This was not what I imagined…

Today did not turn out like I thought it would.  This can be a good and bad thing.  Let me start with the negatives: I was running late to the session, I did not get as much of a response from the students as I thought I would, and I felt like I was maybe running through the material a bit too fast.  Also, I don’t think my style of review may not work for everyone.  I don’t have the “fun” that others might bring out in a session.  This may be something that I can learn to put into not only reviews but also presentation, because it does  help with student interaction.

The positives… I actually felt comfortable in front of the group.  The moment I knew I was going to be in Phoenix Room B, I was a bit concerned.  I knew that when the Phoenix Rooms are split up, that Phoenix Room B is the biggest room, and I believe the most like the classroom (since it still has the big screen).  I was surprised that I was actually comfortable in front of them.  My nerves did not hit me until about half way through, when my hands started shaking a bit, but I was able to shake off the nerves, and  continue with the review without much of a delay (I am sure no one even noticed).  I am so glad that I was able to do this, and I believe I might have pinpointed the reason I have a hard time presenting in front of people.  Now that I know why, I believe I can conquer this fear of talking in front of large groups of people.

Now about the review session itself.  Overall, I had the typical things happen.  I had a few students always giving answers, some that wouldn’t answer, and others that were whispering on the side.  In order to get around this sort of thing, I tried to call on tables that were not as willing to respond in order to get them to answer.  Instead of getting the reaction I wanted from them (them answering the question), I received looks of – I’m not answering this question.  From the student perspective, I can understand these looks.  Whenever I went to review sessions, I just went to recover the material, not to actually participate.  This is probably one of the hardest things to overcome from the TA side.  The whispering on the side can be quieted, trying to get others to participate avoids having the same students answer over and over again, but to get the others to actually participate is something that I had a hard time doing.  I would call on a person, or table, and wait for them to answer, and all I would be given was silence, until another table responded to the question.

I also did the brain activity, where the students had to choose which part of the brain is associated with which fucntion (such as memories being associated with the hippocampus).  I believe this was the most challenging for the students.  It also brought up questions from some students.  They were wondering if this type of question would be on the exam.  I explained to them, that the exam was not going to be just straightforward concepts, that there were some questions that they may have to apply what they have learned, and think critically to find the answer.  I believe they thought since this is an introduction class, that it would just be concepts that they were tested on, and not application, but I think they forget that psychology is an applied science too.  You are able to take what you have learned in a class, and actually apply it outside of the classroom.

All in all, I believe that the review session went okay.  It wasn’t the greatest, but I still had some participation from the students.  I will blog a bit more about Tuesday’s class later today, but I wanted to get my first reactions down right after the review session.