Finding, Hiring, and Working with Your Teaching Assistant

Finding and Hiring a TA Assistant

Verify Your Eligibility for a Teaching Assistant (TA) 

Check the "eligibility requirements to request TA Support" on the Employing Students webpage on Inside Carey. 

Finding a TA

OPTION A:  Invite one of your top students to be a TA. If they are interested, proceed to "Initiate the Hiring Process" to verify eligibility.

OPTION B:  Enlist the help of Carey.TA. In your email, please include the Course and term, and any prerequisites (e.g., the student must have taken the course, received a specific grade, and/or has relevant work experience). 

OPTION C:  Post an advertisement in SMILE, a Johns Hopkins platform for student hiring and experiential learning managed by the university. 

• Click "Employers" on the SMILE homepage Login with your JHED ID 
• Select which type of position you would like to post (paid campus internship or student job) 
• Specify the details of the position (description, pay rate, hours per week, work location, open to undergrads/grads/both, etc.) 
• Submit your position (positions will be reviewed and approved within 48 hours). 

Initiate the Hiring Process 

Once you have identified a TA, begin the hiring process by completing the Online Request Form. Please allow 2-3 weeks for processing. As a reminder, your TA cannot begin work until you receive an email from HR confirming eligibility and providing a hiring confirmation. 

Train Your TA 

If you hire a first-time TA, or if your TA would benefit from a "refresher," email Carey.TA to request they be enrolled into the TA Resources site in Canvas. This site contains several resources for TA-specific tasks. You are also encouraged to invite your TA(s) to pre-term Canvas training or any offered trainings for faculty!  

Training Recommendations 

A.  Based on your needs, discuss the TA’s level of skill. Contact Carey.TA for Just-In-Time Training. 

B.  Define your expectations. 

C. Review the elements of the course and syllabus together to determine what needs to be done and when. 

See more information in the next section, Working With Your Teaching Assistant. 

Be Available for Questions 

Set up a weekly meeting time for review.  

Working With Your Teaching Assistant

When you hire a TA, you become an employee supervisor.  The following information will help you develop your communication plan and classroom management strategy to get the most out of your TA. TAs cannot work more than 20 hours per week in total. 

General Information 

Training Your TA in Canvas 

Your TA may be new to Canvas and therefore need initial training. Teaching & Learning's Canvas Team will work with your TA to train them in the LMS.  Once your course is available in the SIS section (prior to the course going live for students), please reach out to Carey.TA@jhu.edu to request arrangements for Canvas training.

In your email, please include the name of the course, the name of the TA, the TAs email address, and the TAs role and identify any other technical training they may need for your classroom (e.g., proctoring software, Pearson, iDecisionGames, Microsoft Teams). 

If your TA does not need training, please follow these steps to set them up in your course: 

1. Navigate to your course menu and locate People 
2. After you have selected People, you will see a +People button on the right side of the screen.  
3. Choose Add User by SIS ID.  At JHU, this is our JHED ID.  
4. Enter the JHED ID (e.g., flast1) in the Email Address (required) field.  You need only  to enter the JHED.  
5. Choose the appropriate role (e.g., TA).  
6. Click Next, 
7. Choose Add Users to complete the process.  

Communications 

Once you have hired your TA please make time to review with them your expectations regarding the following areas: timesheets and time tracking, feedback, meetings, tutoring, office hours, grading, accessibility, attendance, monitoring Q & A discussions or Zoom chats, and Canvas calendar.   

Schedule regular communication meetings throughout the term. Here are some meeting suggestions: 

Kick-Off Meeting 

• Exchange contact information exchange and determine response times 
• Identify acceptable methods of contact (e.g., email, text, phone call, Microsoft Teams, Slack, WhatsApp) 
• Give an overview of the purpose of class/ learning objectives 
• Classroom Ethics 
  • Grading Approach - Will you use anonymous grading? 
  • Academic Integrity - Will Turnitin be reviewed by your TA?  What guidelines do you want your TA to follow? 
  • Tutoring Parameters - Can your TA assist with homework assignments? 
• Roles in the classroom 
  • Prior to the course start, TA(s) can do the following: 
    • Review and QA the Canvas site 
    • Review for clarity and grammar 
    • Using Student View, check the links and make sure all sections are visible. 
      • Post announcements and set up groups 
  • Answer Canvas-related questions 
  • Answer content-related questions 
  • Assist in the Zoom classroom 
  • Learn and assist with other classroom applications 
• Grade and provide feedback (Note: TAs cannot grade Assurance of Learning assignments) 
• Determine timelines/ deadlines (Note: please see our Classroom Management Document) 
• Schedule tutoring sessions and/ or office hours (if applicable) 
• Review Learning Tools and Technology 

Touch-Base Meetings (Weekly) 

• Review any issues (e.g., Canvas, technical, student) 
• Reconfirm tasks for the next week (e.g., announcement posts, publishing content for student view, monitoring participation, sharing answer keys for grading) 
• Review Q & A from students 
• Keep notes on changes/improvements/suggestions for the next iteration of the course 

Course Debrief Meeting 

• Review and update notes for the next iteration of the course to share with the course lead and/or Teaching & Learning. 
• Gather feedback from your TA on their experience 
• Consider inviting TA back for the next course offering 

Resources 

Here are some tools that you can use and share with your TA: 

• Faculty-TA Initial Calibration- a check list of important topics to review. 
• Classroom Management Template - a spreadsheet that outlines assignment due dates, expected grading completion and classroom tasks. 
• Zoom Classroom Session Checklist 
• Canvas Roles and Permissions Guide 
• Canvas FAQs 

Timesheets and Approvals for Your Teaching Assistant 

As the supervisor, you will need to review and approve timesheets for your TA(s) weekly. For a more efficient review process, please ask your employees to record hours worked and task(s) completed on their timesheet. Carey uses two online timekeeping applications for recording and approval of TA working hours: TimesheetX and Harvest. TimesheetX is used for all current student employees at Johns Hopkins University. Harvest is used for TAs who are casual employees. 

General Information 

The work-week is defined as Monday-Sunday. TAs should submit their hours by Sunday of each work week. As their supervisor, you will review/approve timesheets no later than noon on the following Monday. 

There is no sick, vacation, or holiday pay for student or casual TAs. 

Pay is issued on or about the 15th and 30th of the month. 

TAs cannot work more than 20 hours per week in total. As a reminder, your TA may be working for more than one supervisor. 

Resources 

Payroll Schedule 2024 

TimesheetX (you may have to login with your JHED to access) 

Harvest