TA Class and certification

[bioarch_fan]

So I will be a TA for my first semester of graduate school at Mississippi State in the fall. I have to attend a TA class the week prior to the fall starting. Part of this class requires me to present a small lecture to a group of faculty members. I'm slightly worried about this because I've never taught anything like this before.

Has anyone else had to go through this type of situation of presenting a lecture to professors before???

[Lisa_McCoy]

Nervousness is obvious. I remember the first time I gave lecture in front of professors, I stuttered and stammered so much that I screwed up the lecture. But the professors were sweet and understood that it is human to be nervous in these kinda situations. So my only advice for you is to prepare well and try to be as calm as possible. You may or not may not screw up the lecture, but the most important thing the professors are looking for are passion and honesty. If you come across as a person who is willing to learn to be a good TA, more often than not the professors will like you. All the Best! 

[Guest joshw4288]

19 hours ago, bioarch_fan said:

So I will be a TA for my first semester of graduate school at Mississippi State in the fall. I have to attend a TA class the week prior to the fall starting. Part of this class requires me to present a small lecture to a group of faculty members. I'm slightly worried about this because I've never taught anything like this before.

Has anyone else had to go through this type of situation of presenting a lecture to professors before???

My hunch is that the TA class is to prepare you, not to criticize you. I completed a 3 day TA training program when I began my PhD program. We all completed 3 "micro-teach" sessions and received critiques from current TA's. The purpose was to help us understand how we could make material more approachable to the intended audience of first and second year undergraduate students. Enjoy the experience, it is there to help you moving forward. 

[bioarch_fan]

3 minutes ago, joshw4288 said:

My hunch is that the TA class is to prepare you, not to criticize you. I completed a 3 day TA training program when I began my PhD program. We all completed 3 "micro-teach" sessions and received critiques from current TA's. The purpose was to help us understand how we could make material more approachable to the intended audience of first and second year undergraduate students. Enjoy the experience, it is there to help you moving forward. 

Thanks. I'm hoping that it won't be too bad. I'm just worried that if I do horrible during the small lecture portion that they won't pass me and I won't be able to TA or something. That's mostly what I'm worried about at least. Lol.

[fuzzylogician]

45 minutes ago, bioarch_fan said:

Thanks. I'm hoping that it won't be too bad. I'm just worried that if I do horrible during the small lecture portion that they won't pass me and I won't be able to TA or something. That's mostly what I'm worried about at least. Lol.

I'm sure you'll do alright. This experience is meant to help prepare you to TA, but everyone understands that it's a stressful assignment. Just do your best: make sure you have materials prepared and that you go over your materials enough that you know what's in them and what you want to say. You may screw up or get tongue-tied, but that's ok. It may also happen in class, and it'll be ok then too!

Try to pay attention to your professors -- I'm sure they get confused, or stutter, or say something wrong once in a while. It happens to everyone. The question is how they deal with it. If they don't make a big deal out of it and just correct themselves and move one, the students will usually be very forgiving. Most of the time you wouldn't even notice it or think twice about it if some small error was made. So it's best to adopt an attitude that no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, but you are the authority in class, and as long as you can correct yourself if needed and move on, everything will be ok. Likewise if you don't know something, just say so, and promise to look up the answer for next time (and if it's a real class -- actually follow up on that and tell the students what you found!). It's ok not to know everything, just like it's ok to make a mistake.  

[bioarch_fan]

2 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

I'm sure you'll do alright. This experience is meant to help prepare you to TA, but everyone understands that it's a stressful assignment. Just do your best: make sure you have materials prepared and that you go over your materials enough that you know what's in them and what you want to say. You may screw up or get tongue-tied, but that's ok. It may also happen in class, and it'll be ok then too!

Try to pay attention to your professors -- I'm sure they get confused, or stutter, or say something wrong once in a while. It happens to everyone. The question is how they deal with it. If they don't make a big deal out of it and just correct themselves and move one, the students will usually be very forgiving. Most of the time you wouldn't even notice it or think twice about it if some small error was made. So it's best to adopt an attitude that no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, but you are the authority in class, and as long as you can correct yourself if needed and move on, everything will be ok. Likewise if you don't know something, just say so, and promise to look up the answer for next time (and if it's a real class -- actually follow up on that and tell the students what you found!). It's ok not to know everything, just like it's ok to make a mistake.  

Did you have to do this type of class and certification? If so, do they have you make your own mini-lecture prior to the class on your subject matter or do they have you make one on a topic of their choosing that anyone can accomplish?

Just trying to figure out what to expect.

[rising_star]

4 minutes ago, bioarch_fan said:

Did you have to do this type of class and certification? If so, do they have you make your own mini-lecture prior to the class on your subject matter or do they have you make one on a topic of their choosing that anyone can accomplish?

Just trying to figure out what to expect.

You'd need to find someone who went through this program at the university you'll be attending to find out. I've gone to classes where they want your mini-lesson to be something you might actually teach to students and ones where they assign you a topic and you do that. So it's difficult to say what yours will require. If you really want to know, send an email to the people organizing the class and ask them. They're going to provide you with instructions though.