Year 1 - Lab/Lecture/Grading: In your first year, you will be assigned a variety of duties assisting with lower-level math courses (College Algebra, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, etc.). Your specific duties will depend heavily on the classes you are assigned to, but typically they include helping in the “lab” components of these courses, where students either take quizzes or work on group activities. You will also usually be assigned to attend and assist with one or two large lecture hall classes. For some assignments, you may have duties outside of these lab and lecture class times, but they should be minimal. It is also possible to be assigned as a grader for a more advanced course (Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, etc.) at this stage.
Year 2 - Pre-Calculus and Recitations: During your first year, you will complete a training course that will prepare you for the next stage of teaching assignments.
After this, you may be assigned to teach a section of Pre-Calculus as the instructor of record or to be a recitation instructor for either Calculus I or Discrete Mathematics.
Being a Pre-Calculus instructor is the first step into teaching your own classes. Notes are prepared for you, tests and quizzes are online and automatically graded, and a pacing and homework schedule is provided for you. Your primary jobs are to lecture and facilitate class activities, and to keep track of your students’ progress.
As a recitation instructor, your job will heavily depend on the professor that you are assigned to, but it will surely include a large amount of grading. Your in-class responsibilities can include facilitating poster sessions, going over homework problems, and hosting review sessions.
Post-Candidacy - Calculus I: Once you complete your doctoral candidacy exam, you may be assigned to teach a section of Calculus I as the instructor of record. Teaching Calculus I is similar to Pre-Calculus in the sense that lecture notes, assignments, and a pacing schedule are all provided for you. However, at this stage, you have the added responsibility of preparing and grading your own exams.
Beyond Calculus I: After you have gained experience with all of the assignments above, you may be assigned to teach Calculus II and III or a more advanced course. -
As instructor of Calculus II or III, you have nearly full freedom over your class. You should follow the textbook and department pacing schedule for these courses, but you have the ability to run your class in any way you prefer. This means that you create your own syllabus, lecture notes, homework assignments, and exams.
Beyond Calculus, you may also be assigned to teach Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, or on occasion, an upper-level math course. These assignments are not available every semester, and you will typically be directly asked before receiving one of these courses.