Thoughts on TAing

This was my first year serving as a TA (teaching assistant). As a TA, I led discussion sections, reviewed material from the lectures, graded papers and exams, and answered student questions.

It's very different from teaching environmental education to little kids. However, I enjoy being able to lead "grown up" discussions. I could only talk about how Mr. Tree needs sunlight to grow and Mr. Deer needs leaves to eat for so long before Ms. Crystal began to need to talk to someone who exceeded the height of Mr. Knee and could carry on an actual conversation.

Here are some of my general conclusions on teaching college students:

1. Giving out grades is not as heinous as being graded oneself, but it is close.
2. College students actually have about the same attention spans as three-year-olds. They just try harder at faking attentiveness.
3. College students are better than three-year-olds at figuring out when I don't know what I'm talking about.
4. Three-year-olds are more motivated to be "good" than college students. It's just that the three-year-olds lack the self control to follow the rules. College students have the control, but lack the motivation.
5. Text messaging is the devil's invention.
6. Students who fall asleep in class do not enjoy having erasers thrown at them, but it makes class much more enjoyable for me.

I leave you with a few excerpts from one of the papers on cloning that I graded at the end of the semester. The student who wrote it appeared to be generally intelligent, and participated in discussions. I really don't know what happened with this paper. I'm not sure if the student was awake while writing. My suspicion is that she wasn't. Here are a few choice passages:

"Just because a parent has the thought of a potential life saving bonus coming from cloning doesn't shy away from deeper feeling of desire to have that clone."

"Cloning could have potential peril effects"

I love the lack of punctuation here:

"Human dignity is the underlying subject that is trying to be protected by this objection and it is saying that we should treat them in ways that they themselves on reflection and deliberation would believe to be good and cloning is a possible downfall of violating their human dignity and subjecting clones to being used on instrumentally."

And my very favorite:

"No one wants to be used, or be a pon, or be the escape goat for anyone else, so this objection for cloning violating human dignity appears to be a solid argument."

Classes and Dancing

Spring semester went well as a whole. The classes I took were very challenging, but in the end, I got As, and my writing improved, so I think it counts as a success. My dancing has also improved, and has become my favorite passtime, my primary social activity, my exercise, and my passion. I've never been very athletic, but dancing has shown me the exhileration that can come from physical activity. When I can feel the music through my body, connect with my partner, and let my movements just flow, it is like magic. There is nothing else like it.

It may seem a bit odd, but as a generally guarded and closed person, I tend not to be very physically affectionate, even with my friends. Dancing has been great in helping me to be more comfortable opening up and expressing myself in that way.

Dancing is also great when you don't have a boyfriend - you can still experience romance and be swept off of your feet. :-)

It's great to have dance partners that I am friends with as well, because then I can just let the chemistry and magic of dance happen without feeling awkward. I dance best with people I know and trust - at least to some degree. For lindy and blues, I primarily dance with Scott, and for the ballroom dances, I have been dancing with Krishna.

Here are some pictures of me dancing with Scott.

Photos were taken by Mandy Watkins.