V. Specific TA Concerns

As a teaching assistant (TA), you are essential to the educational process at the University of Virginia: at the core of the graduate programs, where you are students, and up front in undergraduate classrooms, where you are teachers. At the Teaching Resource Center, we consider you an instructor when you interact academically with students in any context: discussion section leader, laboratory instructor, instructor for your own course, lecturer, grader, tutor, or problem-session leader. Each of those possible roles, in a variety of departments and disciplines, entails a different set of expectations, rules, and responsibilities for each of you. In this section you will find some general notes on being a TA (also known as GTA, "graduate teaching assistant") and directions to other useful handbook sections. Note, too, that you can apply for a TRC TA development grant to enhance TA training in your department.