Review for Exam 2

The exam review on Friday went smooth  but we only had 3 people show up. We finished the review by 11:40, probably because not that many people were asking questions. One girl had some trouble with the information on Classical Conditioning, concerning the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR.  Otherwise, the other two students did not ask that many questions.

On Wednesday, while I was studying in the Library, Michaela from class came up to me and started discussing some things about information on the online exam review. Particularly, she was concerned about material that we did not cover in class that the review mentions. For instance, in class, we only covered a few of Erickson’s stages, but the review instructed that you know all of them. I think that it’s important that before exams we remember to remind the students to look over the text. I actually think that it’s important that the students know that they have to read the text to know material for the exam. Like so many other classes, only material from the powerpoints are on the exams, eliminating the need to even buy the book!

Also, for the references we need for Monday, I am finding a lot of articles concerning whether or not professors should provide info-rich power points, or pp’s online. I will look into some of these articles to see if they came up with any significant findings. I am also concerned about whether students will do better on this exam because they probably have a better idea of what they need to study for. Guess we will see!

A New Start

Aside from the post-spring break fatigue that seemed to be plaguing not only the class but also the TA’s this week was a pretty good week.  Tuesday Dr. Gurung did a review to kind of get everyones brain back in the swing of things, I think this was equally as helpful for the TA’s.  We also did a group activity on Tuesday working on classical and operant conditioning, which I thought I understood fairly well.  Apparently I didn’t know it as well as I thought I did because in one of the examples when asked about by a student I explained the theory right, but lead the students to the wrong answer.  I didn’t realize this until after class when talking to the other TA’s.  I realized I also most likely made this mistake in my pod on a similar example.  Once I realized the mistake I made I was almost to the point of tears with feeling that I had somehow damaged my pod and their psychology education for life, when I realized that this was one small part of one big class so most likely they are not damaged for life.  During today’s review session I did go over the example with the toilet flushing again, this time with the correct answer, since 2/3 of the students are in my pod.  The students in my pod seemed really forgiving.  I thought that students would discount me as a TA if they realized I had made a mistake.  I realized that TA’s aren’t perfect and don’t know everything which is probably a good realization to have!  Definitely another reality check in the world of being a TA.

Thursday’s class we covered memory.  I sat in back for this class, and noticed that one of the students who seemed to be uninterested at first (i.e. not taking notes, leaving class early, texting, etc.) was taking notes, and though he texted a little bit during class, he for the most part paid attention.  Jared was in a seat not making off the cuff comments, falling asleep, playing with his phone excessively.  This made me wonder, when did this change in at first troubled students take place?  How does student’s attitudes, value of class time change as the students progress through the semester?  This line of thought really intrigued me, and it was really rewarding (even as a mere TA) to recognize this change.

Today I held a review session which 3 people showed up to.  I was a lot less nervous.  Two of the three students I know from my pod, and are probably the students that I know the best in the class.  It was a nice relaxed setting and they actually asked really good questions about the material.  They also, just before the review session started, asked about psychology as a major and about my experience, my classes and things like that.  It was really nice being able to inform them about different options with psych, and what I like about it.  I’m really glad they asked, and that this class means something.  It is one of the best feelings to mentor a student, and to help them learn about psychology.  It’s also pretty cool to be a role-model.

Aside from really good questions, the review session went a little long as discussion got derailed a couple of times, I guess that was expected holding a review session on a Friday afternoon.  I told them 1 hour in they could leave if they wanted otherwise I would stay and we could get through the memory chapter review, they asked how many slides left, at the time we had 12.  We got through the last 12 and ended at 1hr and 15 minutes.  And we all left feeling a little bit better.  The two girls from my pod made kind of a crucial error during the review session, one of them knew conditioning better than the other and slipped, “That’s okay, we can work on it together.”  I looked at them, not knowing what to say, and said, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”  How do I confront the students I know best out of all the students in class?

In other news this week, I got an e-mail from someone in my pod who missed the day before spring break, she asked how to go about getting notes.  I responded with a brief e-mail, and said the easiest way would be to contact a class mate, however if all else fails we could set up a time and go over what we covered.  This was on Wednesday that she e-mailed me, and I hadn’t heard from her after that.  I sometimes forget that students, especially young students, don’t know that asking class mates is the best way and isn’t that hard.

In other news work on SoTL has begun.  I’m really excited to really dig into the research and start looking at what the data says about the experiences I’ve had over this semester.

Until next time!

Technical Problems

So spring break has come and gone. This has given me enough time to reflect about the review session. I will start by saying that I thought I had prepared a lot better for this review session compared to the first session.  Not only did I go over each PowerPoint slide and make notes as I did in the first session but I also looked over the book to help me answer more questions the students may have. I went over in my head and out loud what I would say during my session and I arrive to class about ten minutes early.

Unfortunately it took about six minutes to start up the computer and another four to realize I had no idea how to make the PowerPoint appear on the projection screen. To make matters worse there was no phone in my room so I had to leave class to find a media tech person. Already the session had not started well. This was in part my fault because I panicked a little when I realize I had to go find a tech person.I now realize I should have calmly asked them to pass around an attendance sheet while I stepped out of the room for a moment.   

Except for the rocky start I feel that this review session went better than the last one because more people seemed to be paying attention,  a variety of students answered questions, and they seemed to comprehend more of what I was saying. I feel that the video clips along with the activities helped with this.

Besides panicking there is one other thing that I wish I wouldn’t have done. I feel that the video clips were an excellent idea but I may have gone a tad overboard on the clips. I feel that I should have left two of the clips out of my powerpoint presentation because they were interesting but I think the class did not find the connection to class even though I explained it to them. These are things that one must practice in order to get better at them.

On one final note I think that it was interesting to see that in my review sessionthis time the students did not pack up until I said that I will see them on Thursday. I view this has a sign that they were either interested in the session or that they have enough respect for me that they did not pack up until I was done with the review.

Vacation :)

The review session for this week was definitely a blunder, but I think that I learned a few things from it along the way. The grand picture of what happened was I started off the presentation smoothly, but came to realize the computer did not have any cords connecting the computer to the speakers. So because a great majority of my slides were Utube videos, I left to get some help and the problem was fixed within 10 or 15 minutes. After that, the computer kept freezing and the Internet was taking forever to load the Utube videos. Also, in the mist of the computer problems, one of the guys in my POD suggested that they can all “say that they went to the review and went through all of the material.” I didn’t get mad at him, but I calmly explained that we can still review the material on the slides. After class, I was somewhat frustrated, and was kind of hurt, because I almost fell that the guy who made that comment was implying that “my time” was not important or that he didn’t feel he would learn anything from my class anyways. I feel that I didn’t let my anger show in front of the class, and wanted to keep the flow going. I learned that giving the students a resolution calms them down (leaving the room to get a sound cord, only using the slides, etc.), because the students would start to talk with friends and get impatient at first. I also learned that technical problems leave paths open for more lecture where I can connect with students and ask for examples.

Today’s class went really smooth and I think that amany of the videos related to the students’ lives and made them laugh. Even though 50 plus or minus students were gone today, I think that the class still showed some enthusiasm to learn the material. Prof. Gurung and I talked about how many of the students’ answers/examples were incorrect, but how else are you going to find out if students understand the material? A quick review on the next class we have about the material may be useful, just to refresh minds after spring break. I hope that everyone has a good spring break and that when we all return, the snow will finally be gone. 🙂

R-Pod Study Table

I went into class today excited because of the great involvement and attitudes the students had. But I’d be lying if I said it was anywhere near the same. They were extremely quite and I would try to lighten the mood by making small little comments or jokes. They would laugh and be involved one moment and then completely silent the next. Some key issues might have brought on this different experience. It could have been me or my powerpoint, the fact that its almost spring break and their exam isn’t until after, or they just didn’t know/understand the material. Most likely it was a mixture of all factors but personally I felt as though the group I have are not shy, timid students they all were extremely vocal so from my past experience with them I am making the assumption that they just do not know the material well enough in general to feel comfortable being vocal.

Some different things that happened was being a  little short on chairs so two people had to sit right up in front, the classroom is more of a trapezoid shape with the projector screen on the wall with the smallest side. This caused problems because people on the ends were only able to see half of the screen. We tried various way to make the situation better but sadly the only thing we could do was project it onto the wall. Then because it was on a dark background it was hard to see so we shut off the lights which made the environment very dark. Thankfully there were two windows to allow light so people could see their stuff. Surprisingly though when the lights were off people tended to be more active and vocal in discussion. We ended up finishing class at 12:15 pm and a few people stayed after to go over some individual questions/comments.

Overall I thought I had a good turnout and the review went smoothly but they have a lot of studying to do.

A few people emailed me to schedule a time to go over the material or help them. We decided on the time 3:30pm in the Coffee House tomorrow. If anyone had students that the know wanted a little extra help feel free to let them know.