Overall this semester proved to be slightly frustrating. The previous summer I was able to teach my own course, so to return to leading recitations for another instructor was a tough transition. I think that because of my experience teaching in the summer, I was more in control of my recitations than I had been in the past. The way that I organized my recitation was by writing 6-10 problems on the board and having students work on these problems in groups for the first hour of recitation, then I would administer the quizzes.
It was hard getting students to participate at the beginning of the semester, but a few weeks into the semester students started to fall into a good pattern. In previous semesters I had learned how ineffective it was to organize groups by telling students to form groups. So at the beginning of every class I would group students into groups of 3-4 based on where they were sitting in class. I would make them turn their desks to face one another by telling them to “make the chair moving noises” (as one student referenced in their evaluations), then instruct them to introduce themselves to their group mates or ask their name if they’d forgotten. By making all of this part of working in groups, I was able to make a lot of the awkward parts of group interaction slightly less awkward. This proved very effective as I rarely had problems getting students to work together.
For one of my recitations, all of the TA’s for that professor would meet with him to decide on quiz questions and grading standards. This proved to be really helpful in deciding how to test certain material in subsequent semesters. For the other two recitations I had no control over quizzes or grading.
For these recitations I had no control over the assignments or grading of exams. In all other categories students seemed very pleased with my teaching. In their comments students expressed that they were very grateful for recitations as a way to learn the material. My goal when deciding how to run recitations was to make recitations a very different environment from the big lecture, to make it fun and personable, and to ultimately help the students start to really understand the material. I think the evaluations show that I was successful in the pursuit.