Berea College

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Teaching and Learning Assistant Programs provides resources for teaching assistants and tutors across campus to learn specific skills and strategies for assisting their peers. Through yearly orientation meetings, a general training series, department-specific workshops, one-on-one consultation meetings, and a certification program, TLAP bridges the gap between contemporary scholarship on peer instruction and leadership and Berea’s many peer-assisted learning opportunities. The objective of our programming is for all students, whether TAs or those who work with TAs, to gain greater confidence as teachers <em>and</em> learners. <em><a href="https://next.berea.edu/center-for-teaching-and-learning/writing-resources">Writing Resources</a> and TLAP Programs are located on the Ground Floor of Hutchins Library (Offices 110, 111, 112 and 130).</em>

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Contact Lauren Rae Hall at <a href="mailto:lauren_hall@berea.edu">lauren_hall@berea.edu</a> or 859-985-3209 for more information.

The common thread through all TLAP programming is ensuring that TAs and Labor Supervisors alike feel well-supported in their work and have access to up-to-date resources and proven strategies for supporting learners at all levels. We believe TA work is significantly deepened by regular opportunities to learn with and from TA colleagues across campus. For this reason, we offer a variety of programming.

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<strong>Each fall, before the start of classes, both new and experienced TAs are invited to kick off the school year with a multi-hour orientation.</strong> For new TAs, this orientation acclimates them to the basic policies and procedures of TA work at Berea <em>and </em>offers some important frameworks and suggestions for working in a peer teaching role. For more experienced TAs, the orientation highlights policy changes, advertises upcoming relevant programming, and allows them to meet and mentor new TAs in their home department.

Because one of the most important goals of Teaching and Learning Assistant Programs is to provide structured opportunities for students to discuss their shared work, TA orientation is a vital part of our programming. Each year, over a hundred students attend this event, making it one of the largest instructional gatherings of upperclassmen from across departments.

Among the topics typically covered in TA orientation are:
<ul>
 	<li>Labor Documentation Responsibilities</li>
 	<li>Campus Resources</li>
 	<li>Suggestions for Working Effectively with Labor Supervisors</li>
 	<li>Common Tutoring Scenarios</li>
 	<li>FERPA</li>
 	<li>Confidentiality</li>
 	<li>Title IX</li>
 	<li>Academic Honesty</li>
 	<li>Establishing Working Boundaries</li>
</ul>
Invitations with date, time, and food details—as well as reminders—are sent via e-mail to students and Labor Supervisors during the weeks prior to the start of fall classes.

<em>If you have questions, suggestions, or are interested in being a guest speaker at orientation, please reach out to the TLAP director.</em>

Annual TA Orientation

<strong>Multiple times per month, TLAP offers training sessions for new and experienced TAs, centered on common questions and concerns that shape undergraduate TA work.</strong> Sessions are typically led by the TLAP director and informed by current scholarship in peer learning and leadership. Just like TA orientation, training sessions also introduce TAs to assisting students within Berea’s specific context and promote strategies for helping students across the disciplines. Attendees can expect to learn with—and from—other TAs from across departments and to engage in hands-on activities relevant to their labor position.

Training sessions are held the hour before weekly labor meetings. A schedule for each semester’s offerings is sent via e-mail to students and Labor Supervisors.  A dynamic schedule is always available on the TA Moodle site.

Common topics include:
<ul>
 	<li>Structuring One-on-One and Group Tutoring Meetings</li>
 	<li>Grading and Providing Feedback</li>
 	<li>Supporting Study Skills</li>
 	<li>Motivating Students</li>
 	<li>Listening Actively</li>
 	<li>Handling Difficult and/or Sensitive Situations</li>
 	<li>Developing Workshops and Presentations</li>
 	<li>Inclusive Tutoring/TAing</li>
</ul>
Session attendance counts as labor hours (with Labor Supervisors’ approval). All sessions are also designed to help students meet the requirements for obtaining a Level-1 International Tutor Training Program Certificate through the College Reading and Learning Association.

Training Series 

While the TA training series focuses on topics applicable to TA work across departments and disciplines, we also recognize that the central tasks of Berea TAs also vary across these contexts. For example, some TAs might find that much of their work in a TA is leading group activities in lab settings while others might be working exclusively one-on-one with struggling students.

If you are a student leader within a departmental TA cohort or a Labor Supervisor who believes your TA(s) might benefit from some focused training, activities, and reflection during your labor meeting hour, contact TLAP. One of the added benefits of bringing a facilitator from outside your department to your labor meetings is that it can help students understand the greater significance of the work they’re doing and better understand their position in the larger community of TAs across campus. Additionally, TAs may feel more comfortable asking questions about campus resources or admitting gaps in their understanding, because the facilitator (TLAP director) is not completing evaluations for them and is rarely viewed as a close mentor in the way Labor Supervisors often are.

In consultation with you, the TLAP director can design and deliver a department/subject-specific training during select labor meeting hours.

Example Topics From Past Department Labor Meetings:
<ul>
 	<li>Facilitating Class Discussions</li>
 	<li>Conducting Peer TA Observations</li>
 	<li>Working with Students with Subject-Specific Anxiety</li>
 	<li>Encouraging Student Participation During TA-Led Lab Meetings</li>
 	<li>Using Active Learning Techniques in Group Tutoring</li>
 	<li>Designing Collaborative TA Projects</li>
 	<li>Common Patterns in [Subject Area] Student Support</li>
</ul>

Department Labor Meetings and Discipline-Specific Workshops

The TLAP Director is always available to consult confidentially with TAs and Labor Supervisors individually or in groups about anything related to TA work. For example, if you’re a new faculty member who has been given a TA upon arrival at Berea, you might meet to discuss how to make the most of your TA’s strengths or to better understand the common practices of TAing and supervising TAs at Berea. If you’re an experienced Labor Supervisor, you might be interested in re-structuring an outdated TA position description and re-thinking how TAs might better serve your courses.

Some additional consultation topics include:
<ul>
 	<li>(TA) Designing and presenting workshops in your Labor Supervisor’s course</li>
 	<li>(TA) Establishing boundaries around TA work</li>
 	<li>(TA) Structuring one-on-one sessions with difficult students</li>
 	<li>(TA) Balancing TAing and your own schoolwork</li>
 	<li>(TA) Explaining your TAing experience in job/internship/school applications</li>
 	<li>(TA Student Leader) Productively leading a TA cohort of your classmates</li>
 	<li>(Labor Supervisor) Hiring TAs with greater diversity in mind</li>
 	<li>(Labor Supervisor) “Stacked” models for structuring a TA lab or cohort</li>
 	<li>(Labor Supervisor) Better integrating TAs in class meetings</li>
 	<li>(Labor Supervisor) Motivating struggling TAs</li>
 	<li>(Labor Supervisor) Communicating labor expectations to TAs</li>
</ul>
This is just a start! The TLAP director is happy to discuss any TA-related task, problem, or joy. <strong>Just let us know</strong>.

Consultations

Since 2016, Berea’s Center for Teaching and Learning has been approved to certify students as “Level-1 Tutors” through the <a href="http://crla.net/">College Reading and Learning Association</a>’s <a href="https://crla.net/index.php/certifications/ittpc-international-tutor-training-program">International Tutor Training Program</a>. This means that our programs’ components have been regularly reviewed by experts in the field of student support, and we’ve demonstrated our investment in ensuring that students’ peer learning experiences are shaped by current research and best practices.

The TLAP director is our local liaison for CRLA, and, for TAs interested in certification, the person to contact.

Certification 

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<strong>Since 2016, Berea College’s Center for Teaching and Learning has been approved by the&nbsp;<a href="http://crla.net/">College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA)</a>&nbsp;to grant specialized, internationally recognized certificates to Berea teaching assistants and tutors.</strong>&nbsp;To receive the&nbsp;<a href="https://crla.net/index.php/certifications/ittpc-international-tutor-training-program">International Tutor Training Program (ITTP)</a>&nbsp;Level 1 Certificate, students must work with the TLAP Director to meet four categories of requirements:

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<strong>The requirements and certification process are detailed in this&nbsp;<a href="https://berea.box.com/s/topzj9vhccpjwuhv51zqe49xntkrpvnk">overview packet</a></strong>. This packet is also always posted to the yearly&nbsp;TA Moodle site&nbsp;and available&nbsp;via e-mail.

We invite students who are interested in improving their peer leadership and student support skills and/or who are interested in future careers in teaching and tutoring to reach out, attend trainings, and seek certifications. Certificates help signal to graduate/professional schools and employers that students not only have the experience of being a TA but have thought deeply about the work and have been trained by invested professionals.

Some Labor Supervisors require that new tutors/TAs receive certification before they can be promoted to higher WLS levels and/or department student leadership roles.

Once your application packet is put together, submitted by the TLAP director, and approved, you will receive a digital copy and a physical copy of your certificate. The certificate is also listed on each recipient’s labor transcript.

What kind of certificate do I get?

It’s recommended that you try to get all parts of your certification (training, log, observation, philosophy) completed within a year. However, you are welcome to work on your certification for as long as you are employed as a TA/tutor at Berea. A suggested timeline is included in the <a href="https://berea.box.com/s/topzj9vhccpjwuhv51zqe49xntkrpvnk">overview packet</a>.

How long does it take to get a certificate?

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If you are interested in working in educational settings or settings where you may need to train others, this certificate attests to your experience helping others learn. If you are <a href="https://www.beyondberea.org/">applying to graduate or professional school</a>, you may be competing for an assistantship to help fund your education. In many situations, assistantships look very similar to TA/tutor work, and having a certificate from an international organization recognizing your work can make you a more desirable applicant.

If you have interests in teaching or tutoring abroad through cultural exchange programs like <a href="https://jetprogramusa.org/">JET</a> or <a href="https://www.ciee.org/">CIEE</a>—or even just tutoring online to make some extra money—the CRLA ITTP certificate signifies that you have been trained in the fundamentals of tutoring different kinds of learners in addition to having the content-specific knowledge and experience you gained through your TA/tutor position(s) on campus.

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What are the benefits of being certified? 

Sort of. After your observation, you will receive your observation notes via e-mail. The name of the student you tutor and any identifying information about them will not be recorded in the observation notes. However, because it’s your observation, your name will be listed at the top and all feedback will be written to you.

When you have completed all requirements, your observation notes may be shared with a CRLA representative to ensure that you have met all of the organization’s certification standards and that Berea’s program is certifying eligible tutors correctly. However, the observation will not be posted or published anywhere. You are welcome to share your observation with your Labor Supervisor (or anyone else), but the TLAP Director will not automatically send it to them.

Are observations confidential?

<strong>Teaching Assistants-Peer Leaders (TA-PLs) serve as instructional and advising support for first-year&nbsp;<a href="https://next.berea.edu/academics/departments-programs/general-studies">General Studies Required (GSTR) </a>courses.</strong>&nbsp;In the fall semester, each TA-PL collaborates with a faculty member/academic advisor teaching GSTR 110. TA-PLs work as writing TAs for their assigned GSTR 110 sections, helping students develop study strategies and college-level writing skills. TA-PLs also serve as peer leaders, acclimating students to&nbsp;the college environment and advising them as they develop general academic skills, explore majors, and utilize campus resources. In the spring, TA-PLs continue this work,&nbsp;supporting a section of GSTR 110 or 210 (and often working with a new faculty member).

<strong>We believe TA-PLs are critical to the success of first-year students at Berea</strong>, and this means the program necessarily spans and collaborates with multiple initiatives across campus, including&nbsp;<a href="https://next.berea.edu/center-for-teaching-and-learning/writing-resources">Writing Resources</a>, our campus’s&nbsp;Writing Program Administrator, and the&nbsp;Office of Student Success and Transition. TA-PL labor positions are housed in the&nbsp;<a href="https://next.berea.edu/academics/departments-programs/general-studies">General Studies department</a>, and the program’s administration (including hiring, training, budgeting, and outreach) are part of Teaching and Learning Assistant Programs and led by TLAP’s director.

<strong>Although students are assigned to specific faculty members/Labor Supervisors, one of the primary purposes of the program is for TAs working with GSTR 110 to learn alongside their peers</strong>. For this reason, orientation, trainings, and regular labor meetings are held with the entire cohort—and draw upon their diverse experiences working in Berea’s unique&nbsp;GSTR 110 and 210 sections. We think together about&nbsp;creative learning opportunities for students, both those entering Berea and those firmly established. In the process, TA-PLs hone their&nbsp;<em>own</em>&nbsp;communication and leadership skills, which we hope will serve them in their time at Berea and beyond.

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TA-PL hiring is very competitive and typically limited to a short period in the spring semester. If you are interested in applying for a TA-PL position, please be on the lookout for recruitments e-mails from the TLAP director and/or apply directly here. If you have any questions about the application process, please e-mail the TLAP director.

Hiring

If you’re a staff or faculty member working with a student who demonstrates the leadership potential necessary for TA-PL work, please let us know. Because of your good work as thoughtful educators and insightful mentors, you are our greatest recruiting tool!

Recommendations

Are you currently assigned sections of 110 and 210 and you’re wondering how to get a TA-PL? Be on the lookout for e-mails from Lauren Hall, detailing the TA-PL hiring and assignment process. Typically, these e-mails are sent mid-semester, immediately after GSTR scheduling begins.

Assignments

Are you about to be or currently supervising a TA-PL and you want to know more? Resources for GSTR 110/210 faculty working with TA-PLs are maintained in the <a href="https://berea.box.com/s/umyjcs2ig7f1m06n8a08wo492aq1cwrq">GSTR 110 &amp; 210 Information &amp; Resources folder</a> on Box. A sub-folder with up-to-date resources on the TA-PL program is <a href="https://berea.box.com/s/5szzzcird32xfau2ypx2w8bil2zrpibu">available here</a>. If you do not have access to the Information &amp; Resources Box folder, please contact Dr. Sarah Adams, Writing Program Administrator. Lauren Hall is also always available to meet and discuss everything from approving time card entries to structuring your TA-PL’s tasks and role in your course.

Supervision

Resources for TAs and Labor Supervisors are regularly created and distributed by Teaching and Learning Assistant Programs to promote community, common points of knowledge, and the use of well-researched practices across TA work at Berea. The sites and documents below respond to some of the most common concerns and requests of both new and experienced TAs.
<h2><strong>TA Moodle</strong></h2>
At the beginning of each semester, TAs are invited to join a central Moodle site, exclusively for Berea TAs. <strong>The Moodle site houses a continually updated list of resources on Berea College policies and procedures, Labor Program requirements, and instructional technology.</strong> The Moodle site also acts as the central repository for presentations, activities, worksheets, and framing documents from TLAP training meetings, including the yearly TA orientation.

After the initial TLAP “Welcome!” sent to all students and Labor Supervisors at the beginning of each semester, the TA Moodle is the main method that TLAP program offerings and initiatives are shared with TAs across campus.

<em>If you are a TA who would like to be enrolled in the TA Moodle or a TA Student Manager/Labor Supervisor who would like TAs in your program to be added, please contact the <a href="https://www.berea.edu/ctl/staff/lauren-hall/">TLAP director</a>.</em>
<h2><strong>Berea GoBoard</strong></h2>
<strong>Through TLAP, Berea now has access to GoBoard, a tutoring whiteboard platform.</strong> GoBoard Basic does not require that students make an account. However, if a TA would like to hold meetings longer than 30 minutes, they can go to our GoBoard Premium site and enter as a “student” with their Berea e-mail: <a href="http://bereactl.goboard.com/">http://BereaCTL.GoBoard.com</a>. Because GoBoard is designed specifically for peer-to-peer tutoring, GoBoard requires that users keep their cameras and microphones on, although both can be muted once students begin using the whiteboard. GoBoard Premium automatically captures all whiteboard pages and sends them in PDF format to tutors and students.

Some additional benefits of GoBoard:
<ul>
 	<li>TAs can host unlimited meetings (&lt;5 participants at a time)</li>
 	<li>Offers video chat, audio chat, text chat, screenshare</li>
 	<li>TAs and students can upload PDFs and image files (from computer or cell phone)</li>
 	<li>TAs and students can create graphs, use graphing calculator features, create shared document libraries</li>
</ul>
GoBoard is very easy to use, with many tools for tutoring in both the humanities and sciences. For an in-depth overview of how to use GoBoard, visit the TA Moodle site. A guiding document and some TLAP-specific suggestions are under the “Technology” section. You are also welcome to go to the site and click around!
<h2><strong>TA Guidebook</strong></h2>
<strong>Each school year, the TLAP director revises a collection of tips, tricks, and suggestions for </strong><strong>getting started as well as <em>deepening </em>your work as a TA.</strong> This document, the “Teaching &amp; Learning Assistant Guidebook” is <a href="https://berea.box.com/s/ll312e8j304gqaue88sj0xt97mqk2pjd">available here</a> as well as on the TA Moodle site. The yearly edition is sent out via e-mail to all TAs and Labor Supervisors at the beginning of each semester.

Among the topics typically explored in each year’s guidebook:
<ul>
 	<li>What is a TA?</li>
 	<li><a href="https://www.berea.edu/registrar/ferpa/">FERPA</a></li>
 	<li><a href="https://www.berea.edu/title-ix/">Title IX</a></li>
 	<li>Academic Honesty</li>
 	<li><a href="https://www.berea.edu/labor-program-office/">Labor Integrity</a></li>
 	<li>Managing &amp; Tracking Time</li>
 	<li>Working with a Labor Supervisor</li>
 	<li>TA Hours</li>
 	<li>Tutoring Strategies</li>
</ul>
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<h2><strong>Peer Learning Library</strong></h2>
<strong>The TLAP director maintains a substantial collection of books and articles on peer instruction and learning, teaching and learning for equity, and community education that TAs and Labor Supervisors can borrow.</strong>

There is also a large collection of reference books available in the <a href="https://www.berea.edu/ctl/writing-resources/">Writing Resources</a> space that specifically focus on strategies for supporting student writers.

Finally, the Center for Teaching and Learning works with <a href="https://libraryguides.berea.edu/">Hutchins Library</a> to purchase recent scholarship on teaching and learning each year. Many of these books include research, frameworks, and activities relevant for peer learning.

<em>If you are developing or completing a TA labor project or class assignment that would benefit from any of these resources, you are welcome to contact the TLAP director for suggested materials.</em>

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<h2><strong>TA Supplies</strong></h2>
<strong>TLAP has a collection of supplies available for TAs to use in their work.</strong> This collection includes rolls of butcher paper, markers, cardstock, highlighters, Expo markers, post-it notes, tripods, and presentation boards.

<em>If there are supplies you or your TA colleagues need for your work, please contact the TLAP director. Some materials may be available in our stock or in your department, or may be purchased for your use.</em>

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