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New TAs are shown the ropes

11:27 a.m., Sept. 15, 2003--The crowded room was silent as Gabriele Bauer, conference coordinator, began the first session of the three-day Annual Conference for Graduate Teaching Assistants, at the Trabant University Center, the week before fall semester classes began.

Gabriele Bauer, conference coordinator, discusses techniques TAs can use to recapture their students’ attention.

Suddenly there was a din of voices so loud that it drowned out everything else in the room. After a while, Bauer stood in front of the room and with all the volume she could muster, shouted, “STOP TALKING.” Several hundred graduate students fell silent.

“O.K., that’s one of the things you’re going to be learning at this conference—what techniques to use to recapture your students’ attention,” she said.

The conference, sponsored by the Center for Teaching Effectiveness (CTE), Graduate Studies and the Graduate Student Center, is a primer for new TAs. It facilitates sharing experiences with fellow graduate students and becoming familiar with instruction, learning and intervention resources at the University.

Conrado Gempesaw, vice provost for academic and international programs, opened the conference by reminding graduate students of their importance to the University. “This year, we had a record number of applications to undergraduate programs because when we’re recruiting students, we can tell them that UD is an outstanding teaching university and you play a major role in maintaining that reputation,” he said. He told them they belong to a very diverse group, coming from 30 different countries and 30 different disciplines, ranging in age from 25 to 47 and bringing “diversity and uniqueness to the classroom.”

Conrado Gempesaw, vice provost for academic and international programs, tells the new TAs they belong to a diverse group, coming from 30 different countries and 30 different disciplines, ranging in age from 25 to 47 and bringing “diversity and uniqueness to the classroom.”

Next, Martha Carothers, CTE faculty director, told the new teaching assistants about how, as a TA, she was told by a student that he had learned more from his sessions with her than from anything else in the course. She called it, a “eureka” moment, when you understand what it takes to make someone learn, and when you know you’ve succeeded. She said one of the rewards of teaching is that they will continue to have eureka moments.

Mary Kurin, Graduate Student Senate (GSS) president, urged the new TAs to take advantage of the resources provided by the senate and to bring it any problems they have during their tenure at UD. She said the GSS also provides opportunities for social interaction that can be found on the GSS web site [http://copland.udel.edu/stu-org/GSSenate/index.html].

The three-day meeting covered a wide range of topics, including what to do on the first day to get off on the right foot; how to work with a faculty mentor; time management skills; managing a class, using technology, how to design and publish a web page; how to make the most of office hours and the library; and designing a syllabus.

One session was devoted to the role TAs play in preventing incidents of academic dishonesty, discrimination and harassment.

A panel of UD officials whose job is to protect students against discrimination discussed obligations in identifying and eliminating obstacles to learning in their classrooms.

Debbie Farris, Americans with Disabilities Act program coordinator, said that students with disabilities, physical and mental, are not always visible, and that part of a TAs job is to make sure any student who is challenged can find help. She said a student must have documentation showing that they have a disability or should be directed to her office for that documentation. Farris said that TAs should be aware that, “There are students on campus who have these needs, and there is a place where they can get help.”

Sexual harassment is against University of Delaware policies and state and federal law, Judith Gibson, assistant vice president for affirmative action and multicultural programs, told the TAs.

“Students and employees have a right to a workplace free of sexual harassment, and it is necessary for all of us to respond in a supportive way,” she said.

Gibson handed out a brochure that contained examples of incidents that constitute sexual harassment and referred them to the official student handbook online at [www.udel.edu/stuhb/].

Mary Kurin, Graduate Student Senate president, urges the new TAs to take advantage of resources provided by GSS.

Holli Harvey, Office of Judicial Affairs coordinator, detailed what the University considers academic dishonesty, what to do about it and the penalties for each form.

She said plagiarism is the number one form of academic dishonesty, but, for plagiarism, as well as cheating, fabrication or academic misconduct, TAs must have ample evidence before calling the judicial affairs office.

Harvey went over the three options under which a TA or faculty member can bring charges of dishonesty and said the student can either accept punishment or challenge the complaint.

“At UD last semester, there were only 189 cases out of 15,000 students,” she said.

Michael McClay, assistant director, Academic Services Center, went over the services the center offers students, especially tutoring, study skills and help for students with documented learning disabilities. He said 2 to 4 percent of the college population has such learning disabilities.

Article by Barbara Garrison
Photos by Duane Perry

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