Dear Sam,
I’m starting the new semester and am worried that I may have gotten myself in over my head. In addition to the grad classes that I’m taking, I am teaching two sections as a TA. I’ve never taught the class before and there are about 15 more students in each section than I’m used to. What advice can you give?
Sally Swampsoon
Sally,
In terms of your teaching assistantship, I would begin by suggesting that you try avoid overwork before it happens. It sounds like you have a half-time appointment, which means you should work an average of 20 hours per week throughout the semester. You may want to outline all the duties that count officially as TA work and estimate how much time you will spend on each. These tasks include obvious things like teaching, office hours, grading, and course meetings, but also less obvious things like prep time, copying, and reading and responding to student emails. If you think that these activities will bring you close or put you over the 20 hours per week, you should have a meeting with your course supervisor and talk about where to save time. There is a worksheet in the GEU contract that you can use to aid this conversation.
Also, I would recommend that you keep some sort of log of your hours. That way, if you do end up being overloaded by your assistantship (which is more likely with what sounds like overloaded sections) you will be able to make a strong case for yourself. You can get a worklog by stopping in to the GEU office at 319 1/2 East Grand River. Of course, it is even better to avoid the overwork before it happens. Good luck!
Yours in duty,
Sam Otten
Sam Otten is the chair of the Grievance Committee of the Graduate Employees Union at Michigan State University.
