We here at STS have TAed a lot. We both taught lab sections when we were juniors and seniors in undergrad and then we taught more sections during our master's work. I also taught during my first year in PhD land. As a graduate student, TAing is often non-optional (gotta' pay those bills), exciting (young minds! oh golly!), frustrating (it's ON THE SYLLABUS!), and intimidating (wait, so I have to be in charge of 20+ other legal adults for an hour or more?). So, what are some of the most efficient ways to increase the fun and excitement of teaching, while minimizing the stresses? Back at the beginning of the term, Meridith was going through orientation for her new grad school adventure and part of that orientation involved TA training. She posted on our STS Tumblr, and asked the Science Side for their TAing tips and tricks. The response was great! So great, we decided we needed to bring all the responses together and archive them here on our blog.
If you're a new graduate student, we hope this helps you put some tools in your forming TA tool belt. Remember, people have personal teaching approaches, so everything doesn't work for everyone! If you're an undergraduate or high school student, maybe this will give you some insight into what your instructors are thinking. I promise, we are all actually working really hard to try and make this a good experience for all of us. If you're a senior graduate student, maybe you have some tips and tricks of your own that aren't included in this post. Share them with us in the comments!
 |
| Head over to http://phdcomics.com/comics.php for more amazing funnies like this one! |
