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The first day of classes is mere days away! Here’s what we’re doing to prepare your UTAs in 388V—and what you can do to help them, too.
Helping UTAs get oriented
Many of our incoming UTAs are likely experiencing a lot of anxiety as they prepare for their new role(s). UTAs in English wear many hats—peer, mentor, assistant, student, advocate, tutor, intermediary, teacher, coach, and more—and this varies considerably for each UTA-instructor team. Remember, this is new to them!
To help mitigate these anxieties, Justin and I have sent all new and returning UTAs welcome letters, and we’ve opened up the first week discussions for all 4 cohorts (Justin and I each have one new UTA section and one returning UTA section of 388V).
Returning UTAs are sharing some of their experiences from last semester and setting goals for this semester in their first discussion.
New UTAs are reading a couple of excellent resources on being a UTA.
- The first one is a custom UTA handbook written by and for UTAs in English classes: UTA Handbook
- The other two are great, short readings from Carnegie Mellon’s “Collected Wisdom ” guidebook for TAs. Even though the CMU guidebook is for graduate students, we’ve found the following two sections particularly helpful to incoming UTAs in our program:
- “Balancing Approachability and Authority” (p. 14)
- “Relating to Students” (p. 13)
We encourage you to skim these resources, too—especially the UTA Handbook written expressly for our program! This gives us a first-hand account of what being a UTA is like in our classes.
For their first discussion due Monday, new UTAs are going to discuss the advice in the above resources, and they’re also going to reflect on the following:
Think about your own experiences every semester as you walk into your new classes for the first time. What puts you at ease? How quickly do you determine whether or not you’re going to like/loathe a new class? What are the main factors? Class size? The room? Other students? The presence of a TA? What the professor looks like? How the professor walks into the room?
What kind of class do you want the one you are UTAing to be? What kind of seminar do you want 388V to be?
Starting off on the right foot
Those questions are meant to prompt your UTAs to think about how they can contribute to setting a strong class climate in your classes next week. How do you do this? What’s your approach to Day 1? How do you like to set the tone on the first day of class?
Have you discussed this with your UTAs? If not, please do! Help your UTAs be part of your “first day process,” whatever that may be. They will deeply appreciate being let in on your secrets of creating a good class from the start.
In your Checklist, you will find several questions to go over with your UTA that address exactly this. If you haven’t already, please schedule a time to go over this list, as well as the Goals/ Expectations sheet, with your UTAs, either by video chat or in person next week.
Justin and I can’t wait to meet your new UTAs next week, and we’re equally excited to work with your returning UTAs again.
If you have any questions about anything, please let us know. Note that I am out of state this weekend; if I don’t reply to you by 3 pm Friday, I will first thing on Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend, and here’s to a fantastic start to the Spring 19 semester!
Image by Wynand van Poortvliet