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4.1. Math 5000 Instructional Issues for the Professional Mathematician
At UNT, individual departments are responsible for the training and supervision of Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants they employee. (Section 15.1.28 in the UNT Policy Manual.) In the Math Department, the training component is implemented by requiring that new TFs, TAs, and GAs complete Math 5000 Instructional Issues for the Professional Mathematician in their first or second semester at UNT. Math Department employees who start in the Fall will take Math 5000 their first semester and employees who start in the Spring will take Math 5000 the subsequent Fall.
Normally, enrolling and participating in Math 5000 is a condition of employment for Math Department instructors. Math graduate students who have had primary responsibility for teaching a mathematics course at another university or at a Community/Junior College or some similar academic institution may be exempted from taking Math 5000 if approved by the Chair of the Math Department.
4.2. UNT Handbook for Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants
Math Department Teaching Fellows, Teaching Assistants, and Graduate Assistants should thoroughly familiarize themselves with the contents of the UNT Handbook for Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants. Chapter Two contains the university procedures associated with teaching a class, Chapter Three contains information about interacting with students, Chapters Four and Five contain information specific to TFs and TAs respectively, Chapter Six contains information for international TFs and TAs, and Chapter Seven contains information about university facilities and services related to instruction.
Some of the policies listed below are summaries of the corresponding policy in the UNT Handbook for Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants. The policies included here are the ones that are especially relevant for Math Department TAs and TFs.
4.3. Professional Behavior and Appropriate Attire
During times Math Department employees are teaching, working in the Math Lab, or holding office hours, they represent the Math Department and the University of North Texas. In these situations, Math Department employees should always dress appropriately and act professionally. In particular, Math Department employees should always dress appropriately and act professionally when dealing with students.
TFs and TAs should not meet students off campus for office hours. TFs and TAs who meet students anywhere but in their office or in the classroom immediately after class are opening themselves up to possible accusations, liability problems, and legal problems. TFs and TAs should be careful to not put themselves in positions where they could be accused of inappropriate behavior.
WARNING: Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants should avoid socializing with students enrolled in any class they are currently teaching. This includes inviting students to their home, and accepting invitations to students' homes.
TFs and TAs are not permitted to have romantic or sexual relations with their students. (See Section 1.3.23 in the UNT Policy Manual.)
If TFs or TAs are offered gifts as an expression of gratitude from a student currently enrolled in their class, they should offer their thanks and reply that departmental policy prohibits them from accepting these items.
It is expected that instructors will teach their classes every day they are scheduled to meet. Class meeting dates and times are printed in the Schedule of Classes. Instructors may not cancel classes. Instructors may arrange to have a substitute for a class ONLY in the case of illness, an unexpected emergency, or with the prior approval of the Chair of the Math Department.
Instructors who have to miss a class MUST find a qualified substitute and MUST inform the Math Department (1) that they will be missing a class and (2) who they have arranged to be the substitute teacher.
There are only two possibilities for a qualified substitute: another Teaching Fellow or a math department faculty member. Arranging for a substitute who is not a Teaching Fellow or a faculty member is considered to be the same as having no substitute at all
Absence for any reason other than illness or unexpected emergencies must be approved in advance by the Chair of the Math Department. Absences which may be approved include but are not limited to things like jury duty, job interviews, attendance at a professional meeting, etc. Absences which will NOT be approved include but are not limited to things like vacation or holiday trips, giving class an unauthorized "walk," etc.
Unauthorized absence or failing to arrange for a qualified substitute are grounds for immediate dismissal from employment in the Math Department or other disciplinary action.
Tutoring for pay: Teaching Assistants and Teaching Fellows should be extremely cautious in order not to violate ethical standards in conjunction with tutoring. TAs or TFs who accept pay for tutoring their own student have accepted a bribe and will be expelled and terminated.
Tutor List: A private tutor list is available in the Math Department office and in the Math Lab. These tutors charge an hourly rate, and arrangements are made strictly between students and tutors. Private tutors (even those currently employed in the Math Lab), when working outside the Math Lab, do not represent nor are sponsored in any way by the UNT Mathematics Department. It is highly recommended that tutoring be performed in public places easily accessible to both students and tutors.
It is against university policy for TFs, TAs, or GAs to use their assigned office to conduct private tutoring for pay.
Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants are required to set at least four (4) office hours per week during the long semester. TFs and TAs should submit their office hours to the department during the first week of classes (at the latest!), post their office hours on their office door, and include their office hours on their syllabus.
Office hours are just that: TFs and TAs should be in their offices or meeting with their students in the common area in front of the Math Department office, or meeting with students in a previously scheduled classroom during their posted office hours.
TFs and TAs should advise their students that if a student is unable to meet with them during their regularly scheduled office hours, then the student can make an appointment to meet with them at some other time that is mutually agreeable.
TFs and TAs are advised to leave their office door open when helping students.
Instructors wishing to meet with groups of students for study sessions or review sessions may schedule a classroom to use for this purpose by asking Sharon. Five working days' advance notice is required by Facilities Scheduling.
4.7. Releasing Grades or Student Information
Math Department employees (including faculty) may NOT post on doors or walls or otherwise make available any kind of non-directory information for public viewing, such as social security numbers, grades, homework, test scores, etc., that is tied to individual students in a personally identifiable way. As university employees, it is our legal responsibility to protect student rights in this matter.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 allows for an exception if every student affected agrees in writing to the posting of such non-directory information. See Sharon for more information about FERPA and about open directory information.
For posting grades, an alternative is to assign a super-duper, double secret random number to each student, communicate that number privately to each student, and then post grades or test scores using the randomly assigned numbers. A variant of this procedure is to ask each student for a code word by which they wish to be identified and use that.
In order to release ANY information about a student to a student's parent, a parent MUST provide a notarized affidavit requesting the information. However, the Math Department office should be contacted before any information about a student is released to their parents or to anyone else.
4.8. Class Enrollment, Prerequisite Verification
Math Department staff are the only ones who may give permission for a student to enroll in a math class that is full. Instructors may not give overrides into their courses.
As the Math Department is now requiring all students in 1100, 1190, 1400, 1680, 1650 and 2090 to furnish evidence of either prerequisite or placement testing, instructors assigned to these courses will follow the protocol established by the Chair. The first day of every semester will be devoted to this procedure; careful attention to attendance and class rolls during the audit period (first 12 days of the long semesters; first 4 days of the summer sessions) is required of these instructors. Complete information will be given to instructors of these courses at the Course Coordinator meetings prior to the beginning of each semester.
Attendance at the appropriate Course Coordinator meetings is mandatory for TFs and TAs.
Class roll should be called every day for at least the first two weeks. Students attending a class who are not on the roll should be sent to the Math Department office immediately.
Instructors may receive notification from the Registrar's Office regarding students who have been "officially withdrawn from the university." These student's records should NOT be deleted by the instructor until after the term is over. It is frequently the case that students are only temporarily withdrawn (for example, they are late in paying their fees) and many are eventually reinstated. Also, the Math Department may be queried by the Dean's office about these students should there be any question about their withdrawal status.
Class rolls are now available to Math Department instructors in electronic format (Excel). See Sharon for more information. It is prudent to wait until the second week of classes before retrieving this information.
Instructors should carefully consider the content of their syllabus. A syllabus should be viewed as a binding contract between the instructor and the students. In particular, the policies contained therein should be followed essentially without exception. Also, instructors should be aware of the extent to which their decisions establish precedents during the course of the semester. In short, instructors should consistently ask themselves, "am I willing (and is it appropriate for me) to do this for every student?"
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation standards require that teachers furnish to their students a written syllabus. It must be kept on file and contain the following minimal information: the instructor's name, the instructor's office room number, the instructor's office hours (along with the statement "Students unable to see me during these times may request an appointment") and email address, the course number, prerequisite(s) for the course (must adhere to the catalog), the course textbook, the attendance policy, the grading policy, a statement regarding disabled students (It is the responsibility of students with certified disabilities to provide the instructor with appropriate documentation from the Dean of Students office), and final exam date and time.
Instructors teaching classes for which prerequisite verification is enforced should attach the Math Department generated prerequisite memo to their syllabus when they distribute the syllabus to their class.
Instructors should clearly state on the syllabus their policies about cheating. If a case of cheating occurs, instructors should follow through by doing what they have stated on their syllabus. Information about academic dishonesty, and dealing with it, can be be found at the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities.
An online syllabus template is provided in the Instructional Tools section of the Math Department website.
Instructors must submit a copy of their class syllabus to the Math Department Office by Wednesday of the first week of classes.
4.11. Communicating with Students
Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants should announce through the first week of classes that they do not have an office phone. In a given term, there are more than 6,000 students taking math classes, so students should be told NOT to call the Math Department trying to contact their instructors. Students should be told that they can find their instructors in their classrooms or in their offices during office hours. Students should also be reminded that they can contact their instructors by email using the instructor's email address on the syllabus.
Academic Computing Services has refocused its student email service (called Eaglemail) and created a bulk mail service for UNT faculty and administrators to better address the needs of students and employees to communicate with each other. UNT bulk mail can be useful to Math Department instructors because it will allow them to use a simple web page interface to send email to all the students in any of their classes. The only resources needed for sending bulk mail are a web browser connected to the Internet, an EUID and password, and an email address. To send bulk mail to the bulk bail website, go to http://bulkmail.unt.edu and log in.
Because TFs and TAs have no phones, they are strongly encouraged to develop a class web page. The UNT Computing Center's Central Web Support site contains information about obtaining space and support for a class website and tutorials for web page design and maintenence. Keeping an up-to-date web page for the class saves time in the long run.
4.12. Office of Disability Accommodation
The ODA website ( http://www.unt.edu/oda/) has information about accommodating students with disabilities. The same as all instructors at UNT, instructors in the Math Department should follow ODA guidelines when they have a disabled student in their class.
Because confidentiality is a legal issue, instructors should speak privately with any student presenting an accommodation request. All students should be reminded (via announcement and syllabus) that individuals requiring accommodation should set up a time to discuss their needs with the instructor.
All Math Department instructors are required to use the departmental forms for student evaluation of their teaching. Materials, including instructions which should be followed precisely, will be prepared and distributed to instructors by the Math Department staff.
It is imperative that instructors follow the instructions distributed with the teaching evaluations. In brief, evaluation packets will be distributed to instructors. Instructors will give the empty envelope that contained the evaluation forms to a responsible student of their choosing and then leave the classroom. After the class completes the evaluation process, the designated student will seal the envelope containing the evaluations and return the envelope directly to the Math Department Office. Summaries of the evaluations will be distributed to instructors soon after the end of the semester.
4.14. Pre-Finals Week and Finals
So that students can more adequately prepare for their final examinations, special rules apply to the seven calendar days preceding the final week of each Fall and Spring semester. A summary of these rules will be distributed to instructors before pre-finals week each Fall and Spring semester. A summary version is at the end of Chapter Two in the UNT Handbook for Teaching Fellows and Teaching Assistants.
TFs are required to give a final exam in each of their classes at the time specified by the "Final Exam Schedule" as it appears in the Schedule of Classes. This date and time should be included on the syllabus. Final exams should be retained for one year as part of an instructor's records.
University policy requires that the departmental chair retain grade books for five years. Instructors must retain the following information for each class they teach: (1) name of student, (2) record of grades, (3) how the final letter grade was determined.
A grade of "Incomplete" may be assigned only in special circumstances. These are described in Section V.
At the end of each semester, instructors must turn in a photocopy of their grade book records when they turn in their grade sheets. When TFs and TAs leave the Math Department, they must turn in their grade books to the departmental office.
Instructors should keep a current hard copy of their grade book in their office where it can be easily found. This will allow the Math Department access to grades in case of an emergency and will protect instructors (and students!) in the event that data stored on a computer is lost.
Videotapes keyed to texts are available for MATH 1100 and 1650. Students may check them out from the Math Lab. Students enrolled in MATH 1010 who do not have access to video players at home may visit the Media Library to view tapes on site.
Additional videotapes are available on selected topics and may be checked out from the Math Department Office for classroom use.
Interactive software is available from the Math Lab to assist students with Math 1190.
Materials from other textbooks related to the undergraduate courses are located in the Math Lab, and TFs and TAs are free to borrow them as needed.
