New TAs gathered in Campbell Hall for Orientation. Credit: Patricia MarroquinIt’s a new school year at UC Santa Barbara, which brings with it many new students, both graduate and undergraduate. Many graduate students will be serving as Teaching Assistants across campus, some of them for the first time. To ease their transition to the front of the classroom, Instructional Development and the TA Development Program once again held their annual TA Orientation on Tuesday, September 30, at Campbell Hall. The orientation featured several speakers, including Chancellor Henry T. Yang, as well as a panel of experienced TAs. After the initial orientation, students were invited to participate in two rounds of workshop sessions with different topics of value to newly hired Teaching Assistants.
The program kicked off with an introduction by Dr. Lisa Berry of Instructional Development. Dr. Berry told the students that the purpose of the orientation was to make them better prepared for teaching than they were at the start of the orientation.
Chancellor Henry T. Yang spoke of the importance of humor in teaching. Credit: Patricia MarroquinShe then introduced Chancellor Yang, a recipient of 13 outstanding teaching awards throughout his career, who reminded the audience that they were now employed at one of the elite universities in the world, and that was, in part, because of the work that Teaching Assistants do in their classrooms each and every quarter.
Chancellor Yang also gave students some tips for becoming a good teacher. He gave students some practical things to do, such as learning the names of their students, adding humor, trying tests before handing them out, and not lecturing to the blackboard. He also provided students with some concepts to keep in mind as they went about their teaching duties. He reminded them that lecturing is a dialogue, not a monologue; that students do not always know what questions they have, or even that they have them; and that students often mix emotional, social, and factual information when they are engaged in learning. He closed by asking students to help participate in the university’s attempts to change the culture of Isla Vista, a town still recovering from the horrific events of last spring.
Grad students grab some breakfast before heading off to breakout sessions. Credit: Patricia MarroquinChancellor Yang yielded the floor to several speakers who were focused on the legal responsibilities of TAs, beginning with Ko Kashiwazaki, the Assistant Director of Judicial Affairs. He reviewed issues of academic integrity, and discussed the role of the TA in maintaining the integrity of campus. He provided students with four tips for maintaining academic integrity in their courses: explain academic integrity clearly to students, be explicit in expectations, put those expectations in a syllabus, and save all documents and correspondence with students.
Carol Sauceda, the Senior Sexual Harassment Prevention and Diversity Education Analyst at UCSB, took the stage next. She informed students that, unbeknownst to them, their attractiveness level had increased since becoming a TA, and she outlined the university’s sexual harassment policy, complete with several examples.
Associate Dean of Students Angela Andrade and Dr. Jeanne Stanford, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services, closed out the legal responsibilities segment with a discussion of the resources available on campus for distressed students, as well as available counseling services. They pointed out that “it’s really normal to go to therapy in California,” and encouraged students to go if they felt they needed to talk to someone. They also reviewed the Distressed Students Protocol.
A panel of experienced graduate student TAs answered questions at the Orientation. They are, from left, Laura Hooton (History); John Kaminsky (Math); Maria Canto (Spanish & Portuguese); Emma McCullough (Music); and Emily Wilson (EEMB). Credit: Patricia Marroquin
Just before breaking out into individual workshop sessions, Dr. Berry brought a panel of experienced TAs on stage to answer any questions that new TAs might have. Laura Hooton, John Kaminsky, Emma McCullough, Maria Canto, and Emily Wilson shared their own experiences and beliefs about successful teaching. Building from the questions in the audience, they discussed knowing their students, learning students’ names, handling overloaded office hours, grading, and disrespectful students (not that we have any of those at UCSB!).
Dr. Berry brought the session to a close by presenting students with the many tools that Instructional Development offers Teaching Assistants on campus.