The first week went by in a flash, but was exciting! The whole TA experience is new, but definitely something I’m enjoying. Today I got to sit in the front (facing the class), which felt somewhat odd. I was not worried about what everyone was looking at, but instead, I felt out of place, because I’m not used to watching the students and sitting alone/excluded from others. Today’s class was interesting, especially because I am not used to teachers using their students to exemplify what they are teaching. During his lecture, Prof. Gurung, used one guy to show Weber’s Sense of Locality experiment with a male student and four students to do introspection of taste to exemplify structuralism (i.e,. structures of the mind/mental processes). The students found this entertaining and most likely helped them better understand the psychology concepts. At noon, Prof. Gurung handed out the in-class assignment, which all of the TA’s had to walk around the room to help with. Most of the students didn’t need help, but I think that they developed more trust in the TA’s because we were showing the students that we care about them. Then we went over the assignment after everyone was finished, which is better than going over it during Tuesday’s class, when the material may have not been as fresh in their minds. The prof. did a very good job.
Nothing appeared to go wrong in the second class. No students sat on the floor this time, and I saw no students on their cell phones throughout the 80 minutes. The only thing that could have been done differently was the counting off of groups of five for the in-class assignment. Prof. Gurung,’s idea was definitely interesting, but I feel that it may have taken up more time than needed, and that groups may have been more even. A suggestion for a different way of counting would be to count off one to five, up or down rows, or by the TA’s counting off five students around each other randomly.
After the second class, students appeared to become more comfortable. I think that it is a good idea that the Prof. calls on random students sometimes to answer questions, because in many of my classes, I notice the same students are the only ones willing to answer questions. This way, students will be more motivated to answer questions that they know, instead of worrying if they are going to be called on for a question they do not know or are not sure of.
I’m thankful for Prof. Gurung’s address to the TA’s who are on a tight schedule before/after his class, and am willing to talk to other TA’s throughout the day, to see if I missed any important information.
From the second class, I learned that the students are not afraid/annoyed to just chat with the TA’s. In the previous classes that I had TA’s, they never came up to the students to talk about the class or just get to know the students. I found out that the students are happy that you are interested in them, and are more likely to come up to you in and out of class to chat or ask questions. I am still observing Prof. Gurung’s teaching methods, and hope to apply them to my own.
From “McKeachie’s Teaching Tips,” on page 18, on the “Choosing Appropriete Teaching Methods,” it is mentioned that the most successful teachers probobly vary their teaching methods. I believe this is true. Over the first two classes, professor Gurung has used lectures, in-class assignment/discussion, student experiments, online LEARNMART, and more. I find that not using the same teaching method/technique throughout the class keeps the students’ attention and helps express his material in objective ways.
Week two is on it’s way and I hope it goes just as well as the first!