home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!wupost!darwin.sura.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!RCNVMS.RCN.MASS.EDU!JSALING
- X-VMS-To: @MBU
- X-VMS-Cc: JSALING,JSALING
- MIME-version: 1.0
- Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
- Message-ID: <01GT6X2AGWR2BIJPDI@RCNVMS.RCN.MASS.EDU>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
- Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 08:35:06 -0500
- Sender: "Megabyte University (Computers & Writing)" <MBU-L@TTUVM1.BITNET>
- From: "I only look tired." <JSALING@RCNVMS.RCN.MASS.EDU>
- Subject: TA acculturation
- Lines: 24
-
- I'm responding to an old topic (Dec 30 was the date of David's message I
- just read), but after I got back from my break (four days--big deal) our
- VAX was screwed up. It let me read about one message a day and then
- kicked me off the system. This morning things seem better, I've already
- read eight messages and responded to two. But who can predict?
-
- Anyway, when I was at Marshall, the new TA's took a class in which they
- were required to visit several comp classes and then write a report
- on their observations. Since the TAs also worked for me in the writing
- center, They found it easy to ask if they could visit my class, so I had
- probably more than my share of observers. Two things about the experience
- stand out in my memory. One is that talking to the TAs about what they
- observed was very valuable to me as a teacher. It was good feedback and
- gacve me new perspectives on what I was doing in the classroom.
-
- The other thing that stands out is that several of the TAs made it a point
- to get to the class early and spend the five or ten minutes before class
- started talking to the students as they arrived about what the class was
- like and what kinds of things happened. Those who took the time to talk
- with the students all told me it helped them understand better what they
- were seeing, and I always found their feedback much more insightful and
- useful than that from the ta's who came in cold.
-
- joe s
-