Free Sample
The Complete Guide to Becoming A Teaching Assistant, Postsecondary
The real pay, real schedule, and real path into a college classroom - before you spend a dime on a degree
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Does a Teaching Assistant, Postsecondary Actually Do?
You are standing in a fluorescent-lit hallway on the third floor of a university building that was last renovated when your parents were in college. It is 8:15 on a Tuesday morning. In one hand you hold a thermos of coffee that you will need more than you think, and in the other, a tote bag stuffed with a laptop, a stack of ungraded essays, and a box of dry-erase markers because the last TA forgot to order them and the professor is not going to buy them out of her own pocket. Welcome to the working life of a postsecondary teaching assistant.
Before we go any further, let's clear up a common misunderstanding. When most people hear "teaching assistant," they picture someone standing at the front of a lecture hall, delivering a brilliant talk to a sea of undergraduates. That happens sometimes, but it is not the core of the job. The core of the job is support. You are the person who makes the professor's course run smoothly, and the person who gives students the individualized attention that a lecture hall of two hundred people cannot provide. You are a bridge between the professor and the students, and on any given day, that bridge requires a lot of maintenance.
Let's break down what you will actually do, hour by hour, based on the reality of the job across universities, four-year colleges, and community colleges.