If you’re assigned to TA for Greco, your primary duties will be as follows:
- Leading one or two lab sections (3 hrs each) of either 2211 or 2212
- Proctoring and grading exams for both 2211 and 2212
Each lab section has two TAs assigned to it: a GTA (that’s you!), and an undergrad TA (UTA). The UTA is a student who has taken the class before and got an A in it, so they are familiar with the material and the labs (especially if they have already worked as a UTA for the class). The GTA leads the lab; the UTA offers support. Labs run smoothly when both GTA and UTA are on the same page and collaborating well with each other.
On average, you should expect to dedicate 12-13 hrs/week to your GTA duties (and probably many more hours than that on your own physics courses!). On some weeks you may work significantly fewer hours (e.g., on weeks where there’s no labs), and on other weeks you may work significantly more hours (e.g., on weeks when there’s two exam grading sessions). If at any point you need to miss some of your teaching duties (for example, if you’re sick on a day when you have lab), it is your responsibility to find someone to cover for you. If you can’t find someone to cover for you, then you need to tell Greco immediately and he will pick someone to cover you. The ideal case would be that you switch lab sections with the person who will cover you, so that everyone’s teaching hours remain the same. If that’s not possible, Greco can adjust people’s grading hours later in the semester so that everyone evens out again.
There are no M&I lab meetings during the first week of the semester, but there is a TA meeting that week, on Friday. The students do attend lecture, and they have a coding lab exercise that they do at home, but you don’t have to meet with them yet (if you’re not familiar with VPython/GlowScript, you should do this first introductory lab yourself). Therefore, your teaching duties actually begin on the SECOND week of the semester. Also, there are no M&I lab meetings on weeks when there’s a Georgia Tech holiday (e.g., the weeks of Labor Day, Thanksgiving, MLK Day, etc). The course schedule that your Head TA will give you should have all the details about these dates.
GTAs for M&I don’t need to host office hours, but there is a TA Office in the Clough building (room CULC 365) that all TAs have access to that you can use if you need to meet with students… or if you’re in Clough and need a place to sit down and do homework or whatever.
If you need any office supplies related to your teaching duties (e.g., a binder, whiteboard markers, printing/copying), you can ask in the School of Physics front office (C-101, in the first floor of Howey, big glass doors with equations on them, right in front of the main entrance to the building).