In today’s class we had our TA lecture on Abnormal psych. Our team communicated very welll and each of us had topics that we felt confident in. There were six TA’s, but only five were able to present due to time constraints.
My portion of the lecture was on mood disorders. I focused on Major Depressive Deisorder and Bipolar disorder. I was the fourth TA to present, so at that point in class it kind of seemed like a time crunch. I went through my slides as thoroughly as possible and I took out a few last miunte things just to save about 5 minutes, which in the end was a smart decision because it allowed Katie Bruni to have adquate time to talk about her topics and not end in a rush.
I was proud of myself. I feel very passionate about the topic that I was able to discuss and I felt comfortable presenting. For the pictures that were taken I am able to see that I used a lot of expression and hand gestures. I stood mostly behind the podium, but that was sort of due to the time constraint and I didn’t want to lose focus at that point. I would have felt comfortable enought to be more engaging with the students if I had time. I asked once if they had any questions and I also asked somewhat of a participant type question, “Who here knows of someone with a severe mental illness?”. I did that for two reasons; to keep the class on track with me and to show the seriousness of this section and how many people’s lives it effects. I wish I had more time (i.e. for interactive participation) and we could have two days for the Abnormal chapter, but we still rocked it as a group and it was a lot of fun.
The support that our team has encourages each of us to be there for one another and route each other on. We’ve had a great coach along the way. Dr. Gurung has put a lot of spark into everthing we’ve done and I’m greatful to have had him as a professor because without that motivation and drive from him, it would have been a very long semester.
All-in-all, the TA lecture was fun and this experience has been a blast. I’ve learned so much and it will make my future education a bit easier with the tools I’ve picked up along the way this semester. I will miss our group!