The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
Mark Van Doren
Why Become a Teaching Assistant?
While HUB tutors work with individual students by appointment or on a drop-in basis, teaching assistants work at a class level, supporting faculty who are integrating more writing into their curricula and/or teaching multidisciplinary courses in the New Core, working with their students, individually and in small groups.
HUB teaching assistants assist in discovery, here to help students more fully understand the role writing plays in their learning, to help them demonstrate what they’ve learned and to integrate that learning with their own experience and ideas.
HUB TAs come from all majors will all kinds of skills and strengths. Ideally, teaching assistants will be assigned to work with classes in their major; however, that is not always possible nor absolutely necessary. Teaching assistants are (usually) SCU students for whom teaching is part of their futures. Working as a teaching assistant allows students to participate in the teaching process beyond individual performance, from helping faculty to design writing assignments and grading rubrics to helping students grapple with those assignments, responding more fully and completely than they would without this assistance.
Steps in Becoming a HUB Teaching Assistant
- Complete prerequisite courses with grades of “B” or better,
- Submit application letter and letter of recommendation;
- participate in a group interview, and
- respond to a sample student paper.
Prerequisites
Writing 1 and 2 or Critical Thinking and Writing 1 and 2 and English 197: Practicum for Writing Tutors (previously, English 190a). N.B. English 197 meets the Third Writing/Advanced Writing core requirements.
Application
Send a letter of application to Dolores laGuardia, HUB Director (at dlaguardia@scu.edu). Explain why you want to be a HUB TA and what particular skills, interests, and experiences you have to contribute. Include a letter of recommendation written by a previous instructor or employer who can attest to your helpfulness, writing skills, creativity, ability to work well with others and/or any other information to support your application.
