{"id":1887,"date":"2010-07-21t19:36:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-21t19:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/"},"modified":"2010-07-28t14:28:51","modified_gmt":"2010-07-28t14:28:51","slug":"from-the-students-view-advice-for-tas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/articles-and-essays\/the-teaching-forum\/from-the-students-view-advice-for-tas\/","title":{"rendered":"from the students\u2019 view: advice for tas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>this article was originally published in the fall  1998 issue of the cft&#8217;s newsletter, <em>teaching forum. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>three undergraduate students provided advice to tas during a  panel discussion at ta orientation on august 18, 1998. they were: <\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>cedric garner<\/strong>, senior, peabody<\/li>\n<li><strong>umang dosi<\/strong>, junior, engineering<\/li>\n<li> <strong>jill clark<\/strong>, senior, a &amp; s<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>cedric<\/strong>: one thing that i always appreciate is  knowing exactly what role the ta is going to have in the class.<\/p>\n<p><strong>umang<\/strong>: in engineering, the tas end up playing a  larger role in your labs, and, when we have one of those wonderful  problems that we have to do, we will come knocking on your door, don&#8217;t  worry! we really appreciate the fact that you are there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>jill<\/strong>: i think that an important thing that  you can do is convey to your students that you really do care and that  you&#8217;re asking hard questions, asking hard things of yourself, so that  you can serve them best. if they know how much you care, then they will  be a lot more receptive to you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>question from a ta<\/strong>: how is it [teaching]  different for international tas, and how do students perceive them?<\/p>\n<p><strong>jill<\/strong>: you&#8217;ll be glad to know that one of my  favorite tas was an international ta! it was a physics class, and i am  really not good in physics. he actually had a very thick accent, but one  thing he did that made his teaching so much better than a lot of  domestic tas was that he wrote everything out for us on the board. every  time he said anything in class that wasn&#8217;t on our handout already he  wrote down. he always had handouts so that everything we heard was also  reinforced visually, and that can really help international tas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>question from a ta<\/strong>: is there a lot of  pressure on you to succeed academically?<\/p>\n<p><strong>cedric<\/strong>: while there is a lot of competition,  it&#8217;s not cutthroat. people want to do really well, but they don&#8217;t want  to do well at the expense of others. one more thing, sometimes students  crash. they just have to fall apart . . . this has happened to me twice  and i&#8217;ve learned! my main point is that sometimes students really are  gonna crash; they&#8217;re just going to fall apart, and maybe that&#8217;s the most  crucial point in the relationship between the student and the ta.  that&#8217;s the time when you need to understand that this is a person who  needs a little bit more help and a little slower pace.<\/p>\n<p><strong>question from a ta<\/strong>: i went to a school where  there were no tas. i would think that you would feel cheated of the  opportunity to just go to a professor&#8217;s office with any problems. how do  you feel about that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>jill<\/strong>: i considered two schools seriously  before choosing vanderbilt. i actually called one of the deans and asked  him what the main difference is between schools with graduate programs  and those without. he told me that the difference lies in how a student  uses the resources available at a research institution. so i would say  that the best way is to consider yourself a resource and make yourself  available to students so that they understand that you&#8217;re valuable in a  different way, but valuable nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p><strong>cedric<\/strong>: and it always helps to remind your  students that you&#8217;re a student, as well. in a certain sense, you are all  in the same boat. sometimes we don&#8217;t think of our professors as people,  so it&#8217;s always good, at some point, to remind your students that you&#8217;re  a person and can identify with them. tf new teaching assistants attend  the plenary session at the 1998 ta orientation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>this article was originally published in the fall 1998 issue of the cft&#8217;s newsletter, teaching forum. three undergraduate students provided advice to tas during a panel discussion at ta orientation on august 18, 1998. they were: cedric garner, senior, peabody umang dosi, junior, engineering jill clark, senior, a &amp; s cedric: one thing that i&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"parent":874,"menu_order":29,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1887"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1887\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}