Graduate Teaching Course Load

[cowgirlsdontcry]

On ‎4‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 8:54 AM, xolo said:

I don't think I could keep up with you. A thesis in one semester? wow! If your PhD program is anything like mine, your coming 2/2 plus 3 courses(?!) I guess is doable but do you also have a dissertation topic in mind? That would be the problem for me because in my program the next year, the second year of the PhD, requires an approved dissertation topic and also at the end of the second year qualifying exams. I would need a lot of time to prepare for those things (ie during the first year).

I began searching for my MA thesis topic at the beginning of my MA. I made an A on it and two of my readers were very encouraging about several publishable papers coming out of the thesis. The title of it is "The Disillusionment of Cormac McCarthy" and it's 93 pages long. I have put so much time and effort into studying McCarthy, I plan to continue to do research and write about him for my dissertation. I was stressed to the max at times during the semester, but somehow dealt with the amount of work I had. I not only taught a class, but also was GA to a literature professor and met with all of his students requiring help with papers. Since my last post here, I have learned I have met all foreign language requirements, so that is now a non-issue, but the first year, I will still be taking 8 hours (6 of coursework and 2 of practicum for teaching) each semester. As far as being able to keep up with the work, I don't feel it will be that difficult even though the Ph.D. will step up the game again. This is a second career for me. I come from a background of being a paralegal/legal assistant for almost 20 years. Working in law firms, prepares one for working non-stop for 60 hours or so a week. I feel guilty when I slough off for a day, even though I do it. I work on something, almost all of the time. That is the key, I think, to getting the work done. Even if I'm not in the mood to write, there are always other things that need to be done in the way of research, reading, prepping for class or grading papers. Even so, the amount of reading required for classes is the most difficult to overcome. While I am a quick reader, reading 300+ pages from an author, plus several articles a week per class can be daunting. I have strategies to help with that. Other than that, it is simply the idea that I will rise to the expectations of me.

[Zauber]

On 4/19/2017 at 1:32 AM, rld07 said:

Hi friends,

Just curious, but what is the teaching load required for funding at your school? Obv. this varies from package to package, and if you don't want to share which school you go do, that's super cool.

Where I'm coming from: I was offered a package where I would teach my own class right of the bat this upcoming fall, and if I had testicles, they'd have climbed up between my lungs for comfort. Is this normal? Not my imaginary testicles thing, but conducting your own class first thing?

I'm going to be a TA right off the bat at UC Davis and it terrifies me so I understand exactly what you mean. I'm required to teach/lead 2 discussion sections a week. proctor all exams and grade all papers for ONE class. As a newly-minted undergrad with ZERO teaching experience, I'm quaking in my imaginary boots! In addition to this, I have to do a TA review class with a supervising professor every week. All in all, I feel woefully underprepared and terribly nervous. The fact that I'm an international student doesn't help assuage my anxieties. I feel like I'm way behind on the learning curve already and despite reading through dozens of articles and forums about TA duties and how to manage them, I think the butterflies won't go away till I'm actually in front of my class and actually learning from my many probably errors. 

[silenus_thescribe]

2 hours ago, Zauber said:

I'm going to be a TA right off the bat at UC Davis and it terrifies me so I understand exactly what you mean. I'm required to teach/lead 2 discussion sections a week. proctor all exams and grade all papers for ONE class. As a newly-minted undergrad with ZERO teaching experience, I'm quaking in my imaginary boots! In addition to this, I have to do a TA review class with a supervising professor every week. All in all, I feel woefully underprepared and terribly nervous. The fact that I'm an international student doesn't help assuage my anxieties. I feel like I'm way behind on the learning curve already and despite reading through dozens of articles and forums about TA duties and how to manage them, I think the butterflies won't go away till I'm actually in front of my class and actually learning from my many probably errors. 

I was in the same boat as you coming into my PhD two years ago. At UT Austin, if you come in with a BA (as I did) you're required to teach two discussion sections of about 25 students per week for a large literature survey course (whose overall enrollment runs anywhere from 250-400, and even 900 for a synchronous multi-person online course version of the class). Even during my second year, I'd get jitters before class sometimes; it is a big responsibility, and you don't want to let down a bunch of students who have potentially taken out tons of loans for a university education. However, it wasn't long after I began my TA assignment that I fell into "the normal swing of things." A couple things to say to assuage your concerns:

(1) As Caroline wisely puts it early in this thread: you know more than the students. I know that younger TAs often get tripped up when they see that they are teaching students separated maybe by 3-4 years. I've even had students 10+ years my senior. Nevertheless, you have already earned a BA in the field that you're teaching, and you spend substantially more time with literature than your students do (or will in your class, sadly). Impostor syndrome is real, but after a few class sessions you'll see that while you don't have a PhD in English yet, you're on the road to it, whereas many of your students will likely be doing serious close reading for the first time.

(2) Being a TA, while not undaunting in some ways (I find grading the most stressful, as I never feel I'm "getting it right" even when my professor says I am), is not like being an instructor of record. You're there to help your prof with the clerical/grading work of the class, and to supplement their lectures and the readings. If you can talk about books intelligently -- which I know you can -- then you'll be absolutely fine. Just do the reading, come prepared, and be energetic; give your students a reason to be excited about the subject, even if they don't love reading literature. If you show confidence to your students, they'll respect your knowledge. They know you aren't as experienced as the professor, and they won't hold that against you. 

[Zauber]

2 hours ago, silenus_thescribe said:

I was in the same boat as you coming into my PhD two years ago. At UT Austin, if you come in with a BA (as I did) you're required to teach two discussion sections of about 25 students per week for a large literature survey course (whose overall enrollment runs anywhere from 250-400, and even 900 for a synchronous multi-person online course version of the class). Even during my second year, I'd get jitters before class sometimes; it is a big responsibility, and you don't want to let down a bunch of students who have potentially taken out tons of loans for a university education. However, it wasn't long after I began my TA assignment that I fell into "the normal swing of things." A couple things to say to assuage your concerns:

(1) As Caroline wisely puts it early in this thread: you know more than the students. I know that younger TAs often get tripped up when they see that they are teaching students separated maybe by 3-4 years. I've even had students 10+ years my senior. Nevertheless, you have already earned a BA in the field that you're teaching, and you spend substantially more time with literature than your students do (or will in your class, sadly). Impostor syndrome is real, but after a few class sessions you'll see that while you don't have a PhD in English yet, you're on the road to it, whereas many of your students will likely be doing serious close reading for the first time.

(2) Being a TA, while not undaunting in some ways (I find grading the most stressful, as I never feel I'm "getting it right" even when my professor says I am), is not like being an instructor of record. You're there to help your prof with the clerical/grading work of the class, and to supplement their lectures and the readings. If you can talk about books intelligently -- which I know you can -- then you'll be absolutely fine. Just do the reading, come prepared, and be energetic; give your students a reason to be excited about the subject, even if they don't love reading literature. If you show confidence to your students, they'll respect your knowledge. They know you aren't as experienced as the professor, and they won't hold that against you. 

Thank you for this! I'm actually a Comp.Lit PhD student with a BA in Psychology so this is kind of a sea change! I really hope that you're right about catching up. I tend to get anxious prematurely though, so this might also just be nerves talking. I really do love literature and hope that I can share that with any students that I might interact with. 

[cowgirlsdontcry]

On ‎6‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 2:42 PM, Zauber said:

Thank you for this! I'm actually a Comp.Lit PhD student with a BA in Psychology so this is kind of a sea change! I really hope that you're right about catching up. I tend to get anxious prematurely though, so this might also just be nerves talking. I really do love literature and hope that I can share that with any students that I might interact with. 

You will be fine. I'm having the same trepidation going into my PhD, even though I did this throughout my MA. Different school, etc. etc. TAing in a large lecture class is great to begin your teaching career with. I attended a smaller state university for my MA and TA'd for all 4 semesters in 4 American lit classes, that were all upper level seminar classes, so maybe 25 students. The last semester I taught a section of first year rhet/comp, as well. You have probably learned by now that you will have some sort of teaching orientation prior to school beginning. I have a week of it. That should calm you down. Give yourself a few weeks to get your sea legs and you will be in the swing of it all.