Before I start grading homework, I thought I'd finally attempt a shortish answer to Tam's query about how the TA (teaching assistant) thing is working for me.
I am the TA for the 1st semester research methods/stats course for psychology majors. (It is a 2 course sequence that seems to do methods and stats together. At Rice, we had a semester of stats first, followed by a semester of methods.) I lead a lab section of 15 students twice a week.
So far (the class has met twice), it's been great. We have been doing discussion sessions over material from supplemental readings. The professor posts the questions online, and the students answer the questions to turn in to me for a grade; the day the assignment is due, we have discussion in the lab. Leading a discussion with people who are pretty smart and have done the readings is easy and relatively fun work.
As the semester progresses, I will be doing actual teaching of SPSS, how to do lit search, writing up results, and other various aspects of doing psychological research.
It's kind of a lot of work because I attend the lectures 3 days per week, do lab 2 days per week, and have to do all the reading the students do as well as grading, writing test questions, and sundry other duties. It's not difficult work, though, and I will probably ultimately be glad to have a break from research (research assistant being the other way that grad students earn their keep).
At the party last weekend, one of the second year grad students asked the professors we were talking to how long it takes before you stop getting nervous when you get up in front of a class of students. One of the older guys said that he is nervous on the first session of each new class for about 5 minutes because it's hard to stand up in front of a group of total strangers and perform. He told us about a prof he knows who has a reputation as a total hard-ass but who gets so nervous on the first day of class she always throws up. He also recommended never to do a conference presentation with a single piece of paper in your hand because it will vibrate visibly as your hands shake from nerves. The laser pointer (a horrible invention that I absolutely refuse to use, ever) also gives tell-tale signs of nervousness.
I was the first TA to do my session, so some of the other newbie grad students asked me whether I had been nervous, and thinking about it, I realized I had been a bit anxious about it ahead of time (because I get anxious over anything in advance) but that I had no sense of nervousness when the day came for my first lab.
I really think more than having a fair amount of public speaking experience in various contexts and with differing levels of importance, I was less nervous than many other people might be because I spent a few months as a substitute teacher, standing in front of a group of total strangers 6 times a day. And it probably helps to be separated from the students by more like 15 years than 3 like some of the other TAs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
One of my classmates tried to use a laser pointer during our mid-semester presentation (in software engineering practices, the capstone course) and, yes, those things not only show your shaking, but magnify it over distance. Lovely!
TA'ing sounds like an honest and not too difficult way to make a living.
Let me emphasize: an honest and not too difficult way to make a *crappy* living. But hey, I'm just glad to not be paying the $40,000 per year tuition and have a job that pays at least some of my living expenses as part of a masters program.
Yes, I almost followed up with "...or at least half a living."
BTW, all this grad student stuff is more mysterious to me than you'd expect simply because my school doesn't have grad students. So we don't ever have graders, TAs, etc.
Post a Comment