What is an effective way to copyright my teaching material?

To be clear, I am developing the materials while not teaching any courses or being paid by the school in any manner. It is currently the summer semester and I am not being paid to teach, develop course work or anything. I will have to try and find my contract.

The shows a misunderstanding about the nature of a teaching job. When you're paid to teach a course, you're not being paid to do work only while the course runs. You're also being paid to prepare the course, and you're going to need to do that before the first meeting.

I have finished all of my course materials (.pdfs, lab sheets, power points, etc etc). When I was first hired and told to create the new course, I was informed by some of my colleagues (former adjuncts at the same institution) that I would be paid for my course content. However, in speaking with my directory I was informed that I would not be paid for my course content as it is part of running the class.

Your colleagues were probably confused. Nobody pays instructors extra money to produce powerpoints and handouts. It goes with the job.

If you don't want others in your department to use your lab handouts without paying, don't give them your lab handouts. If you don't want others in your department to use your powerpoints without paying, don't give them your powerpoints.

As Bill Barth and JeffE have pointed out, copyright protection is automatic in most jurisdictions. It can be wise to put a copyright notice on your work, since a possible defense against a copyright-violation lawsuit is that the defendant didn't know it was copyrighted. A formal copyright registration is necessary in the US if you want to be able to recover more than actual damages, i.e., if you want punitive damages.

In general, the question shows an unrealistic set of assumptions about what teachers do; what they're paid to do; and what the normal contractual arrangements are. Furthermore, many people who write have an unrealistic belief in the quality and market value of their writing. There is no particular reason to expect that anyone else in the department will like these materials so much that they would want to use them. Most people prefer to do things their own way.

Regarding your question

What is a sufficient way of documenting my materials and ensuring that any party who obtains them sees them as "copyrighted" or possessing whatever protection that is applied to them?

In the United States (I have zero knowledge of copyright law in other places) the following applies if you actually hold the rights to your materials:

• You can only get copyright protection for materials that you have fixed in a "tangible medium." For example, you can copyright your presentation slides or a video recording of your lecture; you cannot copyright your unwritten, unrecorded lectures.
• You can only copyright something you "created"; if you compile existing public domain material in a way that requires no creativity, it is not eligible for copyright protection.
• You can explicitly notify others that you reserve all rights (the rights of the copyright holder) to the materials with a written statement to that effect. For example, you can put "Copyright 2014 0xhughes, all rights reserved" on the footer of each page. (Note that you don't have to do this to get copyright interest in the materials, but it's a standard way of warning off potential infringers.)

Here is a reference for this answer.

Regarding the first part of your question

Would it be wise or prudent to try and protect my course materials through some sort of copyrighting process of some sort, or something to that effect?

this has already been addressed by another answer.

Regarding your specific contract, you will have to seek further clarification from the university as to who holds the rights to the materials.

I am late arriving, but let me see whether I can understand... a) you are pretty sure you aren't going to get rich off your work, but b) it would chap your buns if the college took your material, handed it over to a TA and had the TA teach subsequent sessions of the course. Is that right?

If that's right then the question (in the United States) boils down to whether what you've produced is a "work made for hire." If it is, it belongs to the institution; if not, it belongs to you.

Getting a standard contract modified, particularly if this is a state institution, may be nearly impossible. I think I'd write a letter to whoever signs the contract saying something like, "My understanding of our contract of _____ is that all rights to the course material which I may develop to deliver this course vest in me, and that the University of _____ claims no right to any intellectual property developed in the preparation or conduct of this course. Please confirm that my understanding is correct." Then get a letter signed by whoever signed the contract that essentially repeats your question as a statement. It will probably be easier to get this going with a personal meeting than with an exchange of mail.

Then put copyright notices on everything. You might also want to record your lectures: http://bbrown.spsu.edu/papers/podcasting/podcasting_protects_ip.html

(I am not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice. If you think the materials are worth tens of thousands of dollars, you need an IP lawyer.)

Edited to add: Take note of MarkJ's answer here and consider putting all your stuff on a personal web page with copyright notices attached. I've used the Creative Commons licenses for my own stuff. Publishing it that way won't keep others from using it, but will preserve your claim to authorship.