The first two weeks of a TA appointment are mostly setup: paperwork, orientation, meeting your instructor, getting into half a dozen systems, finding a room for office hours, and running your first section before you know anyone's name. None of it is hard, but it is easy to miss something that costs you later, like duties nobody wrote down or a forum you never got access to. This page is a checklist for before classes, week one and week two, with a plan for your first section and links to the rest of these resources.
Defaults that work. If you only take four things from this page:
- Meet your instructor before classes start, and email a short summary of the duties and hours you agreed.
- Check every system now: Canvas, Gradescope, the forum, the repositories, the staff chat.
- Do the first assignment yourself and time it.
- Start a log of your hours in week one.
Before classes start
- Paperwork. At UMass, HR forms for new graduate employees are due at least two weeks before the appointment starts, and the I-9 needs original documents. International students complete it after arriving in the U.S.
- Orientation. UMass holds a mandatory orientation for new graduate employees each semester. If teaching conflicts, teaching comes first and the session is recorded.
- Your job description. Under the UMass graduate employee contract, each TA receives a job description with their appointment: hours, duties, dates, required meetings and trainings. Read it, and ask for it if it didn't come.
- Training. Ask whether a privacy (FERPA) module or other training is required. Required pre-semester training counts toward your paid hours.
- Meet your instructor. Settle duties, hours per task, grading turnaround, who decides regrades and extensions, and how you'll communicate. Working With Your Instructor has a 16-question list for this meeting.
- Read the syllabus closely, especially the policies on AI, late work, collaboration, regrades and academic integrity. Students will ask you about all of them.
- Get access to everything: Canvas with a TA role, Gradescope, the course forum, course repositories, the autograder, the staff chat and the shared drive. Test each one.
- Office hours. Pick times with the instructor and the other TAs, and ask staff how to book a room and get building access. It can take a week.
- Accommodations. Ask how accommodation letters reach you and what you are expected to do with them.
- Teaching workshops. UMass's Graduate School runs a Teaching Academy with workshops in August and September, open to all graduate students.
Week one
- Do the first assignment as a student would, and time it. You'll know where students will get stuck.
- Go to lecture so you know what students have seen and how the instructor explains things.
- Plan your first section (outline below).
- Start learning names from the roster and with name tents.
- Post your office hours and how students should reach you.
- Answer forum posts within the response time the staff agreed.
- Start an hours log by task: section, preparation, office hours, grading, forum, meetings.
- Know the reporting routes for harassment and discrimination, and where Disability Services and the Ombuds Office are.
Week two
- Hold office hours and note the common questions to pass on to the instructor.
- Check your hours against your appointment, and raise a gap now rather than in week eight.
- Calibrate grading with the other graders on a few shared submissions before the first big batch.
- Run a quick anonymous check-in in section: one thing that helps, one question.
- Find out how regrade requests reach you, and the course's policy.
- Confirm the integrity process: you report suspicions to the instructor; you don't decide cases.
- Ask for the detailed job description if it hasn't arrived.
- Know where to get help: your instructor, your department's teaching coordinator, the teaching center, your union, and the Ombuds Office.
Your first section (50 minutes)
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before | Set up the room. Put your name, how to reach you and today's outline on the board. |
| 8 min | Introductions: your name, your background, why you like this subject. Students give their name, year and one goal. |
| 7 min | How section works: office hours, the forum, response times. Point to the syllabus policies, and say the instructor sets them. |
| 5 min | Agree a few norms together; come back to them in week two. |
| 15 min | A small problem in pairs that doesn't count, to see what students already know. |
| 10 min | Walk through the first assignment. Collect an anonymous card: "one worry, one question." Stay for questions. |
This is more than fits for some groups; drop the norms or the problem if you need to, and do them next time.
Where to go next
- Running a Discussion Section or Lab
- Office Hours FAQ
- Course Tools for TAs: Gradescope, Canvas and the Forum
- Keeping Your TA Hours in Check
- Handle It or Hand It to the Instructor?
Further reading
At UMass
- Graduate School, New Graduate Student Employees: orientation and paperwork.
- Human Resources, New Graduate Student Employment.
- Academic Human Resources, Collective Bargaining Agreements, including the GEO contract (PDF).
- Graduate School, Teaching Academy.
- Graduate School, Computer Science Appointment Procedures: how CICS assigns TAs.
- Registrar, Student Rights under FERPA.
- Faculty Senate, Academic Integrity Policy.
- Center for Teaching & Learning, Generative AI Course Policy Toolkit.
- Disability Services, Faculty Resources.
- Equal Opportunity & Access, Responsible Employees.
- UMass Ombuds Office.
- CICS Undergraduate Course Assistant Program: useful if you work with UCAs.
Beyond UMass