After obsessively preparing for the first exam review I decided to swap the strain of over-preparing for the strain of not over-preparing. In my preparation phase of getting ready for the study table I looked over the template power point, and added things in from the text book and one clip from youtube. I spent probably around an hour looking through additional clips on Erikson and Piaget, and though I found plenty of clips that I found fascinating most of them were either over-kill for class, unorganized, or unclear. Then last night I looked over the power point one more time, and wrote out a quick outline for points that I wanted to make, but it was hand-written and took up two sheets of paper front and back. A definite improvement from the review for the first exam for which I had 7-8 pages typed with every single word I wanted to say.
Today, most of my students were there, physically; not so much mentally. The distraction of the computers in the computer lab proved too much today. I’d say a decent half of the class were looking at their computer the majority of the time. It was disheartening, and distracting for me. Especially since there were students that were talking as well. I didn’t change anything from last time, I asked at the beginning of class that they refrain from computer usage though we’re in a computer lab. I was really confused as to why it was effective last time, but not this time. Why some student’s were chatting was also a bit odd – though looking directly at them did bring that to a quick hault.
My guess is a lot of the talking, the computer usage, and the lack of participation was due to the timing of the study table during the week before spring break. I know most of my classes are getting that way too. I also found on my end that I kept gravitating to one side of the room more than the other. One side of the computer lab had more participation as well as the chatty boys, and that’s the side I was on the majority of the time. However, I recognized this and tried to go back over to the quiet side of the room to drag out participation, unfortunately I always caught myself going back to the other side of the room.
I feel like the computers create a barrier between the students and myself and the students from the other students (except the ones who I’m sure were chatting on facebook) was a huge barrier today. Today was supposed to be more of a study table, I had only one question the entire time. The rest of the time was playing clips and me talking. Definitely not what I had hoped for in planning for today.
On the one hand there must have been something I could’ve done to make today more successful as the “teacher” or in this case the teacher’s assistant was in charge. On the other I did everything I knew how to do prepared lighter, and knew my talking points well, applied each clip (and had them try to apply), asked for students to answer questions instead of just answering the questions on the power point. Is it possible that it was just the students? Did the come into class with the expectation of a computer and decide to tune me out? Is it possible to over come the physical distance created by the computers? Or was it the fact that the students don’t have an exam until the weekend after they return from spring break?
The couple of bright spots today were when I introduced material from the text book most students did write down my examples and some definitions presumably because it wasn’t something we had already covered, as well as one student who stayed afterwards in the computer lab who said he found today helpful, and that he really liked the integration of the clips from The Office, and Big Bang Theory.
Overall today was a reality check. Not everything always goes perfect, and there are always going to be challenges. If I had challenges with 50 students, I can’t imagine what it would be like to teach all 260 of the students, though I am aware this is coming sooner than expected for the TA lectures. Overall on the preparation side I felt pretty nervous about not having done my 7 page script, but it worked better for me. It was more natural, and the talking points I made I actually did refer back to at certain points during today, versus the 7 page script that I didn’t use mostly because I lost my place. I focused my energy into the power point and making that more attention grabbing. Overall the balance of more emphasis into the presentation and less into exactly what I was going to say worked much better for me.
The other area that I’ve been starting to work on is the sources for the TA paper. I am researching effectiveness of TA’s with Becca and Amanda and so far, I haven’t had a lot of luck. I found an interesting article on female TA’s being more effective in some aspects, and also another article that isn’t specifically focused on the TA aspect of a large class, but focuses on engagement in large classes. I talked to Becca and Amanda and they aren’t having a lot of luck either, this has me a little concerned, but we have time, and worse case scenario we can always expand into other topics along with TA effectiveness.
Until next time!
I think that you captured a lot of what happened—week before break, no exam close, etc. There are just some days that are like that. The key is then (for us) is to go back the next time and do things differently. Those darn computers can be such an issue. One thing we can discuss and things I can address directly is ways to increase participation directly. Also see if you can pick up on the things i do in class to do this.
There is not too much written on effectiveness of Undergrad TAs and so that is ok. I will give you some other topics at which you should have better luck.