The first couple of weeks of the semester is chaotic for everyone, and you and your UTA will be balancing several overlapping student needs, teaching goals, and course management tasks. Remember that your UTAs are full-time students, too; they are figuring out what their other 4-5 classes look like while learning students’ names, responding to discussions, and meeting with you to prepare for the upcoming week. In the midst of this, it’s easy for the UTAs’ goals (e.g., “to become more confident speaking in front of class”) to be supplanted by the instructors’ expectations (e.g., “the discussion posts need to be responded to by midnight tomorrow”). I don’t have any concrete advice here other than to be aware that this can (and probably will, to an extent) happen. Be mindful of this and do what you can to help your UTA throughout these turbulent first weeks.
Help Your UTAs Help Your Students
UTAs want to help students–that’s why they’re here. Yet your students won’t see your UTA as a knowledgeable mentor without your direct encouragement. Explain that your UTA excelled in your class. Emphasize the benefits of office hours. Schedule UTA conferences early in the semester. Help your UTA develop authority in the classroom by having her speak to the whole class, clarify an assignment, walk around the room during group work, and so forth. Your students are watching you two closely; if you value your UTA’s experience and expertise, your students will, too.
Help Your UTAs Stay Connected
Maintain the pre- and early-semester momentum by establishing an open, two-way communication channel that will work well for both of you. A lot can happen between classes, especially those that only meet in person once or twice a week. How frequently do you want your UTAs engaging with the course? Do you expect them to check their email or ELMS messages daily? Do they know that? Do you want them checking into ELMS regularly? What is “regularly,” exactly? How will you communicate with each other? Email? Text? GChat? GroupMe? Slack?
Everyone does this differently. What matters is that you and your UTA are crystal clear on how and how often you want to communicate each other. I stress this because unclear communication between instructors and their UTAs is one of the most common problems I encounter. To be frank, this a power imbalance issue. The party who is less communicative holds more power, for the other party can’t move forward on an issue/ task/ question without their input. I’ve seen this happen from all sides; that is, I’ve seen both UTAs and instructors be the less communicative party. Please be mindful of this. Please.
Please communicate with your UTAs. Regularly.
One of the ways you can help both you and your UTAs here is to be upfront about your own boundaries. You have every right to be unavailable on weekends. You have every right to stop checking your email at 5 pm. You are a human being, one who ideally has some semblance of a work/ life balance that you can model for others. You are not responsible to your UTA or your students 24/7. You are, however, responsible for communicating your availability, including your standard electronic response time, to your UTAs. When you don’t, things fall apart. Rapidly.
Please put yourself in your UTAs’ shoes. They need your feedback to know that they are meeting your expectations. Please help them by giving them the guidance they need.
Image by Deniz Altindas