Obtaining a Teaching Assistantship Next Quarter
Hi everyone! My name is Rachel, and I am going to be writing today about how to obtain a Teaching Assistantship at UCI. I have TA’d 5 quarters in the Biomedical Engineering Department, and I will comment on how I received those positions. Note that the things I say in this post may not reflect the same procedure in other departments and other Schools, but I think there are some requirements that are common among every TAship. You can contact your department coordinator for questions about TAships specific to your department.
First things first, you need to know if your department is looking for TAs. Oftentimes, the department coordinator will send a department-wide email asking for applications for TAships. Priority for TAships is typically given to PhD students. Masters students will be offered positions that remain open after the PhD students have been placed. Masters students can also ask other departments if they need TAs, and this has been very successful in the past (at least for BME students).
To be eligible to TA, you must complete the TA Professional Development (TAPDP) Workshop offered around the time of orientation. I serve as a Pedagogical Fellow (PF) and had the pleasure of teaching TAPDP for new TAs this past summer, and I can say it’s not as bad as you think! The PFs try to make the workshop as fun and interactive as possible and you learn how to better teach the undergrads in your classes. If you missed the summer/fall TAPDP training, there are other smaller workshops offered at the end of the Fall and Winter quarter. You should reach out to Danny Mann (dmann@uci.edu), the Director of Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Instructional Development, to sign up for the off-season TAPDP workshops.
You must also pass an English language exam to be a TA. There is some controversy this year over how this is implemented, so you should consult your department coordinator to find out which test you need (if any) to teach in your department. The TA Union has had some negotiations regarding this. Therefore, they may be a good resource for you as well.
Once these requirements have been checked, you should get an email from your department coordinator saying which class you have been assigned to. If you are unsure about how to take control of your discussion sections or lectures, the Professor of the course can help you. You can also reach out to your department’s Pedagogical Fellow. If you are unsure who that person is, the link is here. They will be able to help guide you through planning a class and how to engage your students so you can be the best TA you can be!
 |
Rachel SmithHome Country: U.S.The Henry Samueli School of EngineeringBiomedical Engineering, Ph.D. |