TAing for the first time a course I never took as a first year PhD student

[adelashk]

Has anyone had an experience of TAing a class their first semester (as a PhD student)? I am very familiar with the material but never took the course and my potential advisor is pushing me to TA the class if I am "up for the challenge." I think it is a great opportunity and could be a fun experience.. I would like to prove to my advisor that I am up for the challenge but at the same time I am afraid to disappoint by refusing. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

[surefire]

Has anyone had an experience of TAing a class their first semester (as a PhD student)? I am very familiar with the material but never took the course and my potential advisor is pushing me to TA the class if I am "up for the challenge." I think it is a great opportunity and could be a fun experience.. I would like to prove to my advisor that I am up for the challenge but at the same time I am afraid to disappoint by refusing. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

I did a TA-ship my first semester as an MA student in a second year undergrad class that I had never taken myself. I also was keen on a challenge, though this shouldn't be your prime reason for taking the assignment (also, you shouldn't take the post just because you're concerned about disappointing if you turn it down. As a fledgling grad student, you should be eager to cultivate a thorough understanding of your capacity and limits. There's a reason why people say that grad school is a marathon, not a sprint. Supervisors will respect your self-awareness if you know when to say "no"; just a thought... say yes because of your interest, not because you've got something to prove)

I had a great experience. I had a couple of things working in my favour: the prof. was awesome and supportive of my choices and there were 3 other TAs in the class, so I could check up with peers if I was having trouble or doubting myself.

As well, I had a pretty open attitude with students, which I think helped ("we're going to learn from each other... yaddayadda"). I held seminars that consisted of discussion, more than me just lecturing. It was nerve-wracking at first (and I never went so far as to admit to students that I hadn't taken the course before), but as long as you are well-supported and stay ahead of the material, it should be a good experience and, as you say, a great opportunity! A lot of students can hold unrealistic ideas about the knowledge/availability of their TAs (I spoke with student who had no clue, say, that I also had my own classes/papers to attend to); so I opened every semester with a discussion about expectations, to make sure that we were all aligned (if, for example, most students appeared to expect to get straight As or if they balked when i told them how long the typical weekly readings would be, then that indicated that one of us might have to compromise a bit). If you're looking to glean a lot of learnings from your TA experience (which is especially pertinent if, like me, you're thinking of being a prof. someday) then you'll get a lot of bang for your buck by tackling a challenge like this!

Good luck!

[adelashk]

Thanks for the informative reply. I believe the class has another TA and my motivation was not purely to impress my advisor but to actually be a part of teaching this course. I think I will go ahead with it, especially since I am extremely familiar with the material.

[Hank Scorpio]

I will be TA'ing my first term as an MA student. I was nervous, but then realized that no one is banking you already knowing info for a specific course. They are just expecting you to be able to learn it faster than the students.