Looking back to my freshman year here at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay, I can remember one of my first classes was Introduction to Psychology. When the professor first introduced the teaching assistants (TA’s), I remember thinking that the TA’s must be graduate students (which I now know better). I recall looking up to the TA’s and thinking that they must know so much in order to be a TA. Now it is my turn. Knowing that some of the students may have this same view of a TA as I did, I realize how much of an impact I could potentially have on these students. Looking back now, I realize that because I admired the teaching assistants, it is one of the reasons I wanted to become a TA.
There are a few things that I worry about for this upcoming semester as I consider my new role as a TA. As a student, I already have problems with talking in front of peers. This is something I hope to overcome this semester. I want to become a good public speaker, and hope to learn something from the other TA’s or from Dr. Gurung about how to talk in front of others with out becoming too nervous or how to handle the nerves. Other than being nervous in front of a group of people, I do not have too many other concerns about being a TA.
Being a TA is one of the things that I am most looking forward to this semester, because it allows me to see the classroom from a slightly different perspective. I may not be sitting on the other side of the desk, but in a way, I am a link between the students and the professor.
