Picking Courses

[DeleteMePlease]

Sorry if this has been asked before...

 

My school wants me to pick three choices for TA duty. I am not really sure what to do and what will be expected from me.

 

I would like to pick a course that interests me and is taught by my POI, however I am not an "expert" in the field (not a beginner either). Will making a mistake/not knowing a certain subtopic be a problem, or is this normal for a first year?
Should I maybe rather take a course that is easy (e.g. some introductory course)?

My gut tells me to always take the "hard" option, that forces me to learn more about my area of specialization. 

[biisis]

TAs aren't expected to be experts, by any means. You'll learn the material like all the students, and then be a sort of peer leader/bridge between the students and the professor. It's honestly the professor, rather than the material, that will make your experience difficult or easy. Try and sound out who has the fairest expectations for their TAs, and who works them to the bone.

[St Andrews Lynx]

I would go with an option that is slightly "easier", if you're a first year TA with little teaching experience. 

Remember that you'll be expected to do research, attend your own classes in addition to the TA work in your first year. My own experience is that TAing - even for a conceptually simple introductory course - took up a LOT of time/energy at first, then by the second semester I finally figured out the efficient ways to get it done. First semester is something of a crazy balancing act!

 

TAs aren't supposed to know everything or be infallible. Faculty (& your PI) understand this. If you tell your students that you're a brand new first year TA, they will also understand. 

 

I'd forsake the "hard" option in your first semester, and wait until you are more confident in what you're doing as a TA. 

[rising_star]

Do the easy course. You'll have to teach intro later on in your career if you become faculty, so it's good to get a handle on it now.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

If these are first year students, they won't know anything or even ask complicated questions outside of the material. I think you'll be fine. Just make sure you read the chapter before each lesson and spend an hour or two planning what you want to say. 

[victorydance]

Not sure if I agree with the advice for doing the intro course. Intro courses are boring as hell, have huge amounts of students (many of them first years), and have a bunch of students only taking the class to fill pre-reqs. This means more work, not less.

[DeleteMePlease]

TAs aren't expected to be experts, by any means. You'll learn the material like all the students, and then be a sort of peer leader/bridge between the students and the professor. It's honestly the professor, rather than the material, that will make your experience difficult or easy. Try and sound out who has the fairest expectations for their TAs, and who works them to the bone.

 

Yeah that was also my experience during undergrad (I already did some tutoring).

I forgot to mention: in my program you have to take exams on some undergrad classes as well no matter if you already took them at your previous institution. So I will most likely have an exam on the harder course anyways.

Edited May 24, 2014 by GermanStudent

[fuzzylogician]

Choose an easier option. You'll have enough time to do the harder ones later on. In my program, the undergraduate intro courses are not considered the easier ones--they involve a lot of grading and grunt work-- though honestly as was already mentioned I'd really want to choose based on the primary instructor more than anything else. Assuming that you don't know anyone who you could ask for advice about particular courses and instructors, I'd go with a relatively small class of some kind. At least you are guaranteed not to have too much grading, if nothing else.

[reinhard]

Woah, you get to pick!?

[Sigaba]

If these are first year students, they won't know anything or even ask complicated questions outside of the material. I think you'll be fine. Just make sure you read the chapter before each lesson and spend an hour or two planning what you want to say.

Do you have experience as a TA?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Do you have experience as a TA?

Nah.

[Sigaba]

Nah.

 

Sometimes, an introductory class is harder to take and to teach than an upper division course. For example, some schools use introductory classes as "weeders" so that underclass persons who aren't ready for college get hammered and either flunk out or leave. IME, this type of class can require a lot of work by a TA because he is tasked to raise the bar high and hold it there so the weeding function will work.

 

Also, introductory classes can have a lot of students who only don't know anything about the subject but also very little about being a successful, forward leaning collegian. In such situations, TAs not only have to facilitate the teaching of (for example) a basic class in American history, he/she also has to support the process by which students learn how to think critically, to make an argument, and to write skillfully.

 

Moreover, because of the introductory nature of the course, a TA can get questions and answers from left field because an undergraduate doesn't understand the parameters of a field of inquiry. A discussion of the causes and nature of a specif war in a history class can quickly veer into a conversation better suited for courses in the sociology, political science, or philosophy departments, or a bar at happy hour. In these situations, a TA faces the challenge of getting the conversation back on track without being too heavy handed.

[DeleteMePlease]

Woah, you get to pick!?

 

Well I get to choose three options. How does it work at other colleges? Do they just let you teach some random course you may have no clue of?

 

 

On topic: I went for two introductory courses and the hard one as third option. Let's see what I end up with

[TakeruK]

Well I get to choose three options. How does it work at other colleges? Do they just let you teach some random course you may have no clue of?

 

 

On topic: I went for two introductory courses and the hard one as third option. Let's see what I end up with

 

In places I've been to in the past, it's like a matching system. The students are asked to rank a list of 3-5 courses they would like to TA and the profs makes a ranked list of students they want to TA their course. Then the TA coordinator combines the two lists to make everyone as happy as possible. Usually what happens is that if a prof wants a specific student to be their TA (usually their own student), they will first check with the student to make sure the student wants to TA and then request it to the TA Coordinator and it's basically a sure thing that you'll get that position, assuming you want it!

 

At my current school, a similar process happens. However, sometimes as a result of your qualifying exam, the committee might make a recommendation that you TA a certain course that covers material that they feel you are not as strong as you could be on. TAing is a good way to learn the material too! 

 

I think it's a fallacy to think that TAs must be complete experts on the material they teach. In reality, they just need to know it at one level higher than the students. This is usually true if the TA has taken the same course or a similar course in the past! This year, I asked to teach two of the lectures in the course I was TAing and the material I taught was completely new to me. In the two weeks prior to the lectures, I spent almost about 20 hours learning the material, writing my course notes, and creating a problem set based on the material just to deliver 2 hours worth of lectures! (My experience in the past was about a 4 or 5 to 1 ratio of prep time vs teaching time). So, while it is true that I could have worked 10 fewer hours if I covered something I knew well, I felt it was a good chance for me to learn something new and interesting to me too! 

 

So, don't let the higher level of the material discourage you from TAing a course you would be really interested in. Instructors do not have to be all-knowing (and it's unrealistic if you try to project that image). By the way, the professor of the course also did not know the material in my lectures so they also attended the lecture to learn the material! Everyone is learning the material as they teach it.

[Maleficent999]

At my school, students are given a list of courses and we have to rank our top 6 out of the classes that don't conflict with our schedules. We are required to have at least 3 courses in our top 6 be lower division. However, I was sent a mass email that leads me to believe professors also rank TAs as the poster above mentioned.

My question is: as a first year, how the heck are professors supposed to rank first years when they haven't even met us? I'm guessing I'll be stuck with the leftovers.

[C&C]

Well I get to choose three options. How does it work at other colleges? Do they just let you teach some random course you may have no clue of?

 

 

I did not get to choose or rank courses. My department head emailed me (and cced the professor) with my assignment. The course is not within my field, and the professor is in the history department but specializes in African History (my area is the American South).

 

I'm extremely nervous, because I'm not sure what I'll be expected to contribute, it is not an intro course, and I have yet to hear from the professor. At least I've read one of the books on the list...in high school. 

Edited June 22, 2014 by Calhoun&Caffeine

[tspier2]

I did not get to choose or rank courses. My department head emailed me (and cced the professor) with my assignment. The course is not within my field, and the professor is in the history department but specializes in African History (my area is the American South).

 

I'm extremely nervous, because I'm not sure what I'll be expected to contribute, it is not an intro course, and I have yet to hear from the professor. At least I've read one of the books on the list...in high school. 

What's preventing you from taking a look at the other books in the coming weeks before beginning?

[C&C]

After digging through the 20+ sections, I found out that my professor actually hasn't uploaded the required books yet. I'll keep my cool and email her late July/early August if I don't hear from her before then. 

[TakeruK]

What's preventing you from taking a look at the other books in the coming weeks before beginning?

 

Although I might start prep for TAing a course one week or two early, the main worry of me starting prep months in advance is

 

1) I'm not getting paid for it at this time, yet I am still working. This is okay in my books if it's work I will have to anyways and I have nothing else to do in the summer so this would lessen my hours later on in the term, though.

2) Starting too early might mean I spend more time on the course that I would like to / are supposed to / are paid for. 

 

For me, I find the best strategy is to stay about 1-2 weeks ahead of my students and spend approximately the same amount of time on the material as the students are supposed to. This prevents me from spending too much energy on TAing (as much as I love it, the school is paying me to work on research for X hours and teach for Y hours) and also keeps the material fresh.