Chronicles of being a TA, part 2

July 11, 2020

Perhaps my biggest goal was to be someone who wasn't apathetic and someone who didn't ruin students' lives. I wanted to be the exact opposite -- someone who cared and who empowered students to love the subject they were learning.

I had the great pleasure of being a TA for CS 312 in the spring of 2020. My plan was to be a good TA so that students could learn a lot from the class and get a good foundation in CS, as well as make sure that students had an empathetic authority figure who wasn't out to get them, but rather genuinely assist them.

Who knew that a pandemic would interrupt the middle of the semester? The university gave all of us an extra week of spring break to allow the transition online. Moving online shed my spring break from two weeks into almost none. As in these emergent situations, the person who spearheads change is the one who does it. As a TA, my job was to make sure I could figure out a way for my team (my professor and the other TAs) to adapt well and continue delivering the class experience that was expected out of us.

Figuring out how to use Zoom and how to reconfigure our class didn't come down to the university. It came down to other faculty members and teaching assistants. I had to come up with the playbook myself because I knew the university wasn't the ones who knew this class inside and out.

And it worked. A lot of effort later, we managed to figure everything out. The wrinkles took about a week to iron out, and then voilà, we had pretty smooth sailing from there on out (except, of course, for the fact that it was still very difficult for people to learn at the beginning of a traumatic pandemic that had altered our lives permanently and irreversibly).

Even before the pandemic, I tried to be available for students and empathetic in as many ways as I possibly could. Giving them the tools to succeed was important to me and thankfully to the rest of the TA team. I can see why UTCS appoints undergrads to be the TAs for CS 312 and 314 -- because the ones who do become TAs genuinely care. TAs are underpaid, so it's not like they do it for the money. They do it because they want to make a difference.

I don't like to draw conclusions when evaluating myself (I let others do that), but I do like to be tough on myself. I think I could have done a better job personally. At the same time, I tired myself out being so available and passionate about my students. The job typically took over 10 hours a week and even impacted my own classes' academic performance. But that's alright. I still thoroughly enjoyed the experience nonetheless.

The stress of being a good TA, in my opinion, made the experience as a whole worthwhile. It also solidifies my future of being a TA -- probably won't happen again, since I have to graduate soon anyway.

Did I achieve the goal I had set out for myself? Well, I will let others make that decision for me.

I'll conclude by sharing the anonymous feedback solicited by students on myself. I think they are well written statements that reflect my attitude towards being a TA, and these notes alone, I think because they are such good evaluations, I do believe they serve as honest attestations to how I did my job and my firm beliefs in being a student's ally, and I'm very happy for that. I want to note that I would have picked constructive criticism feedback to share if I had any, but unfortunately I did not receive any, so I will have to do some deep reflection on how I could improve as an educator on my own.

Jeffrey was extremely helpful and understanding during office hours. He clearly knows the material in and out and often pointed out helpful tricks and shortcuts to condense code. I believe Jeffrey not only helped me significantly with the material in this course but has also made me a better programmer. And he gives really good advice!

-

Great TA for the class! He helped a lot and answered all questions with nice answers. He is enthusiastic about his class and students.

-

Hands down an AMAZING TA! Jeffrey cared a lot about the success of his students and always tried to help us understand useful concepts for our assignments during discussion sections. I initially thought this class was intimidating because of how important it is for the transfer process, but knowing that I had a supportive TA that really wanted us to succeed made the class seem a lot less scary. Plus, he always replied really fast on Piazza to answer any questions, which was nice! Another thing that I appreciated was how quickly Jeffrey would grade assignments even though he's probably really busy! I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to take this class and learn the things that I did during this semester. I literally wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

-

You helped on something and I really didn't really expect you to help at the time, but the fact that you did really surprised me. I know it's kinda of what is expected from a TA, but at that moment I didn't really expect you to do that and I won't be forgetting that day because of it. I just want you to know that you're a great person. I really appreciate everything you did not just for me but for the class. You are no ordinary TA. You made me feel comfortable in reaching out to you if I ever had any questions and went above and beyond from what I expected from a TA based on previous TA's.

Back to blog

Back to top