Should you have questions about being a TA, or about teaching and learning more broadly, there are many resources to support you. Some key resources you may wish to review include:
- CUPE 3906 Unit 1 Website: The CUPE 3906 Unit 1 website has a wealth of resources that will be of value to you in your role as a TA (e.g., the current collective agreement).
- Unit 1 TAs and RAs in Lieu Undergraduate TA Handbook: Within the guide you will find valuable information regarding CUPE 3906, basic work-related TA information, and helpful tips and trick for performing your TA duties.
- Teaching Remotely Welcome Package for TAs: This welcome package provides an overview of resources available to help teaching assistants with the transition to remote teaching, including upcoming training sessions.
- TA Guide for Remote Teaching: This guide provides an overview of important information to assist TAs in fulfilling their role remotely at McMaster, including questions that TAs should consider asking their supervisor, information about educational technologies, online etiquette, and online teaching development opportunities.
- McMaster Teaching Assistant Guide: This guide covers the basics, from TA roles and responsibilities at McMaster to how to teach in an accessible and inclusive manner, plan a lesson, engage students in active learning, assess and provide feedback on student learning, and document your teaching effectiveness. One section that TAs tend to find particularly helpful is the section on common TA-related questions and challenges.
- Learning Remotely for Students Welcome Package: This welcome package features a collection of resources intended to help instructors and teaching assistants support students as they transition to learning remotely. Consult these references for advice, tips, and strategies to help your students succeed in an online learning environment.
- McMaster’s Inclusive Teaching and Learning Guide: In this guide, you will be introduced to five broad principles for inclusive teaching and see concrete examples of how to put the principles into practice.
- Forward with FLEXibility: A Teaching and Learning Resource on Accessibility and Inclusion: Modules 1, 2, 3, and 5 are particularly relevant to TAs. They will teach you about the foundational principles of inclusive instruction/accessible education and how to apply those principles in your teaching/TA duties.
- E-Learning Section of McMaster’s Accessibility Hub: Here, TAs will find accessibility support in developing accessible content for digital media, including Word, PowerPoint, Email, and some presentation techniques for recording presentations accessibly. Additionally, there is accessibility-related information for McMaster’s supported tools, and a remote teaching and captioning guide.
- Accessible Documents Webinar Series: In this series hosted on MacVideo, you will find how-to webinars dedicated to creating accessible documents (e.g., accessible PowerPoints, Word documents, PDFs, and Excel files), as well as good practices for using various technologies accessibly (e.g., accessible usage of Outlook and Microsoft Teams).
- McMaster Office for the Development of English-Language Learners (MODEL): MODEL offers free services (e.g., workshops and one-on-one consultations) to both undergraduate and graduate students who may be struggling with their English-language skills.
- The Library Remote Support Hub: Whether you’re teaching, learning, or researching remotely, The Library Remote Support Hub has been designed to help you with your information needs. From accessing books online and connecting to electronic resources remotely, to requesting a research consultation and seeking media creation support, the Library Remote Support Hub can be of assistance.
If you would rather be more active as you develop as a TA and learn about teaching and learning, some of the key offerings that you should consider at McMaster are:
- Professional Development in Teaching Hub: This year long self-enroll Avenue to Learn site includes a series of online asynchronous teaching and learning workshops, a virtual teaching and learning resource fair, and a place for stakeholders to network with one another to ask a queston, answer a question, or simply connect.
- Teaching and Learning Certificates of Completion Program: This program consists of five graduate-level EDUCATN courses. All courses are free, zero-unit, pass/fail courses that are open to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.