Now that the TA assignments have been made, I would like to give
everyone some suggestions about how to maintain a good working
relationship with your TA. If you take the following advice to heart,
then your interactions with your TA will be much more productive and
helpful, and a lot less stressful for the both of you.

0. Your TA is a TEACHING ASSISTANT, not your personal tutor. It is
   appropriate to consult with your TA during scheduled labs and also
   during posted office hours. It is not appropriate to ask him or
   her a question because you happen to see them hanging around the
   CoC building. If your TA chooses to answer questions outside of
   scheduled lab and office hours then that is fine, but they are not
   REQUIRED to do so. Being a TA is a job, not an obligation.

1. Your TA is a student just like yourself, who is taking classes
   just like you are. He or she has homework assignments and projects
   to do, and exams to study for, just like you do. TAs study in the
   Commons area and work in the labs, just like you do. Please
   respect your TA's right to get his or her schoolwork done without
   being disturbed. Doing well in school is just as important to your
   TA as it is to you, and he or she needs to work just as hard as
   you do to "make the grade".  The TAs often get just as stressed
   about their courses as you do about yours - please be mindful of
   that during "crunch" times, like around midterm and towards the
   end of the semester when projects are due.

2. The TAs will of necessity provide you with some personal
   information about themselves, such as an E-mail address or perhaps
   a home phone number. They do this so that you can get in touch
   with them outside of scheduled lab or office hours, if it becomes
   necessary for you to do so. Please do not abuse this information.
   No phone calls to TAs between the hours of 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM,
   unless they say it is OK. They need to get their sleep just like
   you do.

3. The TAs will ask you for two things when you come to them for help:

   (1) A hardcopy of your WELL-DOCUMENTED program AS IT EXISTS NOW
       (not as it existed 5 minutes ago before you made a couple of
       changes to it).

   (2) Your diary (with up to date entries), if you are taking CS 2331.

   The TAs have been given specific instructions by Professor
   McCracken and myself to ask for these two items when they consult
   with students. Please help them do their jobs better by providing
   the most current information possible about your program and what
   it is doing (or not doing, as the case may be).

4. When you come to your TA to get help with a programming problem,
   please be as descriptive as possible about what the program is
   doing or not doing.  Talk to your TA like you would to the service
   manager at an auto repair shop. Telling your TA that your program
   "crashes" is about as descriptive as telling a mechanic that your
   car "won't go" (i.e. it doesn't help at all in diagnosing the
   problem). Be prepared to give detailed information about what
   things you have done to try and solve the problem on your own -
   this will make it much easier for the TAs to assist you.

5. Any 233x TA is willing to help any student in the course with any
   class-related questions. If you would prefer to go to someone
   other than "your" TA, then please feel free to do so.  However,
   please understand that each TA's first responsibility is to the
   students that have been assigned directly to him or her. If that
   TA is working with one of his or her own students, then they may
   ask you to wait, or come back at a later time. This is a perfectly
   reasonable and acceptable thing to do - please respect the TA's
   right to do it.

6. Finally, remember that "failure to plan on your part does not
   constitute a crisis on our part". Please allow yourself plenty of
   time to get whatever assistance you need to complete your work.
   Waiting until the last minute and then trying to coerce a TA into
   helping you will not get you anywhere.  It's like trying to teach
   a pig to sing - the effort will be wasted, and on top of that it
   annoys the pig.

If everyone will follow these guidelines, then I am sure things will
go very smoothly this semester. Most TAs accept the job because they
genuinely want to help people - please do what you can to make it
easier for them to do that.

-JimG

-- 
Jim Greenlee (jkg@cc.gatech.edu)	You have the talent to make me feel
Instructor, College of Computing	like dirt. You use your talent to dig
Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332 	me under, and cover me with dirt.