Week two has felt much more comfortable than week one. Instead of being nervous the night before class I find myself more excited to see what happens next. It’s interesting to see how the McKeachie book fits in with nearly every lecture. It’s fascinating also to have people stop me in the hall way and be like, I think you’re the TA for my intro class. It’s like surreal that yes, I am a TA and yes, I know what is happening with the class. I don’t know if that will ever get old.
Today was a little more nerve wracking because one of the TA’s had to speak in front of 260 people, and we hadn’t planned it out before hand. I do have some experience speaking in front of 50-ish people with various orgs I’ve been in, turns out 260 people isn’t really all that different than 50. At one point the mic stopped working, so I simply projected my voice, and I was a little surprised at the projection I was capable of. Definitely a boost in my confidence for public speaking today.
As for the movie the Super Size Me movie students seemed genuinely interested. For about the first 3 or so minutes there was some talking going on, but that quieted down without having to be addressed. Students laughed at the appropriate times, and seemed for the most part attentive from my vantage point in the front of the class. The only thing that timing was a little off with was the group discussion after we stopped the movie. We stopped the movie at 12:10 and instructed them to discuss with their neighbor. Most students took about 5 minutes to discuss and then left all though a few took only a minute or less, and some took the full 10 minutes. Overall I’d consider today both a success and a confidence builder.
I guess the funniest part of today is I could hear students discussing the movie and McDonald’s on the way out, and a girl said to her friend as she was passing, “I always get those apple dippers. They’re especially good with the caramel dipping sauce.” Not that I can disagree with her taste, I just found it funny considering part of the movie talked about how even their yogurt parfaits aren’t very healthy. All that being said I feel this movie fit in very well with the course work that we’ve been looking at, and that this was an awesome way to bring contemporary research into the class.
In general, I’m really amazed at how much I’ve learned from this position, and it’s only the 2nd week. I can’t wait to see where the semester goes!