I found myself very at peace before entering the classroom. This was surprising to me as I was reflecting later on because most test days were a bit scary for me (though by the third one, I was pretty much in the hang of it). I think I was finally just completely confident in my role as a TA and besides, the scariest thing [the lecture] was far behind me. On a different note – I was also very sad entering the room. I believe that us 6 TAs had such a great rapport with one another and it was really sad to realize that half were graduating. I know Mandy, Jess, and I will see each other next year (Psi Chi!!) but….I’ll really miss our group. It was really fun!
Random observations:
*I liked that we had to pick a spot and stay within that area. Though having four TAs in the front was a little odd, I don’t know where else they would’ve been able to be! Since Caitlin and I were both at the top, we walked around outside to go to the opposite door a few times to communicate with one another – I think this was a good strategy because it was the least disruptive possible way we could get to each other. There were a couple students that had suspicious placement of their tests, so I wanted to see if she could keep an eye out, since her range of sight was a bit better.
*A girl walked in about 15 minutes late. I understand that some people sleep in and stuff…it’s happened to the best of us. So I quickly found her a spot to sit and was prepared to go around outside and down the stairs to get her a test – again, the least disruptive way to do it. But some of the TAs up front saw her come in and ran up to give her a scantron and exam sheet. Yay teamwork!
*After about 2/3 of the people had left, there were some people outside that were being pretty loud. I was actually comfortable in going out to ask them to quiet down (nicely, of course) – which came as a bit of a surprise to me. Didn’t see that in myself!
*I got a really tricky question in class from one of the students. He was so nice about it, but I really had NO clue how to answer it without giving it away. He was definitely on the right track and I just kinda asked him a question back (“based on what you’re telling me, what is your gut instinct on this?”) and told him to look at the entirety of the question (he was comparing one question to another, thinking they were similar, when in fact they were different if the whole question was considered).
That’s it for now 🙂
Next up: Engagement suggestions. (Coming tonight!)