YAO ZHAO
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Posts posted by YAO ZHAO
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On 5/14/2014 at 10:19 PM, surefire said:
All excellent advice so far! I only have a couple of specifics to add.
- I would echo what rising_star said re: accessing your university's teaching centre, where available. The workshops through this resource are incredibly helpful to aid not only your students' development, but your own efficiency.
- I would also echo what jullietmercredi said about organization. It is absolutely worth the time to come up with a system for organizing; it will be worth it even if you have ONE student/essay that goes AWOL, as you'll be able to quickly ascertain what's up (every semester students seem to top themselves in the creative ways that they disregard my submission instructions, while you should resist the urge to coddle, a good organization system will ensure that you can detect these hiccups quickly).
- On the organization front: I would also encourage you to spreadsheet your hours. I work at a Uni with a union, so there are stipulations about workload whereby one can grieve/remedy situations of over-work. I understand that this varies around universities, so I would encourage you to get acquainted with your departmental/university culture on the TA front and find out how TA assignments are comprised and what routes there are to address issues - in any case, track your hours. If a prof thinks that marking each mid-term test should take you 15 minutes, and you take a half hour for each, that does not mean that you suck at marking (though it is true that you'll take some time to find your groove), it might mean that there needs to be an adjustment in terms of the assignment or the hours that are expected/available to mark it. Think of it this way: if you just put your head down and do the excess work, some poor schmuck TA that does the class NEXT time will have to contend with the same issue. Again, find out the routes to address issues and gauge your departmental culture on this - it might just be a matter of informally discussing things with the prof, it might be a matter of submitting something to the uni HR so they can adjust the TA assignment. At the very least, spread-sheeting will help you get acquainted with how many hours each task in a semester requires, so you can predict how to plan your NEXT semester AND you can concretely see how you are becoming more efficient in each task.
- Have a "warm fuzzies folder". Every nice e-mail from prof or students, solicited or unsolicited, goes in the folder. This will make it easier to compose a teaching dossier later on. If someone says something nice about what a great TA you are, ask them to put that sentiment in an e-mail and send it to you - that might feel weird, but self-advocacy is a good skill to hone.
- I'm a strong advocate of the electronic rubric. That is, typing up comments in a word doc rubric and stapling these to the essays, rather than printing blank rubrics and writing in them. This has several benefits: (1) There's no question that my comments are legible; (2) I can send the whole doc to the prof, if they're interested, so that they can get a sense of trends in the comments and/or they have the comments on-hand if a student comes in to complain about the mark; ( 3) I find that students tend to skim comments if I put lots of them on BOTH the paper and the rubric, so I mostly put them on the rubric (which I have space for, as I'm typing them up) BUT I refer to specific examples from the paper (that is, global comment and then, "see the example I've commented upon on page 5"); (4) I can CHANGE the damn comments/mark if need be; scribbled-out comments on a student's paper both look messy and sometimes prompt students to complain - "I can see that you gave me a 4.5/5 then changed it to 3.5, whyyyyyy?"; there will be occasions where you have to go back and adjust - say, if you dock big marks initially for students who missed a certain component, but then it turns out that the majority missed this component, you might re-visit the assignment question and realize that it was confusingly phrased and be inclined to deduct less - so electronic marks help with this.
- Don't be afraid to sometimes tell the students that they're being inappropriate or unprofessional, it's a courtesy, really. If a student sends an e-mail that makes you cringe, tell them so. Don't just say, "that's inappropriate" and also refrain from an exhaustive point-by-point, just point quickly to the irksome thing and then address the request. Many of them will not reward you for this effort by amending their correspondence/conduct. However, I find that those that do rise to the occasion appreciate the advice - after all, it helps then glean more expedient/favourable responses, right?
What's the meaning of electronic rubric? Is it like standard for marks? Many thanks!
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2 hours ago, keceli said:
Funded CS students usually get a base stipend of 20K with TAship guarantee.
I see. Are you at a 33.3% TA position? or 50%?
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58 minutes ago, keceli said:
Hey!
I see what you're saying. It's just the amount of funding that different departments get for their research. What I mean is that one should not expect a Anthropology department to have more money than a CS department because the level of support that they get from the school and outside sources (like NSF) are very different. It is what it is
Actually $20K for a CS PhD student (if they are offered funding) is around average or less. There are many schools that pay students much more than $25K. There are even ones that pay $30K and more (like Washington University in St. Louis).
So how much can you get in UW-Madison?
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On 2018/3/15 at 2:20 PM, keceli said:
Thanks for the reply. Actually, there are a number of professors at UW-Madison that I am interested in working with whereas there is only one person at WashU that I am barely interested in. The only thing is that UW offers 10k-a-year less of a stipend that WashU since it's a public school and all. But I don't find it important as I am not gonna be doing a PhD for money. Yes, money is important, but not this much. What matters is the quality of research that you can produce. But thanks again!
Hi, I am also complaining this. I was admitted into another program at UW. They only provide me 12K for stipend. You know what's the funny thing? The Ph.D. student from other program can enjoy 22K for stipend. Feel so unfair!
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On 2014/5/11 at 10:07 PM, rising_star said:
TT
Hi, what's the meaning of TT?
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Rainy days.
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My father discussed a similar question with me several years ago. Based on his lifetime experience, he gave me some useful guidances:
1. You can have a job that you are not interested in it. In fact, this is life for most of people if you really consider the people around you.
2. You cannot have a job that you hate it.
3. You love/ have a strong interest in something, which is totally different from making a living from it.
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In my opinion, this question is a rough standard for universities to check your background, if they do. Generally, if you are the 1st person in your family who attends university, that means maybe you come from a poor family. Thus, the committee may value your chance more than others. That's only my guess. I'm not sure.
What piece(s) of advice would you give to new TAs?
in Teaching
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Could you explain the meaning of R1 R2 SLACs? Thanks!