Learning Log 1
My first few weeks as a UTA have been really wonderful so far. Because of my previous experiences TA-ing I did expect to be a little more involved the classroom- more so than I was for the first two weeks. However, now that Professor Kerr is back and the students’ workload is increasing, I have more to do in terms of providing advice and assistance. Nothing unanticipated has really happened- because I took the class my freshman and am comfortable with being involved as a TA, nothing has unnerved me so far. I feel incredibly lucky that I can continue working with Professor Kerr, this time more closely and on a more professional level; I enjoyed her class immensely and she is definitely one of my favorite professors at UMD. While I don’t really know any of the students very well yet, there are a few I’ve had the chance to talk to, and they all seem bright, interesting, and kind. I’m really excited to get to know the students better- that and being more involved in the class is definitely what I’m looking forward to most for ENG 101. 388V has been a wonderful experience as well because of the opportunities to talk to other TA’s. Receiving advice from the class and knowing that my experiences aren’t singular is very reassuring. Overall, it’s been a fantastic start and I can’t wait to experience the rest of the semester.
I was very optimistic when I wrote this Learning Log. While many things continued to stay true throughout the semester, such as my enjoyment of working with Professor Kerr and being a TA in general, many things I hoped to come true did not. I was disappointed that I did not really get to know many of my students very well, although there were certainly a few that I knew better than others in the class. In addition, I was fairly disappointed that only one student came to my office hours once. However, I understand that sometimes this happens, and I'm hoping it will be better next semester.
Learning Log 2
Class has continued to progress well these past 7-8 weeks. I am still incredibly happy that Professor Kerr is back in the classroom, and that I am able to work with her in class and out. She is someone I really admire, and having an instructor (and dare I say mentor figure?) that I can talk to about life even outside of the classroom has been fantastic and instructive - I hope I will be able to continue working with her in some way once this semester is over. In terms of my role in the classroom, I have certainly started to take up more responsibilities as the students have completed more assignments that need to be graded (so far, I have graded two pop quizzes, some of their summary assignments, and now have a few Rhetorical Analysis Final drafts to grade!). In addition, I taught my first lesson plan, which took up an entire period of class. While I was extremely anxious beforehand, I think it ended up going well; during class I got an abnormally high amount of participation from the students, and at the end of the class Professor Kerr told me I did well - not perfectly, but we all knew that was never going to happen in the first place.
In terms of the students, I think they are comfortable with me and even like me to some extent - I assume this because of their participation during my lesson, but maybe they were just pitying me because of how small and obviously nervous I must have seemed. While they are wonderful people, we are still having problems with consistent and productive class participation. This is mostly due to the fact that they do not do the readings, and attendance does tend to be somewhat poor which counts for a lot in a class with only 19 students. The aforementioned pop quizzes were given in an attempt to increase the amount of students who were doing the reading and doing it effectively; but judging by the fact that the scores on the second quiz were worse than the first, this method did not have the desired effect. It makes me a little bit sad to see the class in this state because I had such a wonderful experience taking ENG 101 with Professor Kerr as a freshman, and I now realize a large part of this was due to the fact that the students were actively engaged and involved, which allowed as to have interesting and thoughtful conversations. This is mostly absent in this class, and at this point not reading or participating seem to be the norm, and I am afraid it is too late in the semester for students to change their minds about how much they want to give to the class (especially if even pop quizzes didn’t seem to have much of an effect). Nonetheless, I love TA-ing, and still hope to see some good discussions and participation by the students before the semester ends, hopefully not coerced by quizzes.
In terms of the students, I think they are comfortable with me and even like me to some extent - I assume this because of their participation during my lesson, but maybe they were just pitying me because of how small and obviously nervous I must have seemed. While they are wonderful people, we are still having problems with consistent and productive class participation. This is mostly due to the fact that they do not do the readings, and attendance does tend to be somewhat poor which counts for a lot in a class with only 19 students. The aforementioned pop quizzes were given in an attempt to increase the amount of students who were doing the reading and doing it effectively; but judging by the fact that the scores on the second quiz were worse than the first, this method did not have the desired effect. It makes me a little bit sad to see the class in this state because I had such a wonderful experience taking ENG 101 with Professor Kerr as a freshman, and I now realize a large part of this was due to the fact that the students were actively engaged and involved, which allowed as to have interesting and thoughtful conversations. This is mostly absent in this class, and at this point not reading or participating seem to be the norm, and I am afraid it is too late in the semester for students to change their minds about how much they want to give to the class (especially if even pop quizzes didn’t seem to have much of an effect). Nonetheless, I love TA-ing, and still hope to see some good discussions and participation by the students before the semester ends, hopefully not coerced by quizzes.
At this point in the semester, the reality of the class had settled in. As I mentioned many times above, the participation in the class was suffering and I was a little disappointed that because of it, the students could not enjoy the class as fully as I could. Once the students began turning in more assignments, though, I did get to enjoy grading them and giving them feedback. Being able to see the progress and the passions of the students through their writing was a wonderful privilege.
Learning Log 3
My class is going relatively well, and I continue to love being a TA and working with my professor. Because students have had a few important projects recently, quite a few of them have reached out to me - it’s been really wonderful to finally get to help the students I TA for! The in-class participation continues to be a bit of an issue, but the students really thrive and work well together as a class, so Professor Kerr has been making sure they have many opportunities to do so.
In terms of the group projects in our class, I have really enjoyed them and think I have learned a lot! Making my presentation was really enjoyable and information, and I’ve appreciated all the work the other groups have put into their presentations as well. Within the context of my classroom, specifically, I think the presentation given addressing peer review has been the most applicable and useful to me so far. Discussing and practicing how to review students’ work and give them feedback has come in handy since more students are now asking for my help looking over and reviewing parts of their projects. Discussing different methods of doing peer review in class also convinced me I should ask Professor Kerr about collecting and randomly distributing rough drafts during one of the workshop days for the students’ position papers. This seemed to work very well, and while we did not collect the papers at the end, the marks students seemed to have written on the papers they had to look at and the verbal discussions they had seemed much more useful and productive than normal.
Overall, this experience is pretty similar to what I expected an undergraduate TA to be like. Because I had not even had a TA for my ENG101 class, I did not expect to have a huge role besides grading, helping students in office hours, and maybe teaching a lesson or two. The first two weeks or so of the job were not quite as satisfying as as they could have been, but I believe this was because I kept on comparing this TA-ing experience to the one I had in high school for a Japanese I class (which was very involved, energetic, and close-knit). However, once I accepted the fact that I probably wouldn’t have such an interactive role, I started to enjoy it a little more (although I was still a bit disappointed that students weren’t reaching out and asking for help, especially because some of them really seemed to need it). It’s been really fulfilling work, and something that I have really come to look forward to.
In terms of the group projects in our class, I have really enjoyed them and think I have learned a lot! Making my presentation was really enjoyable and information, and I’ve appreciated all the work the other groups have put into their presentations as well. Within the context of my classroom, specifically, I think the presentation given addressing peer review has been the most applicable and useful to me so far. Discussing and practicing how to review students’ work and give them feedback has come in handy since more students are now asking for my help looking over and reviewing parts of their projects. Discussing different methods of doing peer review in class also convinced me I should ask Professor Kerr about collecting and randomly distributing rough drafts during one of the workshop days for the students’ position papers. This seemed to work very well, and while we did not collect the papers at the end, the marks students seemed to have written on the papers they had to look at and the verbal discussions they had seemed much more useful and productive than normal.
Overall, this experience is pretty similar to what I expected an undergraduate TA to be like. Because I had not even had a TA for my ENG101 class, I did not expect to have a huge role besides grading, helping students in office hours, and maybe teaching a lesson or two. The first two weeks or so of the job were not quite as satisfying as as they could have been, but I believe this was because I kept on comparing this TA-ing experience to the one I had in high school for a Japanese I class (which was very involved, energetic, and close-knit). However, once I accepted the fact that I probably wouldn’t have such an interactive role, I started to enjoy it a little more (although I was still a bit disappointed that students weren’t reaching out and asking for help, especially because some of them really seemed to need it). It’s been really fulfilling work, and something that I have really come to look forward to.
At this point in the semester, I had fully accepted the state of the class, and what it was going to finish up as. Attendance still was not good, participation was usually dismal if not disruptive, and students were not doing the readings. Getting to grade work continued to be very enjoyable for me, and as the students turned in final projects it was really wonderful to see their hard work. In the end, even if my initial expectations had been too high, I enjoyed the experience - the class was what it was, and in the end I loved it and appreciated the involvement and interaction with students I could get.