TAing

[gusl]

Generally speaking, is it more fun to TA classes in which:

(A) you're unsure of your competence / material is interesting
OR
(B) you are confident / material is boring
?

Since these classes are undergrad-level, I'm leaning towards the former: I'd just need to do some reading ahead a week ahead of the class.

My best instructor ever was an algebraist teaching an algorithms class. He was about a week ahead of us in his knowledge of the material, and as a result, he was oozing excitement. Plus he didn't have any of that expert blindspot which plagues teachers everywhere.

I am afraid, though, that option A would take more time out of me.

Comments

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

You mean (A) would take more time?

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

yes, thanks.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

I would argue in favor of (A).

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

please do.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

OK, now I can actually think for a second. My arguments are that it's not a huge difference in the amount of work, but it's a huge difference in learning. You learn two things: the subject matter itself, and how to present stuff that you don't understand as well as you would like, but still get the point across. Especially early in your doctoral studies, the increased learning is a lot more important than the slightly (but not much) reduced workload you'd get by going for B. It is important in my mind that it's an undergrad class: at this point, you can learn the subject matter in any undergrad class substantially faster than the undergrads can, so you'll stay ahead.

So, for instance, I TAed 15-213, the intro systems class, because I felt I needed to learn more about that topic, rather than the higher-level algorithms class I'd TAed before, or the lower-level algorithms class for which I'd TAed an equivalent before. I learned about systems, but it was not particularly more work than otherwise would have been required to still be a good teacher.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Are you choosing which courses to TA, or are you choosing how much advance preparation to invest in a particular set of courses?

What if I'm confident in the material because (a) the basics that I'm teaching are really familiar and (b) my understanding is getting deeper, so I'm still interested in the topic?

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I am choosing which courses to TA.

[simrob.livejournal.com]

Depends on what your requirements are for the TAs. If you're doing a recitation, developing problem sets, and and you see value in the material (even if it's boring), then I think there's a whole lot of value in (B). But then my only TA experience is TAing Principles of Programming languages, which was a very exciting, stressful, and successful (B).

If you're just grading papers, then (A) all the way.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Under option (A), I'd be afraid to find out that I graded a bunch of homeworks incorrectly! That would be so aggravating!

[noequal.livejournal.com]

if you've not taught before, go with (B). Teaching is a whole different skill set, and I bet you want to have some competence at it.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I've tutored high school extensively, including AP Physics. Does that count?

[noequal.livejournal.com]

When I starting TAing 80100 instead of tutoring math in undergrad, I find it a different thing.