Anybody been (or is) a Teaching Assistant?

thegreenblender

thegreenblender

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First time this semester. These little bastards, I tell you. Two days before the final and I've got people emailing me telling me there was error in their assignment submissions or some other bullshit that means I need to re-evaluate/re-grade their assignments 1-n.

I'd email them this, if the bjj humor wasn't wasted on them.

osiander.jpg
 
Nope. In grad school I had the choice of becoming a Teacher Assistant or Research Assistant. Thankfully I picked RA
 
Chuck Bass said:
Nope. In grad school I had the choice of becoming a Teacher Assistant or Research Assistant. Thankfully I picked RA
Click to expand...

Yah. I had that option at one time, but I didn't really look into it extensively enough. I was offered the research position, and I couldn't do it at the time because I was interning. If had realized it wasn't a one-time deal (ongoing project), I would have pushed to get a slot on the team this semester rather than doing the TA thing. From what I can tell, the TA thing can be the easiest gig ever, or a nightmare--unfortunately I've gotten more hell from the TA thing than all my other classes combined this semester.
 
I was a TA throughout the period I was working on my PhD. And even the easiest TA's are more work than an RA (which is what I was during my Masters) because your RA work has some bearing on your own research and potentially can lead to publications.

Depending on the course TA's aren't particularly bad except in spurts (e.g. prepping for a lab based course your first semester with a class).

At the same time, people get done what they're going to get done regardless. I don't think, except maybe at the creme of the crop research institutes, that RA's usually do end up publishing more than TA's. Certainly in my grad program I ended up doing some of the most publishing and had one of the higher TA loads.

The step from TA to actually running a whole course is huge though if you're doing all the prep. My research productivity has been pretty shit this semester (1st as faculty).
 
I taught a couple labs this semester - a requirement for the degree, was an RA on my own project previously. Definitely time consuming. Noone has pulled the 'what do I need to do for an a' here at the end, but almost 20% dropped. If I was to do it again I would do all early morning sections, those were the go-getters. My afternoon section kids are all slackers.
 
I've dated a few if that counts.
 
I worked in corrections for a decade, a maximum secure facility for young offenders. They went to school in house, we had an instructor and one or 2 of the guards would assist her/keep the peace. Sometimes I found it very rewarding but often it was a grind and took every ounce of restraint not to strangle the little bastards. The instructor had so much patience, I had mucho respect for her.
 
I was a TA in grad school. I always offered to proofread any papers as long as they turned them in two days before they were due. In two years of offering, only one person ever took me up on the offer.
I caught one guy cheating because he used someone else's paper and changed the cover page, but didn't change the name on the top of each page.
 
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Dochter said:
I was a TA throughout the period I was working on my PhD. And even the easiest TA's are more work than an RA (which is what I was during my Masters) because your RA work has some bearing on your own research and potentially can lead to publications.

Depending on the course TA's aren't particularly bad except in spurts (e.g. prepping for a lab based course your first semester with a class).

At the same time, people get done what they're going to get done regardless. I don't think, except maybe at the creme of the crop research institutes, that RA's usually do end up publishing more than TA's. Certainly in my grad program I ended up doing some of the most publishing and had one of the higher TA loads.

The step from TA to actually running a whole course is huge though if you're doing all the prep. My research productivity has been pretty shit this semester (1st as faculty).
Click to expand...

What's your PhD in?
 
I'm not a teaching assistant, but I'm sort of a writing tutor for writing research papers. It's pretty rewarding when the people you help come back and thank you for helping them get a high grade.

D-Train said:
I was a TA in grad school. I always offered to proofread any papers as long as they turned them in two days before they were due. In two years of offering, only one person ever took me up on the offer.
I caught one guy cheating because he used someone else's paper and changed the cover page, but didn't change the name on the top of each page.
Click to expand...

LOL. Scumbag.
 
Not a teacher, though I did teach students Dutch and German for the homework group.
 
I was a TA. The ugrad program was not that great where I was a grad student so I felt sorry for some of the students. I even organized a "ask the TA anything" session before there exam. About 25 students showed up.
 
D-Train said:
I was a TA in grad school. I always offered to proofread any papers as long as they turned them in two days before they were due. In two years of offering, only one person ever took me up on the offer.
I caught one guy cheating because he used someone else's paper and changed the cover page, but didn't change the name on the top of each page.
Click to expand...

Before my first midterm this semester (first as a prof) I said since no one had yet been to my office hours I was going to assume they all knew the material well and that there wasn't a need for a review session (which are wastes anyway).
 
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