The TA Network Wiki Home

Welcome to our newest TAN resource - it's yours to edit and add to at will! Surf around and help to expand what is here with new pages and links

Members are invited to contribute articles and other publications of interest by uploading and posting them to the TAN Literature Page

CLL provides various teaching resources that can help you improve your abilities as TA.

Something all TAs may be interested in sharing with new students, especially if they will have to write a paper for the course, is the University of Indiana's quiz on plagiarism that gives great examples and tells you why if you have picked the wrong multiple choice answer.

Another resource to share with your students is the library subject and course guides which offer information on resources available by field, identifies the librarian in charge of that area of study, and also provides a tab for citation and style guides for each subject area.

Under the same research tab on the library main page the link for RefWorks bibliography software can be found, an invaluable tool for referencing while writing papers, theses, lab reports, etc. that is available to all McMaster students.

The The Center for Student Development is a great resource for TAs. They currently offer a workshop in suicide prevention which TAs can sign up for, but the article Hope in Dark Times provides valuable info on the basics which ALL of us should learn to spot and to know how to deal with. Anyone who is interested can register online for the CSD's suicide prevention workshop, called “QPR”, or Question, Persuade, Refer.

Had problems with difficult situations in your classes/labs/tutorials? You may want to watch this presentation on Dealing With Challenging Students by Dr. Lovaye Kajiura of McMaster's Biology Department.

TA day is scheduled for September 9, 2009. Potential workshops will include “How to Manage Conflict, Anger and Emotion in the Classroom”, “Active Learning”, “Motivating Students”, “The First Tutorial”, “Making Effective Presentations”, “Teaching in a Different Culture”, “Self-Directed Learning”, “Marking Essays”, “Labs and Tutorials in Science and Engineering”, “Stimulating Discussions”, “Marking Assigned Problems and Lab Reports”. Suggestions for new workshops will also be considered.

TA Day 2008

Meeting Notes:

April 16, 2009

For more information on the TA network contact Terry McCurdy at gradnet@mcmaster.ca or extension 24368