TA Check List (Once You've Been Hired)

Congratulations!  You’ve been offered a Teaching Assistantship in the School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences!  Here’s a checklist to get you going for your appointment:

Before Your Academic Student Employee (ASE) Appointment Begins

Appointments run from the 16^th of the month before the start of the quarter until the 15^th of the month that the course ends.

___ PAYROLL

If you’ve been on payroll at the UW within the last year, you don’t need to redo your payroll paperwork, but if you haven’t, please come by FSH 116 and ask to fill out payroll paperwork. Be sure to bring either a current passport OR your driver’s license AND social security card or birth certificate. Your first paycheck should be issued on the 10^th of the month after the start of the course. If you haven’t signed up for direct deposit for your checks, it is highly recommended that you come by FSH 116 and sign up, but it generally takes a couple of weeks to process that request. 

___  GAIP HEALTH INSURANCE

If you’re on an eligible ASE appointment at 50% effort, you are provided GAIP Health Insurance.  You need to re-enroll annually in September regardless of your previous coverage.  Additionally, if you start an ASE appointment for the first time on a later quarter, you will need to enroll online by the end of the first month of coverage (i.e.: Jan. 31^st for Winter Quarter appointments starting on Dec. 16^th).  Enroll at:

• http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benefits/insure/gaip/deadlines.html

For general information about the policy and all questions, please go to:

• http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benefits/insure/gaip/

___  APPOINTMENT LETTER AND JOB DESCRIPTION

You should all receive an appointment letter for your TA'ship about 3 weeks before the appointment starts, unless you were hired late.  This should  include a job description.  All SAFS TA's get mailboxes in FSH 113 even if you aren't a SAFS grad student so that your students may drop assignments off to you, etc.  Please check it regularly.  There is quite a bit of information about Graduate Student Service Appointments on the Graduate School’s webpage.

___  FIRST AID/CPR CERTIFICATION

If you’re TA’ing for a course which has either a lab or field component, you’re required to have current First Aid/CPR certification on file through the last date of the TA-ship.  Your job description should note whether this certification is required.  If we do not have current certification before your first lab or field trip, your TA position may be rescinded.

If you have current certification, send a COPY of it through campus mail to SAFS Student Services, UW Box 355020. If you are not currently certified, SAFS will pay for your certification, up to $60.

Best resource on campus for taking this course is through UW Environmental Health and Safety.  If a course from EH&S works in your schedule, please email safs@u.washington.edu and we’ll provide the budget number information that you’ll need to register yourself on their website. 

For those of you who can't make it to the UW courses, you may locate your own Adult CPR and First Aid Course on the Seattle Red Cross website (pay yourself and bring the receipt and copy of card to us and we'll reimburse you up to $60).

___  ANIMAL CARE CERTIFICATION

All TA-ships for courses that involve potential interactions with live vertebrates require that the TA go through Animal Care Certification, an online course. Your job description should note whether this training is necessary. Information on the certification procedure is available online. A copy of your certificate should be sent to SAFS Student Services, Box 355020; please keep your original.  If we do not have current certification before your first lab or field trip, your TA position may be rescinded.

___  TA TRAININGS (both UW and COFS)

If you have been hired prior to Autumn Quarter for a TA-ship starting within the next academic year, you are required to, if at all possible, attend both the UW TA Conference and the COFS TA Practical Training (both usually the 3^rd week in September).  You need to attend each of these ONCE while you’re here at the UW.  You will register for credit for each of these and this will prove your attendance in subsequent years.  You should be emailed information about both of these by early September, but if you haven’t heard anything, please email safs@u.washington.edu and we’ll provide you the information.  There will also be ongoing TA trainings, brownbags, etc. coordinated by the SAFS Lead TA for which you’ll be notified via email throughout the academic year.  Please take advantage of these opportunities.  If you haven’t attended the Autumn Trainings, you should attend the trainings offered throughout the year.

___  INTERNATIONAL TA TRAINING

The Graduate School requires all international student TAs in their first two quarters of teaching to attend the CIDR International TA Program. Below are links to more information: 

• CIDR Training for International TAs
• Requirements for International Graduate Students

___  REGISTERING FOR CREDIT FOR UW AND COFS TA TRAINING

In addition for registering for the conference and COFS TA Training, it is best if you actually register for credit for both of the trainings above, at least once.  This will allow us to see who has completed the trainings in future years.  For more info, email safs@u.washington.edu in mid-September.

___  VAN TRAINING

If your job duties/description requires you to drive a 12 passenger van from UW Fleet Services, as of July 1, 2007, you now need to go through driver training and be certified online. It generally takes a couple of days, so don't wait until the last minute.

Steps to take:

1. Open up the UW Fleet Services webpage, print out the two pieces of paper, and sign and date them.
2. Read the training material.
3. Select the " ONLINE USER SYSTEM" link on the UW Fleet Services webpage. Follow the steps (a. – i.) entering Lin Murdock's UW netid (linm@u) as your supervisor.
4. Bring the signed and dated forms to your designated motorpool supervisor. Lin Murdock is the supervisor for all TA’s and RA’s for the purposes of this training.

Please put the forms and a copy of your driver's license in Lin's box at the front desk. We'll make copies of both for your file and log in to the UW Fleet Services system, verifying that you've completed the training.

Once Your Appointment Begins

ACCESS TO CLASS LISTS THROUGH MYUW:

Shortly before the quarter begins, we’ll add you in as a TA to your course/labs.  Once you're in the database, you can log onto MyUW, click on the teaching tab and access lists of students enrolled.  You should also be able to access other course resources through Catalyst.  If your class is co-listed with another department, we will send the other departments your info so they can add you to the co-listed class.  If you can’t see all of your sections in MyUW, please let me know by emailing safs@u.washington.edu.

LAB SAFETY

If you're in a wetlab or the field for your course, you should have either attended the UW Lab Safety training in the past or in the case of Autumn Quarter, be registered to attend during Grad Student Orientation.  In Autumn, you’ll be sent the registration information via email. If you've attended in the past and you'd like us to note it in your appointment file, please email safs@u.washington.edu.

BUILDING ACCESS

Most of you have building access to FSH already. If not, we're adding it onto your husky card so you can get in on the evenings and weekends. Test it before you really need it.

AV ACCESS IN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CLASSROOMS:

If the lecture for your course is happening in a general assignment classroom that has built-in AV equipment (FSH 102, 107 or 108), you should talk with your faculty instructor and determine whether you'll need to be able to log in on the equipment.  If so, check out the FAQ's for information and a form to request an account:

http://www.washington.edu/classroom/computing/FAQ.html

Also, you will want to sign out an AV key if your classroom has an AV closet or cabinet. You may sign one out at MGH 097 or Kane 035B.

RESERVING AV, INSTRUCTIONAL EQUIPMENT AND SPACE FROM THE SAFS FRONT DESK

We have a vast array of AV equipment (LCD projectors, overheads, slide projectors, etc.) as well as lab/field equipment available to you for your class.  We also have conference rooms, computer labs and other space available.  For all of these reservations, you may check the following webpage for information and reservation procedures: http://depts.washington.edu/safs/res/.

EMERGENCY SITUATION RESPONSIBILITIES

SAFS has an Emergency Plan for events such as earthquakes, gas leaks, violent situations on campus, etc.  Since you will often, in your role as a TA, be the person in charge of a group of students in and out of the building, we ask that you step into the role of keeping our students as safe as you are able. The full Emergency Plan is available as a downloadable file (MS Word):

• http://fish.washington.edu/admin_resources/docs/emergency_plan_SAFS.doc

Specific procedures/reponsibilities will be attached to your graduate student appointment letter and are also available online at:

• Checklist 3: Faculty/Lecturer/TAs Duties and Responsibilities
• Appendix K: Classrooms and Teaching Laboratories Emergency Procedures for Faculty, Lecturers, and Teaching Assistants

PURCHASING

If you're involved in purchasing supplies, renting motorpool vans, etc. for your class, please be sure that you try to use the project code specific to your course.  What this means is that you'll use the budget number and then, usually in parentheses, you'll want to put a 4 digit number that is 1+ your course number.  For instance, the project code for Fish 250 is (1250).  This allows us to track real costs for each individual course.