My course web site is up and running. My syllabus is typed and copied. I've got lecture notes enough to take me through the first week and a little beyond. And I'm getting to the fun stuff, matrix multiplication! I get to show my class that GL(n,R) is a group without telling them what a group is. And I had about four inches of my hair chopped off yesterday. I feel good.
This can only mean it's time for more advice for graduate students! Today, I will share with you those things that help me to not completely suck as a TA. I must be doing something right, or they wouldn't have given me my own class. Right?
Right?
If you're teaching undergraduates...
Be quirky. If you're going to present an example to your class, make it memorable somehow. Last quarter when I was TAing integral calculus, I showed my students a lot of example problems involving calculating the work required to empty a tank. These get very repetitive very quickly; the tanks are always full of water, and no-one ever talks about where you're pumping the water to. So I varied the set-up of my problems a little: the tank was full of creamed corn (in honour of my Iowan heritage), and we were pumping it up to a waiting blimp. Which I drew. Or the tank was full of Kentucky bourbon. I think I threw in al-Qaeda once. Another popular class of work problems involves hauling things up with ropes; I told my students little Timmy had fallen down the well, and Lassie was going to save him. It doesn't really matter what you say, so long as you say something different. My students perked up a lot when we talked about bourbon and drew blimps and doggies on the board.
Don't worry about seeming too faggy, if you happen to be flamingly non-heterosexual. Most of your students won't notice anyhow. The rest aren't going to care. Students aren't really going to think of you as a three-dimensional human being with a sex life; it just won't compute for them. (Disclaimer: this advice does not apply in Utah, Idaho, Mississippi, Tennessee, or, in short, anywhere scary; but if you're flamingly non-heterosexual, what are you doing going to graduate school in a place like that anyhow? Be reasonable!)
Don't get too attached to your students. You're most likely going to be a lot closer to them, age-wise, than you are to the faculty, and you'll have a natural inclination to take the students' side. This is unwise for a number of reasons. First, students aren't going to return the favour. You'll be lumped in with the faculty in their eyes; you will always be an Outsider. Second, some of your students are bound to flunk. You shouldn't feel bad about this. It is not your fault. It is their's. Every student I've seen flunk or get a low grade has earned it. No amount of coaxing or guiding or tutoring will help students who aren't willing to work and aren't willing to study, or who don't have the time or background or aptitude to take the class in the first place. And you won't have time to help them all individually, anyhow. You need to keep a certain distance, and harden your heart. Third, they'll be gone soon anyhow. Students pass like a ripe spring day. Fourth, if you get too chummy, you'll lose any authority you might once have had. There will be times when you'll want students to shut the hell up and listen to you; they won't shut up for you if you're their pal.
It's fine to let slip that you smoke or drink. Students like it if you have vices. No-one likes a Puritan. However, if you come to class hungover, or stoned, or still drunk, try to keep it to yourself. No-one likes a Puritan, but everyone likes a professional.
Act confident, especially when you're not. Students need to believe you know what you're doing.
Housebreak your students as soon as the term begins. The habits and attitudes you foster in the first week or two will linger on 'til the end.
Don't offer to have too many review sessions outside of normal class hours. Students will take you up on them all around test time, and it'll take freaking forever, and believe me, you'll have things you'd rather be doing. Like eating. Or not being at work.
People won't usually come to your office hours if the professor you're TAing for has some of their own. Don't feel bad. It just means you can skip yours with a clear conscience.
Eat while you teach. Who's going to stop you?
When it's nice enough, and you don't need to use the board, take your class outside. This will encourage the hot ones to wear less clothing.
It's easier to remember students' names if you mentally give them little nicknames as well, like 'Exploded Beautician X' or 'Volvo Y'. Don't mention these to anybody.
Check out your hot students, if you can do so subtly and without anyone noticing. It is a perk of the job. Don't molest them, or buy them drinks, or accept gifts from them, or date them. Until after the term ends and they're no longer your students. Then, if they approach you, it's damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. (Funny story: one of my math chums is now dating one of his former students. After the quarter ended, she put an ad up for him in the Stranger's I Saw U's, he happened to read them that week, and the rest is history.)
In every class you ever TA, you will have at least one student who is really, really chatty and friendly while simultaneously being rather annoying and, sometimes, not very good. Keep your fury pent up deep, deep down inside. Never let it show. They'll be gone soon. (And you'll just get another one...)
Most importantly, drink.
Posted by aloysius at March 26, 2004 08:06 PM | TrackBack |