Overall
This was my first semester as a PhD student, and thus, my first semester TA-ing as well. As a result, my experience TA-ing for this course was really a trial by fire situation as I figure out not just how to teach this course, but how to be a TA specifically.
As a TA, I was in charge of teaching weekly 50 minute recitation sections meant to reinforce material learnt the prior week in the main lecture sections. We also created and administered a light quiz towards the end. Outside of this, I also helped grade homeworks and tests.
Modality
Since it was my first semester as a TA, I thought to play it safe by utilizing a classic chalk-talk modality. I would start class with my own mini-lecture meant to recap the main ideas of last week followed by a few example problems. I’d then give out a quiz with problems resembling the examples I did. In office hours, some students would tell me that they appreciated this concrete, example-based style since it complemented the theoretical lectures well. The comments in my student evaluations affirm this, but I still feel like there’s a better modality that's more accessible for students. Now that I know what a chalk-talk modality is like, next semester I want to try slowly experimenting with more accessible modalities.
Additionally, this course was also challenging to teach due to the wide variance in mathematical ability of the student body. Most students were freshman pre-med, bio, health majors seeking to fulfill their math requirement. Many also lacked elementary algebraic and arithmetic skills, and thus, I found it difficult balancing the course material with missing prerequisite knowledge. I have experience teaching students with gaps in their knowledge, so in the end, it wasn't too bad—I just wish I had foreseen this issue sooner so I could be proactive in preparing my students before it affected their performance too much. If I were to teach this or a similar course again in the future, I want to try starting the semester by reviewing these skills (factoring, in particular) and sharing relevant resources.
Teaching Evaluations
(Note: Prior to the start of the semester, the other TA and I traded one recitation section, but this change was never updated in Course Site. As a result, note that the evaluations from section 113 specifically (corresponding to pages 3-4 in the pdf) do not pertain to me, but rather, the other TA.)
My teaching evaluations are overall positive, especially the comments. This course wasn’t easy for my students, but I’m proud I could reach my students despite the challenges of a disparity in mathematical background. One comment mentioned I could be intimidating, so maybe my disposition is something I could work on, especially if the student demographic are not math/engineering majors.
Other comments:
My former boss and the lead math tutor at Collin College in Wylie, Bryan Valenzuela, is someone that continues to inspire me to this day. He was beloved by students and colleagues alike for his dedication, warmth, and uncanny ability to make even the most technical concepts accessible. A significant portion of Collin College’s students come from underrepresented and/or nontraditional backgrounds, which made such a feat even more impressive. As with any inspiring figure, I’d often look to see if there’s anything I could imitate to be even a fraction as successful.
One of those things is exam reviews. Bryan would often hold optional exam review sessions for students prior to a big exam. In a similar vein, I used my office hours to hold exam review sessions the week of/leading up to the first midterm and final. The attendance both times was incredible, and students seemed very appreciative of them, both in email and in person. However, these sessions require a very non-trivial amount of prep compared to regular office hours, which require no prep. Leading up to the second midterm, I found myself with little time to put together another review session, and so I defaulted to just holding regular office hours. With all three test averages to compare, that second midterm had the lowest average compared to the first and the final. Though this is just correlation (and not causation), I suspect that my exam reviews were of more help than I anticipated. Therefore, going forward, I want to make more of an effort to consistently hold exam reviews for all of the tests.