Author: Sarah Damsheuser

This semester as a TA has been a great experience. I think overall this semester went great. Like every class a few things went wrong like the computer turning off and such. I did not take psychology, let alone any other class with Dr. G, so I had no idea what to expect. I had never had a professor that tried learning names in such a big class, or that responded to emails so fast. It truly shows that the professor cares about the students and their success in his or class.
As a TA I learned what it was like to be on the other side of the classroom. I had no idea that professors worried about certain things like attendance. It also changed my opinion on using books on online tests, texting in class, and attending class. A lot of effort is put in to make sure the students are learning and not just memorizing.
TAing also gave me the opportunity to kind of get over my fear of public speaking, having to give a lecture and do review sessions. I never knew how hard it was to motivate the students to talk and ask questions. It truly gave me a different perspective.
If anything should be taken from this experience it would be that good teachers are an abundance, great teachers are rare and excellent teachers are one in a million. And the students this semester had an excellent teachers. The students in this intro to psychology class should acknowledge how hard Dr. G. tries and how much effort is put into every lecture. After all they did have an award winning professor.
Of my entire college career so far being a TA was probably my favorite part. I’m glad that I did it and I am glad that Dr. Gurung was my professor. I could not think of a better experiecne to end my time at the University of Wisconsin-Greeen Bay.

Those of you doing your third set of reviews, blog on how your performance and student interactions have changed (if so).

Considering only six people showed up, I was a lot more comfortable talking in front of them. It was easier to make conversation and check to see if anyone had questions. I think that my eye contact was better because of the smaller group setting. I was alsoable to get everyone to participate without making it awkward for anyone. I think the students may have also liked how small the session was. I also periodically asked if we were going to fast, the response was always no. I asked why the other answers did not work and defined the other answers so they better understood why it did not work. I was surprised by how much some of them did not know. Even things we just talked about in class that day!.

This review session went smoother than the last just because there was a computer in the room when we got there. Everything worked beautifully and we used the entire fifty minutes.

Although this was supposed to be a semi prep for our lecture, I am still terrified of giving a lecture to that many people and keeping it interesting for them.

On Tuesday Dr. G went over some of the exam. Explaining some of the trends and details. Like that most of the questions that were missed were textbook questions. And that they need to learn that there is a best answer,  it helps make the question harder. This day was also full of questions and comments. Attendance to be the same as it was before the test, around 205. Which is weird considering the test scores.

On Thursday there were a lot of people coming in late. Most of which had no good excuses. Attendance looked about the same again. In the meeting after a lot was discussed. We are setting up review sessions and study tables. It was also brought up how much of a test should be strictly textbook material. I thought it was interesting that the TA’s thought more of the test should be textbook only than the professor. Apparently we would be OK with a hard test. This could also be the reason why we are TA’s. We try hard at our studies. We also discussed the comment made about the student who left early but had an excuse. I understood that Dr. G  wanted to make a point that he had an excuse to leave since he makes comments on everyone else leaving early. It was somewhat necessary because of where the student was sitting. If you know you are leaving early you sit by a door not in the middle of the room.

We also decided on topics in the meeting. Attendence and Facebook are the top two.

I cannot believe how fast this semester is going. It is almost have gone. Crazy!!!

The review sessions went good I think. I got multiple emails before the test that they were helpful and informative. They also asked if we were going to do study sessions for the future tests. So we might have a decent turn out for out of class review sessions.

I got a few angry emails after saying that none of the questions were on the test, which they were told there were not going to be. But overall I think we had a good turn out and people thought it was useful. I did get a lot of emails, after I sent out the PowerPoint slides, for the answers. I told them if they were at the review session they got all the answers but if they needed some answers they were going to need to work for it. They had to send me what they thought the answer was and I would only tell them it was wrong or right. No one took me up on my offer to help.

Overall it was a good experience. I was nervous thinking about having to keep students occupied for an hour all by myself especially being sick. But I am glad I did it and that it is over. Candy also worked as a great motivator J

Overall looking at the grades, there were a good percentage that got A’s and B’s so maybe out review sessions did pay off!