Working on an Instructional Team

Michael FilimowiczSIAT

THE ADVICE I NEVER GOT – AND THE EXPERIENCE I NEVER HAD:

Sergei EisensteinSoviet Filmmaker and Montage Theorist

The TA role is NOT UNIFORM across courses and instructors,there are different course needs, different teaching styles, etc.Maybe you will Grade- or maybe you will just Enter the Grades, etc.

BUT FIRST, A GENERAL NOTE ABOUT THE TRAJECTORYOF MY APPROACH OVER TIME:

ImproviseWinging ItRiffLoose NotesSeeing what seems to workMode of “inspiration”Prep before each class

NEW TO TEACHING LESS NEW TO TEACHING

SystematizeOrganizeConstrained RiffsOverbuildMake informed guessesEnthusiastically love PPTPrep Once -Gradually Refine

More Romantic (heroic) More Bureaucratic

There’s nothing wrong with this, except perhaps (in my case)extreme unevenness of results

ImproviseWinging ItRiffLoose NotesSeeing what seems to workMode of “inspiration”Prep before each class

NEW TO TEACHING

BI-POLAR STUDENT EVALUATIONS (same course, different sections)

LOVE ME

HATE ME

WHY I LOVE POWERPOINT- narrows the range of response to my delivery

LESS NEW TO TEACHING

SystematizeOrganizeConstrained RiffsOverbuildMake informed guessesEnthusiastically love PPTPrep Once -Gradually Refine

They like me more

They like me less

As the average grade given goes lower

Student evals scores dip accordingly

12- 10 07- 3 08- 1 08- 2 08- 3 09- 1 10- 1 10- 2 11- 1 11- 2

100

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Term

%

90%

97%

Percentage of Student Respondents Giving 4 or 5 (good or excellent)

on Question 22 : Instructor's Teaching Ability

77%

AVG 87.3%

93%95%

72%73%

91%

86%84%

75%

71%

64%

89%

73%

70%

88%

72%

73%

AVG 87.3% AVG 87%

AVG 70%

AVG 77.3% AVG 77.6%

# of SIAT Courses in My Repertoire

3 4 5 6 7

Filimowicz_Course Mean Grades By Term

FALL 07 SPRING 08 SUMMER 08 SPRING 09 SPRING 10 SUMMER 10 SPRING 11 SUMMER 11

A-

A- A- A- A-

A- A- A-

B+ B+ B+ B+ B+

B+ B+ B+ B+

B B B

B

B- B-

C+

WHY DO WE NEED TAS?

BECAUSE CLASSES ARE HUGE !

(basically- I think this is the reason)

IN AN IDEAL WORLD (UTOPIA), JUST GIVE THEM ALL AN AUTOMATED MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ALL THE TIME:

UNFORTUNATELY multiplechoice evaluation doesn’t reallysolve all of our learning needs.

TEACHING ASSISTANTS GET TO INTERACT WITH STUDENTS MORE THAT THE LEAD INSTRUCTOR (TYPICALLY)

- You get to do more of the fun stuff (talk to students, help them….)

TEACHING ASSISTANTS GET TO MANAGE ALL THE SPREADSHEETS

- You get to do more of the DREARY stuff (inputting grades….)

INSTRUCTOR’S RESPONSIBILITY

TA &Instructor’sResponsibility




Main Lecture

Breakout Labs

TA’S RESPONSIBILITY





Main Lecture

Breakout Labs

Ocassionally (e.g. instructor is out of town)





Breakout Labs

• Instructor should guide/advise on CONTENT (so if you’re not being adequatelyadvised as to what to do, bring this up as an issue)

• TA often has a lot of AUTONOMY for running the labs (gives useful teachingexperience)

• LABS accomplish : software training, critique/feedback, hands on experience

I WAS ASKED TO TALK ABOUT THIS KIND OF STUFF:

TAs are Really Annoying When:

• They take too long to enter grades• They take too long to grade assignments• (the above principal- students want regular

and timely feedback)• They give me last minute notice that they’ll be out of town for a

conference.• Students send me an email during the lab time asking where

the TA is.• Don’t do a run-through on equipment in the lab ahead of time, waiting til

the first day of class to discover software doesn’t launch (IT folks can also be annoying when…..see future slides)

• They don’t respond to emails from me.• I get lots of emails from students staying the TA isn’t responding to

emails from them.• They miss lectures and don’t know the content to be of use in the labs

Regular Meetings with Instructor

• Depends on the course needs.

• For example, CAPSTONE requires a weekly summative email announcement (administrative) and the TA does NOT grade.

• Occasional emails may work ok.

• CC’ing instructor on key student communications.

Preparation

• Recall beginning of this presentation- over prep always• E.G. make a lecture that’s always too long, what you

don’t cover begins the next week’s lecture (so you’re always ahead)

• Make handouts (helps students who fall behind or shoot ahead) if appropriate

• Create a systematic (and thus repeatable) document set for the next TA (to improve on for future iterations).

• Be more proficient at the technology then the students (know enough to trouble shoot, use the position to getbetter at digital craft).

Using WebCT• It’s the TA’s job to figure out WebCT so I don’t have to

(no one taught me)• Look at the online help.• Ask me if that doesn’t work.• Bug the WebCT folks if I don’t know.• Avoid multiple postings of the same info in different sections (make each

tab mean something)• Avoid dating anything (use week 1, week 2 etc.), this is great because it

drives students crazy. Saves time next time around.• Instructor should tell you how much to use or not use WebCT. I happen to

like it, many hate it, it’s not perfect, nothing is.• Gradebook is particularly useful.• Lecture notes are evil because students use it as an excuse to skip

class, and insist that you put your lectures there.• Great Rule- allow no grade changes on assignments after week 13, force

students to review their gradebook and bring up any issues prior to week 13 (keeps grade changes down).

A Little Trick I Do: Dummy Calendar Appointments

Resources and Help

• Your union experts (enforce your TUG, don’t be exploited, unless you don’t mind)

• Nice TLC folks

• Lynne Jamieson

• SIAT Grad Chair

• Your instructors

• Other TA and grad students with TA experience

• Facebook rants

Expectations on grading and feedback:

- Students want qualitative explanations to explain WHY the received theirmark.

- Develop Qualitative Rubrics (but supplement with comments)- Contextualize student achievement (so they see where their work stands in

relation to their peers

Expectations on academic integrity and steps to take:

- Discuss appropriation appropriately (when can you sample, excerpt, mash, quote)- Many won’t understand anyway

Expectations for support requirements - like office hours:

- By Appointment is (imo) more effective than regular office hours (no one will come)

Common issues that emerge and a "best practice" way of dealing with it(see next slides)

A student produces a video, and in the end credits there’s atitle the rushes by saying “inspired by the video X by Y”

Another student complains that the work is a plagiarizedversion of another video.

You check on it- indeed, it’s a scene by scene copy of anotherwork on Youtube.

GUTLESS CHEATING (TOO CHICKEN TO CHEAT PROPERLY)

ETHICAL DILEMMAS:

A student turns in a collage. You give it a good grade. Onesemester later you find out from another student that thecollage was produced by an automated Facebook application.

THE WORLD DID MY HOMEWORK FOR ME

A student is .5% away from a higher grade – should youround up?

LITTLE GPA BOOSTER STOOLS

A student writes you saying they want a higher grade becausethey plan on applying to law school, or to an MBA programafter they get their undergraduate degree, and they could usea higher GPA toward this end.

HELP ME JUST ‘CUZ

A student doesn’t show up to class and doesn’t turn in assignments. One day they show up in your office and cryfor half an hour without saying anything. Then they tellyou they think they’re dying, based on analyzing their symptoms online.

TISSUE PAPER IS USEFUL

A student turns in old vacation photographs for a photography assignment, or turns in an essay theywrote for another class.

I REALLY LIKE MY OLD WORK

Some member of a student team didn’t pull their weight and contribute as much as the others. Threestudents complain to you about the fourth…..

THE SIAT ENDEMIC

SOME COMMON PRINCIPLES:

- Is it fair to all the other students?

- Do you understand Reasonable Accommodation?

- Is there a discrepancy between effort and talent?

- Did they violate something that was EXPLICIT and CLEAR?

- Cover yourself with at least one reminder (two statements)

- Benefit of the doubt.

Working on an Instructional Team

Education

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