SIAT is Different
is putting it mildly. TAing for SIAT means you end up wearing lots of hats. As a result, this guide is here to give you a sense of the kinds of hats you might end up wearing and the considerations that go with each of them.
Your role
that you may take on while a TA at SIAT could include a variety of tasks, possibly providing design critique, teaching programming, introducing software skills and, or, grading projects (others are possible of course). It is this combination of tasks that make SIAT different, but most importantly remember that your role places you between the students and the instructor. You are the front line that will see, hear and likely deal with students before they go to the instructor. This means that the things you do can have a very direct impact on your students, so please take your role seriously.
You are part of a team
though, so remember that you are never alone in your instructional tasks. Your instructor and your fellow TAs are there to help you provide the best education possible to your students. Any questions or concerns you may have in covering the course can always be discussed with the team as they often lead to better course delivery in the end.
This is a guide, not a rulebook.
You may encounter situations that don't appear in this site. Your instructor may also want to run things a bit differently than this site suggests. In either situation, stick with what the team says, unless what the team says is in opposition to Your Rights as a TA. Working out on a limb can get you into trouble as you won't have much support if you get into trouble.
To help ensure you are on the same page with your team, each section includes a series of questions that you can answer and discuss with your team to ensure you have the appropriate approaches ready to go.
This is version 0.5 (November 2018) of the guidebook.
This guide is an ever-growing document built to give you an overview of considerations common to SIAT TA positions. If you ever feel you need more support, or that anything is unclear in the guidebook, please feel free to contact Andrew.