Author: KATHERINE BRUNI

On Tuesday, Gurung was teaching the class on the different research methods in collecting data.  This time, I sat in front of class with Mandy and watched the students from a different perspective.  Students did not seem distracted, and it was nice to start recognizing faces.  We had a group assignment on identifying whether a certain t-shirt study was a correlational or experimental research design.  It was nice that we were given the heads up on the group work this time.  On my own, I originally thought it was a correlational study, but then once it was indicated to me that perhaps it was experimental, I started second-guessing.  By that time, it was already time to walk around the class and help the students with the answers.  I kept asking is there something being manipulated? And the students would respond with either yes or no, and then based on that answer, I would either agree or disagree or just ask another question.  However, at this time, I was a bit confused about what exactly it was, because the other TA’s seemed 50/50 on it, so I started talking about the extraneous variables- things that they did/did not control for.   I knew either way that these items were right. 🙂   After class, there was a few of us who felt bad about possibly leading them to the wrong answer.   I think the reason why I felt uncomfortable with not knowing for sure what the answer was, is that part of my goal as a TA is being someone they can feel is reliable and competent of the lecture material.  As a student in an Intro Psych class, I would expect this.  If they are TA’s, they should know the answer! All it takes is one time where you told them the wrong thing or they get the idea that a TA doesn’t know what they’re talking about, it ruins the entire relationship between TA and student- lack of respect, trust and reliability, leading to less conversation with the TA’s, which damages the purpose of TA’s being a part of the class: to increase engagement!   It was decided that the TA’s would from now on be informed of the right answer to the questions so we wouldn’t have to carry that “burden” on our shoulders. So I was happy about that outcome.

*TA Mtg*

So Gurung gave us a little riddle of how we can demonstrate neuronal communication by using 2 bottles of bubble solution, posterboard, a string and silly string.   He began by asking me to draw a neuron on the board (a little abstract, but we had the idea).  He then started telling us how each of the 6 volunteers would be involved with the simulation.  Speaking of simulation, Teaching Tips states the importance of simulations in class learning (Ch 16) because it changes members of the class from “passive observers to active participants.”  By creating this fun and interactive model of the neuron, we are giving the students another way of learning and understanding the neuron (sometimes one of the hardest parts in psych).  I’m pumped!  Personlly, I remember staring at the picture of the neuron trying to wrap my head around it, but I think the 10-15 mins that we will be doing this in class will be well worth it.  I bet when students are answering a question on the neuron on the exam, students will momentarily glance to the front of the room to try and remember how we described each part of neuronal communication.  BIG STUFF! 🙂 

Thursday’s class! I picked up on a lot of little things that Gurung did while teaching today, which I am sure will lead to a very interesting analysis of lecture.  🙂  It seems that the whole campus is sick from some kind of cold or another, so there was quite a bit of sneezing going on.  I initially thought that it was courteous and fun (and probably spider sense) when Gurung would immediately say “bless you,” to someone sneezing in the room.  However there were a few times when he would be in the middle of finishing a point or explaining something and he would say “bless you!” and then have to start a few sentences back and then continue on with his point.  Now my question is, is the saying “bless you” to the sneezing students distracting students away from lecture material, or does the sneezing distract students and Gurung is just acknowledging it so people can move on?  Personally, I’ve grown quite accustomed to people sneezing in class so I generally do a good job blocking it out, but when the professor draws attention to it, its hard to continue on my track of thought once it has been interrupted.  Also, students might be a little embarrassed if a teacher points them out in a class of 250 and turns to them and says “bless you!” while they are in the middle of whiping their nose.  haha  I don’t know, just a ponder.

Some things in class that Gurung was doing that was particularly moving to me on Thursday was little gestures, taps and looks he would do to emphasize what he was saying.  I’m sure this comes naturally to him, but it was very on and it added so much to lecture!  My goodness, Gurung can make an earthworm sound like the most important thing on the planet at the time- which is exactly the energy that students need to maintain their attention…from arm waving to pounding the light off on the overhead when he finished a point, things were delivered clear and strong- very cool.  From ethics to biology, everything is amazingly crucial to their understanding of psychology!

Thursday was also the day I got to politely tell a student to stop texting (sitting in the back row right in front of me…duh!) and she gave me some attitude but I don’t care.  If you’re that stupid to text when you’re sitting right in front of the TA’s, you deserve to be called out.   Also, the outside doors seemed to be locked when closed…do we do this on purpose?  One student asked if she could go to the bathroom and I told her go out and in one of the specific doors, she was locked out so I had to get up and let her in.  We might not have any control over whether the doors will be locked or not, but regardless, talk about maximum control/security! 

All for now, more to come on Gurung and Bord’s (2007)  article on review sessions! 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I missed Tuesday’s class because I was in bed with the flu (not fun) but I made it to the TA mtg which, like always, had lots of fun topics! Here are some of the topics that were discussed:

– Some students want to argue or debate a point but feel like class size and time limits them. In which case, the D2L discussion board is the place for it.  Gurung gave us a tip that if disruption does occur, or if the same student keeps raising their hand, acknowledge them but constructively tell them “not now.”

– Walk around before class: proximity makes a difference!

-We talked about our goals as TA’s: give student’s rources  to get questions answered and learn and review material, increase engagement in class  and help them feel connected. 

– TA office hours not a good use of time (per Gurung) but here IS something we can do:  Set up a study table! We decided once every 2 wks or so where 2 TAs can be there (but no more than 2- don’t want to outnumber the students)

– Gurung raised a big question: How much should we cover in an Intro Psych class…I think it is hard to constantly balance breadth of subjects vs. depth of them.  On one hand, one doesn’t want to do in too much depth on each subject because there are too many to cover in just 1 semester, but on the other hand, if you skim the surface on almost every topic, how much are the students really learning?  It is definitely a balancing act, but one has to look at what they want the students to learn in the end…kind of like a bottom- up approach, where you look at what are the most important things you want the students to take from the course and structure it around those key points.   

On Thursday, Gurung was speaking downtown so he left it up to his TA’s to facilitate class.  He gave us the movie Supersize Me,  and 6 questions to ensure students were paying attention.  Although, 75% of hands were raised at the end of class when asked if they’ve seen it before Thursday, I fell in that 25% who did not.  It was a very interesting documentary.   The TA’s took control and things went really smooth.  Good deal!

As day 2 lecture is about to start, I recognized a girl that went to Random Lake Middle School at the time when I graduated high school…I sat on the stairs and talked to her for a little bit and asked a few around her how their first days went and if they had any questions about the syllabus.  One was confused about the break down of each textbook and the chapters associated with them, and just basically how to read the chart you made on the abbridged syllabus.  Although I did talk with students, I ran out of material to sustain me for a full 7 minutes…I should work on that.  I get the whole idea of  not sitting until lecture starts.  It helps make the TA’s look more approachable and could play a role in classroom engagement and connectedness.

It was about 5 mins. in to lecture when I noticed how the students were quiet and very attentive.  I didn’t see one person texting or talking with their neighbor, writing notes, etc.  Its really cool to see and interesting to watch all of the students from the back of the room.  I did not use that perspective in my old TA position.  [By the way, I hope I do not offend when I talk about last semester vs. this semester.  I understand, respect and appreciate both perspectives. I just think its a natural thought process for me to grow and reflect upon past experiences, as I’m seeing the same course being taught with two different approaches.  It kind of reminds me of when I took Cross Cultural Hum Dev and we had to read about a specific topic of our choice, but had to read it from two different disciplines.  I LOVED doing that.]

Anyways, it was fun to see the students’ reactions when Gurung started calling on people.  They couldn’t believe it…they would turn to their neighbor and whisper things like “is that really his name?” or “holy crap does he know my name?”  It’s cool to see that from a professor because it makes lecture more personable, not to mention the accountability factor.  Who needs clickers to enforce attendance when you have students who are paranoid that you know who they are and have the impression that the prof will notice if they are not there?!  That was such a cool moment! 

Gurung volunteered some class members to help him with a few demonstrations…this was very entertaining (especially the face marking thing).  It demonstrated 1) how sensations on the forearm are way off, and 2) how hard it is to describe something without using the words that everyone knows.  Although it was entertaining, I honestly think that it might make people even more nervous to be called on because they do not know what Gurung will do.  Although this adds excitement, it might not be a good experience for the person that is being volunteered.  What if the person did not want his face to be drawn on?  When Gurung said let’s go to the face, now,” it was very funny, but when he did it 3 times, I felt like it might have lost its effect  and the fact that he was drawing on some kids face could have clowded the message he originally wanted to convey.  How does a prof get  around this dilemma, though? I think the most ideal would be for a prof to ask “who doesn’t care to be drawn on?” Hopefully, some students would raise their hand…but what if they don’t? Then what? I guess a prof wouldn’t have to face that issue if they just chose someone instead.  But of course, this allows room for insault or embarassment.  But it’s a risk I think I’d be willing to take!

When going through love how Gurung talked about a few of the influential women of Psych…I’ve never been taught about those women and I appreciate the fact that he tries to get students to learn from an even, as unbiased as humanly possible approach. 

1st Group work! This was interesting…I was curious to see how Gurung would go about orgnanizing this, but it worked well w/ the 3 sit-3stand method.  As I went around, some of the students asked if they were on the right track, and I tried encouraging students to just be open and write  about whatever came to mind (for the first question) and to not worry about being politically correct.  Students seemed confused on the second part, and I had to think harder than usual (ha) to help them out with those.  I think the slides on the different schools and approaches could have been broken up more easily to break it down better for them.  In looking over the papers I collected, #2 seemed to have the most wrong answers.  I don’t think it would hurt to review that again next Tuesday.

All in all, solid day!  🙂

WOW! In my four years of college classes, I’ve never seen a 1st day so crazy packed full of energy.  Before lecture even started, Gurung’s appearance and presence made it clear to the students that he wanted to be there and more importantly, that this class, and the students in it, are important to him.  Not to mention the very fitting music of REM’s “Begin the Begin.”  I think that music adds  a  different dynamic to the class…it gives students an impression that this is not their every day ho-hum 1st day.  I think music generally takes the edge off, and having music play before lecture gives students a chance to regroup before class begins. 

An outline was put up to show students where the lecture was headed.  This can help them create a mental map of how ideas, theories, research and people are going to connect. 

On a typical first day, many prof’s will go through a 5 minute schpeel on what they don’t like in class.  As a student, I appreciate the boundaries that need to be set and like to know about the professor’s expectations.  However, Gurung brought it to a different level- he connected his own preferences, such as the “no laptops” rule, to relevant research.  This shows students that it’s not just a quirky preference or him just being mean, but his preference is connected to research-proven evidence that links laptop use to lower grades.  I think this gives the students the impression that everything is done on purpose…nothing is a coincidence.

TA intros- I’m happy we were able to introduce ourselves.  Personally, my little blurb was a bit awkward.  I was nervous.  In the past semester, I wasn’t nervous at all…I really didn’t think the 100 extra bodies this time around would make a difference.  But it did.  I said “psychology and stuff like that” AAH! STUFF? haha oh well- it’s a learning process.  I like how we all bring something different to the table, all with different backgrounds and personalities. 

In addition to the preference speech prof’s give to students, they usually like to talk about their family or something personal.  Gurung did this as well, but he wanted it to have its place- and purpose- within an intro psych lecture. The baby cuteness setpeice was one way he could do that.  It was a very cool bit and I bet much of the class will remember it for a long time to come.   It gave them a chance to see how fun and interesting psychology can really be.  In the TA mtg, it was mentioned that some students might take that as being a little too wacky or over the top.  But I think it showed students that so many things can be studied in psychology and how there is research that relates to almost every aspect of one’s life- even saying “Aww” to a baby picture.  Personally, I always liked to hear a little about the prof’s life so I can set them in a greater context…that they are a person and have their own life.  I seem to respect and am more interested in them that way.

Brangelina peice– showed class a glimpse of how we’ll be talking about relationships and past and future behavior…I thought it was cool to see a before/after shot of Brad, but with different wives.  The use of celebrities shows that Gurung is up-to-date, and pays attention to the pop culture, even if it is celebrity media, in which we are living– which is something that some prof’s seem to have lost long ago.  It’s important to be able to connect real-world circumstances to things students are learning in class…I’m sure it captures the class’s attention, too!

The Microsoft bit was very funny, and made the class laugh when the monkey appeared on the screen.  One thing I thought that could be done differently was to explicitly say that the letters were in a different order, but our mind plays a trick on us and processes it as Microsoft anyway.  I hope we can go back to that, once we do talk about cognition, so that students can better see the connection.

Conformity peice- this was probably the biggest take-home message I probably would have received as a student.  To actually witness my own peers conform to something as little as line judging, making the same mistake as shown in research.  Many would probably think that they would’ve gone against everybody else…but this proved otherwise.  At first I was like, wow! How did that work so well? But then Gurung admitted to telling the first couple people to say the wrong answer.  I kind of felt bad for the people who weren’t told to say the wrong answer and did anyway, but I didn’t know who said what and which specific students were told not to.  But even if this was the case, Gurung tried to debrief by saying, hey, many people conform and we’re used to being tricked (especially after JUST seeing the camera scenario).  But the fact that Gurung prepared the students ahead of time was very smooth.  That in and of itself was a surprise to me! Very nice… Also, when we watched the videos, Gurung gave students a chance to make hypotheses about what a different person than the first would do in the same situation, which is a very important skill.

Overall, I think my involvement was good…for the first day.  Because it was the first day, I wanted to make sure I had everything in order and all the TAs were on the same page. Most of my interaction with students was telling them where there was an open spot, not to sit on the back 6 chairs, make a name sign, etc.  In the future I plan to use this time to talk and relate with the students– something thats important to me as well as my role as a TA.