TA: excuse note stories

Ah excuses, easily the biggest bane of any teacher's existence, ever.  And at the college level, we've gone well beyond, "The dog age my homework."  The tales you will hear will range from the astonishing, to downright infuriating.  Of course they're not all lies, but even the truth tellers tend to go out of their way to make things messy.



Firstly, every year you will always have at least one student e-mail you the DAY a major paper is due or a test will occur.  Always.  And it's always some variant of "I'm so busy I didn't have time to do it!"  Normally my rule is, if you came to me with a legitimate issue BEFORE said date, I will probably roll with it if it doesn't start too many issues.  Examples of complete inability of students to follow this philosophy:

1. Student A shattered his dominant arm mid week that a paper was due.  You don't really need a note for this, they show up with a cast.  So I gave him an extension to go down to disabilities resources and get help with writing.  Easy!  If he had told me the day of or day before though, hell to the no.  You shouldn't be writing the paper 2 hours before class anyway and putting if off until then certainly doesn't earn you an extension.  Of course, this kid ended up turning it in later than the extension date anyway so he still could have lost points.  Round two had no excuse besides, "I forgot!"  Regardless the paper was terrible so the score was low enough that not only could I tell he'd written in that Saturday to turn it in in the middle of the night (it was due Friday) but I couldn't even justify taking off an additional 20%.
2. Student B sends me an e-mail after hours on a Friday. She states that she is leaving for a conference in an adjoining state with her club and won't be back until late Tuesday, therefore missing the field trip we have on Monday. She says she will go to the Thursday class. So, I have two major issues with this e-mail.
1. It's a conference, which means you knew about it more than 12 hours in advance so either you are lazy and didn't bother to use a pre-excuse as an actual pre-excuse or you fibbing. I made her show documentation so it was legit, but seriously, she's known since the first week of school, what?
2. I HATE (hate hate hate hate hate) when students skip the request stage and immediately assume they can jump in where ever or just get the notes and that's just fine and dandy. As a student you are SUBORDINATE. You have to ask. And in this case we had full classes so she couldn't just pop on to another day, there wasn't room in the vans. 
3. The first week of school contained labor day, so Monday labs were missed. However, the instructor decided that all safety training needed to be done that week. Therefore the students needed to hop in to one of the other 3 labs that week or to my extra session on Friday. Student Splinter Group C ignored the requirement and the very important step of TELLING ME. 
1. Did I mention all I require is communication? You know that first day whether you will have issues or not. It's like the pre-excuse, I just don't care as much when you show me you don't either!! 
2. Anyway, I digress. Come the following Monday I had 7 students who had not only missed training the last week but ignored even talking to me about it in class. I held them after and asked why they skipped. The average response? "I just got the information from somebody else taking the class." 
3. So...I was pretty sure I hadn't certified anyone else to do safety training. I told them training is more of a piece of paper and I needed them in the training with a signature of completion if they wanted to stay in class. Furthermore, since they skipped class without discussion they received an unexcused absence.
4. I actually had a student tell me she couldn't e-mail me because she didn't have access to the internet. Apparently for 7 days. I asked if she had been on campus at all, since we have free computer access. What I didn't ask was if her legs were broken so she couldn't walk up to the instructor's or my office either, the location of which were given in lecture multiple times. Miraculous healing she must have had.

 

Next week I'll post some more serious excuse situations. Have some good stories of your own? Let me know!!

"The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal." Mark Twain 

TA: tips and tricks of the trade

Now I want to start this off by reminding you that this in no way is the perfect set of rules for a TA.  Every TA is different, and so is every class, course, professor, student, and coordinator.  Take them with a grain of salt and use them carefully!

I'm going to spend this week going through a list of dos and don'ts.  Definitely question, comment, and add on!  I always love these conversations!!

DOs:

1. Be energetic.  
1. Students can smell weakness and feed on it like the brain slugs from Animorphs.  Sound confident and it really does go a long way.  
2. My first year teaching I was driving a van load of students to a lake field trip.  Along the way they said they could tell that it was Nematobrycon's first time teaching (the other TA, also female).  Of course I told them it wasn't and that she deserved respect, teaching wasn't easy.  Truth was though they had us backwards, I was the noob and Nematorbrycon was a seasoned veteran so to speak.  The difference is I am loud and bouyant while she is quiet and short on speech, lending her to look unsure of herself regardless of her competence. 
2. Be engaging.
1. Every chance to get to bring in student participation, do it.  If nothing else they'll be less likely to fall asleep.  It also helps to get a good feel for students and to learn names.  Teach Socratically.  The goal remember is to teach them how to learn, so by giving them some basics you can help them through just about anything.  
1. Use candy as a bribe, that works.  Just make sure they know they can't eat it until they leave (no food in labs ya?). 
2. My coordinator also recommends "danger colors." I've never had to employ this method but basically you draw a color randomly and go around the room so anyone with that color on will have to answer. Depends on the students I think how well they would respond.
3. Speak and write confidently.
1. Give the students assurance that you know what you are babbling on about. Even if you feel like it's a weak subject for you, prewrite your board work and think about what you say. Fumble around or need to change something on the board and you will lose them fast. Super fast.

Don'ts

1. Never say "Try harder"
1. Seriously, never say this. Chances are the student is trying to their capacity (whatever that is) and even if they're not it's a very frustrated piece of advice. You look like a complete pompous douchebag and they will likely stop trying altogether and feel you are entirely unapproachable. Which you are.
2. Never say " I don't know"
1. Even if you don't know, there are other ways to handle the situation that doesn't make them lose their faith in you.
1. Try attacking it socratically, can you think through it together?
2. Is it really pertinent? If not say that's above the level required for the course and in an effort to stay on track let it slide for now. After class, look it up and have it open for THEM as a resource.
2. Does it matter? Are they asking what the obscure stuffed animal in the corner is that was likely extinct 400 years ago? Then a "mmm I'm so sure on that one" is probably just fine.
3. HOWEVER, NEVER EVER LIE to your students. For one they take what you say is truth and you can severely harm their learning. Moreover if they figure out you fibbed you lose all their confidence AND, again, you look like a pompous douchebag, albeit an incompetent one.
3. Never let students run the joint.
1. Some freedom in a lab setting is great, it teaches responsibility and add comfort to their learning process, allowing them to focus more. Some informality at this level works too, be friendly and you'll likely get more active discussion. However, there will come a time when you need to stomp on a student. Be sure that when push comes to shove no means no. Some of them will tests boundaries, make sure you set a solid example.
4. Stay away from "wrong"
1. Especially if you are in a discussion moment within the lecture and asking for feedback, telling a volunteer straight out they are wrong can slow the discussion down dramatically. Make sure to smile and keep a positive flow. Say things like "well that's a good start" or "okay what it we thought about it this way." Try to redirect without spurning their attempt.

That's a solid review. Drop in your questions and comments and we can add more. Next week I think some funny horror stories to bring in the realism!

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater." Gail Godwin

Teaching: Rules of survival as a TA

Okay, back again from a trip home.  Remember my family lives out of state from me.  Classes started today so back to the old grindstone and back to weekly posts.  We've done a lot of learny learny so let's take a break and talk about something else!

While in grad school one of the ways you're likely going to draw a paycheck is by being assigned as a T.A., or teaching assistant.  In the sciences, this generally means you run a lab and/or a tutoring session.  In total you will likely hold class about 6 hours a week, plus grading, plus classroom preparation, plus running open lab times and office hours.  They'll pay you for about 20 hours a week.  Let's just say you get very quick at grading.  I personally LOVE teaching.  Even when classes are at their worst.  This week I'm going to walk you through how a standard week for a science TA goes.  Next week I'm going to clean house with some nice do's and don't tips to help you along your journey.  This is a great topic for questions or experiences.

A week of teaching actually starts the week before.  At the end of the previous week you'll meet with your TA coordinator, your other TAs (usually anywhere from 2 to 6 of you total) and, rarely, the professor who teaches the lecture portion of the course.  You'll spend a little time making sure there weren't any major issues and the rest of the time getting the handouts and outline for the lab next week.  Although the coordinator will go over major chunks of material and go over pitfalls, they will not be teaching you the material.  Whether it's rusty, or even a little new, it is your responsibility to learn the material.  Don't panic though, you've already been through college and aside from some crap you were forced to learn that you DON'T remember there is a real benefit.  As I try to tell my own students, it's not about what you can memorize, it's about how you build your tool box that will allow you to tackle any problem that any teacher throws at you.  You absolutely have the ability to teach yourself just about anything and certainly have enough base knowledge to hack it.  I recommend making a detailed outline of the information you have to cover.  Not only will it ensure that you don't miss any major points when giving your talk but it will also make a good, discreet resource if you get a tougher question.

Alright, so then the week of teaching you'll have 2-3 sections you teach.  I personally like to break them up over the week, other TAs prefer to compound it up and do them all in a row and be free.  It's a balance and you need to decide what makes you the most comfortable.  So you teach and I won't go into any detail here and will go into lengthy tips and advice next week.  Before the end of the week you will also have to have 2-3 hours of office time, usually over 2 days throughout the week.  This makes for great grading time as students tend not to show up so much to these.  They come a lot right before the test and right at the end of the semester-aka times you don't care that they are trying to squeak by.  You do get a few good ones who put forth the effort.  I've used this time in the past to bring in students that need a talking to as well.  Generally in lower level courses but when I've flagged cheating or plagiarism I use this time to talk to the student face to face.  We'll talk more on this later, both in tips and as a particular horror story of mine.


Regardless of what method you use and how the semester goes, the best thing I can say is KEEP A PAPER TRAIL. If a student has an excuse, print out the email or photocopy it.  If you give extensions, write it down.  While you're grading, on your master sheet make note of what you accepted and what got half credit.  Post reminders on open lab times or office hours.  There will always be one student who will say "well my friend wrote basically the same thing on his test and got credit" or " I didn't know you had time for us to look at the specimens again!" Make sure if they run crying to the coordinator that you have something that shows, yes you did.  Then it's the coordinator's problem and likely WAY above your pay scale to deal with.  More on this next week!


"For every person who wants to teach there are approximately thirty people who don't want to learn--much."
W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman