who  
> assist a faculty member with the delivery and grading) to do all of  
> their work during set ours and on-site (e.g. between 8-5 and taking  
> place in the department and in class)?  Do any of you  
> schedule/monitor their hours (rather than asking them monitor them  
> themselves, if at all)?
>
> I am curious since, as a TA at two different institutions (many  
> years ago), I never kept track of hours, nor did I have to work all  
> my hours on site (I only had to be on site for class, doing office  
> hours, meeting with faculty supervisors, etc.).
>
> Now, I am in a position to begin employing TAs in the delivery of an  
> online course and my dean (who, as dean of libraries, has not been  
> in a position to oversee teaching faculty before) is wary of  
> allowing TAs to work on these more flexible terms (since in the  
> libraries we have always used research assistants that have to be on  
> site to interact with library faculty and staff).
>
> It is my sense that it is the norm for TAs to have this kind of  
> flexible work schedule and would like to  see if that assumption is  
> correct.
>
> If you do NOT allow your TAs this kind of flexibility (of schedule  
> and location), please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Michael Brewer
>
> Michael Brewer
> University of Arizona Library, A122
> P.O. Box 210055
> Tucson, AZ  85721-0055
> Tel: (520) 307-2771
> Fax: (520) 626-7444
> brewerm at u.library.arizona.edu<mailto:brewerm at u.library.arizona.edu>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------