TA

[Lorizael]

Today we had returning TAs coming in and discussing their experiences. So, for example, we talked about how to set the mood on the first day of class. Best exchange from that conversation:

Old TA: I get the class to laugh.
New TA: How do you do that?
Old TA: I'm funny.

[Ming]

While the advice is good, his response is CLASSIC

[The Mad Monk]

Was he totally deadpan? It's best if you're totally deadpan.

[rah]

So when's your first class? The curious want to know.

[DirtyMartini]

Students not paying attention has been going on for centuries.
Now with phones, it's just more blatant.

Absolutely. I was a student in the pre-iPhone era. I doodled, read novels, slept, skipped lectures and small group session. My attitude was that I was paying for the education, so as long as I mastered the material and fulfilled the course requirements how I got there was my business. I remember being taken aback when a professor called me out for skipping small group sessions -- I couldn't understand why his feelings were hurt.

Now that I teach some, I get it. It does suck to look up in the lecture hall and see every set of eyes on a phone, tablet or computer. I try not to be a total hypocrite and hold it against them, but I have colleagues who pretty much refuse to teach because they see the current generation of students as rude and entitled (e.g. insist digital copies of lecture materials be made available in advance of lectures -- this really chaps ass for some people).

[pchang]

I would only have an outline of the topics I wanted to cover (or was supposed to cover). It turned out different each time because it was interactive and would change depending upon the class feedback.

[Jon Miller]

One or two semesters my students thought I was sometimes drunk. I was never drunk, but I was sometimes hungover (which was not an excuse for the 8am class nor the 11am class).

JM

[pchang]

I was never drunk, but I was sometimes hungover.

JM

OK. That's just wrong. I never did that.

[rah]

YEAH, never being drunk, that's just wrong.

[Jon Miller]

OK. That's just wrong. I never did that.

I agree, it was a bad time in my life.

JM

[Lorizael]

So when's your first class? The curious want to know.

Well, I sat in during lecture today, which meant I got to perform the super serious TA task of handing out the syllabus. No discussion or labs until next week.

[rah]

Good luck

[Lorizael]

Currently writing a syllabus for the lab section of the class (which doesn't have its first meeting until this Friday). Trying to strike a balance between infuriatingly vague and ludicrously authoritarian.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Infuriatingly vague.

[Elok]

Don't worry; if all my college experience is anything to go by, hardly any of them will do anything more than skim it. Have fun by google translating a small hunk in the middle into Hmong to see if anyone notices.