Balancing Strategies for Graduate Students Who Teach

Time Management Strategies for Graduate Students

As a teaching assistant/graduate instructor and a graduate student, there are many demands on your time. You must balance your own classes with your teaching, research, family, and friends. Although your role as a graduate student should remain central, there are ways to manage your time that you can successfully balance both the role of a teaching assistant/graduate instructor and a graduate student.

Use a schedule. Organize your calendar so you know what tasks you need to accomplish by particular deadlines. Set up both short-term and long-term schedules so that you can anticipate projects that will be due several months in advance.
Create daily to-do lists. Each evening, create a daily to-do list that organizes the most important activities for the next day. Prioritize these activities so that you can productively use your time to accomplish the most important tasks first. This is especially important if you have a tendency to create ambitious to-do lists that are unlikely to get finished.
Break tasks into manageable goals and set deadlines for accomplishing each goal. Many tasks (e.g., writing a paper or a dissertation) seem insurmountable because they are huge but when broken down into smaller goals, they become easier to tackle (e.g., finding a topic, locating relevant literature).
Make use of “wait” time. We spend a lot of time waiting (in doctor’s offices, for children to finish their swimming lessons, for students to show up for office hours) when we could be doing something productive. Always carry something with you that you could be doing in a spare moment.
Adapt to your clock. People are more productive at different times of the day. You probably already know when you work best. Take advantage of this by planning to do your most difficult work (whatever that might be) at that time of the day.
Learn to say “NO!” You do not have to agree to every opportunity that comes your way. You should give serious thought to whether this request on your time is something you really want to do and whether it will be beneficial to your career goals. If you are unsure about whether this is a good opportunity, discuss it with your advisor or a colleague before agreeing to the time commitment.
Create routines to maximize your efficiency. Graduate students find that creating routines for studying at certain times of the day can help them get their reading done for classes. Students who are working on their dissertations often set aside a certain number of hours each day for writing. Or you might create a routine about grading papers for the classes you are teaching on certain days of the week.
Get organized. Create a filing system from the classes you are taking so that you can easily locate articles, notes, etc. that you may need for studying for comprehensives. For teaching, organize your filing system by classes that you are teaching and create files for each of the topics covered in the class. The better organized you are, the less time you will spend looking for material when you need it. Don’t wait until the end of the semester to organize the material because chances are, you will be too busy to go back and put it into any kind of order.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel as a beginning teacher. You want to be a good teacher. You want to put your stamp on your class. But there are time constraints that are very real. Preparing for class is time consuming. If there are materials that you can borrow from other teachers or that have been prepared for you by the course director (even if they are not exactly the way you would have done it), use these materials. Especially in your first semester. Concentrate on being a graduate student. Make minor revisions, if you feel it is absolutely necessary. The next semester you could make some more minor revisions.

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Stress Management Strategies for Graduate Students

Graduate school can be very stressful—particularly as you are beginning as a graduate student, approaching important events like comprehensives and dissertation defenses, and preparing to interview for positions. And these events don’t even begin to reflect the relationship issues that you may be experiencing or the difficulties you may be having in teaching your courses. Individuals deal with stress in different ways but some of the following strategies may be helpful in coping with difficult moments.

Take the time to take care of yourself. Exercise, get enough sleep, and eat a balanced diet. This seems like an obvious suggestion but it is all too easy to get so busy with graduate school and teaching classes that we put our own basic needs at the bottom of our to-do list. But when we don’t take care of ourselves, we get sick and then we really get behind. So think of this as preventive maintenance that reduces stress and keeps you in top condition to perform in class.
Find a positive interaction to balance negative interactions. Unfortunately, we all have to interact with individuals with negative attitudes. To counteract this, search out opportunities to interact with positive individuals who can help you to balance out these negative interactions.
Avoid negative self-talk. New graduate students often struggle to make the adjustment to graduate school in the first semester. Sometimes they begin to wonder if they have the intelligence or persistence to pursue a graduate degree. This is a common experience and most students do not realize that despite their new classmates’ appearance of confidence in seminars, they also have moments of doubt.
Set limits and boundaries. Determine what is most important for you to accomplish and when you are being productive. Sometimes when you are feeling stressed about working on a particular project, it is better to work on a different project or begin another activity and resume work on this first project at a later time.
Meditate. Find a few minutes each day where you can sit quietly and relax. Listen to your own breathing.
Remember there are excellent resources available to you at the Counseling Center (call 882-6601 to schedule an appointment). Services include individual counseling, couple’s counseling, group counseling, a biofeedback and stress management clinic, and a dissertation support group. Counseling sessions can address depression, anxiety, self-esteem, family issues, grief and loss, eating disorders, substance misuse, cultural identity, LGBT issues, and academic concerns.

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Negotiation Strategies for Graduate Students

Teaching assistants and graduate instructors have various responsibilities and workloads in different departments and disciplines. Some have the opportunity to teach a stand-alone course. Frequently, a teaching assistant is working for a course instructor and assisting with a class. The teaching assistant may have enormous independence or there may be a great deal of structure established by the course instructor for the class. The teaching assistant may be responsible for recitation or lab sections of a large lecture class. Your responsibilities as a teaching assistant may be unclear or ambiguous to you and you may need to clarify issues with the course instructor at an early opportunity. The following are a set of questions to consider:

What are the course instructor’s goals for the class?
How does the lab or the recitation section help to accomplish the goals of the class?
Does the course instructor have a structure for the class that I am expected to follow or am I expected to establish the lesson plans?
Are there separate readings/assignments for the lab/recitations? Can I (should I) plan additional assignments?
Is lab or recitation attendance mandatory? Will there be an attendance grade?
How much responsibility do I have for grading? What are the course instructor’s standards? If there are multiple teaching assistants, will there be norming for grading assignments (when all teaching assistants work on grading assignments together to insure that assignments are graded in the same way)?
If there is more than one teaching assistant, how are responsibilities divided?
How often am I expected to meet with the course instructor?
How will my teaching be evaluated?
How can I get help with my teaching?

Adapted from Haley, A. P., & Nicoll, J. M. (2000). The teaching assistant experience. Ch. 5: Teaching assistants and faculty.

Some course instructors will provide an orientation to new graduate students who are teaching the course for the first time and will address many of these issues. Others will welcome the opportunity to talk with you about teaching the course. You want to establish a good working relationship with the course instructor so it is not advisable to demand that this individual provide you with detailed answers to all of your questions immediately. Also, remember that the course instructor is not the only source of information for some of the answers to these questions. Experienced teaching assistants can tell you about how grading, attendance, and assignments have been handled in the past (although this could be changing this semester!). Negotiating a positive role as a teaching assistant requires tact and discretion on your part.

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Negotiating the Problem of Misunderstood Expectations

A new teaching assistant was surprised when he showed up for the lecture just as it was about to begin and the course instructor was clearly irritated with him. After class, he found out that the other teaching assistants met before class with the course instructor to talk about what would be covered in lecture that week. The teaching assistant was angry that the course instructor did not tell him about the meeting and wrote the instructor an e-mail suggesting that he had deliberately scheduled the meeting and not informed him of the time.

What went wrong?

There was a miscommunication between the teaching assistant and the course instructor about being at the meeting before the class.
The course instructor was irritated when the teaching assistant did not do what was expected even though this was not made clear.
The teaching assistant was angry and made an assumption about the course instructor’s intention that was not accurate.
The new teaching assistant wrote the course instructor an e-mail that damaged their working relationship.

What negotiation strategies would have been more effective for the teaching assistant?

Separate impact from intentions. What is the impact of the course instructor’s irritation? It may make the teaching assistant feel less competent or bad. The anger stems from an assumption about why the course instructor acted and this inference about intention is inaccurate. The teaching assistant believes the course instructor deliberately scheduled the meeting and did not inform him of the time. Actually, the course instructor thought the teaching assistant knew the time of the meeting.
Don’t send e-mail in the heat of the moment. In fact, don’t use e-mail to resolve conflicts. There is too much chance for misinterpretation in e-mail.
Some situations are minor and you should let them go. Is this one of them? You will need to judge the amount of irritation expressed by the course instructor and the impact it had on you to determine whether you need to discuss this with the course instructor.
If you decide to discuss it, emphasize shared goals. Explain that you want to meet the course instructor’s expectations but did not know about the meeting. Ask the course instructor to clarify when teaching assistants meet and confirm your willingness to do whatever is necessary.

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Negotiating the Problem of Demanding Expectations

A teaching assistant is teaching a section of a class of 30 and a 5 page writing assignment is due on Monday. The course instructor expects the assignments to be returned by Friday but there is also a major paper due in her graduate seminar on Friday.

She can’t finish her own paper and grade these papers by the date set by the course instructor. She files a complaint with the department chair about the unfair workload expected by this course instructor.

What went wrong?

The teaching assistant feels overwhelmed by the amount of work expected by the course instructor and the professors in her classes.
The teaching assistant files a complaint with the department chair before discussing the situation with the course instructor.
The teaching assistant could damage the course instructor’s reputation as well as her own by jumping over the head of the course instructor and filing a complaint with the department head.

What negotiation strategies would have been more effective for the teaching assistant?

Talk to the course instructor. Explain the situation. Offer alternative ways to negotiate a solution to the problem. Can the deadline be extended to Monday for the papers? Can you return half of the papers on Friday? Can you ask another teaching assistant in the class to help you grade the papers and you will assist that person on a later assignment?
Explain that you want to do a good job grading the papers but feel that you will not be able to complete the paper for the class you are taking and provide adequate feedback to your class by the deadline.
Don’t wait until Thursday to talk to the course instructor.

Resolving a situation in a one-to-one discussion is optimum. If this is ineffective and the situation requires additional action on your part (remember to assess this carefully before moving forward), then you should consider talking with your advisor or the Director of Student Services in the Graduate School for additional insights about how you might proceed to resolve the situation.

Most conflicts are relatively minor and can be resolved. But some are extremely difficult. When students are dismissed from a program, there are formal procedures for appealing a dismissal. These are spelled out below:

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Dismissal Policy and Appeals Process for Graduate Students

Amended by the Graduate Faculty Senate on April 23, 2002

Dismissal Policy

The progress of each graduate student will be evaluated annually by the student’s advisor and/or director of graduate studies. The definition of “satisfactory progress” and policies for verifying that satisfactory progress is being made vary among departments/programs, but each department/program should have a written definition on file in the Graduate School. This policy should be communicated to graduate students during their first semester.

When there is a question as to whether or not satisfactory progress is being made, the director of graduate studies in the department/program and/or faculty advisor will write to the student and recommend a face-to-face meeting between the student and the faculty advisor. The Graduate School will be informed of all students who are not making satisfactory progress. If there is disagreement, the faculty advisor will ask the student to submit a separate letter to the director of graduate studies. Copies of both letters will be made available to the student, maintained in a departmental/program file, and forwarded to the Graduate School.

If difficulties persist and the faculty advisor and director of graduate studies agree that probation is appropriate, the student will be notified in writing of the probationary period, which may vary among departments/programs from 30 days to a full semester. The probation letter will state explicitly that the student is on departmental/program probation and state precisely what must be accomplished and by what date in order for the student to return to good standing in the department/program and be removed from probation.

If the student does not comply with the conditions of probation, a letter (signed by the director of graduate studies) will be sent to the student with notification of dismissal from the degree program. This letter will inform the student of the right to appeal, first, to the department/program, and second, to the Graduate Faculty Senate. A copy of the department/program’s letter must be sent to the Vice Provost/Dean at the same time it is sent to the student. If the student decides to appeal the departmental/program dismissal, the appeal process will take effect. As long as a student is in an appeal process, the student should maintain enrollment and continue working on degree program requirements. Students must complete the department/program appeal process prior to considering an appeal to the Graduate Faculty Senate. If the student does not appeal the department/program’s dismissal, the Graduate School will send the student an official notice of dismissal from the program.

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Process of Appeals to the Graduate Faculty Senate

A student may appeal a departmental/program dismissal to the Graduate Faculty Senate only after completing the department/program’s appeal process. If a student’s appeal to the department/program does not result in permission to continue in the graduate degree program, the student will have 15 days to send written notification to the Vice Provost/Dean of an intent to appeal. Based upon the date the written notification of the intent to appeal reaches the office of the Vice Provost/Dean, the student has 15 additional working days in which to submit a written appeal.

Upon receipt of a written appeal, the Vice Provost/Dean will notify the President of the Graduate Faculty Senate who will appoint an ad hoc Appeal Committee to review the case. Committee membership will consist of six senators who are not members of the department involved in the appeal. The charge of the ad hoc Appeal Committee is to consider issues of due process only. The committee is to complete its review of the appeal within 90 days of receiving the student’s appeal file.

The Office of the Vice Provost/Graduate Dean will support the work of the Senate’s Appeal Committee by providing information to the student, the department/program, and members of the Appeal Committee regarding the content, process, and regulations/policies pertaining to the appeal. Upon receipt of the appeal file, the Office of the Vice Provost/Graduate Dean will duplicate the file and send a copy to all members of the Appeal Committee and to the department/program. Response from the department/program is optional, but if it chooses to respond, a written response must be submitted to the Appeal Committee chairperson and the Graduate School within 15 days of their receipt of the appeal file. The Graduate School will send a copy of the department/program’s response to the student.

The decision of the Appeal Committee will be based on the student’s written appeal and the department/program’s written response to that appeal. The student’s written appeal must include a letter of appeal and copies of correspondence related to the department/program appeal.

Both the student and the department/program have the right to request a meeting with the Appeal Committee before it makes its final decision. Such meetings will be limited to 30 minutes: 15 minutes of presentation time and up to 15 minutes of question/answer time. The student may have an advisor or other faculty representative attend the meeting; the director of graduate studies may have the department/program chairperson attend the meeting. In instances where both the student and the department/program want to meet with the Appeal Committee, both meetings will occur separately on the same day within a time period of 1 hour, allowing 30 minutes for both the student and the department/program.

Following its review of the student’s written appeal, any departmental/program response, and any meeting(s) with the student and/or department/program, the Appeal Committee will reach a decision and forward the decision in writing to:

The Appellant
The Director of Graduate Studies of the student’s department/program
The Chairperson of the student’s department/program
The Vice Provost/Graduate Dean
The Graduate Faculty Senate President
Any other appropriate party named in the appeal.

The decision of the Appeal Committee is binding.

Draft revised dismissal policy 03/02

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References

Haley, A. P., & Nicoll, J. M. (2000). The teaching assistant experience. Ch. 5: Teaching assistants and faculty.

Kuther, T. Manage your time: Time management for graduate students.

Kuther, T. Organization topics for new graduate students.

For Additional Resources:

Print Resources

Eisenberg, R. (1997). The overwhelmed person’s guide to time management. New York: Penguin.

Stone, D., Patton, B., & Heen, S. (2000). Difficult Conversations: How to discuss what matters most. New York: Penguin.

Online Resources

Mind Tools: Stress Management

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Contributed by Dr. Pam Benoit (Assistant Dean, University of Missouri Graduate School)