Skip to main content

ta-welcome

Subject: CS 3100 TA Welcome - Planning Kickoff & What's Ahead

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the CS 3100 teaching team! I'm excited to officially bring everyone together as we prepare for what promises to be a great semester.

TL;DR: The only thing you need to do before the semester starts is complete this quick form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScF7y1aIYSmmm4EHfs7lx3wFyqNyMYEU_FWRJ4XMzB_ldkWLQ/viewform?usp=dialog

The rest of this email is purely informational—read it if you're curious, but there's no pressure until we meet in January!

We've assembled a great team of 27 TAs for Spring 2026:

  • 8 TAs who just completed CS 3100 this past semester—your fresh perspective on the student experience will be invaluable
  • 17 returning TAs bringing expertise and continuity from this and other related courses
  • A diverse mix of 14 undergraduates, 12 MS students, and 1 PhD student

On the instructor side, you'll be working with Prof. Bell, Prof. Spertus, Prof. Vesely, and Prof. Shesh—we also bring a wide range of experiences and backgrounds to the course. We will also be collaborating with Prof. Lee who is currently a visiting professor in NYC, offerring a version of our course to Northeastern NYC Scholars (on a somewhat different schedule).

We're also thrilled to have Tim Howard as our Academic Coordinator. Tim will manage TA hours, scheduling, and provide much-needed administrative support for our teaching team. You'll be hearing from Tim throughout the semester—he's an essential part of making this operation run smoothly.

Together, we're supporting 426 students currently enrolled. This is a major undertaking, and I'm confident that our diverse team brings exactly the range of strengths and perspectives we need to make it successful.

If you'd like to get a head start on understanding the course, visit the course website at https://neu-pdi.github.io/cs3100-public-resources/schedule — we already have draft lecture notes and project information posted.

Immediate Action Items​

Before you head off for winter break (or if you're already enjoying it!), please complete this brief form to help us with planning:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScF7y1aIYSmmm4EHfs7lx3wFyqNyMYEU_FWRJ4XMzB_ldkWLQ/viewform?usp=dialog

We need three key pieces of information:

1. Kickoff Meeting Availability​

We're planning two 1-hour kickoff meetings on January 5th and January 6th. Please indicate your availability so we can find a time that works for as many people as possible.

2. Weekly Staff Meeting Availability​

We'll have a 1-hour weekly staff meeting throughout the semester. Please indicate which time blocks work for your schedule so we can find the best recurring slot.

3. Lab Facilitation Interest & Availability​

Lab facilitation is a critical role for CS 3100. We need 2 facilitators per lab section to ensure students get the support they need. Each TA can sign up to facilitate 0-3 labs based on their schedule and interest.

Please indicate:

  • Which lab sections fit your schedule
  • How many labs you'd be interested in facilitating (0-3)

What's Coming: Staff Organization (Preview)​

We want to be transparent about how we're thinking about organizing the staff—but we're intentionally not finalizing anything until our first meeting so that everyone has a chance to provide input.

Here's the high-level picture we're considering:

Communication Platform​

We're planning to use a dedicated Discord server for TA coordination. This will allow us to:

  • Communicate quickly about coverage needs and questions
  • Have dedicated channels for different roles and responsibilities
  • Build community within our team

Organizational Structure​

We're envisioning a structure where:

  • All TAs share core responsibilities (grading and office hours)
  • Each TA takes on 1-2 specialized roles based on their interests and strengths
  • For each specialized role, there are 1-2 "leads" who are accountable for coordination
  • We have clear documentation and support for each role

Specialized Roles (Food for Thought)​

As you may recall from the hiring process, we're offering a menu of specialized roles. If you haven't already, start thinking about where you might want to contribute:

  • Content Development: Assignment playtesting and quality assurance, coordinating just-in-time revisions to the course materials, maintaining office hours briefings
  • Community Building: Discussion forum moderation, study group organization
  • Lab Facilitation: Leading in-person lab sessions (our highest priority role)
  • Additional Student Support: Assignment postmortem facilitation, group project mentoring
  • AI Coding Assistant Research & Support: This is a novel area—how to effectively teach students to use AI coding tools is an open question and an active area of CS education research. Activities include organizing workshops, collecting student feedback, facilitating online discussions about AI tool usage, and potentially collaborating on a CS education research project. If you're interested in the intersection of AI tools and pedagogy, this could be a unique opportunity.
  • Infrastructure Team: Works with instructors, staff, and students to identify key improvements that can be implemented in our open-source CourseOps platform, Pawtograder. Collects requirements and, where feasible, provides implementations. Great for TAs interested in software engineering, open-source contribution, or educational technology.

We'll discuss all of this in detail at our kickoff meeting—your input will help shape how we actually implement these ideas. Suggestions for new roles or activities are welcome!

I want to acknowledge the significant commitment you're all making by joining this team. Running a course of this scale requires real coordination and effort, and I'm genuinely excited to work alongside each of you.

Please enjoy a restful winter break. Recharge, spend time with people you care about, and come back in January ready to collaborate. The form above is the only thing we're asking for right now—everything else can wait until we're all together.

Looking forward to our kickoff meeting and a great semester ahead!

Warm regards,

Prof. Bell (on behalf of Profs. Spertus, Vesely, Lee, and Shesh)

Google Form Structure​

Form Title: CS 3100 TA Welcome - Kickoff Planning

Form Description: Please complete this brief form to help us plan our kickoff meeting and lab assignments. This should take less than 5 minutes.

Question 1: Name​

Question Type: Short answer text

Question Text: What is your name?

Question 2: Email​

Question Type: Short answer text

Question Text: What is your email address?

Question 3: Kickoff Meeting Availability - January 5th​

Question Type: Checkbox (select all that apply)

Question Text: What times are you available on Monday, January 5th? (Select all that apply - Eastern Time)

Options: 10:00 am - 11:00 am ET 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm ET 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm ET 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm ET Not available on January 5th

Question 4: Kickoff Meeting Availability - January 6th​

Question Type: Checkbox (select all that apply)

Question Text: What times are you available on Tuesday, January 6th? (Select all that apply - Eastern Time)

Options: 10:00 am - 11:00 am ET 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm ET 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm ET 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm ET Not available on January 6th

Question 5: Weekly Staff Meeting Availability​

Question Type: Checkbox (select all that apply)

Question Text: Which 1-hour time blocks are you available for weekly staff meetings? (Select all that apply - Eastern Time)

Options: Tuesday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET Tuesday 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET Tuesday 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET Tuesday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm ET Tuesday 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET Tuesday 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET Wednesday 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET Wednesday 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET Wednesday 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET Thursday 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET Thursday 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET Thursday 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET Friday 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET Friday 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET Friday 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET Friday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm ET Friday 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET

Question 6: Lab Facilitation Interest​

Question Type: Multiple choice

Question Text: How many lab sections are you interested in facilitating this semester? (Each lab is ~1.5 hours)

Options: 0 - I prefer not to facilitate labs 1 lab section 2 lab sections 3 lab sections

Question 7: Lab Section Availability​

Question Type: Checkbox (select all that apply)

Question Text: Which lab sections could you potentially facilitate? (Select all that fit your schedule)

Options: Oakland, CA - Tuesday 10:35 am - 12:15 pm PT Oakland, CA - Tuesday 12:25 pm - 2:05 pm PT Oakland, CA - Tuesday 3:00 pm - 4:40 pm PT Boston - Monday 8:00 am - 9:40 am ET Boston - Monday 9:50 am - 11:30 am ET Boston - Monday 11:45 am - 1:25 pm ET Boston - Monday 3:25 pm - 5:05 pm ET Boston - Monday 5:15 pm - 6:55 pm ET I prefer not to facilitate labs

Question 8: Lab Scheduling Preferences​

Question Type: Multiple choice

Question Text: If you're facilitating multiple labs, do you have a preference for how they're scheduled?

Options: Prefer back-to-back labs (get them done in one block) No preference Prefer labs spread out (not back-to-back)

Question 9: Additional Lab Scheduling Notes​

Question Type: Short answer text (optional)

Question Text: Any other scheduling constraints or preferences we should know about for lab assignments? (e.g., "Can only do morning labs due to work schedule", "Would love to pair with a specific TA", "Have a class conflict certain weeks")

Question 10: Additional Comments​

Question Type: Text area (long answer)

Question Text: Is there anything else you'd like us to know as we plan for the semester? (Optional)

Form Settings Notes:

  • Collect email addresses for response tracking
  • Allow response editing so TAs can update availability if needed
  • Send confirmation emails with response summary