TAing - how many hours per class?

[Macrina]

I'm enrolled part-time in a program that is not funded (for anyone - it's not just that I didn't get funding) and I'm working part-time so that I don't incur any debt for school. The reason I'm doing this part time is primarily financial and I am look for ways to pay for courses. I just got offered a TAship for one course that is very relevant to my studies, taught by the person I hope to do doctoral work with in a couple of years, etc. I plan on doing it.

...and I just found out about another TA opportunity that, while less relevant academically, would still pay something toward my tuition

So, how may hours per week does it take to TA a humanities course? And is it worth taking on two of them? I'll check in with POI/course #1 prof, but I rather suspect he'll tell me to concentrate on just one course and my own coursework. This would help to pay some of my ($$$$) tuition, and I could use the cash. WWYD?

[the_sheath]

I think it all depends on the course and how much your POI gives you to do. I'm not in the humanities, but I did get 2 TA offers. One for 25% TA and one for 50% TA. 50% TA has me working 12-16 hours per week whilst the 25% TA has me working 6-10. I guess it depends on how many sections you are given and such.

 

What I would do is ask about the workload for both the second opportunity and from your POI. Try to figure out if you actually want to go for both before actually going for both--for all you know, your POI's workload could be killer. Then, if your POI steers you toward concentrating on the one course and your coursework, point out that you are unfunded and need money to avoid paying with your firstborn. But you know, tactfully. He may understand, or at least explain why that's actually a bad idea.

[lifealive]

As a general rule, you'll sink more hours into TAing when you first start. A 50% appointment is generally supposed to translate to 20 hours a week (40 hours being a full-time job). But if you've never taught before, you are probably going to spend more than 20 hours a week lesson planning and grading. Just a thought.

[harrisonfjord]

I agree with the above posters. It really just depends on how much the professor of that class expects you to do. Some professors use TAs mainly as graders, others expect that the TA will lecture a few times in the semester and have a lot more responsibility. For the most part, most of the doctoral students I know TA for 2 courses a semester, but as the_sheath pointed out, generally both are not 20 hour a week commitments. I am a master's student and this was my first semester teaching, so I only received one class for my assignment.

 

As a side note, I spent about 100 hours on my class during the last two weeks of school. There was just so much grading, I was meeting with students, I was writing the exam, etc. That said, my case was a little different because the professor had to retire early in the middle of the semester (for medical reasons) and the other GTA was promoted to Instructor of Record. I essentially then had to help out with his role as well since he was busy preparing the lectures and making sure we covered everything on time. We both had never TA'd prior to this semester so we also had to experience the learning curve of the online LMS system together which was time consuming. Anyway, the whole point of this was to say it varies so much. You'll probably want to talk to each professor and see what they expect beforehand before you commit to both courses. I thought I would just be grading things in this course and I was blindsided.

 

I agree with lifealive. Your first few semesters are going to take you a little longer if you've never taught before. Once you have one semester under your belt though it's supposed to get easier. I've only taught for one semester, but that's at least what I've heard. And it would make sense, the first semester is essentially a test drive.

Edited May 11, 2014 by harrisonfjord