Jhiatus3

Not-So-Obvious Teaching Assistant Advice There is so much good advice on this thread. If you do not have a clear purpose or endpoint of your destination than every road sign is irrelevant. There has to be a practical use that informs information. Information does not inform itself. We do it. So here is some advice that might help you find which advice is best for you. For whom it my be worth, here is some advice that I've culled over the years as a graduate teaching assistant in the humanites. 1. top of the list. Have some clear vision of what kind of graduate teaching assistant you want to be. Do you want to be liked by your students? Do you want to be engaging? Do you want to enlighten students? Do you want to be seen as authoritative? Do you want to just survive through as you focus more on reserach? If you are fortunate to have had amazing teachers as role models, what qualities do you want to incorporate into the vision you have of yourself as a teacher? Do you want to be loose and free, or does being more reserved work better for you? Do you want to have empathy for where students are in their intellectual journey or do you want to be able to teach to all students? 2. Have a clear vision of the kind of classroom environment you want to create (depends on subject area, sometimes). Do you want more structure and "professional" enviroment? Or do you prefer something more informal? What works best for your content area? Do you want an active class, asking questions, engaged and speaking, or a class that is more focused and recpetive (not necessarily a bad thing for certain topic areas). 3. Have some clear vision of your ideal student. Are they enaged? Do they laugh at your jokes? Are they comfortable sharing in class? Can they ask questions without fear of judgment? Does the ideal student respect others opinions in class? 4. Take action to make these visions a reality by working backwards from the vision: "If I want a more engaging classroom, what actions can I take to contribute to this?" "If I want to be respected by students, what actions can I take to make this a reality?" How should I relate to students if I want to contribute to creating an ideal student? etc... Keeping in mind that you cannot ultimately control how students respond to you, if they like you, respect you, etc...but you can nonetheless be comitted and focused on achiveing your vision of becoming the teacher you want to be (if you have a clear idea if what that looks like for you).

As others have commented, it really depenends on your department and the specifics of your contract with them reguarding terms of appoitment and length of funding for the allotted duration of your degree. My sense is in the fall you'll be more likely to have a teaching spot. There is no real relationship between summer enrollment numbers and fall numbers. The full historically is larger and more consistent. If I understand correctly, you are currently feeling uncertain about the fall. You want to feel more certain about the fall teaching opportunities (funding). And right now, the way you are wanting to find that certainty is by depending on the department and student enrollment. This is tough position to be in as a gradstudent, and one so many grad students tend to default to. Here are some options you might consider to bring yourself more in control of your grad school destiny. * Find out of your university has a Graduate Student Union. See if they have further reasources for finding funding, as well as reasources for reviewing the obligations of the department to offer you funding (in accordance with the stipulations of your acceptance). * You can begin the search for external fellowships and assistantships, typically found in the Graduate College (external fellowship office). Even if you are certain that you will have funding/teaching in the fall, having a fall back plan is crucial as department policies can be a bit tricky and (of course student enrollment is variable). *Search your community colleges or online colleges for adjunct teaching opportunities if you have at least a Master's degree. *In the worse case, look into finacial aid through loans *One way to get around the "priority issue" is to talk to professors and see if there is anyone with whom you might be able to help as being a paid reserach assistant. If you are willing and able, and take interest in helping a prof with their reserach, they just may take you on as an assistant. Hope this helps.