wildviolet

I did mention that I have kids and that is specifically why I got my preference the first time around. I came to this school because it has a family-friendly culture in terms of how they treat their graduate students. I confirmed this before I decided to accept their offer of admission. In the College of Education, the average age is about 30. This is probably a result of the requirement that doctoral students have experience teaching in K-12 schools. Many of us have been public school teachers, administrators, etc. So, lots of students, both male and female, have young children. Some people even have babies while they are in grad school. It seems as if the people who have posted here so far are either in fields or schools where it is not the norm for family/personal issues to be considered. As far as Lewin00's points: 1. The decision to involve my advisor was made by my faculty supervisor. Here, our advisors work closely with us in deciding all aspects of graduate school, including RA and TA assignments. We're not a cutthroat institution where only the best can make it. The faculty here really try their best to support us in many ways. 2. In education we discuss the idea of equity a lot. Equity does not mean equality. Different students should not receive the same treatment. To treat everybody the same is to ignore their individual backgrounds, experiences, and situations. I think I should be treated differently because I have kids. My department must think so also because my TA assignment is still up in the air. If they were not considering it, they would have just told me my TA assignment outright and been done with it. I think the opinions expressed on this thread so far are definitely a reflection of personal ideologies but also institutional practices. I like to think that I've joined a department, for the next 5 years of my life, that values graduate students as colleagues-in-training rather than low-paid-workers.

I'm with Quantum on this one. I sleep seven maybe even eight hours a night, but when I'm awake I'm constantly on the go, especially on the weekends. I cannot wait to be done with the semester (13 more days to go).

The assumption is that seniority and faculty vs. grad student status determines course assignment, but I have no evidence that this is how they actually assign the course sections. In my limited experience thus far in this department, I was able to select the exact day and time. My mistake was to expect the same flexibility the second time around. Also, I don't see why one cannot at least challenge what some may consider to be the simple facts of life. My reference to being a woman and a minority was made as a broader statement about how race, ethnicity, and gender influence real life in academia, such as hiring, salary, and performance evaluations. The way I see it, I can either shut up and accept my lot or voice my concerns. I find it interesting that my faculty supervisor didn't come to me with this issue--I had to go to her when I didn't see my name listed in the online course schedule. So I wonder what background dealings or discussions were/are going on.

LOL, that's how I feel.

I agree that logistics is a huge part of the process, but I also think that politics plays an important role (what we're learning in our intro to educational history course is that everything is political in the sense of who has the power and authority to make decisions and how those decisions are influenced by values, beliefs, and social relationships). Anyway, I think the culture in our department is to ask students what they would like to teach and to try to accommodate those preferences. I'm sure some students have been simply told what and when they will teach, but I was actually asked for my preferences in terms of location and courses, which is why I'm a little miffed now. The implication, it seems, is that I need to temper my expectations. Eigen--thanks for pointing out that most TAs don't have any voice in the process. It probably explains why most of my TAs in undergrad were so unhappy--particularly the physics TAs who had to teach the lab sections at 8 AM on Friday mornings. Also, I just want to clarify, Sparky, that I don't feel as if I'm being targeted in any way. As a woman in academia, however, I feel that I have to advocate for myself in whatever ways I can. The implicit bias against women and minorities in academia (and our society) continues to be a significant issue that we all should address explicitly.

Well, there are other faculty assigned to this far away position, so I'm not sure what the politics are involved in terms of who gets preference. I also asked about politics because my faculty supervisor for the TA position didn't come to me to discuss it. I had to go to her. So, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I assume that she was trying to advocate on my behalf and was perhaps trying to work things out before coming to me since she knew my preference--I know some things are out of her control, too. I think it's interesting how department politics works in terms of who gets what and why.

*Disclaimer* I'm not sure if this post should go in this forum or the TA forum. Anyway, during the past summer (and in my official assistantship letter), I was *promised* a 1/4 time RA position with my advisor and a 1/4 time TA position (this is for both semesters). I found out today (by my own sleuthing, not by the faculty member in charge of the TA position) that the TA position is in limbo because I was not assigned my original preference. The TA position in the spring involves travel and because I am a single mom of two elementary-school aged kids, I preferred to stay close to the university. There are four TA positions close to the university--two of the course sections are being taught by faculty and two are being taught by long-time instructors (one instructor is a second-year grad student). The rest of the sections are in a city that is about a 1.5-hour drive away from the university. I don't see why they couldn't switch me with one of them. Do you think they assigned me to a position that I don't prefer (for what I see as good reason) because I'm a first-year doctoral student and obviously at the bottom of the pecking order? However, there's one more piece to the puzzle--I learned in October that the Graduate School gave me an assistantship award that pays for my assistantships for this year (i.e., my advisor doesn't have to pay my salary out of his grants and the college doesn't have to pay me for teaching out of their funds). So, my question is... what leverage do I have to say that if they can't give me my preferred TA course section, that I would rather not teach and perhaps do two 1/4 time research assistantships? How do you think politics plays into this? My advisor has been fairly supportive so far, but I can't say how he'll advocate (or not) for me. He's out of town tomorrow, so this may not be resolved until Thursday or Friday.

The best thing is not to draw any more attention to it--let time be your solution.

Potluck! Seriously.

It sounds like it might be the students--sometimes you just have a bad bunch! On the other hand, candy always works for me (even with the college seniors I'm teaching this semester). Seriously, it sounds like you're doing all you can to liven up the class given the content and nature of the course.

Yes, the results sections was fairly accurate +/- one week. The only exception for me was my first acceptance, which was in very early January (the deadline was Dec 1).

tea party

SSP-You can PM me if you want. We're in the same field.

I'm going to take the "glass half-full" perspective and say that you can learn from any experience. My advisor is making me do reliability coder work. He hires undergrads (who are supervised by one of the post-docs) to do the main coding work, but I code about 10% of the responses and do a reliability check. It's very low-level work. But, it helps me understand the process, and it allows me an insider view on methodology and how to get things done. My introductory coursework has been a little frustrating in that there is so much reading and some of it is convoluted. But, I see the utility of learning how to write academic papers, structure arguments, and think critically about theory and issues in my field (which for me means seeing things from multiple perspectives and understanding how different factors complicate the issue). I'm loving grad school--I'm just exhausted because there doesn't seem to be enough time to do everything.

When I meet with my advisor, I bring up issues that are clearly premature (putting the cart before the horse, so to speak). Last week, I brought up the issue of using one of the projects in my courses for a conference presentation with a submission deadline of August 2013. He told me that he doesn't begin thinking about that particular conference until June! So... his basic message is that I need to slow down and that there's no rush. I should heed his advice--he's been a professor as long as I've been alive! And he's been at my institution for that entire time, so I'm sure he's seen a lot. The other thing I have to do is trust him--he has a reputation as a good advisor who looks out for his grad students. So, while I'm sure the faculty compare us all informally, I don't think it's so much about who's better than who (like a ranking) but more about what skills and interests each student brings to the department.

Just wanted to update this topic... My supervisor says that the 5-week evaluations were a chance for many students to rant and that she's not sure what the department will do in the future since the response rate was lower than expected. In my section, I actually had 20 out of the 23 students respond, rather thoughtfully, so I think my evaluations were fairly representative. She thought my evaluations were great and even talked to my advisor about it, who mentioned it to me last week. Which brings up another point--do your professors talk about the grad students, and in what ways? Anyway, I think what I said originally was right--as long as my supervisor is happy, then I'm good, because she'll be the one writing my letter of recommendation.

The 5-week course evaluations are in! Of course, being the perfectionist that I am, I attend more to the negative comments than to the positive ones. And, no, I cannot lower the amount of course readings. My first reaction was dismay. I let it stew for a few hours. And then voila! I realized that what counts more than my students’ evaluations of my teaching are my supervisor’s and colleagues’ evaluations of my reaction to my students’ evaluations. It’s kind of circular, but the point is that I needed some perspective. These students are with me for one semester–15 weeks. My colleagues will be with me–forever, in a sense. And my supervisor will evaluate me as long as I choose to TA for this course (which they hope will be for at least two more years). So, my reaction? Of course, there is always room for improvement. The reality, though, is that you can’t please everyone. So the thing is to make sure you know who you are supposed to please! Thoughts?

I think that's part of the problem. She's an international student and talks to her family on the phone all the time, but she still complains to me. I agree about the enabling behavior. At the same time, I understand that she doesn't have many resources here. So far, I haven't had to go out of my way to help her--it has just worked out that we have similar schedules and her daughter attends the same school my kids do. If nothing else, I am cognizant of her daughter's welfare (at least my kids have each other to play with; being an only child can be tough).

lewin00--yeah, I'm already thinking about that. The car is a difficult situation, especially as winter sets in (I mean, it's just kind of mean to ask her to walk in the cold). I can tune her out for the ten minutes it takes to walk to the car and drive home. As for the other situation... yes, I have stood my ground. So today I told her that I haven't done the readings and don't plan to until early next week. I asked her if she had talked to the professor and her advisor. I tell her I don't know as much as others (which is certainly true), and refer her to others. I don't know. I try to be a good person and help others when I can.

There is one person I'm purposefully excluding on what I think are reasonable grounds. First, some background: she and I have the exact same courses and teaching schedule. We use the same babysitter (at my suggestion and at my house since she had no after school arrangements), so she drives home with me (she doesn't have a car). Thus, we see each other at least two to three times a week. During these times, she almost always complains about... everything! I understand that she's going through a tough time... a divorce (her husband sounds like a total jerk and is not even giving her any child support) and no car (although she lives close enough to campus to walk). She complains about the coursework, reading assignments, writing, teaching, research, her husband, her apartment... literally everything! And it's annoying. So I don't want to invite her to anything unless it's out of my hands (like the department social coming up at a professor's house). Am I justified? I understand the need to share your feelings and concerns occasionally, but time spent with her is just annoying! I don't want to say anything to her about this (yet) because it's not as if I'm her close friend, and I have enough stuff to do without worrying about her stuff as well. For example, in one class, we are responsible for leading the class for one week. Her week is coming up, and she wants me to read the papers ahead of time and help her figure out what to do in class. Ummm... isn't that your job? And aren't you supposed to be collaborating with the professor on this, not me? Then she complains about how she doesn't understand it at all and has to keep reading it over and over. Big sigh. Sorry for the rant. I just have to let it out!

I hope so! Thanks.

Well, I didn't think it would ever happen to me, but self-doubt has set in (i.e., Imposter Syndrome). Last night I even cried a little as I thought what the hell am I doing in grad school? Why did I leave my family and friends and all my favorite places in my hometown? I thought I was getting sick (a cold perhaps) but now I think it's just stress. As I talk to second- and third-years, it doesn't seem to get better. Actually, I don't think it will ever get better--perhaps we just have to manage it somehow?

LOL. Me, too! I find myself attracted to guys who are a little bit *different* (which in some cases may mean socially awkward to others).

This is it! Yes, I would definitely provide feedback on an assignment once I was already done with mine or if it was for another class that I'm not taking. I love editing and helping people refine their writing--but not at the same time that I'm trying to write my own paper on the same topic/readings.

So we had this short analysis paper due this week--a three-page, double-spaced critical analysis of the reading for the week. The requirements were specific but the directions were nebulous--for the reason that they wanted to see what we do on our first paper. So, no example papers, no specific topics other than we were to respond critically to the readings for the week. Now, before the deadline, one of my colleagues asked me if I had time to read her paper and provide feedback. I was hesitant to do this for two reasons: (1) I didn't have time, and (2) I didn't want to, for lack of a better word, "taint", my thoughts with hers. My primary concern here is plagiarism. I understand the benefits of sharing ideas and arguments in verbal discussion BEFORE writing. But once the writing has started? Of course, many of us may have come to the same conclusions. But the way in which we argue those points and our writing styles are our own. Our professors cautioned us about plagiarism, including the fact that they will learn our individual writing styles over time. So what do you all think about peer feedback? Now, I should say that if she wanted feedback, she could have used the writing center on campus, or (and get this) we have a faculty member in our department whose primary job is to help us with our writing. If you make an appointment with him *ahead of time*, he will read your paper and spend an hour helping you revise it. I think that's a terrific service, and I guess part of it was that I had made use of this service (which helped me tremendously), while my colleague had not (and then proceeded to email him her paper the day it was due, which I think is a very bad thing to do politically).