TAing several recitations for the first time

[vitaebella]

Hey all,

 

I'm a first year MA in an English graduate program, and my teaching assignment for the spring semester was switched from grader/general assistant in a relatively small course (the same assignment I had this past semester) to leading several small recitation sections for a large course.  This will be my first time being in charge of students "on my own" and I'm pretty nervous.  I lectured a couple of times for my previous assignment but it was with the assistance of my faculty of record.  The class is a humanities course of about 400, and I'll be responsible for about 100 students broken up into three sections.  Any general tips for handling running sections for the first time?  Time management when it comes to prepping discussions, grading, etc?  Tips on prepping lectures/discussions in general?

 

Also, does anybody have any guidelines for writing a section-specific syllabus?

 

Thanks for any help, looking forward to your tips and suggestions!

 

 

 

[rising_star]

Best advice I can give is to find other people in your department who have had this assignment or a similar one in the past, ask them about dos and donts, get copies of all their materials, and meet with the teaching center on your campus to get their advice (maybe even schedule ongoing meetings so you can follow up with issues/problems as they arise).