Training computer science teaching assistants: a seminar for new TAs

We describe a one-quarter seminar required of first-time teaching assistants in computer science. The seminar acclimates TAs to teaching undergraduates in the university, to departmental policies and to special problems and issues in teaching computer science. In addition to coverage of general issues surrounding teaching, the seminar includes many participatory exercises that relate specifically to the teaching of computer science. Participants in the seminar perform much better on student evaluations than non-participants.