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The Daily OrangeExtensive testing required for employment of international grad students as TAs
By Melissa A. Chadwick
Posted: 3/28/02, 12:56 AM EST Section: Feature
The Teaching Assistant Program at Syracuse University was one of the first in the country when it began in 1987. Since then, it has become a leading model for schools across the country, said Dr. Derina Samuel, the associate director of the TA Program.
Graduate student Anna Dolmatch, a TA for Geography 155: The Natural Environment wanted to try the position to make sure she was cut out for university professorship. In her two years as a TA in the geography department, she's learned that teaching at the college level is something she wants to do.
Dolmatch, a Boston native, is one of 1,000 graduate TAs at SU. Graduate students who receive some sort of scholarship attend the university on a fellowship, research or teaching assistantship and receive tuition and a living stipend to attend classes and work with SU. The living stipend varies by department and depends on the amount of money available to the department to divide among TAs, Samuel said, adding that some graduate students pay full tuition as well.
The teaching assistantship contract requires TAs to work 20 hours per week. It also bars them from working another job outside the assistantship, Dolmatch said.
"My work as a TA is just as important to me as my own research and work," Dolmatch said. Dolmatch is pursuing a master's degree in political geography.
In addition to three graduate classes, Dolmatch, like many TAs, grades 75 assignments each week, designs quizzes and lesson plans, holds office hours, attends the GEO 155 lecture, teaches three sections of GEO 155, reads dozens of e-mails from students and meets with students outside of her office hours.
She has befriended some students, but admits there have been times when she is frustrated with students or the classroom chemistry doesn't click.
"Some days it seems like the students don't care about learning at all," she said. "But, then there's that small group of people who make it all worthwhile. It's not necessarily the A-student, it's the D-student who works really hard and gets a C and then thanks you at the end."
Graduate student Anna Dolmatch, a TA for Geography 155: The Natural Environment wanted to try the position to make sure she was cut out for university professorship. In her two years as a TA in the geography department, she's learned that teaching at the college level is something she wants to do.
Dolmatch, a Boston native, is one of 1,000 graduate TAs at SU. Graduate students who receive some sort of scholarship attend the university on a fellowship, research or teaching assistantship and receive tuition and a living stipend to attend classes and work with SU. The living stipend varies by department and depends on the amount of money available to the department to divide among TAs, Samuel said, adding that some graduate students pay full tuition as well.
The teaching assistantship contract requires TAs to work 20 hours per week. It also bars them from working another job outside the assistantship, Dolmatch said.
"My work as a TA is just as important to me as my own research and work," Dolmatch said. Dolmatch is pursuing a master's degree in political geography.
In addition to three graduate classes, Dolmatch, like many TAs, grades 75 assignments each week, designs quizzes and lesson plans, holds office hours, attends the GEO 155 lecture, teaches three sections of GEO 155, reads dozens of e-mails from students and meets with students outside of her office hours.
She has befriended some students, but admits there have been times when she is frustrated with students or the classroom chemistry doesn't click.
"Some days it seems like the students don't care about learning at all," she said. "But, then there's that small group of people who make it all worthwhile. It's not necessarily the A-student, it's the D-student who works really hard and gets a C and then thanks you at the end."
