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Staying Organized

In order to fulfill their TA duties in a timely manner and keep up with their own degree progress, TAs must develop and exercise strong organizational and time management skills.

Good time management requires TAs to continually think ahead to upcoming class agendas and deadlines, and to prioritize their tasks. TAs may want to use any or all of the following methods of managing their time:

• Keep a calendar (physical or digital) to organize deadlines and block out time to complete tasks. Include assignment due dates, exams, study sessions, grading periods, and meetings with the instructor. Add in graduate degree progress milestones, such as course work assignment deadlines or chapter due dates.
• List weekly or monthly goals and tasks for both TA duties and graduate degree progress. Prioritize them according to their relative importance, due dates, and time and bandwidth required.
• From the weekly goals list, create daily to-do lists.
• Do your hardest tasks when you are sharpest. Identify tasks that are especially difficult or take focused thought and dedicate some of your most productive hours to completing them.
• Be aware of “virtuous procrastination.” This is where you focus on easier tasks that are productive or necessary but relatively low-priority in order to avoid a more difficult, high-priority task.
• Mix up tasks. Group easy/quick and difficult/long tasks together to avoid losing momentum.

Last-Minute Course Assignments

Departments typically assign TAs to a course in advance of the semester, but occasionally a TA may be assigned right before classes begin. In this case, the TA should request a meeting with their course instructor as soon as possible to orient themselves to the course, obtain course materials, and set expectations.

Managing Crunch Times

Time management can be especially challenging in peak times of the semester, such as midterms, final exams, and periods leading up to assignment deadlines, especially when these periods coincide with TAs’ responsibilities as students (e.g. when the TA also has final exams or final papers due). TAs may find it helpful to “forecast” busy periods to their students ahead of time, reminding them to prepare carefully and seek help early. If the TA expects to hold additional review sessions, they can head off the potential stampede at the end of the semester by advertising the additional review sessions early.

TAs should also inform students of on-campus resources available to them, including Academic Support and Learning Resources, Access Services, the Dean’s Office, Peer Tutoring, the Writing Center, and Library & Information Technology Services. For more information, please see the section on Undergraduate Student Resources below or consult the Undergraduate Student Handbook.

Time Management and Grading

For TAs who are expected to grade student exams or assignments – not all TAs are expected to grade – special care should be taken to manage time spent grading. TAs should discuss grading volume, criteria, and process with the course instructor and budget adequate time to complete the required grading after each assignment. Grading is usually best split up over several sessions to avoid fatigue.

Because grading can be time-consuming, especially if the TA wants to give thorough constructive feedback for each student, it may be necessary to set a limit to the amount of time spent on each essay or exam (e.g. 20 minutes per short essay).

TAs may also benefit from scheduling their own work to be completed before midterms or finals, leaving them free to grade once exams are in.

Organization for the First Day

Preparation is key to staying organized as a TA, and to managing the anxiety that often comes with teaching for the first time. The following suggestions may help TAs to get organized before the first day of classes and throughout the semester:

• Visit the classroom. Know how to get to the building and the classroom. In labs, identify the location of safety equipment. Consider the layout of the classroom and how this will impact instruction and discussion. Identify any technology you will use in the classroom and make sure you know how to operate it. Any tech issues, such as a broken projector, should be reported to the Academic Administrative Assistant of your department so they can work with Multimedia to resolve the issue. Ensure there are writing tools for the whiteboard or chalkboard, if you will use them.
• Bring extra handouts on the first day. Students may have registered at the last minute. If feasible, you can distribute the handouts yourself, which will allow you to interact with each student.
• Ensure that your email and office hours are listed on the syllabus. Contact the instructor if your contact information needs to be added.
• Print a class list. Whether or not you are required to take attendance, it is useful to have a list of students attending the class.
• Prepare your contributions to the first class, whether you will be directly addressing the group or not. Ensure you have read the syllabus thoroughly and understand course policies that students may ask about. For a study session or recitation, ensure that you have a lesson or discussion plan prepared with clear knowledge, skills, or concepts that you want students to take away from it. Ensure that all small details (announcements, reminders, etc.) are listed so that you don’t have to rely solely on memory. Prepare to introduce yourself to the students and think through how you want to present yourself as a TA.