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!