TA: It's always worth it

I know the past couple of weeks I have spent so time doing a little student bashing and talking about many of the frustrating features of being a teacher.  So here I'm going to put forth some examples of students that DID care and DID really freakin' give me everything they had.  The thing to remember is, no matter how many students you have swear at you or walk out, if you have EVEN ONE that comes out a better person, that you were a successful teacher.

1. So even when a student is not necessarily successful with his/her actual grades, it is often clear when a student putting forth a concerted effort to change their path.  Student A (again, different than all the other student A's from past weeks) was a mess from the start.  He sat at the trouble lab table and after 3 quizzes was looking pretty desolate.  However, after the third quiz he actually came into my office to talk to me about it (a miracle in itself).  He wanted to go over the quiz and discuss how he could change his study habits to improve his grade and ultimately not fail the exams or class.  Not only did he come in to my office every week to study but moved tables, sitting with a group of final year nursing majors (a good find in an anatomy course-I was pretty fond of them myself).  He still did fairly poorly in the class, which I largely akin to poor test taking skills, not learning problems.  However, he was teetering on the edge of the D/C range so I was able to bump him up due to clear effort and participation. He cared and put the effort in to make a difference.  Those situations always make me care so much more AND feel good about what I do.(ps does anyone else think this button looks less than adorable and innocent?!)
2. Student B begins to put a counter balance on all the stupid excuses I've ever gotten.  I received it via e-mail initially.  It came in during class, but of course I didn't get it until directly afterward.  It had been particularly snowy this year, seemed every week for a while had the University shut down for at least part of one day.  The e-mail was not actually from a student, but from a mechanic.  Apparently, the student had slid on the ice and another car plowed right into her.  She was fine but was so worried about missing class she asked the towing company that retrieved her totaled car to contact me.  Phone, address, and manager.  Completely legitimate.  For something like this I would have probably not pushed too hard even without the e-mail but in addition when she sat in the next day's class she brought me the DAMAGE ESTIMATE.  The problem with situations like these is because she went so far beyond the call of duty, I have A LOT of trouble dealing with most other excuses! 
3. For my final piece of evidence I present to you the following image I made from an actual e-mail.  I received this e-mail after my first semester of teaching Anatomy and Physiology (second semester teaching ever).  It was a particularly arduous class to teach, most of the students were a little younger and it was partially filled with athletes that were "just wasting time until drafted."  I was exhausted and a little disheartened (this is the same class I had the plagiarism issues I referred to before).  A wonderful student sent this to me the last week of the semester (technically finals week but labs don't have finals).  Enjoy this and hopefully it lifts your day like it always lifts mine. 

Next week I've got some unusual students that give me a head tilt just thinking about! Got some happy stories? Please share! Every TA has a bad day, class, or even semester! Share the love!


"When I was younger I thought success was something different. I thought, " When I grow up, I want to be famous. I want to be a star. I want to be in movies. When I grow up I want to see the world, drive nice cars. I want to have groupies." But my idea of success is different today. For me, the most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity and not to give into peer pressure, to try to be something that you're not. To live your life as an honest and compassionate person. To contribute in some way." Ellen DeGeneres

TA: above my pay scale II

Alright, as promised some more stories.  These little ditties probably rate as the most astonishing and brazen students I've ever had.  Step out into the bathroom and recollect yourself between classes kind.  My advice for all of these situations? P p p poker face p p p poker face.  NEVER let a student know they've gotten to you, even if you have to be stern to get them to behave.  To a naughty student, your emotional reaction is winning and will likely feed them to do it again.  Same goes when you get goofy answers or excuses, practice your stock teacher face.  It's your best weapon.




My first semester teaching I noticed that I was having a huge attendance drop off after the mini lecture portion (aka not looking at the lab materials).  It's hard with college students since you have a little less power (but should be able to assume some degree of maturity).  Below are a list of reasons I've heard to miss class or tests.  This is through all my years but after my first semester I learned to kill that down to a much smaller proportion.

1. Student A told me he needed to get out of class early because his buddies were doing a weightlifting group.  I felt like I didn't need to say no, that is NOT even REMOTELY an appropriate reason to miss class.
2. Student B scheduled his dentist appointment over class.  When he asked to leave after only 30 min of class I asked how bad his teeth hurt. He said they didn't, it was just routine. Poker face. I told him that that will be unexcused since he opted to do it over class. Seriously?
3. Email 2 hours before the exam. Student asked to take the test in a later section of the week because he'd been busy with other classes and didn't have a chance to study.  Now I actually am very sympathetic to this concept and if a student comes to me before a test and says that a day is overloaded I'm happy to let them bump, it's all the same to me. But right before the test? Really?  Surely you jest.
4. Another student emailed me the day before the test, saying she'd had some away tournament and had been gone all weekend, therefore unable to study.  Now admittedly, I'm very UNsympathetic to this.  If you're paying to go to school to better yourself, school should come first .  Emergencies aside. I always hated being paired with these people in school.  That job is going to be costly when you have to retake courses and double your overall tuition spent because you were trying to get a couple extra bucks.  I worked through college, I get it.  But I also actually went to college.  In addition I had a student that was paying her own way through college and worked 40 hours every weekend and NEVER asked for an extension.  Given all that, I'm sure you can imagine what my response was.  She should have studied during the week or on the bus.
5. Noticed a student packing up his things after my talk was over. When I asked him what he was doing he told me he had all the materials. I told him he didn't even do the lab. He responded by saying that the class was completely optional. P p p poker face.  I told him that class was certainly not optional.  I did make a big mistake here though. About 20 minutes later I look up and don't see him. I asked out loud if he had decided to leave. Timid yes' and much quiet followed.  Yeah, that was definitely inappropriate of me.  Poker face fail.  

And the piece de resistance, the 3 worst situations I've faced.

1. For the first paper homework in one of my classes I noticed a rampant amount of textbook copying and plagarism.  I talked to the LC and got the okay to allow them to do rewrites.  I sent out an email explaining the situation.  I said if they wanted they could rewrite any questions that fit the bill and write 1 paragraph on defining plagarism and get any/all credit back.  If not, they would receive the grade from what they had already turned it.  HEAVEN ALMIGHTY!!!  You would not believe the angry emails I received, telling me what a hard a$$ I was being and that it wasn't fair they had to do rewrites over their spring break. Now bear in mind that I had to continuously grade through this whole period and it was optional. Moreover, they wanted to be told which questions were bad and worth rewriting, like it would be no time drain for my to grade, hand back, and regrade (and defeat the entire purpose of the exercise in the first place).  Besides, realistically you know if you copied text from somewhere, you're just looking to see if I noticed... I actually had a student tell me he didn't have time for this $h**.  I wanted to scream TAKE THE EFFIN ZERO THEN IT'S LESS WORK FOR ME!  It's not my fault that either they were lazy or their previous courses had failed them.  "No good deed goes unpunished. No act of charity goes unresented!"  I made a handout that I give out now BEFORE, defining it and giving examples of good answers and plagarism/copying.  NEVER AGAIN!! 
2. While grading a homework, I found 3 girls' answers to be all the same.  Now, it's always funny how much students think we DON'T notice this, but usually it's really freakin' obvious.  We read all the answers back to back AND we have the same textbook you do. Put on your try face.  Now this was particularly obvious because the answer made no sense whatsoever.  I had no idea what they were talking about and was pretty sure one of them spent too much time in the thesaurus (they think they're clever, like we have no vocab...).  When confronted, two of the girls admitted they were roommates (LEAST FAVORITE THING).  They took the zeros.  The other came in and said she had asked for help from the other two but had rewritten it.  So I asked her to explain it.. She balked and admitted she just copying the answer from a facebook message (DAMN YOU FACEBOOK!).  She said, I quote "I guess I should understand an answer before I write it down huh?"  Oh honey, I don't even think you understand the depth of this mistake...
3. I gave a pop quiz in my lab based on a reading their lecture professor assigned.  A quick 5 question quiz, general enough to just see if they even opened the book.  Now I actually don't believe in pop quizzes, and understand the panic and groans that ensued.  Luckily for them the quiz was extra credit, which they found out afterwards.  This method works well, you're like a hero.  Well almost always, one student that I would normally call a very good student apparently found the situation particularly frustrating.  In red pen down the front of the quiz he wrote, "I don't know and I don't f****** care."  Of course, he used the actual expletive.  Needless to say I was stunned.  I took it to the LC who told me there wasn't anything I could do about it but give a zero, which on extra credit really isn't a punishment in my opinion.  The kid was super docile after I handed it back.  Still, I will never forget it.

Next week I think I'll lighten the mood.  I have some good stories too.  And I'll have done some regrading so I see a "stupid things kids write" section coming soon too!  Stay tuned and please leave comments!!

"Speak when you are angry--and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret." Laurence J. Peter

TA: Above my pay scale excuses

Hey guys.  So this is a segment I have deemed to call "above my pay scale."  The excuse types found herein are true examples of things that not only make you go "oh mercy" but are just viable enough so you can't ignore them or are long running issues that you'd like to run from.

Student A (not student A from last week): Student was missing from the first 2 weeks of class, which if you're teaching a lab, only meets once a week, so that's a significant proportion of class time as it is. So, after taking role and marking him absent I assumed he dropped and crossed his name off my paper roster (TAs are almost NEVER EVER given updated rosters. EVER.)  About half way through my mini lecture of course, guess who comes strolling in?  Right, so I tell him he needs to see me after class and carry on, can't spend precious class time on someone who doesn't think class time is precious right? So after class he comes up and asks what I need. REALLY?!  You can't possibly imagine why I would want to talk to you?!  So I ask him why he's missed class so much.  Are you ready?  Turns out he was TAing another class during this same timeslot so he needed to get that fixed before abandoning his class to come to mine.  I ask if he had spoken to our Lab Coordinator (LC).  Of course, he said no, he didn't think he had to.  I had to stare for a moment, thinking you teach and you still thought you didn't need to let anybody know why you were missing class.  I told him he was unexcused until he talked with the LC.  He said nah, he'd pick it up.  Yeah okay whatever buddy, do as you wish, you're now above my pay scale to argue with.



Student B:  Student B had pre-emailed me (good girl) that her mom had a medical emergency and she needed to miss that week's classes. I gave her the go ahead (I'm a momma's girl myself).  After THREE weeks of no communication she comes in to take the final lab practical.  She's obviously allowed to take the test and I ask her to see me after, wondering how she was even going to complete the exam with half of the lessons completely missing.  After class she has the last 3 weeks homework assignments (given to her by friends) and a note from her mom that read, "XXX was home with me. I fully expect her to be responsible for her missing work."  So, after the 8th grade, that kind of note means NOTHING, but she was a good student so I tried to humor the situation.  I asked her what was going on and that I needed something more substantial.  I told her I believed there was something real to her absence but I couldn't be favoring her by going on her word.  She told me her mom was sick and it wasn't her place to talk about it.  They didn't go to the doctor so she only had her mom.  At this point I assume her family was under a delicate situation and likely there was some mental illness at check here.  Still, it broke all my University Sanctioned rules to run with it.  I took the first homework, from when I had given her the go ahead to miss.  I told her very seriously to just talk to the LC.  If I get the go ahead from her then I would love to grade the other homeworks.  The student backed off and said she didn't want to start a fuss.  I told her I didn't have the power to say okay but the LC did, and that I believed what she told me. She said she'd think about it.  She didn't.  This was painful because I still believe something was wrong but at my level I'm not allowed to make decisions like that without any sanctioned excuse.  She still passed, but two zeros did some damage.



I've got more to come for next week, and I've only been teaching 3 years. If you've got any good stories or insights SHARE!!!


"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." Samuel Johnson