Fall GTA Orientation

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Fall GTA Orientation
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Purpose

• To advise new graduate students on how to serve
  as a responsible and happy GTAs
• To describe the common responsibilities of GTAs
• Provide advice from experienced GTAs

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Who is a Graduate Assistant?

• Research Assistant A GRA is funded to assist a
  professor in research or to conduct her own
  research.
• Teaching Assistant A GTA is funded to assist in
  the classroom or laboratory and may eventually be
  a teacher of record (TOR).

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Who is a GTA?

• GTAs have diverse responsibilities and varied
  experiences.
• Senior Learners
• Colleagues in Training
• Junior Colleagues
• GTAs may have diverse relationships with their
  supervising professors
• E.g.. Employer-employee, Trainer-Colleague in
  training, Collaborating Peers
• Jody D. Nyquist and Donald H. Wulff, Working
  Effectively with Graduate Assistants, Thousand
  Oaks, Ca. Sage Publications, 1996

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Working with The Professor

• Starting out Right
• Introduce yourself
• Responsibilities
• Introduction to Students
• Clarification Deadlines
• Office Hours

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Working with The Professor

• Know Your Environment
• Room Technology
• Dress Code
• Printing
• When things dont go well
• Intra-departmental politics

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Campus Communication

• E-mail Daily, Official correspondence
• Copy (Cc) the professor to all official
  correspondence
• Cell-phones

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Common Responsibilities

• Attend Classes
• Read Textbook/assignments
• Maintain Seating chart
• Take attendance
• Take class notes
• Maintain office hours

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Other Possibilities

• Editing work
• Proctor exams
• Prepare Mid-Semester Reports Athletes
• Conduct Field Trips
• Research for Profs Acquisition of materials

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Teaching Responsibilities

• Sub Lecturing
• Tutoring / Review Sessions
• Grading

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Substitute Lecturing

• Clarify expectations w/ Prof
• Balancing style
• Structuring your lecture
• Confidence
• Technology issues
• Access to room
• Expect to submit lecture notes to your Prof

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Tutoring / Review Sessions

• Frequency
• Location
• Content

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Grading

• Allot hours at the end of the semester - do your
  own papers early.
• Grade and enter grades quickly ask about
  expectations.
• Providing Reports to students and prof
• Familiarize yourself with the Scantron machine.

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Research Tools

• Library Webpage
• Two Libraries Moody and Jones
• BearCat http//www3.baylor.edu/Library/
• OsoFast ILL at Baylor, https//illiad.baylor.edu
  /illiad/logon.html
• Electronic Resources https//www1.baylor.edu/ERD/
  Search/AdvancedSearch.aspx
• BearSpace Storing Information,
  https//bearspace.baylor.edu

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Student Issues

• Ethical Behavior (honesty, plagiarism, cheating,
  doing homework)
• http//www.baylor.edu/honorcode/
• Special Services (OALA) http//www.baylor.edu/oal
  a/

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SET

• Seminars for Excellence in Teaching
• Improves quality of undergrad education
• Assists departments in preparing teachers
• Documents SACS required training

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SET

• Requirements for TORs
• Prior to or during your first semester of
  teaching
• Core Workshop 1 (180 minutes)
• Core Workshop 2 (120 minutes)
• Each subsequent semester you teach
• One elective workshop (60 minutes)

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Working as a GTAQA with a Panel of Senior GTAs

• Lydia Cooper, English Ph.D.
• Michelle Porter, Spanish M.A.
• Alicia Myers, Religion Ph.D.
• Bracy Hill, Religion Ph.D.