301talk.txt

TAingDan said it all.Noticing your students.Coming up with extra help handouts. Keith's Amazingly Supplemental Quiz ReviewMIT Cheer, Geek PoetryPreparing for section:spend time the night before.resources?   old classes that you took  other TAs  book  badly done things in lecture  email questions from students  office hours questions  old tests  test results    how much of outline do people prepare? do you stick to it?     practice in front of a mirror? practice at all?  running the section:  put up a list of what you'll do that day  reminders about homework, tests, rent checks.  put a funny thing in the middle. patterson does this.       ask two people to give the first five minutes of their last section.    critique it:       what did they say?      did they jump right in or ease in?      how much information did they get across?      how much did they talk vs. how much did students talk?      who wasn't paying attention?      did the TA notice?        what about non-traditional sections?     human cons-cell bingo.       time management:   how much time do you spend preparing for section?   office hours?   responding to email?   doing your own classes?   research?   TAing expands to fill your time.   do you like it?   do you like TAing?   which parts?   why?   which parts do you hate?   do you gripe about TAing to your friends? to your students? to the prof?   Changing your practices over time:   how has your teaching evolved?      emotional: scared to confident      technical: material got harder. had to come up with better explanations.      knowledge: learned everyone's name. much easier to call on them.         what are your weaknesses?      can't explain hard concepts without taking a long time      sometimes don't fully work out a topic (even if student-directed)                      beforehand and tend to descend into madness.      Interacting with students:in section:in office hours:   what do these guys do?   how long are office hours?   how well do they scale?   what about right before a test?   how much psychologist do you need to play? via email:   how many emails per month/week/day/hour?   I had 978 per term, 300 per month, 75 per week, 15 per day.   Time Management: