How can I effectively teach in a seminar room without being nervous?

[Cyrus]

Here's a good tip: don't get high before lectures. Check this out: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/28744492/video_apparentlybake.html" , especially the mentioned minute 28.

That guy is WASTED!

 

[Yonoz]

That guy is WASTED!

They must have some good sh*t in Florida.

 

[JasonRox]

I didn't have time to talk to the professor today. I saw her though.

Anyways, I'm not favouring students over others. I'm basically willing to help anyone, but for this particular student, I'm tutoring. As far as I know, she never tried to score points or anything of the sort.

Well, I'll be sure to talk to the professor tomorrow.

 

[shmoe]

It's a bad idea. You will have to be ready to devote the same amount of time to the rest of the class on a private one on one basis or you are favouring her. Not telling the other students that you are willing to do this so they don't ask for private tutoring won't fly when people find out about it later on. Be prepared to spend the rest of your free time tutoring students.

There's also the issue of your union. I'm not sure I remember what university you are at, but I believe it has a union for TA's and sessional instructors? They can get pissy if they find out you are devoting lots of extra time and not getting paid for it. (Right out of the question is getting a student in a course you are TAing to pay you for private tutoring, this is abusing your position and probably explicitly prohibited by your department).

This may make me sound like an uncarring bugger, but really I'm not. I never really worried about whether the time I spent in a course equalled the time I was getting paid for. Sometimes no one would show up for math aid centre and i'd get paid to do my own work for an hour. sometimes it would be very busy and I'd stay an hour extra without getting paid. It may have balanced out in the end, but it's more likely I've ended up giving time. But starting to give extra tutoring hours to individual students (or even small groups) is setting yourself up for a host of problems.

 

[JasonRox]

It's a bad idea. You will have to be ready to devote the same amount of time to the rest of the class on a private one on one basis or you are favouring her. Not telling the other students that you are willing to do this so they don't ask for private tutoring won't fly when people find out about it later on. Be prepared to spend the rest of your free time tutoring students.

There's also the issue of your union. I'm not sure I remember what university you are at, but I believe it has a union for TA's and sessional instructors? They can get pissy if they find out you are devoting lots of extra time and not getting paid for it. (Right out of the question is getting a student in a course you are TAing to pay you for private tutoring, this is abusing your position and probably explicitly prohibited by your department).

This may make me sound like an uncarring bugger, but really I'm not. I never really worried about whether the time I spent in a course equalled the time I was getting paid for. Sometimes no one would show up for math aid centre and i'd get paid to do my own work for an hour. sometimes it would be very busy and I'd stay an hour extra without getting paid. It may have balanced out in the end, but it's more likely I've ended up giving time. But starting to give extra tutoring hours to individual students (or even small groups) is setting yourself up for a host of problems.

Exactly what I was looking for. I know about the risks though. I just wanted someone who has been a TA to give me some opinions based on experience.

I'll probably end up opting out though.

That's just the way the world turns.

 

[Moonbear]

Yeah, if it's personal tutoring, and not something you'd offer to all the students, then it'll be considered favoritism.

If you know someone else who's a good tutor in the subject who is not a TA, you can recommend that person to this student. I also wouldn't see a problem with you deciding to hold office hours, even if they're not required (bah to the union if they have a problem with it...they're clueless about how many hours people really put into teaching anyway...they only counted the time I was physically in the classroom when I was forced to be part of one as a TA), but it would have to be something you offered to everyone in the class.

 

[JasonRox]

Yeah, if it's personal tutoring, and not something you'd offer to all the students, then it'll be considered favoritism.

If you know someone else who's a good tutor in the subject who is not a TA, you can recommend that person to this student. I also wouldn't see a problem with you deciding to hold office hours, even if they're not required (bah to the union if they have a problem with it...they're clueless about how many hours people really put into teaching anyway...they only counted the time I was physically in the classroom when I was forced to be part of one as a TA), but it would have to be something you offered to everyone in the class.

I'm getting paid like 7-10 hours a week, for only 1 hour of class time. That's pretty sweet.

I prefer to tutor. You can really get the subject across.

Anyways, she'll understand.

 

[shmoe]

...I also wouldn't see a problem with you deciding to hold office hours, even if they're not required (bah to the union if they have a problem with it...they're clueless about how many hours people really put into teaching anyway...they only counted the time I was physically in the classroom when I was forced to be part of one as a TA), but it would have to be something you offered to everyone in the class.

They will find out about it, your students tell students in other tutorials, those students tell their TA's ("why can't you do...blah..for is?"), those TAs tell other TAs, it gets to the union rep in your depatment, etc. Doing something that out of the ordinary will get around, it's not like spending an extra 10 minutes after class to answer some questions. It depends on how militant the union is on what happens next. I know I've had TA orientations where we were explicitly told by the course instructors to not have office hours because they didn't want to deal with the union when they found out (my union was such that they would make it the course instructors problem).

It depends on many factors, Jason should still talk to his prof. about it of course and see what she thinks.

 

[shmoe]

I'm getting paid like 7-10 hours a week, for only 1 hour of class time. That's pretty sweet.

That seems like alot! What's the rest of the hours for? Some prep time presumably, invigilating exams, the rest marking?

typical courses I've done have been ~6 hours per week for a course that had 2 hours of tutorials + 1 hour of prep time (the tutorials would be the same material, 2 sets of students 1 hour per week) and 3 hours for marking/invigilating that was spread out over the year, i.e. all rammed into the mid term and final periods.

 

[JasonRox]

That seems like alot! What's the rest of the hours for? Some prep time presumably, invigilating exams, the rest marking?

typical courses I've done have been ~6 hours per week for a course that had 2 hours of tutorials + 1 hour of prep time (the tutorials would be the same material, 2 sets of students 1 hour per week) and 3 hours for marking/invigilating that was spread out over the year, i.e. all rammed into the mid term and final periods.

Yeah, I got one tutorial hour. I have 3 assignments to correct for the year and a midterm. I'll probably be doing some of the final exams, but I get paid extra for that. Probably like $100 bonus or something.

I guess the hours are for prep time and such. I do read the chapters and do all the problems myself. I find it important to know where to look for answers, especially if a student is curious to know how to do something or whatever. I know the textbook pretty well, so well that I know where to find specific theorems and problems! :shy:

My first class went great. I got compliments from students saying they really like me, so that's really good news.

As for the tutoring thing, I talked to the TA coordinator (faculty member) and she said I'm allowed to tutor people. She said there has been no problems in the past, and the choice is up to me. So, I'm up for it.

A student did find out, but I'm not sure if she cares though. She might actually just be jealous.

Note: For the salary/hours, I get paid $15.70/hour somewhere around there. Apparently it is the lowest in Ontario or it used to be anyways. There is a CBA in January, so maybe that's a raise coming. I'm loving it. Next year, I'll TA two courses, and then I won't have to work outside of class, which is sweet.

 

[Moonbear]

They will find out about it, your students tell students in other tutorials, those students tell their TA's ("why can't you do...blah..for is?"), those TAs tell other TAs, it gets to the union rep in your depatment, etc. Doing something that out of the ordinary will get around, it's not like spending an extra 10 minutes after class to answer some questions. It depends on how militant the union is on what happens next. I know I've had TA orientations where we were explicitly told by the course instructors to not have office hours because they didn't want to deal with the union when they found out (my union was such that they would make it the course instructors problem).

It depends on many factors, Jason should still talk to his prof. about it of course and see what she thinks.

And people wonder why I hate unions? It shouldn't be against the law to go the extra mile for your students if you're willing to do so. The union should be there to protect you from being required to work unpaid hours, but if you're willing to do it out of your own concern for the students, the union should be told to shove off.

Where were you a TA that other TAs would report stuff like that to the union? When I was a TA, we all scoffed at the union and were pissed that they deducted money from our paychecks whether we wanted to be a part of it or not. There was some minimum amount they deducted no matter what, and if you officially "joined" then they deducted more...we didn't really think that was helping us much. The only people who were actually "into" the whole union thing were the technicians, because they wanted to be sure they could just drop everything and walk out the door at 4 pm when their work day ended.

 

[JasonRox]

And people wonder why I hate unions? It shouldn't be against the law to go the extra mile for your students if you're willing to do so. The union should be there to protect you from being required to work unpaid hours, but if you're willing to do it out of your own concern for the students, the union should be told to shove off.

Where were you a TA that other TAs would report stuff like that to the union? When I was a TA, we all scoffed at the union and were pissed that they deducted money from our paychecks whether we wanted to be a part of it or not. There was some minimum amount they deducted no matter what, and if you officially "joined" then they deducted more...we didn't really think that was helping us much. The only people who were actually "into" the whole union thing were the technicians, because they wanted to be sure they could just drop everything and walk out the door at 4 pm when their work day ended.

Well, I don't want to comment on the union because I just started. I have no idea if they are good or not. It really depends.

I'm just happy that it was a professor that recommended me. That in itself is awesome. Looks great for graduate school and the NSERC Award I'm going to pursue. No more working at the grocery store.

 

[JasonRox]

Anyways, I want to thank all the members who contributed so far. I hope all goes well.

Note: I have another dilemma that I will hold for next week.

 

[shmoe]

And people wonder why I hate unions?

For the most part, I agree! Our union consistently made demands I felt were totally unreasonable. They seem to think you should be able to support a family while working 6-8 hours per week as a TA (honestly! the benefits they ask for!). While most of the department wouldn't really care, the union reps leaned on the militant side and would make a fuss if they caught wind. Unusual TA things tend to get around, not necessarily intentionally.

the union is ideally there for the TAs protection. There are enough cases where TAs are treated very unfairly and having a union to back you is a good thing. They do go overboard easily though.

I can't say that the union did nothing for me. During my undergrad I made something like $7 hour to TA, grad students at the time something like $9 (they formed a union a year or two after I left). By comparison the people operating the cash machines in the cafeteria, who were unionized, made $15/hr. It wasn't that I thought I should be making that much, but I felt TAs were more irreplacible than cash machine operators (we certainly had more qualifications) and I would have been happy if their salary was lowered. The union where I am now, we make more than the cafeteria workers, so I'm content about that.

 

[shmoe]

My first class went great. I got compliments from students saying they really like me, so that's really good news.

As for the tutoring thing, I talked to the TA coordinator (faculty member) and she said I'm allowed to tutor people. She said there has been no problems in the past, and the choice is up to me. So, I'm up for it.

Sounds good on both accounts!

 

[Cyrus]

Anyways, I want to thank all the members who contributed so far. I hope all goes well.

Note: I have another dilemma that I will hold for next week.

She's pregnant, oh boy here we go...I told you to stay away from the women.

 

[JasonRox]

She's pregnant, oh boy here we go...I told you to stay away from the women.

She's stuck with me now.

 

[fourier jr]

what does everyone think of george polya's 10 commandments of teaching:

1. be interested in your subject
2. know your subject
3. know about the ways of learning: the best way to learn anything is to discover it by yourself
4. try to read the faces of your students, try to see their expectations and difficulties, put yourself in their place
5. give them not only information, but 'know-how', attitudes of mind, the habit of methodical work
6. let them learn guessing
7. let them learn proving
8. look out for such features of the problem at hand as may be useful in solving the problems to come - try to disclose the general pattern that lies behind the present concrete situation
9. do not give away your whole secret at once - let the students guess before you tell it - let them find out by themselves as much as possible
10. suggest it, do not force it down their throats

i would say some apply more to teachers at a certain level than other teachers. #6 & 7 might apply more to high school teachers for example.

 

[JasonRox]

what does everyone think of george polya's 10 commandments of teaching:



i would say some apply more to teachers at a certain level than other teachers. #6 & 7 might apply more to high school teachers for example.

Good rules to follow.

I noticed professors following the number 9 rules as well as textbooks too.

 

[Moonbear]

fourier, that's all good advice!

One thing that's always worth including...challenge them! Not every student will be up to the challenge, but for those who are strong students, including some real challenges will keep them from getting bored, and it's wonderful to see who will meet the challenge.

 

[JasonRox]

fourier, that's all good advice!

One thing that's always worth including...challenge them! Not every student will be up to the challenge, but for those who are strong students, including some real challenges will keep them from getting bored, and it's wonderful to see who will meet the challenge.

I agree once again.

I definitely ask them questoins during the class to get them thinking. It seems like some of them like that. So, I'm going to continue that trend.

 

[fourier jr]

I agree once again.

I definitely ask them questoins during the class to get them thinking. It seems like some of them like that. So, I'm going to continue that trend.

one thing polya wrote in the text (the 10 commandments are just in a box) was that he thinks one way to make sure the class pays attention is to make them guess the conclusion of a theorem. that way they have to stay awake to see if their guess works out or not. he really stressed what he called 'active learning' in other words, get the students to do as much by themselves (as is feasible).

 

[Mk]

Having them teach each other is a good tactic on it's own too, you can sit in the back and drink while the class teaches itself. You can also sneak out the back quietly in case the student at the board falls victim to one of the many dangers at the front of the room.

Ahhh, the good life.

My response to questions relating to how to start a problem is basically read the section or basically I don't know. That's basically it.

Basically.

They must have some good sh*t in Florida.

You're damn right!

 

[JasonRox]

Ok, now we have a jealous girl in the class.

So, I'm going to do a tutor session thing where they can all come at the same spot, at the same time.

Anyways, the professor got e-mails saying that I was good, so that's a bonus!

 

[Pyrrhus]

Ok, now we have a jealous girl in the class.

So, I'm going to do a tutor session thing where they can all come at the same spot, at the same time.

Anyways, the professor got e-mails saying that I was good, so that's a bonus!

I didn't want to say anything, but man tutoring that girl was asking for problems, now you got to tutor them all!. The same happened to me, next time be more careful.

 

[Danger]

I must admit that I haven't read this thread because I didn't think that I had anything to contribute. I will, however, say this... teach the way that you would want to be taught.

 

[JasonRox]

I didn't want to say anything, but man tutoring that girl was asking for problems, now you got to tutor them all!. The same happened to me, next time be more careful.

You were so suppose to say something.

Nah, it's all good. I'm just grouping them all in one group. If anyone wants extra time, just join the group.