Author: Josh Vanden Busch

So, this was definitely my off week. Something was just…not right with me. I don’t know what it was, but it effected my performance and I really resent that. I am a perfectionist at heart, and I don’t like walking away from something not feeling like I did my own personal best, and that definitely described my week (not my personal best). Anyhow, I don’t mean to sound negative, but it was definitely disappointing.

I took some initiative and decided to get all the supplies for the neuron activity while I was out. Finding bubbles was the hardest part. They didn’t have any anywhere, so my mom and I had to get some from the bridal section! Hahaha! They had frilly ribbon on them, so I cut those off before coming to class. I prepped about six of them just in case, knowing that we probably only needed three.

During the first part of class, Katie and I stepped out to do a brief runthrough of the neuron demonstration. I definitely wish we had some time to do that earlier (like the day before or whatever) because I had this god-awful headache and was simply unable to focus on anything. We talked about what we should have the last person in the line do and I jokingly came up with “Shazam.” Katie actually liked it so she went with it.
She definitely did a much better job than I did. I’m not sure what to attribute that to. I have a lot of experience being in front of people and have a musical theatre background…so it should not have been an issue. However, it was my first real chance having face-time with the class and this was the day that
I had heard someone had told some people personal info about me (what I referenced in our recent TA meeting). I’m a strong person but was vulnerable that day – I was getting really sick. Something that continued for a few weeks.
I would have been much more comfortable doing what Katie did in this activity. I felt like I got stuck with all the boring stuff- getting the supplies and identifying the parts. I was really uncomfortable doing the identifying because I really didn’t feel like I knew it well enough to be doing that section of the activity. I felt like a lot more responsibility for the activity was placed on me, but part of that was most certainly my doing (offering to get the supplies). Katie is awesome – and I think her knowledge of psychology that goes beyond mine could have been used to do what I did. It was my first time to really be in front of the class and I would like for them to see me as I am when I’m excited and enthusiastic. That was just not the case that day due to a number of factors listed above. I walked away from that activity feeling like a failure and that my creativity had not really been visible (as I had contributed to some of it). The fact that students really didn’t get into identifying the parts did not help me out one bit. It was like pulling teeth, and that is not my strong suit. Looking over the other TA’s blogs, I see that the focus tended to be on my “nerves.” I wasn’t really all that nervous – I was just feeling like my head was gonna explode. I just keep beating myself up over this activity and hope to get another chance to prove that I do know what I’m doing. And that I deserve to be here. Next time I’ll make sure to be better prepared and do something to rev myself up. I never want to feel like that again.

Another thing that was “off” that day was the fact that I didn’t realize the group engagement was going to be during that class period. I always read the emails and though I saw the group activity listed in the email somehow I missed that we would be doing it that period. I think the fact that we were doing a simulation activity made me think that we would be doing the group activity during the next class period. Nevertheless, I used the notes another TA had from the email to figure out how I could be of help during the brain activity. Having the answers helped immensely. I was able to guide students in the right direction and ask them questions that made them think about what they were writing down. This is definitely tough material (parts of the brain) and doing this activity should really help them understand it better.

The headache got worse on Thursday – I was absent, and therefore have no more observations for this week.

I have a note in my notebook saying “Not a lot of people from my pod:(”
I’m assuming this was the day we came in front of class and talked about the whole “pod thing.” Only about 5-6 people raised their hands saying they received my email, but then again, I had just sent it out the night before. It’d be interesting to see if more people from my pod are in class now!

Anyway, I liked that at the beginning of class you related material to the activity we did the week prior (Supersize Me). It gave the illusion that you were there! Anyway, I think the discussion on correlation vs. experiment was definitely needed, so it’s a good thing you addressed it in class.

I noted that you spent a bit of time on the “operational definitions” – which is good because that is a potentially confusing topic. I’m looking at my notes now and it’s still a bit fuzzy. The real life examples are most definitely helpful.

The video game study thing always gets me. I really love video games (although I rarely have the time to play while in school due to my overinvolvement issues) and I am no more aggressive than the average person and I truly feel that I am a very helpful, courteous, and empathetic individual. I’ve done a lot of research on the topic myself, and Bushman’s name almost always appears and he really seems biased. Although I definitely agree that uber-violent games should be restricted, I don’t actually play games with blood and gore, so maybe I’m a bad example to cite. Anyway, while I found the topic of discussion very interesting, I found myself getting really antsy in the back of the room because I just didn’t like “Bushman.” I know no one else would’ve possibly noticed this, but after reflecting on it I find it funny. Learning so much more about psych, you really do see the same people’s names come up time and time again. Having been a communication major for almost 3 years, I’ve seen the other side of this research and done research from the other side too. It’d be interesting to see how much depth there is to the research citing the positive effects of video games and movies.

I don’t honestly have a lot of observations written down for Tuesday the 10th, and I attribute that to my nervousness for the activity. During the class, those of us (TAs) sitting in the back were frantically trying to get the answers to the activity and we kept vacillating between correlation and experiment, and it caused a bunch of issues (not feeling as prepared and not being as helpful to the students). I did draft up a number of questions I could pose to the students if they asked me questions, and during the activity time I worked a lot with about 4 different groups that kept asking me questions. It was great because they felt comfortable talking to me, but now I feel like crap because I really did not steer them in the right direction. I don’t want them thinking that I’m an unreliable source of information, so that was a big bummer. I know that the other TAs felt rather similarly. I think it would be more useful if we had both the activity and the answers to said activity prior to class. It would allow us to be a much better resource for the students. After all, that is what we’re here for.

Thursday, February 12th

I was sitting in the front of class this day, and found it very difficult to actually get solid observations. I know! This is totally contrary to what the experience is actually supposed to be about, but I found it incredibly awkward. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I know the students in front of me were wondering what the heck I was doing there too. (hahaha) Anyway, I felt like maybe if each time we sat in the front we could have a different type of task (like you telling us, “look specifically for this”). Or even if we discussed this in a TA meeting, that’d be helpful. I felt like the experience was for us to just get a feel for what it is like to sit in front of that many people, but I’m not quite sure if that’s accurate.

I did jot down a number of observations though. I noticed that there were quite a few empty seats – it was more than what I expected, but still less than what you would find in a normal 250+ person class. I missed a lot of the notes and should definitely have printed off the powerpoints so I knew where you were going with things. I noticed that you mentioned the facebook group at some point – good PR!
Caitlin (who was sitting with me in the front) and I were distracted for a good 10 minutes by a repeat text offender! He just kept texting away and we were glaring right at him.

Most faces in the crowd suggested engagement and I got a kick out of how each time a new slide appeared, the heads went down in almost a group motion. I had to keep myself from laughing, because I honestly never saw that before. When some people participate, they’re very quiet – you repeating what that person said is something I’ve noticed you do on a regular basis and it’s awesome! Some teachers don’t do it and that is what’s really annoying. During class, some of the people I know outside of class were making funny faces at me to see if I’d laugh so that made things interesting! All in good fun!

STUDY TABLES! STUDY TABLES!

So Trudi and I did a study table right after class. It was a lot of fun. Of course I was nervous – is there a time when I am not anxious about something? (I jest)
It went very well though. We had about seven people show up at one point (plus Jess) and having an extra TA there was very helpful. I did feel like I did some things very well – went around and had everyone introduce themselves, asked specifically what they had questions on, and we addressed those as a group. There was one person who had specific issues with the experiment material (identifying the parts), so I pulled out the Weiten book and went to a page with sample questions and had her fill them out. We went over them and she had all of them right. I joked with her that she must be like me – I tend to know the information but just need reassurance. I hope she did well on the test!

Not having a teacher present usually disrupts the class. That didn’t happen and I was really surprised! I was actually really comfortable over all. I generally get really nervous, but I felt very prepared and just knew what was going on.

Mandy and Caitlin did a great job getting everyone started (introducing the movie and a brief overview of the questions). We had a bit of trouble displaying the questions (visibility issues), so Katie and Caitlin decided to write another copy out so the other side of the room could see. They were read aloud at first, but it really was hard for people on the far left side of the room to see the questions. I think the best practice here is to have two copies, one for each side of the room. The people in the middle don’t have much of an issue, but those in either the way back or far sides have visibility problems.

The rest of the TA team handled distribution of the notecards. I kept some of the extras (there were a bunch) for latecomers – this came in handy as there were a number of stragglers. Going off that, there was an individual who had to leave early and actually approached Caitlin to explain it before she left. I was really impressed with that!

People were really into the movie. People reacted where you expected to react and some of the reactions were so big that I thought people may not have seen it before – however, when Mandy asked at the end of the class who had seen the film before, almost everyone had. Guess people just like the movie? hahaha.
Anyway, it was a joy to have the class behave so well and get into the movie. People didn’t leave, either, which usually happens in classes where a movie is the only activity. (The attendance activity sure didn’t hurt that!)

A suggestion for this is to have the questions displayed during either the majority of the movie or for the entirety of the movie. I think totaling the time that the questions were displayed, they were only up for about 4-5 minutes. For someone like me, that wouldn’t have been enough. They were displayed for a little bit in the beginning of class and then again for about a minute at 11:40 on both sides. However, I was really confused as to why they were only being shown for such a short period of time. Perhaps there was some additional instruction of which I was unaware, but it was pretty confusing!

Another area for improvement was preparation for the activity – we probably could have made more cohesive decisions before class started, but we did work very well together throughout the class period. We decided who would hand out notecards, Mandy did the intro, Caitlin intro’d the questions, a couple stayed in front to make sure everything went smoothly, and a few of us stayed in the back to man that area. All in all, we were a great team.

I noticed that at the beginning of class our pictures were displayed. I enjoyed that because I really think this will help them get to know who we are. I do hope in the future that our role as TAs is more clearly defined so they know why they should be talking to us. I do get some weird/puzzled looks as I walk up and down aisles at times. I find it funny, but it be helpful if I was confident that they knew why I was doing the random things we TAs do.

I liked that we went over the answers to the group activity. Definitely helpful for those students who diligently take notes. And I noticed that some people did have trouble with it, so going over the concepts is very key – especially this “area” vs. “school” thing. I had trouble wrapping my head around it and I’m a third-year psych student!
Interspersed with this was the “key study tip” thing – also very useful (take a behavior, see if you can explain it from each perspective).

A random thing I noticed was how you called out the person who walked in 20 minutes late. That was definitely good – it drove the point home that this class (and all classes) are important and by walking in late without notifying the teacher first, you disrupt the flow of the class. This class really does have a flow…and it’s just rude to walk down the aisles that late. I have trouble walking into classes when I’m only a couple seconds late…

Study Tips with Jess & Trudi
I loved this idea. Having two students give other students ideas about studying seems so obvious in hindsight, but I never would have thought of it. Love love love love the idea. It went really well. Jess and Trudi really know their stuff. Jess’ tips were definitely useful and acknowledged the fact that each individual has a different optimal way of studying. Trudi’s tips were things I never would have thought of – the looking over real life examples things in particular (how she mentioned certain psychological journals and looking through current events and applying psych to it). Having their different ranges of experience was useful in this task (with Trudi already having a degree and Jess having been a peer mentor with a lot of focus on effective studying).

There was a lot of application of the material to real-life scenarios. I enjoyed that immensely, and I think that only serves to enhance learning. I’m sure I mentioned that in my last blog, if not in the TA meetings. The tobacco example sparked a rather interesting discussion, and while I don’t know the woman who spoke up – she came off as really, really rude. I think you handled it really well and played off the situation as if it were normal discussion. So, kudos to you for that, because I would not have handled that quite as well.

This week we started closing the doors to lessen the amount of people going on bathroom breaks, but it ended up making it really warm in the back area. So I think in the future we’ll just make sure to “patrol” it more and leave the doors open.

Outside of class…
This week, Resident Assistant (RA) information sessions occurred and I attended one. The reason I mention this is because I ran into a total of three people from this class at the informational session. They talked to me before it started for about 5 minutes and seemed really comfortable doing so. I’ve continued talking to them outside of class every time I see them. Additionally, one student introduced himself to me while I was at the coffeeshop with some friends. Cool stuff!

Going into the second class period, I found myself less apprehensive and more excited. Though I think that feeling of uncertainty and nervousness will continue for a week or two. I’m just naturally that way when put into new/unfamiliar situations. I don’t think it’s affecting my ability to rock this TA thing out though! 🙂

I do want to note that I will be forgoing the more formal “class recap” portion of the post…I’d prefer to get to the really important stuff right away!

I really appreciate (and I believe students will as well, if they don’t already) the outline being displayed before and as class begins. It really gives a sense of direction that I don’t feel in other courses. The brief reviews of what occurred in the previous class is also helpful. It keeps things fresh in students’ minds and may also serve as a way to link previous material to current/upcoming material.
As class began I walked around and chatted with a couple students I recognized either from the previous class period or from outside activities – mainly asking them how the first quiz went. Quite a few of them said they got 10s – which is exciting! I made sure to let them know how awesome I thought that was.
Another observation was the presence of some empty seats. It’s a pretty normal occurrence, and I believe the amount of students gone is less than it would have been in other classes. I have had a couple other classes in RH-250, and the first day it’s usually full, and the second day it’s at half capacity. I’m glad to see so many students returned.

One thing that impressed me was that students in the back were called on very early on – and by name! I’m sure there were some surprised faces – I really wish I could’ve gauged the reaction. In addition to knowing names of people in the back, each time someone was called on, it was by name. I didn’t hear anyone correct the instructor…so great job, Dr. Gurung! I think the instructor walking all the way up and down the aisles will prove to be an effective way of gaining more student input – especially because some individuals sit in the back to avoid that. I’m anxious to see if this works.
The importance of studies was emphasized – but not just by the instructor. I found it interesting that it was accomplished by asking students why different dimensions of the ERLP program were important (e.g., not taking the same one twice).

There was yet another example of interesting student participation. I was entertained (as were some students and a couple of the TAs sitting near me) by the demonstration of what the first true psychological experimentation looked like.

On another note, the “History of ___” sections of classes are generally very boring. I believe including pictures of these individuals and the infusion of humor in the delivery were key in making this particular “History of Psychology” presentation more interesting. Two neighboring TAs and I were trying to figure out if we could name all of them (sadly, I was not very good at that game). I thought one of them looked like George Clooney. 🙂

The first group activity…I remember that fondly. Everyone seemed to work very well together, from what I saw. I did get a number of questions on #2 (the two schools of thought to explain Chmura’s actions). Relating that to the papers I graded, most of the incorrect answers were from that question. Perhaps at the next class, the answers can be reviewed with special focus on these schools of thought?
I know I was definitely a bit sketchy on that material – and looking at book #1 (Rathus), the schools of thought were horribly articulated. There was a 3-4 sentence explanation of the Humanistic school of thought and that one is a bit tricky. Even though it is addressed in a later chapter, I don’t believe most students would venture to look for more references to it in the book.
I guess my suggestion for this is to go more in depth with things like this in the future if they’ll be asked to do group work in it – but it definitely needs to be addressed.

I should also add:
It may be a good idea to talk to the class about we, the six lovely TAs, are here for. I think we’ll be getting approached for questions more as they learn what our role is. During this group exercise, I was basically wandering around and felt like I was interrupting their thought processes (I walked up to many of the groups, asking how they were working together – this is when I got a couple questions from about 3 or 4 groups about question #2). Most of the time, however, they stared at me blankly and said they were fine.

A few other suggestions I have:
*Provide the TAs with powerpoints before class periods so that we can focus more on teaching observations
*Provide the TAs with the group assignments prior to group work days so that we can be better prepared to answer any questions students may have (I was doing what I could to give good answers, and although I came up with adequate responses, I’d probably be more helpful if I had time to digest the questions)
*Set up a formal chain of reliability checks for assignments. I’m a little concerned about the method we’re using this time around. I’m just a bit uncomfortable entering grades before the two reliability checks are completed. This leaves a lot of room for “grade drama,” as I call it. (We can chat more about it at the TA meeting, if you like).

Thanks for another very interesting class! See you tomorrow!