Special TA Assignments

TAs with a continuing appointment in the department will receive a form in their mailboxes asking for schedule and other information to be used in making TA appointments. Requests for special appointments can be made on that form. Other TAs can also request these positions. Here are descriptions of some of the special positions.

(Note that visa restrictions prevent some TAs from taking positions which amount to more than a 50% appointment. Check on such restrictions before requesting an appointment exceeding 50%.)

Each academic year several coordinator and other positions are available to be staffed by teaching assistants in the mathematics department. These are in some cases special appointments, in other cases appointments supplemental to regular appointments such as are described in the main TA page of this site. If you are a potential TA, even if you do not have a commitment to be a teaching assistant in the department, you may apply. 

If you have questions about any of these positions, please ask someone currently holding one of them or contact the department's Teaching Assistant Coordinator (tacoord@math.wisc.edu) .
A good teaching record here and satisfactory progress are essential prerequisites for most of these positions.

Special positions that are frequently available:

Tutorial Program:

The Mathematics Tutorial program typically appoints several TAs each semester. For details contact the program director, Dr. David Camacho (camacho@math.wisc.edu).

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Residence Hall Tutors

(These positions are not teaching assistantships but are available to those who are qualified to be teaching assistants, either as positions by themselves or in addition to a teaching assistantship. The following information comes from the University Residence Halls Coordinator of Academic Services.)

MATH TUTORS WANTED!

University Residence Halls are committed to support our mainly first year student population to succeed in Math. Each residence hall unit will be hiring one Math Tutor to be available in the residence hall around 2-3 early evening hours per week; these office hours will begin the first full week and end the last day of class each semester. Applicants must demonstrate proven mathematical skills through Math 222. Graduate students preferred. Graduate students will be compensated at $15 per hour; advanced undergraduates will receive $10 per hour. Any offer of employment you may receive will be contingent upon timely verification of identity and work authorization. TAs with 50% teaching appointments who have F-1 or J-1 visas are not eligible to tutor. Please contact Cal Bergman, Academic Services Coordinator for University Residence Halls, at calvin.j.bergman@mail.admin.wisc.edu to obtain an application.

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Coordinator for Math 101, 112, 221 or 222

These positions, one semester each, include responsibilities for running the course, such as assisting with making up examinations or scheduling material, and mentoring of the other TAs in the course.

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Coordinator for Math 101:

This is a spring semester appointment only.
Faculty Math 101 course coordinator: David Camacho, camacho@math.wisc.edu.
The 101 TA coordinator has a 50% appointment and would typically do at least the following:

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Coordinator for Math 112 or 113:

One coordinator is needed for each of these courses. The faculty Math 112 course coordinator is Professor Uhlenbrock, uhlenbro@math.wisc.edu. The faculty Math 113 course coordinator is Professor Gong, gong@math.wisc.edu. The TA coordinator works with the faculty coordinator to assist in the operation of this course. The 112 or 113 TA coordinator has a 55.6% appointment and would typically do at least the following: 

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Coordinator for Math 221 or 222:

These are fall semester only appointments. About four or five coordinators are needed each fall, each at a 58.13% appointment level. The coordinator's primary special responsibility is to train and mentor new teaching assistants. A calculus TA coordinator would typically do at least the following:

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Math 319-320-340 TAs

These courses recently began having discussion sections taught by TAs. Math 319 is Ordinary Differential Equations, Math 340 is Linear Algebra, and Math 320 combines differential equations and linear algebra.

The TA meets 4 sections each week (like 234). The TA can probably have a grader assisting him or her. Contact Prof. Milewski (milewski@math.wisc.edu)  for further information.

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Summer Orientation for foreign TAs

The mathematics department each summer runs an orientation program for incoming graduate students from foreign countries who will be TAs in the fall. Experienced TAs are employed in this program. For details contact the summer chair. For the summer of 2006 this is Prof. Wilson, wilson@math.wisc.edu.

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Coordinator for the MathLab:

MathLab offers drop-in help for students in many undergraduate courses. The TA coordinating MathLab is responsible for organizing those help sessions and making sure they are staffed: Almost all TAs are expected to spend a few hours each semester in the lab, and a major responsibility for the coordinator is scheduling those hours and making sure the work gets done. There are also undergraduate assistants taking part, who must be found and scheduled. Coordinating MathLab is a 1/6-time (16.66%) assignment normally held in addition to some other appointment.

For further information contact the faculty MathLab supervisor (currently Gloria Maribeffa, maribeff@math.wisc.edu).

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Math 130 or 131 or 132 TA-section:

Math 130-132 are courses for students preparing to be elementary or middle school teachers. The students and the content are both different from those found in many other mathematics classes. Special interest in how teachers are prepared, and some familiarity with current developments in how mathematics is taught in schools, are essential for a TA in these courses. Normally a TA teaching these courses would be someone with a minor or at least deep interest in mathematics education since it is appropriate to have background in educational psychology and how someone learns mathematics. The course description prescribes not only what will be covered but also how the course will be run. Since these courses are also taught by faculty, appointments to teach them are made by the associate chair of the department, Prof. Dietrich Uhlenbrock, (uhlenbro@math.wisc.edu). But before requesting one of these courses you must consult with Prof. Wilson, the course supervisor, wilson@math.wisc.edu. Two sections of Math 130/131 correspond to a 56% appointment level. A single section is a 33% appointment. Two sections of Math 132 correspond to a 50% appointment level.

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Residence Hall Learning Community TA-sections:

The mission of the residence hall learning communities is to provide a living-learning environment for first year students that promotes a successful transition from high school to college life, encourages collaborative learning between students, faculty and staff.
Assistant Residence Life Director: Cal Bergman (calvin.j.bergman@mail.admin.wisc.edu)

These are generally special sections of regular courses, and are marked in the timetable. Sections have been arranged in recent years for undergraduates in the Ogg, Sellery, Cole, Sullivan, Witte, Chadbourne and Bradley residence halls and the Women in Science and Engineering wing of Elizabeth Waters residence hall, in Mathematics 112 and in the calculus sequences.
A Learning Community TA would typically do at least the following as a part of teaching the regular course:

In some cases it may be possible to hold the discussion sections regularly in the residence hall.

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FIG and BIG sections:

UW-Madison is creating small classes and special interest sections for first year students, in an attempt to ease the transition from high school to a very large university and also to encourage students with shared interests to work together.

FIG (First-year Interest Group) and BIG (Biology Interest Group) groupings link together sections in several courses: For example, a FIG might link a section in sociology with a section in psychology and a section in mathematics. There will be a "home" for the FIG, in that example perhaps in sociology, where the professor who organized the group teaches the central course in the linkage. In the other sections in the group the teacher may or may not have any particular expertise in the subject central to the group but the students in the section will be restricted to the FIG group and so will be able to focus among themselves on how mathematics relates to the subject and also will be developing group interactions not easy on a large campus like this.

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Satellite pre-calculus or calculus TA-section:

Sometimes some of the calculus classes may be taught in a "satellite" format. One faculty member and a group of about six TAs will work together: Each of the TAs teaches a small class, handling both the lecture and discussion parts, under the supervision of the faculty member who is also teaching a similar class. The TAs and the faculty member will follow a common syllabus and give common exams.

A satellite TA would, as a 50% appointment, typically do the following:

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Wisconsin Emerging Scholar (WES) TA-section:

The WES program is designed to provide a learning community environment for students with a strong interest in math, science, or engineering, and who might find themselves academically isolated. Students whose pre-college mathematics program may have been weak but who seem likely to have mathematical ability are targeted. High school seniors with an interest in math and science and who belong to a minority group, or are from a very small, perhaps rural, high school, are sent invitations to join the program.
WES students attend a regular calculus lecture, but have greatly expanded discussion section time. In the discussion section a large emphasis is placed on working together in groups to solve problems and to learn by doing so. WES students take the same exams as other students in the lecture, but their scores are not used when making a grade curve for the exam although the resulting curve will be applied in deriving their grades. There is a special room for WES discussion sections and the students are encouraged to interact socially as well as work directly on their mathematics.
A single WES section meeting three times a week for two hours, together with the same expectations of lecture attendance and participation in running the course that apply to other discussion section assignments, corresponds to a 50% appointment level in Math 171-217-221-222. In Math 234 a WES TA also teaches one regular section.
Program Director: Dr. Concha Gomez (gomez@math.wisc.edu)

For more information see the WES Web Site: http://www.math.wisc.edu/~wes

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Paper Graders

Both graduate and undergraduate students may be employed as paper graders assisting faculty teaching mathematics courses. These positions are paid on an hourly basis for the work done in grading, with a certain number of hours allotted per course for grading for the entire semester. As such they are not given a percentage-time appointment. (Hence they do not generally qualify for benefits going with a 1/3 time appointment such as health insurance or tuition remission.)

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Registration workers

Each semester the department hires several students to work on an hourly basis staffing the Math Help Desk. This operation assists students with registration problems, helping them find sections which fit their schedules or otherwise getting them into their math courses for the semester.

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Revised: December 01, 2005.