If you are thinking about teaching, there are some online teaching classes that can be helpful for you. If you are thinking about teaching, there are many different ways to consider this. This means that teachers should the experiential teaching component consists of gradual teaching experiences and the updating of knowledge on learning and teaching issues. Keep in mind that teaching Assistants are also expected to give evidence of their growing professional competency by participating in activities that are of service to the Department and to the university.

It is interesting that they may be asked to serve on departmental or university committees or to represent the department in recruitment activities. It is also helpful to know that graduate teaching assistants are also expected to give presentations on teaching issues at regional professional meetings. Additionally, they are encouraged to submit articles on innovative teaching techniques or on teaching issues to appropriate professional journals. This teaching-focused work is in addition to the development of substantive areas of research and teaching which all graduate students are expected to grow.

After completing graduate courses and having taken the seminar, graduate students may apply for a teaching assistantship in the department. Unless they have already had prior experience as a teacher of record at the college level, graduate students are assigned to assist a faculty member who is teaching a large introductory or advanced sociology class. The faculty member becomes the mentor of the graduate student assisting him or her, guiding and supervising the student in grading tests or papers, in conducting group discussions, and offering the student the opportunity to deliver lectures. This is a great opportunity for everyone involved.

Finally, when the graduate student is evaluated as ready to assume responsibility for a section of the course in which she has assisted, the faculty member then takes the role of Faculty Resource Person. As a resource person, the faculty member reviews and provides counseling on all teaching materials being used and provides feedback on lectures or other class presentations.

It is also helpful to know that peer-tutoring is an additional way of gaining teaching experience, especially in content areas where no large-size classes are available, such as in statistics, research methods, computer labs, and sociological theory. Keep in mind that peer tutors can be undergraduate or beginning graduate students who have been recommended by those who teach courses in the specified areas. Peer tutors participate in a three-hour, peer-tutoring course and are supervised.

In addition to receiving credit for taking the peer-tutoring course, they are paid on an hourly basis. The peer tutor is expected to tutor from a minimum of four to a maximum of ten hours per week and to do so for a minimum of two long semesters. Also, the peer-tutoring program has also proved to be an unanticipated tool for recruiting undergraduate students.