Disclaimer

This is not the full TA handbook. In order to afford to print this flyer, we have had to severely shorten the material, and to cut out some parts completely. For one, the full handbook has more explanations on why we think the information given here is useful and valid. Please consult the full handbook at http://www.its.caltech.edu/~cpet/resources.html. We hope you find them both useful.

Sincerely,

Andrey Poletayev, ASCIT VP for Academics

Karthik Sarma, UG Academics and Research Committee (ARC) Secretary

Elisa Franco, Caltech Project for Effective Teaching (CPET)

UG Academics and Research Committee

General TA, or Things Pertaining to Every TA

Course Basics

Before the start of the course, you should know:

* Course logistics: staffing, syllabus, organization, grading.

* Your responsibilities. These may vary widely based on the course and your position -- there are little to no campuswide guidelines for them.

* One particularly important piece of information is how much time are you expected to put into the TA job.

* Your authority: what you can do and what you can't do. For example, are you permitted to grant short-term extensions on assignments?

* Any helpful information on the course from previous years: student profile, student motivation, course reputation etc.

As the course progresses, it is important to keep updated on:

* What material is being covered currently.

* How to troubleshoot the course (e.g. if an Honor Code violation occurs or if students are struggling).

It is also useful to communicate with the lecturer / professor frequently regarding the progress of the course and how well the students are learning.

Getting Feedback

Gathering feedback as the term progresses is essential to successfully running a course.

There are several good ways to obtain feedback from your students:

* Distribute index cards at the start of your meeting with students. You can end the session a few minutes early and ask your students to write down any concepts that are still unclear. By collecting these and going through them regularly, you can get an idea of what teaching techniques are most effective, and focus your efforts on clarifying problems that your students have.

* Some large courses have undergraduate “ombudspersons” who represent student opinion about how the course is going.

* You can also ask your students directly for feedback; often, this is more effective one-on-one, or in office hours, or by email, than in a recitation section.

* Ask the professor or an experienced TA to observe your teaching and give you their comments and suggestions.

* You can also ask the professor to attach a feedback form to the midterm, if you want tips for improving before the term is over. A sample form can be found in the full handbook on the CPET website.

* Be sure to look over your TQFR results after every term.

If some of the feedback you receive is negative, remember that teaching is a skill like any other. You can improve your teaching ability, and at times you may need to adjust your teaching style to fit your particular situation. Sometimes there are purely logistical or organizational things you can improve to make the class work better.

If you are not sure what you are doing wrong, or would like some general teaching tips for your TA position, contact the Caltech Project for Effective Teaching (CPET). Work to be the best TA you can, but remember – you won’t please all of the people all of the time!

Balancing your Time Commitments

It is perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed with responsibilities during a term when you are expected to be a TA, make progress on your thesis research and possibly take classes. The short version of the advice given here is: prioritize, be organized, and know your expectations and limits.

First, it’s a good idea to know how much of a time commitment is expected from you for each activity (from yourself and others), and what goals you are expected to accomplish (from yourself and others). Find answers for these questions:

How many hours am I expected to TA per week?

* Your division or option student secretary should keep records of TA (teaching assistant) hours assigned to each class and each student.

* Your TA hours can give a rough idea of how much time is expected, and whether your TA assignment should take more or less time than the assignments of other people you know.

What duties are included in my TA hours?

* All activities directly related to your job as a TA are included in your TA hours. This includes, but is not limited to, attending lectures and labs, grading homework and exams, writing tests and problem sets, holding office hours or recitations, giving and preparing lectures, and organizing course supplies.

* Find out what was expected from the TA in previous years, since most classes aren’t being taught for the first time.

* Is the amount of work expected from you in line with the official time allotment?

How many hours am I expected to do research?

* To be a full-time student at Caltech, you need to register for at least 36 units (~hours) each term. These units can be for classes you are taking, and/or for research credit.

* In general, however, most advisors pay little or no attention to these numbers. If your expected time commitment is not obvious, it’s best to ask in advance.

What do others (i.e., your advisor) expect you to accomplish in those hours of research and classes?

* Does your advisor understand that you have other time commitments?

* Does he or she expect you to do as little as possible in your role as a TA? Spend less time on classes and get “OK” grades instead of outstanding ones?

* Or do they understand that you may not get as much research done this term?

Besides the obvious reward of helping someone to learn, there are definite benefits to being a TA. Consider these advantages:

* Improving your communication skills. Giving a course lecture, recitation or lab lecture is an excellent way to gain valuable experience in public speaking.

* Giving office hours or lab advice can also help you learn how to explain difficult concepts in a clear and concise manner.

* TA'ing a class allows you to learn more about that particular subject by explaining it to others or exploring it for making tests or problem sets.

* Having teaching experience is important when looking for a job in academia, particularly at liberal arts colleges or large state universities where teaching classes will definitely be part of your responsibilities.

Not all TA assignments provide significant interaction with students (although you can always ask the professor if you can teach a lecture while they are busy or at a conference). However, if you think you are not getting enough from this experience, you can always improve that.

Tips to help you be an efficient TA

Before the term begins (or at the beginning of the term):

* Establish your responsibilities with the professor and other TA's.

* Get helpful hints, homework solutions, and words of wisdom from students that have previously TA'ed the course.

* You should always do the problem sets yourself so that you can answer students’ questions.

During the term:

* Be organized! (even if the professor is not)

* Make a simple TA or class website and post office hours, clarifications, corrections and due dates there. A class e-mail list is also an easy way to make sure information gets to students, TA's, and the professor!

* Set limits on the times when students can find you to ask questions by establishing office hours or a weekly help session. However, don’t blow up at a student if they find or email you at another time. If they come looking for you, it means you are a useful TA. Help them with their problem and then remind them of your office hours for next time.

* Make good use of the time you are spending on the course. For example, you can start grading or preparing recitation if no one shows up to office hours.

Source(s): Stanford CS TA training

If you are working yourself too hard

Caltech students are smart and work hard, and often they put enormous pressure on themselves to excel in everything. This is generally an impossible task to accomplish when a student spreads themselves out over multiple commitments. At some point we, the students, must learn to “let it go”. Having well-defined priorities is crucial to wading through unmanageable loads of work (see above). Here are some ways to get help with self-imposed stress:

• You are not alone! Other students have experienced similar difficulties. Talk to other students about how they dealt with having too much to do.
• Talk to someone outside Caltech — a member of your family or another friend. A different perspective on the situation can be useful.
• Some periods of time may be more stressful than others (for example, midterms, around your exams, proposal deadlines). When this happens, see if you can delay or swap responsibilities with others. For instance, if you need to take three midterms, but the other TA is not taking any classes, ask him or her to take over your TA responsibilities for that week. Then, you can make it up at a later time.
• Never forget to sleep! Your efficiency and quality of work will increase if you are getting a decent amount of sleep. Sleep and exercise also help reduce stress.
• If you need someone else to talk to, you can go to the Caltech Counseling Center, located in the Student Health Center, to find ways to help you relieve stress. The Counseling Center website is http://www.counseling.caltech.edu. Their extension is x8331.
• If others (the professor, your advisor and yourself are probably prime culprits) have unrealistic expectations of what you should be doing:
• # Try talking to them about your concerns -- it may be that the culprit simply does not realize how high his or her expectations really are.
• # Talk to a trusted friend or fellow student (or fellow TA) about the problem.
• # If you are having a conflict with the course professor, talk to your research advisor about the problem (if you feel comfortable doing so). Each division also has an academic officer and each option has an option representative who may be able to help you with TA problems. If your advisor expects you to TA without spending any time doing the work, talk to the professor of the class.
• # You can also talk to the Counseling Center to help solve this problem by mediating a dialogue.

Teaching

Your own experience as an undergraduate should prove helpful in guiding your teaching efforts. What did you hope for from your instructors? What did they do that helped or enabled you to learn, and what did they do that made your life more difficult? Adapting the methods of your best instructors to yourself and avoiding the mistakes of your worst ones can be useful as you begin to teach. However, developing your own style, one you will be comfortable with, will most likely be more effective in the end.
Probably the most important aspect of teaching is verbal communication.

• Speak slowly, clearly and loudly using words and examples your students can understand.
• Don’t be afraid to stop, think and reassess your presentation.
• Were you clear? If not, try to explain the concept in a different way.
• When a student asks you a question, make sure you understand what they would really like to know. Repeat the question before you try to answer it, possibly rephrasing it and asking the student if your restatement is accurate. In addition, try to refer to your students by name. *It really does make a difference. *

Using boards effectively can take some practice. Here are some pointers:

• Start with a clean board, write using large letters (this may take some practice; print if you have to).
• Use symbols consistent with the lecture and text, and organize your written presentation.
• Never stand in front of what you write. Move around so that all the students can read the board.
• Make sure that you give your students plenty of time to write down what you put on the board.
• Avoid obscure abbreviations and unreadable diagrams at the board.
• Never erase part of something and “re-use” another part; this will make taking notes a nightmare.
• Typed handouts can be extremely helpful, and students appreciate them (especially if your verbal communication or handwriting are lacking).

It is important to make your recitation sections efficient in order to convey all of the necessary information. Here are some tips for creating a good classroom environment:

• Make it obvious when you are starting class. "Any questions before we begin?" is a good line to use. Wait until you have everyone's attention before you proceed. Start by reviewing familiar material and work your way up to the new and more difficult stuff, so that students have a chance for their brains to "warm up."
• Try to actively involve the class in discussion, and give them some time to practice new concepts. Most people learn best by doing and thinking for themselves – try to provide time and space for this.
• Varying the classroom routine to include small group problem-solving or round-table debate can keep students engaged and greatly enrich both your experience and theirs.
• Start class with an agenda of what you hope to cover, and end by reviewing what was discussed and asking for final questions. Make sure they know what they are doing and why they are doing it.
• Don't make your battle to keep the students awake any more difficult than it has to be. A warm room with poor lighting begs people to fall asleep. If there is anything wrong with the room, call the service center (x 4717) and let them know.
• You, not your students, should control the classroom environment. However, you may ask how students would like to see the class time used, make up a questionnaire to solicit their (anonymous) feedback, ask them to let you know if you use unfamiliar units or notation, or have them inform you if you speak too softly or too fast.

Try to make your classroom a comfortable and fun learning environment, both for you and for your students -- this will definitely pay off for both.

Do

• show enthusiasm for the subject matter by being energetic, giving examples you find interesting, and having fun with your teaching assignment. Your enthusiasm for the course helps motivate your students.
• motivate your students and strive to provide a learning atmosphere.
• show that you care about the students. Learn the students' names when you call on them.
• provide a larger context for the material you are teaching. Reminding your students of what they are learning and why they are learning it is a powerful motivating tool and benefits your students' understanding of the subject.
• show respect for your students intellectually and personally. For more discussion of this subject, see the section “Diversity in the Classroom” in the full handbook.
• engage students in the material by encouraging them to interact with you and with each other.
• typed handouts will always be appreciated, but especially if the topic is confusing, or your handwriting or verbal communication are not flawless.
• first time you meet your students and throughout the course, encourage them to ask questions and seek you out for explanations.
• allow for a variety of learning styles and responses in your students: offering a combination of writing, talking and examples will reach most students. Some may not attend lecture at all, as they learn best from textbook.
• if an explanation does not work, try posing a different perspective on the material and explaining it differently.
• Try to be flexible about the times (esp. office hours) and ways (in person or via email, etc) you interact with students.

Don’t

• When students come to office hours, don’t grumble about the other work you were doing when they interrupted. When students come to you with special circumstances, try to deal with them fairly and within the context of the Honor Code.
• Insult your students, either by telling them how easy the material is or by being condescending. Be very wary whenever the words “clearly,” “obviously,” or “trivial” creep into your vocabulary. Students find these words offensive and infuriating! Even if you find some students less than respectful, don’t retaliate! Instead, model the behavior you’d like them to learn from you.
• Bore your students and yourself. If you’re not engaged, chances are nobody else is either. Find a way to shake things up a bit.
• Confuse students by teaching at your level instead of theirs. Sometimes it takes a bit of extra work to recall what connections, subtleties and extra intermediate details your students are and are not prepared to appreciate.
• Oversimplify the material until your students feel great but haven’t learned enough.
• Feel you have to be prepared with every answer in order to earn your students' respect. "I don't know, but I'll try to find out and get back to you" will work great; honesty is essential.
• Teach to one student exclusively, or let one person take up all or most of your time; try to move on.
• "Firehose" your students with information if you can help it.

Recitations

Preparing yourself for recitation is absolutely essential. It will help ensure that all of the important points are covered, and will help you stay on track after off-topic questions. Here are some additional pointers:

• Know the purpose of your recitations (may change as the year proceeds), and how it relates to the larger course goals. You can assume that your students will want to
  • know the main points they were supposed to learn in lecture
  • get some specific advice on upcoming homework, quizzes, and exams.
  • receive a “big picture” view of topics covered in class during the week.
• Try to get feedback from students about what problems they are having and what they would like to learn from you, and follow up on it.
  • Effective feedback loops will also make your students feel appreciated, providing additional incentive for them to come to recitation.
• You need to do many of the same things your students are supposed to do, preferably well in advance of the time they start doing them, as they will ask you questions about it. If you cannot answer a question, be honest about it, and take the time to find out the answer and follow up with the student.
• Try to attend the course lectures, or at least obtain an outline of them, so you know what topics have been covered and what approach the professor took in explaining the material.
• Know where your recitation classroom is, make sure it has the mechanical things you will need (like chairs and chalk, for example), and have any props, handouts, or demonstrations ready to go well before class time.
• Make an outline of important things you will want to discuss, prepare concrete examples you can present, and try to anticipate what questions are likely to be asked of you and how you will try to answer them.
• Arrive early, even if most of your students tend to arrive late. Arriving early also allows you to talk informally with some of your students and get to know them a bit better. In addition, plan to stay a little while after recitation to allow students some time to ask questions for clarification of material that you went over.
• Remember, recitation sections are almost always optional, so the number of students showing up is a good indicator of your success (and timing of the recitation).

For communication and presentation tips, see the "Teaching" section.

Office Hours

During office hours, you will act as an individual or small group tutor. Your students might ask you for

• Clarification of concepts presented in lecture.
• Guidance regarding the homework assigned for the course.
• Review or summary relating to an imminent exam.
• Academic, career, and sometimes personal counseling.

Simply holding office hours is no guarantee that anyone will show up, even when they should. Convincing your students to come to office hours when they need to will help you to avoid having to grade painful assignments; often just a few minutes talking to a TA is all a student needs to eliminate significant misunderstandings about course material. Even if only a few students come to office hours, they will generally take your advice and repeat it to many other students, who will do the same. Hence, the information that you give out could well help every student in the class!

• Schedule office hours and tutorial sessions at times convenient for your students! (“convenient” times at Caltech are the day before something is due, and never early in the morning.)
• The default location for office hours is, naturally, your office. (If for some reason you do not have an office, your option and/or the option you are TA'ing for *really * ought to provide you with a room if you are expected to hold office hours!)
• Many students will still not show up to office hours, even if they are at a convenient time, unless you remind them and encourage them to show up. There are several ways of convincing students to come:
  • Write a note on their problem set -- students are more likely to respond to a message directed at them personally.
  • Keep a turn-in and pick-up box or folder near your office door. When students come by to pick up or turn in their papers, say hello and ask if they had any problems. If the students know where you are and who you are (and that you aren’t a monster), they will be more likely to come by for help.
  • Advertise your office hours with a weekly e-mail reminder to the students. You can include general clarifications or corrections to the problem set.
  • Make the students feel comfortable during office hours. Listen to the students and give them your undivided attention (don’t check e-mail or answer the phone while they are in your office). Don’t put them down or be critical (“This question is so easy”, “You are wrong,” “You’re wasting my time,” are things you should NOT say). Periodically ask them for feedback about what you can do to make office hours better.
• Many times, a group of students will come in together and only one or two students will end up actually understanding the problem. The others may just “tag along” and write down enough to solve the problem without understanding it.Make an effort to interact with everyone in your office hours, not just the person who asks the most questions.
• Again, preparation is essential. Usually this means working out the assigned homework for the course on your own, going to class, and getting clarification on things you yourself do not completely understand. Never use a problem set key as a crutch -- this will fail as soon as one of your students comes up with an alternative solution. You should fully understand the material to the point where you can completely understand and solve the assignment.
• Your objective as a tutor should be to give your students the skills or understanding needed to solve future problems on their own, and not to answer a student's immediate question without clarifying the root source of the confusion. To simply give a student an answer or enough information to deduce the answer without true understanding will backfire in the end.
  • Ask the student to tell you how they think they should solve the problem or to go over the work they have already done. This will help you figure out how much the student already knows, and where his/her undersstanding is lacking.
  • Once you have figured out what problem the student is having, try to help them figure out where they went wrong. Try asking open-ended questions to guide them through the process. For example:
    • I don’t understand what you did in this part of the problem. Can you explain it to me?
    • Can you draw a diagram/write down an equation that describes this part of the problem?
  • If a student thinks they know the answer to a problem, and wants to know if they are right, you can ask them:
    • Is your answer what you would expect to get for this problem? Does it make sense?
  • It is reasonable to have the student show you their answer and for you to then say they are correct. It is, in general, not good to tell the student the answer to a problem, even if it is necessary for them to show their work.
• Don't stick doggedly to one line of explanation. Presenting alternative explanations or analogies will help the students remember and understand a concept better.

Grading

Grading is perhaps the most thankless portion of any educational workload, yet it is absolutely crucial. Several warnings and suggestions follow:

• Make sure that you understand the course’s policies at the beginning of the course. Some important things to cover are:
  • Who sets the grading policies?
  • If these things are left to your discretion, it is a good idea to talk to the other TA's and set a unified course policy.
  • What is the course policy regarding work done after a test’s official time limit?
• You should work out the problem(s) or perform the lab(s) you are grading before you even look at the key and certainly before you begin grading. You should at least go through the key carefully and decide how you will take points off for mistakes on each problem.
• Consistency in grading is always important.
  • Always grade by a grading scheme.
  • Keep updated spreadsheets of grades.
  • If the grading of an assignment is divided among many TAs, you should meet with each other and design a grading scheme that everyone can follow.
  • If you are grading a large number of problem sets, it is critical that you keep track of how many points you are taking off for common errors. Differences of two or three points for the same mistake can be particularly galling. Your students will confer about their problem sets and their grading!
  • Try to grade a problem set all in one sitting. If the professor doesn’t want to have firm deadlines for assignments, arrange for a compromise that will allow you to do so. For example, if a problem set is turned in late, you don’t need to have it graded until the end of the term. Or, you can wait until you have most or all problem sets until you grade them. If you do this, make sure that the students and professor know about this policy!
  • Let students know what they did wrong and how much it hurt their score. Circle the point where their logic failed and clearly indicate how many points were deducted as a result. Ideally, write legible comments nearby explaining their error. Provide encouraging comments when students find a good alternative approach to a problem.
• Be ready to deal with (emotional) complaints about grading fairly and competently. Doling out points automatically and refusing to consider any grading changes are both inappropriate ways to deal with the situation. Take a look at the student’s work and see whether it was graded incorrectly.
  • If the student is incorrect but does not understand the concepts presented, explain to them what they have done wrong (see "Office Hours" section).
  • If you have made a grading mistake, correct it and record the change; it is very important to students to feel that you are a fair grader. If you have made the same mistake on many papers, you should follow up by issuing a “recall” of the problem sets to the class, or offering to change the grades of students who come in. At the very least, inform students of the error so they are not learning something incorrectly.
• Talk to the course professor and/or section TA if you notice common errors or important misconceptions in the student work you are grading. This communication is invaluable, especially if you have a purely grading assignment and do not otherwise interact with the students.
• Know what to do if you fear an Honor Code violation has occurred. Consult with the course professor first about a violation, unless you have a previous understanding that you should act on your own.

Labs

Here are a few useful tips to ensure that a lab session runs smoothly.

• Know exactly what the students are supposed to learn and why they have to learn these things. This includes being thoroughly familiar with the details of the experiments and knowing why they are done in a particular way, as well as what the students should get out of them. This usually means knowing how the experiments tie in with the lecture material, if any. It is also highly recommended that you perform the experiments once yourself before teaching the students. Even if you’ve done something similar before, familiarize yourself with the instrument or setup in the lab in which you’ll be teaching. Otherwise, you can waste a lot of valuable time (and perhaps be embarrassed) when something goes wrong.
• Know all the lab rules before the first lab begins; follow and enforce them consistently from day one. Laboratory rules must be enforced strictly, because they are for the safety of the entire class.
  • Your own adherence to rules and firm discipline when safety is in question are critical.
• In labs where there is a potential for student injury, you should know the location of the first aid kit, basic first aid rules, and procedures for getting emergency assistance.
• Your group of students is your responsibility. It is generally required that you be present in the laboratory from the start of class until the last student is gone. If you absolutely must leave the lab during class, or if you are absent on a given day, find out from your Lab Supervisor how to request an appropriate, qualified person to supervise your students during your absence. If your course involves individual lab groups working at different times, set up a procedure for arranging times that are compatible with your work and personal life as well as with undergraduate schedules.
• Make your students think. Do not take on the responsibility of solving problems for the students, except where they are not intended to be a part of their learning experience (i.e., equipment failures). See "Office Hours" section for some tips.
• Make sure that the students understand the essential operating principles underlying the equipment they are using. Generally the lab experiments are designed to take most of the time of the lab period, so it is essential that students read through the experiments before they arrive. You can ensure that by assigning a few prelab questions, or by giving a "prelab lecture".
• Not all students know how to write good lab reports or lab notebooks; it is important for the TA to help them and let them know what is expected.
• In classroom teaching, saying “I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” is perfectly acceptable in most situations. However, when safety is concerned, as it often is in lab teaching, this sometimes isn’t good enough. If you don’t know, ask someone who does.
• Make sure lab equipment and computers are in working order and you know how to fix them! Equipment that breaks down in the middle of a lab will waste huge amounts of everyone’s time.

(Our thanks to Dr. Jane Raymond, Laboratory Supervisor in Chemistry, for sharing her excellent materials for this section of the TA Handbook.)