How to TA a useless class

[PsychodelicateGirl]

This is a problem I have been having for a year now, and have found no real way to handle it.

Every few quarters I end up having be TA for a class that is taught by a really terrible professor, who my school more or less acknowledges is bad at his job. There are folders and folders of bad student evals from his classes, he is honestly become a joke in our department. But he is kept around because he is tenured and because he sits on financial committees.

Anyhow-in order to make him as obsolete as possible in the department, he has been relegated to lecturing Intro level undergrad classes, which I sometimes have to TA for. His lectures are nonsense, he confuses dates constantly and he provides the TA's with no direction for the class. As a TA I have to run my own 50 minute break out section for his class, and I have truly nothing to teach my students. The last time I taught this class I ended up just talking to them for about 15 minutes about what was due for the class each week and trying to get them to talk about the material covered in the pointless lecture. All in all my class would last about 20-30 mins or I would end up canceling it, because there was nothing for me to do with them.

I feel incredibly guilty about short changing them, but I can't think of anything to do with them and I have brought it up to my program's director, and he just shrugs his shoulders about the useless professor.

Does anyone have any advice on how to handle being stuck TA-ing a utterly useless course? I considered running my own class with my own materials that the students could learn things from, in my section, but 50 mins once a week is not enough time to do this.

Help!!

[Sparky]

Yuck!

I would probably just prepare a short lecture each time about something really cool in the general subject field, whether or not it related to the topic of the professor's lectures that week. No, 50 minutes a week is probably not enough to run a full intro to world history or psychology or chemistry or course, but it's certainly enough to give a one-shot lecture on some famous science experiment that involved a lot of extra-experimental drama or had wild and unexpected results, or to show slides and talk about the history of hell in medieval European art, or whatever. I guess I would think of it like all those lectures we're required to go to, and just try to make the overall subject as appealing as possible.

I mean, yeah, as a TA I would be super-wary about straying from what the prof covered, but cool lectures are better than nothing or the equivalent, right?

[Sleepy]

I hope this isn't too much work for you and I don't know if this is relevant for your discipline, but I think the best TA experience I had as an undergrad was a TA who handed out a quiz every class and most people stayed and solved the quiz and discussed the answers. I just took the quiz and left because that way I could have a lot of questions to practice for the final.

Perhaps you could do that.

[wtncffts]

I understand the horribleness of the class, but I'm not quite sure I understand your dilemma. Are there no course readings? Even if the prof does do a terrible job, surely there are supposed to be a progression of topics for each week. Just prepare 4 or 5 questions for discussion. Unless your students are incredibly dull, you shouldn't have any problem in sustaining a discussion for 50 minutes. I know when I TAed we often spent 50 minutes on discussing only two questions (of three prepared); my problem was actually getting behind where the lectures were. Intro courses don't have to be dreary. In many ways I prefer them because the course is wide-ranging and the discussion is often more open and interesting.

[far_to_go]

I agree with Sparky- just because the professor is miserably failing the students doesn't mean that you can't teach them anything. I've had good luck with my TA assignments so far, but friends in your situation have told me that they regard their discussion sections as an opportunity to teach a mini-course of their own, in parallel to what the professor is (allegedly) doing in class. Since the professor isn't giving you any explicit instructions on what to do, he probably won't mind if you take some initiative in planning worthwhile learning opportunities for your TA sessions. Just keep the prof in the loop on what you're doing and try to give the students something that's worth their time. Hopefully this experience will help you to prepare for teaching your own courses later on. Best of luck!

[Amalia222]

The best way I know of to fill a 50-minute seminar is with discussion. You can always bring in something to read aloud, or some topic relating (even tangentially) to the material of the class. Something that will stimulate active discussion is best, as well as encouraging critical thinking. If there is an academic writing component to the class, you can have them do a freewrite of the first paragraph of an essay on a topic of your choosing, and then have the student compare their paragraphs and make constructive comments. There are loads of things you can do to fill a 50 minute class. Just because the prof. gets a bad rating on surveys, that doesn't mean you have to.

[Brandt]

I have used Tedtalks to stimulate discussion in a class. They work well when you can find one that addresses, even peripherally a topic in the course readings.

[sputnik]

I love the fact that I TA for a prof who gives absolutely no oversight to what I do in my 50 minute discussions. I do the readings and go to the lectures, and from there I try to pick something interesting from the material and have the students talk about it. If there's nothing interesting in the material, then I try to come up with something that is related to it, but that is a bit controversial, so the students will have something to debate. Also, I know the prof I work for uses a lot of terms on tests, so I try to guess which terms the students should know and go over them in discussion.

I know some TAs who have profs that are always micro-managing everything they do...sitting in on their discussions...etc. I would hate to be in that situation. I like the freedom to do what I want in my discussions. And if the material is crap, then I try to do what I can to make it interesting in at least some way. I don't always succeed. One thing that's fun is, especially when I am not happy with the readings chosen for that week, I ask the students how they liked the readings. And if they agreed or not and why. The few students that did read are usually the ones who are willing to talk. So, this has led to some interesting discussions.

[TheSquirrel]

This is a problem I have been having for a year now, and have found no real way to handle it.

Every few quarters I end up having be TA for a class that is taught by a really terrible professor, who my school more or less acknowledges is bad at his job. There are folders and folders of bad student evals from his classes, he is honestly become a joke in our department. But he is kept around because he is tenured and because he sits on financial committees.

Anyhow-in order to make him as obsolete as possible in the department, he has been relegated to lecturing Intro level undergrad classes, which I sometimes have to TA for. His lectures are nonsense, he confuses dates constantly and he provides the TA's with no direction for the class. As a TA I have to run my own 50 minute break out section for his class, and I have truly nothing to teach my students. The last time I taught this class I ended up just talking to them for about 15 minutes about what was due for the class each week and trying to get them to talk about the material covered in the pointless lecture. All in all my class would last about 20-30 mins or I would end up canceling it, because there was nothing for me to do with them.

I feel incredibly guilty about short changing them, but I can't think of anything to do with them and I have brought it up to my program's director, and he just shrugs his shoulders about the useless professor.

Does anyone have any advice on how to handle being stuck TA-ing a utterly useless course? I considered running my own class with my own materials that the students could learn things from, in my section, but 50 mins once a week is not enough time to do this.

Help!!

Well, to be honest, you shouldn't have to put in more hours than you're paid for. I'd just prepare a few things to talk to them about, that are of relevance to the class. But nothing that requires major preparation. You're not the one teaching this course, you're just TAing it. If they can't fire the prof, it's their problem, not yours. You could also practically turn your sessions into group office hours, where people can ask questions about the material, about research methods, how to write a paper, etc. That's often what I do when I realize there's too much time and too little to talk about. Students like that. And I've had some really great questions that have set up very good and useful discussions -- far more useful than all of the prof's lectures put together...

I like doing my own thing in classes. I've TAed the same course for the past 3 semesters, and in the first 2 semesters, there were 2 sections of the same course (with two profs), and the other prof (who I was not TAing for) was running the entire course and kept giving us lesson plans to stick to. I hated that. I did some of that stuff, but most of it was plain stupid and did not work well with my students. And every time I told him that, he would say something like, well, maybe you're not good at engaging your students. After some time, I just decided to do my own thing, and only cover some of the important things that he wanted us to cover in the seminar, and it worked out great. His lesson plans just plain sucked.

Edited July 23, 2011 by TheSquirrel

[runonsentence]

Though this is a bit old, I'll bite.

If your institution supports writing across the curriculum (or even if it doesn't and you're looking to stimulate some critical thinking and get students into some active learning in the classroom), write-to-learn activities are a good fallback. Even just a simple freewrite about the assignment can be a good way to get students to decompress and think carefully about a reading, and thus can really enliven a discussion.

Also, something like a freewrite to open your period with students can be mildly therapeutic. In past terms, I was surprised to discover that my students just appreciated being able to come in and have a quiet moment with their thoughts, just writing what came to mind.

Some examples: http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop5.cfm. John C. Bean has also published the bible of WAC writing-to-learn activities, called Engaging Ideas; I highly recommend it.

[IRdreams]

It is definitely rough. I had a really great experience the first time I TAed and I think it shaped a lot of my beliefs about how to run a section. The professor encouraged us to treat section like we would a seminar that students could have the best of all worlds: a lecture and time period for free ranging and indepth discussion. My next TA experience was terrible by comparison. Besides the issues with this professor, the class was well outside my area and frankly my interest. And my evals suffered comparatively I'm sure. However, I continue to employ the seminar indepth dissection of the readings approach. For the most part, I think students want to talk. So give them a forum to do so and structure the conversation so it is also educational and hopefully they will at least get something out the class.

A friend of mine took a different route. She basically surogate lectured. But this was her field so that helps a lot. I think a mix of both would have been the ideal set up. Perhaps a 20 minute mini lecture on the things you think it would be embarrassing for them to have not learned in the course and then 30 minute discussion time.

[Henry Hudson]

yow. I've only had that for a 2-week module within a larger class, a brand-new lecturer in a course full of rotating lecturers.

I like some of the above ideas. I've sometimes begun sessions by getting them to discuss what they did get out of the lectures/readings, to establish a common starting point for discussions. I also knew a bit about the topic in question, so I could off the top of my head discuss omissions and answer questions. For a topic I didn't know as well, I might take notes of their confusions, and address them the week after once I looked into them (or brushed up). If you've TAed for this before, you may well already have this knowledge; that will be helpful (to new TAs as well, of you communicate with each other for support).

I'd also diplomatically address this with your students at the outset. Without calling the prof any names, you can tell them you've TAed this course before, and as someone who was an undergrad more recently than the prof, you're aware that the his style may not be as user-friendly as he thinks it may be. Let them know you are not dittoing Dr. Nogood, nor are you directly criticizing him; that way they may be more open from the outset about coming to you about any confusion. you thus become a resource for them, someone on their side - not another obstacle (as you might by remaining silent or by criticizing the prof before they get a sense for him).

even though it means more work, I'd organize a mutual support session with other TAs who have to deal with this to discuss common strategies. Early in the term before they're too bogged down in their current assignments, I'd bring in TAs who are also in the rotation on other terms; it's to all your benefit to share strategies on this, as sooner or later they'll be stuck there again too.

If you are grading their papers and exams, you can even circumvent his instructions (this will be easier if you and the other TAs fond a united front, and can at least informally tell the department heads who admit Prof Nogood is incompetent).

It will take some extra effort, but the best way to deal with the prof is to marginalize him as much as possible. It is also an opportunity to really adjust the course to your own criteria rather than remain stuck. Remember, fortune favors the bold! Good luck.