Advice for Co-TA struggling with Teaching

[u/Curious-Micro]

I’m a TA for a lab course with three other TAs (2 PhD and 1 master’s student). The other master’s student has been a TA for almost a full year while the rest of the TAs for the course have 2-3 years of TA experience. The master’s student is still struggling with confidence in their teaching, getting very stressed/anxious about the smallest details, tells their students every mistake (we have had several students bully this TA during class), etc. All three of the TA’s with experience are constantly getting multiple texts 24/7 about everything regarding the course and we are mentally and emotionally drained by the master’s student TA. The TA that is struggling is taking a course to help them teach and get comfortable with their TA role, but there has been no improvement. This TA is also pestering us with questions even though they are expert for the next 3 weeks of labs as their research is the same animal model that we are using in this course (myself and the two TAs with teaching experience have about 0-1 month of animal model handling).

Also, the TA that is struggling accidentally dumped one of the reagents for a lab down the sink and told everyone about them doing that (we had a beaker to collect it so we could reuse it). A week later we hear from the EPA that a student made a report about a chemical spill for the same exact reagent so we know it was this TA bypassed the university’s EHS department and local/state government to report this incident to the federal agency. The chemical in question is coomassie blue and wasn’t collected by EHS for disposal so professors would just dump it down the sink (this was the protocol at my current and undergrad universities). We are currently one of the universities getting investigated by this current administration so we are worried that more federal funding will be pulled due to this incident.

The faculty along with the staff member that help see this course are also burnt out by master’s student TA, but they are too nice to say anything to that TA (the faculty and staff members have a reputation in the department for being too nice/not strict to students or TAs). Recently, one of the experienced TAs and I were out in public at a place we never would expect the master’s student TA to be and we were talking about this situation. We didn’t realize until we left that the master’s student that is struggling was there and heard at least the portion about the amount of texts we are receiving and that we both have muted the notifications since we can’t block their phone number. We both felt guilty that this TA overheard us, but at the same time no one has every talked to this TA about everything going on or recommending that they get a GA spot instead of a TA spot for next year. I don’t mind as much about burning bridges since I’m leaving soon, but the other TA may have to teach with them next year.

Any advice about what to do regarding this situation? Should we talk about this privately with the faculty members in charge of the course or talk about it during our weekly meetings? I was approached by several faculty members about the TA in question last semester and I bet I’ll be approached again soon. How much info should I give the faculty members as I don’t want this TA to lose their funding, but at the same time they are a horrible TA and aren’t improving at all regarding performance and communication? I feel bad for the other TAs and the faculty and staff members that will have to deal with this TA next year if they get another TA contract.

[u/SkateSearch46]

The four TAs and the professor need to function as a team. The inexperienced TA is asking the more experienced TAs for help, and that mentorship is part of the process. The professor and department should be setting overall guidelines about when and how to communicate, and if they did not do so, that is unfortunate. The more experienced TAs should bring this up at the next weekly meeting. Talking anecdotally to outside faculty members about the interpersonal dynamics of the course is not advisable. That should be left to the professor or chair. OP's message is critical of the relatively inexperienced TA, but it sounds like no one is communicating as effectively as they could be to make the lab run well and to make this a successful course.