Tell us about your course.
I developed a TA training course that prepares TAs in my college to become more effective in their duties. With trained TAs, my colleagues and I can work with them as a teaching team to build an inclusive support system for our students to be successful in their courses.
What specific practices do you use when mentoring TAs assigned to your courses, or encouraging others who are mentoring TAs?
I have designed an onboarding checklist for my TAs that is also shared with colleagues at the college. The checklist has items that help TAs to prepare for tasks at the beginning, during, and at the end of the semester. I also created a TA-Faculty Compact that we discuss and mutually define to establish key TA responsibilities and tasks. TAs can thus receive clarity on their role, instructor expectations, course policies and grading rubrics, and how they will receive guidance, mentoring, and feedback from me. To help my TAs manage their time, I also encourage them to track their weekly hours, so that we can see if we need any adjustments to their scheduled tasks.
How do you know when your practices are working?
I find that having the compact and checklist makes it easier for me and my TAs to understand our roles and mutual dependencies. Feedback from the TAs in the training course shows that they feel more prepared to do their job. One recent comment I received was: “I like that the course helps to prepare you for activities that you will do and situations you might be in as a TA. Lessons on grading and inclusion, for example, were helpful”. It has also been gratifying to see the growing number of our graduate students aspiring to become Teaching Associates and to see our faculty encourage+ng their TAs to apply for teaching track jobs and even apply to teaching intensive institutions after graduating.
What are you excited to try next in your teaching?
One interesting outcome of my work with TAs at my college has been the Chancellor’s Leadership Fellows award. I am working on a project to support faculty mentors of graduate teaching assistants and associates, which reflect the needs of various departments and colleges and is situated in a framework of inclusive teaching practice. In Fall, I collected information on the scope and nature of TA training programs provided at UMass and identified best practices offered by peer institutions to support faculty in their work with TAs. I am excited to be currently working on professional development and training materials for faculty for mentoring TAs.
