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Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA)

category: History Department, 

 

Pursuing a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) is one of the best ways to help with the costs of a Graduate Degree and provides you with experience working in the classroom that can help you decide if you have an interest in teaching. Additionally, the experience will help prepare you for your own coursework by giving you a better understanding of how professors grade assignments and phrase questions that encourage critical thinking. Having a History GTA on your applications for PhD programs or jobs will make you a considerably more desirable candidate for acceptance, and if you are applying for a PhD, significantly more likely to receive further Graduate School Financial Aid.
With so many benefits, a GTA position is easily the most rewarding of your options for Graduate School Scholarships. The application process for these positions is extremely competitive; you will need to present a strong application to make yourself the most attractive candidate. If you want to improve your chances of earning a History GTA, there are a few things you can do to make your application stand out from the other applicants. Perhaps the most effective is prior classroom experience. Even if you only take a few weeks to volunteer as a Teaching Assistant at your local High School, it will show that you are interested in learning about working with students and developing the skills that you need to succeed in a GTA. Discuss your post-MA plans in your application; especially if you have an interest in going on to teach with your Graduate Degree. Finally, be specific about what you expect to do as a GTA and what you hope to learn. Are you looking forward to developing a system for grading assignments? Do you want to use the GTA as an opportunity to lecture with someone to guide you? What do you expect to learn from the experience? Even if you are not chosen for a GTA position, consider offering your assistance to a professor to gain experience and develop a professional relationship with the faculty.
Once you have a History Research GTA position, you will be assigned to work with a different professor in an introductory course related to your fields of study each term. You will need to attend the class whenever possible, so you know the material covered for grading. Meet with the professor that you are assigned to work with and discuss your responsibilities during the term. Ask about working with them on grading papers, preparing questions, developing a lesson plan, and presenting a lecture of your own during the term. Your professor will be able to help you put together lecture notes and make sure you cover any topic relevant to the class that you are interested in presenting. Even if you are not considering going on to teach with your degree, if you earn a GTA, you should give it a try. When grading, work closely with your professor on a few to get an idea of their grading expectations. It is common to be too harsh a grader during your first attempts. I found it helpful to write my grades on post-its before meeting with my professor to review my comments, then copying the grades to the actual assignments.
The experience is incredibly enriching, particularly if you are considering becoming an educator. You will learn a lot about the topics you are working with, as you need to be familiar with every aspect on which the assignments are graded. You will be provoked to a new level of critical thinking, not only about the work you are grading, but about your own work, as you come to recognize common mistakes made by students. The most important part of your time spent as a History GTA will be the relationships that you develop with the faculty in your Oregon History Department, as these are the references that will help you move into a PhD program or career.


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