Personal Reflection
Overall, I’m really glad that this is part of ENGL388V for returning UTAs. I think that it absolutely served its purpose in the sense that I got firsthand experience with how another UTA operate in her classroom. I honestly had no idea that the course that I TA for is offered with a concentration (Corrine's being the 1960’s). From observing Corrine's classroom, I felt inspired to be more active in class and help out Professor Kim if he ever felt stuck. In terms of what it was like being observed, I wouldn’t say anything negative about it! I think that it went successfully mainly because it was so clear in the assignment guidelines that the objective of this observation assignment was not to grade the other UTA. All we had to do was observe and write about it. That definitely helped ease my mind when I was being observed. I didn’t feel like I was being graded but I felt as though another UTA was simply seeing how I operate in class, just as I did for her. The success of this assignment, therefore, lies in the two UTAs. At least I think. It was extremely easy to coordinate with Corrine about when we were going to observe each other. She reached out to me very early on and I responded immediately. I assume that this happened with other pairs because I do believe that all UTAs have their own natural leadership in them. Since Corrine is so friendly and easygoing I also think that helped my experience being observed. She was always someone in my first semester seminar that I thought had really good insights and opinions on what it was like to be a successful UTA, so I knew whatever she was writing in her notes was something that we could probably all benefit from. I love this assignment and I hope that it continues next semester onward.