Teaching Assistant Resources

Teaching Aids

• The Graduate Student Handbook contains the department's expectations for TAs, as well as the "10 Commandments for TAs".

• Honor Code & Plagarism

  ·       "What is Plagiarism?"
   

  ·       Honor Code at Georgetown online
   

  ·       Plagiarism- Curricular Materials for History Instructors from the American Historical Association

• Internet History Sourcebooks Project - online primary sources for ancient, medieval and modern European/Western history; African, East Asian, global, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish history; and women's history, lesbian and gay history, and the history of science
   
• History Matters: The U.S. Survey on the Web - a gateway to the Web for teachers of the U.S. History Survey course with 800 first-person historical documents for use in the classroom, an annotated guide to 700 quality, history websites, and a range of teaching resources (including sample syllabi, teaching assignments, and forums)
   
• Historical maps from the Perry-Castañeda Map Collection at UT
   
• List of outline (blank) map sites from the Perry-Castañeda Map Collection
   
• Dynamic maps from the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative at UC Berkeley
   
• Seating Chart for students' names in discussion sections (from Prof. Moran Cruz)

Guides to Assisting Students

Listed below are documents to help explain the TAs' or professors' expectations to their students: guides for writing, explanation of grading (what makes an A paper), and the like.

• Essay-writing tips from James Class
   
• Ten Commandments of Good Historical Writing [Theron F. Schlabach] - especially handy on first history papers; it's possible to refer to the commandments by number in the margins of the student's paper
   
• History Writing Guides [Bowdoin] - includes a lot of basic technical information, which is helpful for research papers
   
• Professor Spendelow's grading standards handout
   
• Lauinger Library's guide to research in history and guide to primary sources

TA Evaluation Forms

These are TA evaluation forms developed by previous teaching assistants.

• Evaluation Form from Catherine Blair
   
• Evaluation Form from Henriette de Bruyn Kops
   
• Evaluation Form from Tait Keller
   
• Evaluation Form from Sarah Snyder

Other Resources

• Classroom Educational Technology Services provides computer and audio-visual equipment to classrooms
   
• UIS provides training for many software programs, including PowerPoint and Blackboard
   
• CNDLS: The Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship provides many services for TAs, including seminars, videotaping of lectures, and other resources
   
• CNDLS Guidebook for Technology, Teaching & Research
   
• CNDLS Teaching While Learning guide for graduate students

• Highly recommended guidebooks are The Chicago Handbook for Teachers: A Practical Guide to the College Classroom (December 1999) by Alan Brinkley and The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career: A Portable Mentor for Scholars from Graduate School Through Tenure (August 2001) by John A. Goldsmith.