INTRODUCTION
This Online Handbook is designed to provide you with information and resources to help you carry out your responsibilities as a Teaching Assistant (TA) at UW.
Graduate TAs are vitally important members of the University of Washington teaching community. As a TA, you may have one role or a combination of many different roles: designing and teaching your own course, assisting a professor by leading quiz sections, staffing a laboratory, or working in a departmental study center. This handbook offers information on some of the most common teaching roles in which you may find yourself.
At the University of Washington, teaching is defined as any interaction with students over instructional issues. Examples include:
- lecturing
- discussion leading
- conducting labs
- holding office hours
- helping students in department study centers or writing centers
- tutoring
- grading
- assisting students to solve problem sets
- commenting on studio work
- reviewing tests, papers, or other assignments with students
Most people find their TA experiences to be an important part of their graduate education. If you plan to go into a teaching career, you will appreciate this opportunity to gain direct experience introducing students to your field of study and helping students learn what they need to enter the field themselves. If you anticipate a career in research, industry, or other sectors, you will find that your experience as a TA will help you gain experience making presentations, designing and assigning projects, explaining research, providing constructive feedback, leading discussions, and other similar activities that are common to many careers. By taking full advantage of your opportunities as a TA, you will gain valuable skills that will assist you in whatever career you choose.
One more word about what you will learn as a Teaching Assistant. Many people wonder if the TA experience will be useful to them if they are not planning a career as a faculty member. Most people agree, however, that such activities as explaining the results of your research to others, evaluating the work of others, making presentations, leading discussions, and the like, are activities common to many careers - both inside and outside the academy. While it is true that as a TA you will have to budget your time carefully to manage your own obligations as a student, it is also true that by taking full advantage of the TA opportunity you will gain valuable skills that will assist you in whatever career you choose to enter.
The University of Washington offers a wide range of resources to assist you in your teaching. Among the most important are colleagues in your department, course supervisors, faculty TA coordinators, advisors and fellow TAs. Many departments also have Lead TAs -- experienced TAs designated by departments to assist you with your teaching.
Outside of your department, staff members of the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) are available to help you with your teaching in a variety of ways, including initial class preparation, developing classroom strategies, and assessment of your teaching. Instructional Support and Programs for TAs can be found at http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/consulting/ta.html
For more information about CIDR, see http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/, call 206-543-6588, or e-mail at info@cidr.washington.edu
Photograph in the banner by Joel Levin, UW photographer, from 2001 graduation.