Opportunity Description for Teaching Assistant
Berkeley City College
Summer 2011
Instructor: Judi Pettite, jpettite@gmail.com
Art 50 Beginning Painting
Art 51 Continuing Painting
Art 54 Special Projects in Painting
This is a 2-unit class meeting 3 days a week for 4 hours over the 6-week summer semester at BCC.
2 sessions are offered in painting this summer:
Evening Class: M, Tu, W 6-9:50pm. Start Monday June 20th-Wednesday, July 27th. No class on July 4th.
Morning Class: Tu, W, Th 9-12:50pm. Start Tuesday, June 21st-Thursday, July 28th.
The class is comprised of 3 painting levels: beginning, intermediate and advanced.
Acrylic, Casein, Tempera, or Water-based oils may be used. No thinners, solvents are allowed in class.
The T.A. will be present for all or most of the classes and assist the instructor in the following ways—
1 . Arriving 10 minutes early to check in with instructor, go over class lectures, demonstrations, etc.
2 . Helping to plan and prepare some of the painting demonstrations, readings, and small group
reading response questions.
3 . Giving prepared lectures on topics related to painting. We will decide together which topics you
would like to present on.
4 . Support with critique.
5 . Helping with classroom organization. Set-up and clean-up. Students are also involved with this.
6 . Class field trip to local museum (SF or east Bay)
7 . Circulate among students, giving one-one help and support with formal and informal aspects of
the painting process. Classes typically start with an average of 40 students (with a few drops along
the way, ending with 30 or so a semester); TA’ s learn how to engage effectively with students and
manage time so that every student has a check-in with the instructor.
Skills and qualifications
Applicant must have a solid background in painting with experience using acrylic paint and techniques.
1 . Knowledge of compositional skills, mixing color, use of various painting supports, and supplies.
2 . Are comfortable facilitating whole class and small group dialog, lectures or critique.
3 . Able to engage students in projects and help them with the development of their creative process.
4 . Must be communicative, clear, and patient working with a variety of learners, learning styles, and
age range. Students are from diverse ethnic, cultural and economic backgrounds.
5 . T.A. will be willing to collaborate with instructor creatively on the class and help strategize how
to work with the challenges that come up during the semester with students and class cohesion.
Interested applicants, please send a cover letter describing your interests, skills and experience, with 5-10
examples of your paintings in an email or with web site address. Please contact me with further questions,
or to submit your application, Jpettite@gmail.com.
