Gilda

She's supposed to sit in on my two freshman classes, freshman composition and World Masterpieces of literature, take notes, be prepared to cover either class if I should need her to, and do whatever paperwork I assign to her, mainly correcting quizzes. I wouldn't have an assistant grade writing assignments or essays, but objective quizzes and the multiple choice sections of major tests, that stuff is objective.

This is her job. She's getting tuition, fees, housing, and meals, which adds up to a pretty good sum.

And, as I was told during orientation, this is one of my benefits. She does my grunt work to free me up to plan my classes, supervise student teachers, and do research.

I met with her Monday and talked about it. I asked her, very nicely, to make more of an effort to attend all of the required classes and get the grading I assign her finished. She apologized profusely, told me she'd be in the classes and get her grading done, and made excuses about scheduling conflicts with her job.

[sigh] This was supposed to be a benefit for both of us. She gets a free education, learns how to teach at the college level, and gets supported while doing it. I get some relief from paper work, someone to do supplemental instruction with students needing remediation, and my classes are covered if I for some reason need to be absent.

With the added stress of not knowing if she's going to be getting her work done on top of my job demands, not being able to find her when I need her for something, and then having to make up the work I expected her to do, having an assitant has turned out to be more work than just doing it all myself would be.

I considered hiring an assassin, because then I'd be able to get a replacement. As it is, I have little choice but to assume she's not going to be there for me and let it go. It's not worth the trouble.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

amonkie

Have you mentioned this to her advisor? School needs to come first, if she indeeds expects this assistantship to cover her school costs.

__________________
Calling from deep in the heart, from where the eyes can't see and the ears can't hear, from where the mountain trails end and only love can go... ~~~ Three Rivers Hare Krishna

shakran

Are you doing her a disservice by letting her get away with this? She will be in the real world one of these days and unless she's very lucky, her boss will not be so kind. She needs to understand that if she makes a committment for a job, she must fulfill it.

Willravel

I'd kill to be in her shoes. She doesn't know how lucky she is to 1) have an excelent role model and teacher, 2) have so much financial support for her school, 3) gain invaluable experience with the pulp of traching, and 4) not be starving. I ate nothing but rice, beans, and such things for 3 years so that I could get the necessary degree to take care of my family. If I had my druthers, I'd never have left school. I could talk to her for you, if you want.

martinguerre

You're right about that. Get her fired. Letting it go does no one any favors. Someday, students are going to have a flake of a professor because she learned to get away with this...she's going to crash and burn her professional career when she is found out...

I recall you saying that you feel more comfortable asserting authority where you know you ought to have it...in the classroom and such. I hope this is one of those times...you're well within your rights to lay down the law. I've been a TA before, and while i pulled some shit to keep my own work on track, i'd never have dreamed of being this useless.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

abaya

Thrash that girl. I mean it. Do NOT let her get away with that bullshit. TAs may have it rough sometimes, but this girl sounds like she doesn't have anything together and hardly deserves that free ride. She needs to EARN that damn salary...

I guess I speak from bitterness of being (what I consider to be) a good TA, and having had to work with other TAs for large lectures who take what they have for granted. Usually we are put in groups of three to TA for large lecture courses (300+ students), and working with people like that drives me up the wall. Of course, I am usually not one to hold back my thoughts... so maybe they think I'm bitchy, too!

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Gilda

No. I want to work this out between us without doing anything that could mess up her career.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Gilda

I'm not "letting her get away" with it. This is the third talk we've had about the problem. She's assured me that she'll be doing her best to be at the scheduled classes and get the scoring done and enter the scores into the computer, so I'm giving her a little time to pull things together. She was in class this morning, in the one where I really need her, the freshman lit class with nearly 100 students. I'll know tomorrow morning if she got the quizzes from Monday corrected and entered.

I've never supervised an employee directly before. I'd really, really hate to fire the first one I've ever had. At this point, I don't even know how I'd do that; it hadn't occurred to me that she wouldn't do what I asked her to do.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

cyrnel

Document, document, document. (sigh) I dislike personnel issues.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

Gilda

In class with students and in my home with guests, yes, I have little problem with being assertive, as those are places where I'm granted an automatic measure of authority and because they're comfort zones where I understand the rules because I make the rules. I've been assertive here, carefully going over with her exactly what I expect of her, and asking her to start taking care of the work she's supposed to be doing.

It's weird, in that she's not doing anything wrong, exactly, and she's a good worker when she's here, she's just not here nearly as often as she should be. It already feels a little bit strange to be getting on her as it is, as she's always working or eager to get started when I do see her, so I end up having to interrupt her doing her job to complain about her not doing her job.

Yeah, I have sympathy for her. I was teaching full-time while doing my graduate work and had to pay for my master's, and thought I got a grant for the doctoral work, I still did the work while working full time. So I know how hard it is to balance an education workload with graduate work.

What I'm most afraid of is that if I do go to whomever I need to go to to get a new TA, if that's even possible at this point, if it'll reflect badly on me because it'll seem like I don't know how to deal with a TA. Which would more or less be the truth, given how much work I'm getting out of her, and how little effect my pep talks have had, but I don't want to go advertising that I can't get her to do her work.

Heck, I'm so new to this, I wouldn't even know who to talk to about it. She just showed up at my office one day and said, "Hi, do you know if Dr. Nakamura will be back soon?" After I went throught the standard "I'm Dr. Nakamura you can call me Gilda it's my married name I'm 29 children's literature" introduction, I found out she was my new TA.

I don't know, it isn't hurting anyone but me, and really all it means is I have a few more hours work each week, at least right now. I am concered that when I have to start making student teacher visits at schools in a couple of weeks that she won't be there to cover the classes, which would be a major problem.

Damn. Having a TA is supposed to make my job easier, not more difficult. I'm going to give her this one last chance to show me she can do what's expected of her. I'll have a good idea when I go in tomorrow. If she's not there for our scheduled meeting, that means the work didn't get done; if she's there, that'll mean that everything's finished.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Gilda

Heh. Part of the reason I became a teacher is that I don't want to have to deal with personnel issues; I just want to teach.

I hadn't thought about documenting the problem. I wouldn't really know how to do that.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Rodney

Put it this way: your TA has multiple conflicting demands on her time, and in the past she has been putting other demands above yours. Since she is actually receiving a benefit for helping you, she has a choice: help you, or forego the benefit.

It sounds like she is beginning to step up to her obligations, but only time will tell. If she fails, tell her that no TA is better than an inconsistent one. And it's true: you said that she's been adding stress to your life. Don't see it as a move against her; see it as a move to ensure your own well-being. Which she has been harming by downgrading her obligations to you.

As for wrecking her career: she's the one who's doing that, by not living up to her obligations. What kind of recommendation could you honestly give her at this point, if she asked for one?

martinguerre

here's my two cents on the "gone often, but eager when she's there" idea...

i think i might fall under a pretty similar description at points in my life...but i'm grateful to the people who busted my ass and made me manage my time well enough to actually be there when i was supposed to.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

highthief

If it's the third "talk" you've had with her and she truly is not doing her job (and not just failing to live up to your own personal expectations) and you have documented everything, the next step needs to be more decisive.

But as this is your first responsibility for another worker, you should probably talk to your own supervisor or mentor first, to make sure you cross the t's and dot the i's.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

maleficent

To document:
1. each time you give her a task to do... make sure the instructions are clearly given, and give her a deadline. if that deadline isn't met.... document that...
2. Document each time she's not where she's supposed to be... Coming to class and taking notes is one of her tasks... she's not doing it.


since you've alread talked to her once... I'd let the past go... Make sure she understands your expectations... and go from there... If she can't meet your expectations, then she's not the right person for the job, I'm sure there are others.

A TA is supposed to make your job easier... to assist you... if she's not... well then...

I'd also talk to another professor, about what your options are...

__________________

maleficent

Supervising people is a skill that most people have to learn... the biggest thing to learn is to never assume that the other person knows what you want... You need to spell out your expectations clearly, and what you want her to do... If you don't tell her, while it may seem obvious to you, she might not know.

Some people require more supervision than others do, she might or might not be one of those people.

__________________

ratbastid

She apologized and promised it'd be different, right? So give her a second chance and hope she turns it around. If she doesn't, I'm sure there are procedures to deal with non-performing TAs. Talk to the head of your department to find out about that, maybe?

cyrnel

What Mal said.

For new people I like to talk about expectations & duties. Make sure we're on the same page. Find their strengths, weaknesses, preferences. Make sure the first week or two haven't left big questions. If performance issues arise, revisit the early talks and discover what might have changed. Duties can shift, but it must be by agreement. I paraphrase official sit-down meetings in casual but specific language and copy the employee and their file.

Sounds like you've crept beyond that stage. Things can become messy if you aren't careful. I'm completely unfamiliar with school/TA employment law. Speak with your supervisor and/or whatever administration holds the TA contract about corrective action plans (or whatever they call them). What do they expect of you in the case of problems?

For myself, if disciplinary meetings are required those get a summary with a corrective action plan. Expectations are listed including next steps, timeline, and the employee signs it. Verbally I stick to a positive upside until the end. They were hired for their strengths, they just need to show them. It's meant to be an obvious crossroads. Some decide they're done at this point. Others, maybe new to professional expectations, get into the game and become great contributors. If they go the wrong direction you're protecting yourself and the "company."

A consistent chain of documentation and expectations makes it easy for everyone to move forward without dispute. Hopefully this is just an inexperienced person's wake-up call. Good luck! Like I said, not my favorite way to burn daylight.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

Jinn

If she's anything like me (and Albert Einstein, for that matter) -- he was absentminded -- she needs it on paper. There's something about written instructions that effects me much stronger than verbal instructions. When I'm at work (like now), when I'm TAing (in 4 hours) and even when I'm doing homework -- if I don't have it written, I prioritize it into "it will get done when it gets done." If it's on paper, I go .. ok.. I do #1, #2, #3, #4, and I'm done. I know it may be a pain in the ass, but write out a daily or weekly schedule, PRINT IT, and give it to her? Even include each class day and time, for redundancy's sake. Then she has a checklist in hand that tells her exactly what is expected. The next time her accountability comes up, point to exactly what didn't happen per the plan. If she uses the "scheduling issues" excuse after this, give her a chance to back out. "Can you still manage these tasks? If not, perhaps we should both go talk to your department chair about lowering the amount of hours you work." It's simultaneously a reminder that she IS accountable to her advisor/chair/whatever and a considerate question.

My teacher has no fixed schedule on when I get things done, but I've made a habit of having a 1, or at the maximum, 2 day turn around. The only way I can do this is by clearly documenting (somewhere, somehow) what I need to get done and by when.

Just my 2cents..

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

guthmund

Excellent point. How well she does her job is very much dependent on how well you supervise her. As a teacher, I'm sure this must've come up a time or two over your years in school, yes?

How you approach the relationship is also a fairly important contributing factor. Your perception of what the relationship is between you and your TA is going to color how you interact with her for better or for worse. Is it just a matter of you not being assertive enough, clear enough in what you expect or is there some other underlying problem?

Ultimately, she's a subordinate little worker bee who is being paid--in a round about way--for services rendered. She's benefitting just as much, if not more from being your TA as you are for having a TA.

Your distaste for getting this girl into trouble is cause for leniency on your part and certainly a bit of understanding, but it doesn't give your TA carte blanche to schluff her responsibilities as a member of your support staff.

Personally, I'd try to figure out what the problem was, find a way to correct it and then give her a week or two to get her act together. After that I'd put her on notice and start asking around about getting rid of, or at least reassigning your TA.

__________________
No signature. None. Seriously.

Sultana

I dunno, it sounds like the TA's main problem is showing up, not what she does with her time once she's there, yes?
If that's correct, can you get an automatic time-date stamp thing that she has to use to prove her attendance?
I dunno, her attendance schedule *has* to be written down somewhere already.

Gilda, how would you feel about telling her that if she misses X more classes, she's out? Then it's completely up to her. Think of it this way: She's taking a prized position and abusing it, when there are very likely several other students out there who would greatly benefit from a position like this, and would actually make your life easier (actually earning the benefits they are getting).
If nothing is *done* about it, her sub-standard behaviour is being enabled, tolerated, and encouraged...

__________________
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -

Matt Groening

My goal? To fulfill my potential.

abaya

On the flip side of things, I want to tell you Gilda that I think you're doing a great job as a professor (from what I can tell!). You are being extraordinarily kind... that's why I think you should come down a bit harder and not enable the girl.

I am on the other side of this issue in that I am a TA, and my professor (also my PhD advisor) does NOT have his shit together. And unfortunately, I am not in the position of power that you have, where you can call your TA on the carpet. I cannot call my superior on anything.

Minor vent: he has me covering over two weeks of his absences in class this semester, and one of those weeks he did not even tell me about beforehand. I had to pull together lesson plans at the last minute, and then I find out he wants me to grade all the papers they are turning in (not just daily work, but I'm talking major papers that will count for large parts of their grade). I told him, "No, I am not grading those on my own, that's not fair to the students because I know they are writing for you and not for me." I told him I would grade them in pencil and let him at least look over them and comment before returning them to the students. He also asks me to dog-sit for him whenever he's out of town, without any kind of remuneration (this is even when I am a not his TA). It is a VERY unbalanced relationship, but I feel powerless to change any dynamics of the situation because of how much status he has over me.

So, I guess I am writing (and venting) to affirm you, Gilda, in that you are exercising your status in a just manner. I encourage you to continue using your status in that manner, and not to feel uncomfortable about giving this girl a reality check.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Gilda

My supervisor is Dr. Departmenthead, and he's a big jerk. I don't have a mentor, and hadn't really thought that such a thing would funtion at this level. I figure if I do my job well and get published, I can make steady progress and be up at full professor in ten or fifteen years. I'm not in any hurry to get it by 40 like many in the department seem to be. I'm not ambitious, I just want to teach and do research.

I've done what I can, asking her several times to be in class and grade the quizzes and objective portions of major tests. At this point it's up to her. She's an adult; I can't force her to do anything she's decided she doesn't want to do.

Thank you. I'll do this in the future, and make sure she understands she's used up her second and third chance and this is it.

I told her, in very clear terms before classes started, and she's assured me in each of the subsequent talks we've had that she understands what she's supposed to do, it just . . . followed by a list of excuses.

I'm going to talk to Dr. KGB tomorrow. She usually stops by my office to hang out in the afternoons during office hours, which we have in common MWF.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Gilda

Yep, she's getting another chance. I'll be asking Dr. KGB tomorrow, or at least I hope I will. It's embarassing to admit I can't handle my TA, even if it's true.

Yeah, I wish someone had done that with me so I'd understand exactly how this is supposed to work and what the procedures are for non-performing TA's.

I don't know. It isn't something that was discussed when I was hired and there's no formal orientation for those who start in the Spring semester. I think, like someone said before, they just expected me to know this stuff somehow, though I'm not quite sure how.

Yeah, I know, my inexperience is showing. I need to learn how to deal with this in case in happens again, it just would have been nice if it hadn't happened right off the bat.

It hadn't occurred to me that I'd need to write down instructions for a graduate English student. She should be an expert at taking notes and managing her schedule by this time--this is a 24-year-old adult. This'll probably go well with the idea of documenting things, but it does suck to have to do more work as a result of her not doing what I've asked her many times to do.

Nope. I've never directly supervised another employee before. We had a secretary at the middle school, but about all she did for teachers was make copies, and I always did that myself anyway.

I've had three different student teachers before, but that's different, as they're not there to help me; instead it was my job to help them.

This is a brand new situation for me.

I don't know. I ask her to do X, she says she'll do her best, then it doesn't get done. It's not like she's being insubordinate, refusing to do work, it just isnt' getting done.

Right now, she's getting quite a bit more out of it than I am.

Heh. She is my support staff. I know I'm not giving her reason to think she can just do what she wants, as I've been very clear about what I want her to do. I'll be doing it in writing [sigh, more work] from now on.

I know what the problem is. It's that I ask her to do X, she says she'll do it, then doesn't do it and offers excuses after the fact. Not all the time, but a significant amount of it.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Gilda

She's supposed to be at the one lit class for every class session because it has almost 100 students in it, and is supposed to do whatever miscellaneous instructional tasks I assign to her.

The class schedule is 9:00-9:50 am, MWF. Not difficult to keep track of.

I'm going to start giving her written directions, and documenting when she fails to complete her work, if she continues to do that. I don't know if I'm allowed to make an ultimatum like that. I'm going to ask Dr. KGB tomorrow.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Gilda

Hmm. I don't see how I'm enabling. I've made it quite clear that don't want her to miss classes and leave work undone.
That sucks. If it's any consolation, it so far hasn't had any effect to take her aside and ask her to start getting her work done multiple times. Maybe the written documentation will be what's needed. I hope it is.

That sucks big time. I'd never have an assistant grade any major writing assignment, not that she'd get the work done anyway.

Thank you. I've done that. It's had no effect. I hope the written documentation will be what she needs. Maybe Dr. KGB can help me when I ask her tomorrow.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

cyrnel

Heh. I meant perhaps _she_ would wake up and commit.

The easy lessons are the easiest to forget? Now I'm reaching.

Everyone who supervises goes through this junk. The legal tendrils of a badly handled case can be the most traumatic, but then it could be quite different in your setting. I don't know.

BTW, when I grow up I want to be Dr. KGB. Sounds like a Bond character.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195

maleficent

Don't be... There are problem children employees out there... There are some people who will do the least amount possible because they think they can... Don't be embarassed at all... You are asking for help --- you're in a situation you're unfamiliar with... asking for help is what you should do -- without embarassment... it's not seen as a weakness at all...

__________________

guthmund

Have you ever been directly supervised yourself? What did they do for you to get you to do the work? Don't you supervise, in a manner of speaking, your students? How do you get them to do the work?

Same thing in the grand scheme of things, in my opinion. Incompetence, insubordination...whatever, the fact is the work isn't getting done and she's to blame.

But you have given her reason. Sure you're clear on what you expect, but, so what? As long as you refuse to penalize her for her actions, she's just going to keep jerking you around. It's human nature. It appeals to the spendthrift in all of us. Get as much as you can for as little as you can. She gets to make her half-assed attempt at being your TA and still get all the benefits of being a TA.

She's the subordinate and you're the boss. You have a job that needs done, it's her job to see it done. Period. She has an obligation to you through the university and if she can't meet that obligation then maybe she shouldn't be working for the university. Her workload may be tremendous, but I'll bet there are tons of other students who would love to be in her position, yes?

You're in charge. Until you start acting the part...well, I can't imagine it's going to get any better for you anytime soon.

__________________
No signature. None. Seriously.

Sultana

I don't see this as not being able to handle your TA, you *are* handling the situation, and doing it well, as far as I can see.

__________________
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -

Matt Groening

My goal? To fulfill my potential.

shakran

I'll second that. You apparently don't have the authority to discipline/fire your TA. Your TA is not following your instructions. You are doing what you need to do in going to your supervisor, who presumably DOES have the authority to discipline your TA. It is your TA who cannot handle your instructions, not you who cannot handle your TA.

Gilda

My TA was in class today, but it wouldn't quite be accurate to say things went smoothly.


I found out yesterday from the education department that one of the professors there had had an emergency and wasn't going to be able to do a scheduled observation, and asked if I could cover. It was high school social studies, so I said sure. I had to leave about halfway through to make it to a school to observe a student teacher, and told my TA that she'd have to take the class the second half, but all she'd have to do was discuss "Twenty Six Men and a Girl" for about 25 minutes, which should be a walk in the park for a graduate lit student. Hell, just asking, "What happened between the Tanya and the soldier in the cellar?" should be 20 minutes by itself, or the quote about boredom being she source of evil.

Damn, I should have used a whole class period on this story. [sigh] There is so much really good stuff to cover and I can't get to a fraction of it.

Back to class.

I find out when I'm talking to her just before class that she hadn't done the reading. She's supposed to be reading everything the class does in preparation for covering for me, and has the same syllabus with the entire semester's reading listed by class period. She didn't even have to prepare notes in preparation, as I'd already done that, "Twenty Six Men and a Girl" is, I think, eight pages in our anthology. Maybe six. You can read it in 20 minutes. I told her to park herself in my office, pull out her anthology, and read it now, and she should be able to get it done by the time I left at 9:20.

She didn't have her book with her.

I pull an extra out of the bookshelf, give it to her, and tell her to be ready to take the class by 8:20. Put the transparencies on the overhead in the order you find them in the notebook, discuss what you find on them, and generally lead a discussion of the main themes of the story.

Any of the people reading this could have stepped into that classroom and finished out the class following those instructions. I'd already done all the prep work.

She got there at 9:30, I said, "TA has the class, you're responsible for everything that's discussed, have a good day," and left.

---------

I talked to Dr. KGB today about my TA. As usual, she was parked in my big leather armchair reading when I came back from my Children's lit class, and Sissy was doing something at my computer over in the corner. The Olympics were on on the TV, with the sound down low but not quite off, and Sissy seemed to know everything that was going on without ever actually looking directly at the screen. She's freaky that way.

I'm always in a good mood after children's lit, because it's by far my favorite class, and coming back to these two is always a little comforting, they being my second and third favorite people at the school.

I asked her what I needed to do officially if my TA wasn't doing her job, and Sissy, having heard this before, called out from the corner, "Either fire her ass or get a room!" Sissy's theory is that the only reason I haven't canned her already is that I'm attracted to her and the pent up sexual tension is making me too flustered to be an effective supervisor.

She went off on a tangent about maybe I wasn't giving her enough responsibility, using my taking half the class today as an example. Every other professor who has student teacher observations, including Dr. KGB, would have had the TA take the whole class instead of splitting it like that, given them time to better prepare for the observation. It sends a message that I don't think she's competent.

After that, though, she said at this point it's probably too far gone to make much of a difference. She said I have two choices. Go to the assitant to the department head who handles TA related business and tell him I'd like to have a new TA assigned because my current TA and I have a personality conflict that prevents us from working well together.
Everyone knows that when a professor says, "personality conflict", that's code for "lazy ass bitch who won't do anything." Everyone would know what was going on and why I got rid of her, but this gives the TA a way to save face and me a way to get rid of her without supporting documentation and without her losing her assistantship.

Failing that, she said to do what the rest of the people here have said: Start documenting every failure to come to class, every missed meeting, every time she's late to class, every time she doesn't get the grading done, even to the point of recording the date of every assignment I give her and the date it's completeted or failure to do so. When I have enough of a paper trail, take it to the assistant to the department head who handles TA's and request a replacement. (but not to Dr. Deparmenthead himself, who would only get pissed off at being bothered by something this small, which isn't an unusual problem. If I do it this way, which would get her fired, I'd get a reputation among the grad students for being a hard-ass. It took me a bit to realize tha she saw this as a benefit, not a drawback.

I asked what she would do, and Sissy called out, "She'd 've canned her lazy ass weeks ago!" Dr. KGB said that's true, but it wouldn't be necessary because she has a reputation.

Turning to Sissy she asked, "Y'all are Gilda's spy, right?" Sissy affirmed this. She's been funneling me reports of what my students say about me away from class. "What do they say about me?"

Sissy said, "Don't fuck with Dr. KGB. She's the meanest bitch in the English department."

"A reputation I have carefully cultivated. Who's more fuckable, me or Gilda?"

"Gilda, but that's cuz she's a lesbian. Guys think lesbian really means 'bisexual' which means 'threesome'. Dr. Hand [a math professor] has you both beat, though."

She also said I'd made two critical mistakes:

1. Don't let the TA's call me anything but Dr. Nakamura or Professor Nakamura. Letting her call me Gilda sent the message that she was my equal, not my subordinate, and more importantly, it sends the same message to the other professors.

2. Don't ask my TA to do things, tell her what she is going to do. The softer approach I prefer might work with many, but there are too many at this level who will interpret it as a sign of weakness and try to take advantage.

I'm going to let things percolate over the weekend, decide what to do, and start fresh Monday.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Gilda

Oops. She's been here a lot longer than I have, so I was interpreting "newcomer" to mean me.

Everyone who supervises goes through this junk. The legal tendrils of a badly handled case can be the most traumatic, but then it could be quite different in your setting. I don't know.[/QUOTE]

Dr. KGB echoed this. I can't fire her at this point because I don't have the paper trail, but I can request reassignment due to personality conflict, which will hurt my reputation a small, but at this point, negligible amount, and hers, at least in the eyes of the universtiy staff, a hell of a lot more.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Martian

Sissy and Dr. KGB are excellent sources of advice on this.

A reputation as a hard ass is a very good thing for a professor to have. You definitely want that if you can get it. Remember, you're not there to make friends with the students, you're there to teach them the material and make sure they do what they have to do. That goes for TA's as well. This, unfortunately, isn't a situation where you'll catch more flies with honey.

I can give you no advice in regards to the TA. Don't feel too bad about her reputation getting screwed up, though. She's done it to herself. You need a TA who's going to reduce your stress level, not add to it.

Keep us updated on how this goes.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

snowy

The best professor I have ever had was a hard ass in the classroom but your best friend outside of it. He, over many years of teaching, had perfected a balance between caring for students and busting their asses. He wasn't afraid to take students down a peg or two in the classroom by pointing out flaws in their arguments, reasoning, etc, but if you went to his office hours he was really interested in getting to know YOU.

Over time, Gilda, I hope you can become to your students what Dr. Ahearn was for me.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Gilda

Sure. As a teacher. That's a pretty hands-off by supervisors, though. I'd generally see the principal or VP less than once a month except in passing. Most of the time I was left alone to do my job and it was assumed that if there were no negative reports that I was doing it. Which I was.

They told me what do do and I did it, though, as I said, it was pretty general--teach English and social studies.

I give assignments, and they do them or don't do them. At the middle school level, if they didn't do the work, I'd have a conference with them, call home to report to the parents their failure to get the work, have a parent conference, and if that didn't work, fail them.

It's a lot different at the college level. If they're signed up for class, I think it's safe to assume they're there because they want to learn how to read literature better or write better or teach kids to read. They're adults and had a choice or classes, and chose these particular ones, so they come in highly motivated to do well. If they don't do the work, they do poorly on quizzes and tests and get a poor grade. The parental element is removed, and IMHO, no longer needed. If they don't do assignements, they really only harm themselves, not me, though I really can't understand why someone would sign up for a course and then not do the work. If they don't do the work, they fail, and end up wasting their time and money.

The difference is that the course itself is the benefit the students get, they're there for what happens in class. I'm here for their benefit. For the TA, the benefit is primarily the opportunity to get a free education, and she's exchanging her labor as a TA for that. If she'd pay attention, she'd also learn how to plan and teach a college course, which I'd think would be a pretty nice side benefit, but she doesn't seem interested in that, which is fairly dismaying, as I'm here to teach her one-on-one how to do this, and she doesn't seem interested in learning.

I see a big difference. Insubordination is deliberate disrespect, while this is just poor planning or timing or laziness. She's never refused to do work or been rude or disrespectful. Her behavior has little to do with me, and everything to do with her inability to budget her time well, something I can't do for her.

I really can't see how my giving her clear instructions to do A is giving her reason to do B. She chooses her actions not me. Once I make it clear what she's supposed to do, it's entirely up to her at this point. I've been polite and respectful and supportive the whole time, sympathetic to her needs, while at the same time being clear what needs to be done, however she needs to arrange her schedule to get that done.

Short of firing her, there's not really anything else I could do.

Oh hell yes. This is a very competetive program to get into. Being anyone's TA at this university is a major perk, even if it is a lowly associate professor in her first semester.

I have been acting the part. I can't physically force her to do the work assigned. I given the assignments and am clear about my expectations. I've been polite and respectful, as nice as I can be to someone who isn't getting their work done. From that point out, unless I want to stand there and watch her do the work, it's out of my hands.

I think she may have put me in a corner where I have to get rid of her, making us both look bad, which sucks big time.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Gilda

Will do.

I had that kind of reputation at the middle school where I taught, of being a teacher you really didn't want to mess with in class, but that was really out of necessity. Middle schoolers will eat you alive if you aren't on their asses all the time, and if you're an obvious target, like an openly homosexual teacher is, you have to be a little moreso.

But those are kids, many of whom would rather be anywhere else rather than in school. They act up because they have to be there, but don't want to be.

These are adults, adults who chose to come to this particular school, who chose this particular class because, I presume, they want to learn, for example, how to read foreign classics of literature with a critical eye. I'm still a little dismayed that I'm getting only a dozen students who really want to talk about the literature out of about 80 who regularly show up, or who sign up for a lit class for which they don't want to do the reading.

It doesn't require nearly the same level of discipline management, while at the same time it does require the same level of bullshit management. I still have students wanting to sidetrack the discussion to their pet topic that's only tangentially related, still have students wanting to throw out unsupported opinions that offer no insight and with no attempt to defend them with logic or evidence from the story, still have students who want me to spoon-feed them the "correct" interpretation or do the opposite, treat all interpretations as equal, none of which I'm going to allow in my classes, because that would be a waste of everyone's time. I want real discussions of the issues involved and the deeper meanings built into the literature we're studying.

That probably sounds naive, but then, I expected my students to be a lot more eager than they are, so I guess it is.

There I am rambling again.

onesnowyowl: I love it when students stop by for clarification or when my academic advisees show up actually wanting my help with something. I hope I can get that balance too. I'm probably far away from the balance you speak of, and I don't really want to ever be thought of as a hard ass in class. I think students learn best when they enjoy their classes. I challenge students to defend their ideas, and don't accept opinions offered just for the sake of promoting a personal agenda or clowning, but I likewise try to be supportiv of those who are actively trying to learn.

--------

I think Grace may have just decided it for me. Her comment: "She's taking up hours of your time. We could be spending that time together."

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert

Martian

You're allowed to ramble.

Here I go with another one of those hard truths. I hate it when I have to come up with these, but it happens.

The truth is, not every university student is there because they want to learn. Some are, but some are there because their parents told them to go, or because all their friends were going, or because it's just what you do after high school. These people aren't kids, but I'd hesitate to call them adults at this point. They just don't have the maturity or life experience yet. For most of them, university is their first experience living away from home; it's a lot of firsts, actually. They won't all handle it well. It's not a good thing, but it's how it works.

So, yeah. You obviously can't treat them like they're in middle school, but you can't be too soft with them either. Having a reputation as soft or as someone who fails a lot of students is worse than having a reputation as a hard ass, if you ask me.

Further, if you do get that rep as someone who doesn't (pardon the expression) dick around in class, you'll probably find that the students who do sign up for your class will consist largely of those who want to learn the material. The ones who just want an easy credit will move on to something (or someone) who will give them that.

The part that I think you're still learning is there are times when it's good to be nice and there are other times where it's necessary to be firm and stick to your guns. You need to set clear deadlines and have firm consequences for not meeting them.

There's bullshit at every level, in and out of the education system. All you can do is learn to deal with it, really.

In specific regard to the TA, you've done well so far. But the fact of the matter is, she's pushed it to this point. Whatever the reasoning, she's not getting her work done and that's just not acceptable. You're right; she has put you in this position. You're not responsible for it. Why, then, should you feel bad for her having to suffer the consequences of her own actions?

On the other hand, if you do end up canning her, how do you think your future TA's will behave? What do you think their reaction will be when they find out that you sacked the first TA ever assigned to you because she wasn't working hard enough?

It's not that you want them to fear you and it's not that you have to be a complete bitch. It's a simple matter of making it clear that if they don't do the work assigned there will be negative consequences. At this point if you don't get rid of her, you may gain a reputation as a 'soft' teacher, one who hesitates to do what's necessary. That's only going to attract more people looking for a free ride. Long term, you're better off getting rid of her and saving you both a lot of aggravation down the road. After all, once she gets out in the world, I can guarantee that any future employers will not hesitate on account of her reputation. If she doesn't do the tasks assigned to her, she will lose her job and that's that. She needs that wake up call and you can give it to her. It would be unkind not to do it, really.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

shakran

You've touched on that theme many times. I'm not sure which college you teach at but at my college the students by and large were there for one thing and one thing only - getting their degree so they could get a decent job. They took classes that 1) filled requirements and 2) sounded easy. That's probably the type of student you're picking up as well - after all, reading courses in highschool were freaking easy right? Read "To Kill a Mockingbird," and manage to remember that it wasn't a hunting book, and you'd pass the unit. So naturally they're going to take YOUR class to fill their humanities requirement rather than some eastern philosophy class in which, they think, they'll have to work much harder.

College kids, especially these days, have their mind on their career. They're only interested in learning what will further their chosen career. And unless the kid intends to become a literature professor, they're not real worried about learning how to interpret literature.

years and years ago when I was in college I saw the same thing in my journalism classes. Some of the people in the class actually had a marketing major, and the radio class was required for them as well. They didn't give a flying crap about journalism, and it was very frustrating to do newscasts with them because all they wanted to do was fool around and make stuff up (hence the marketing major, I suppose).

The kids in your class are no different. The few who are actively discussing the material are either future lit teachers or are genuinely interested in the subject. The majority are trying to do their time until they get a degree and can start making money.

Gilda

It's cool.

Sure. I think I'd prefer some middle ground, but ejecting someone from class the first day and dropping a dozen students involuntarily after they didn't show up the first week hasn't exactly moved me away from the "hardass" end of the spectrum.

Oh, I have no problem with keeping class focused and on task. It's much more difficult with middle schoolers than with these mostly 18 and 19-year-olds. I just didn't think there would be clowns and whiners and show-offs at this level. I don't remember them from my undergraduate classes.

Yep. Nice sure didn't work with this one. It just took me by surprise that she could get to this level and not be a trustworthy, reliable person.

She's a nice person in a difficult situation with a lot of demands on her time and energy. I understand that, I sympathize, and wanted to make allowances for it and give her as much of an opportunity to correct her own behavior as possible. I like her. I want to see her succeed, not fail, so I did as much as a could to give her that chance.

Hmm. They'll probably be hesitant to work with me out of fear that I'm a difficult supervisor. This is why I wanted to avoid this situation.

After talking to Grace, I've decided to ask for her to be reassigned due to personality conflicts.

You know what sucks the most about this? I have a research grant proposal sitting on my desk, but I need an assistant/partner to share the work with me. This would have been a plum opportunity to get her name on a research grant and the paper that'll be published at the end, and I've had to put it off because the extra work I'm doing hasn't left me with the time to polish it up and find a partner. I hope it doesn't sound like bragging, but this is practically a guaranteed publication. And she just went and pissed the opportunity away without even knowing it.

Thank you for the advice and support. I'm good with the class management; I've never had a problem with that. I taught high school in Los Angeles my first year. I hated, hated, hated it, but I had control of my class and a reputatiion among those students not in my classes as a heartless bitch, but the students who were there learned, and everything after that has been a cakewalk in terms of keeping things in order.

I guess the difference is that those were kids, and this was an accomplished adult, and I expected competence as a given.

Gilda

__________________
I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert