Semester Reflection Spring 2017-2018
I have grown so much in my time as an undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA). I started off taking the seminar with Lyra to learn that I am passionate about peer review and creating a comfortable classroom presence. Incorporating both of those aspects in my second and third semester has shown me what type of impact that I can have on others. Last semester, in my second semester being an ENGL101S UTA, I focused a lot on improving the process and effectiveness of peer review. I found it pretty successful and we incorporated online peer review into the curriculum this semester. However, in my last and third semester, I decided that I wanted to focus more on how I could have a better presence in the classroom. Doing this made me remember why I wanted to be a UTA in the first place; I have always gravitated towards extracurricular activities that involved being a mentor and a peer at the same time. Being a UTA has given me exactly that.
My Learning Artifact helped a lot with this semester’s goal of acting more as a peer and a mentor rather than a UTA that just grades. While I also helped students with their peer review experiences this semester, I had felt too comfortable and almost a little less excited than before. Once I had a plan for my Learning Artifact, I immediately felt excited again. According to University of Michigan’s list of assumptions in “Creating Inclusive College Classrooms,” it is frequently assumed that “students will seek help when they are struggling with a class” (Saunders and Kardia). Having this assumption in mind, I realized that making a presentation and lesson plan simply about how to have a successful Position Paper would help student stay on track. Especially in that point during the semester, I figured that delivering a simpler presentation, one that was less daunting, could be more helpful to those that needed the advice but didn’t want to reach out.
Another lesson plan, one that focused on outlining, that I delivered related back to my Learning Artifact but acted as an extension of it. This was mainly because of the due date of the Learning Artifact, but I like that I was able to remind the students of my advice the week after I first presented. I delivered my lesson plan on outlining with Donald Murray’s “Teach Writing as a Process Not Product” in mind because I wanted to emphasize that while outlining is imperative for my writing process, it might not be for others (Villanueva). I reiterated this multiple times when I delivered this lesson plan and I think that it went a long way. Now that I’m reflecting on this semester as a whole, I think going back to my presentation after I had already delivered it made the students remember that it was actually a resource for them and not just something that they were going to see once. I remember seeing that somebody (anonymous) was looking at my presentation on the day that their final drafts of the Position Paper were due. To me, the fact that even just one student went back to my presentation was enough.
Apart from my Learning Artifact and lesson plans, I took this semester to focus on being more present in the classroom. I started out my position as a UTA simply being a grader, and after two more semesters, I decided that I wanted to be more active and have a larger role. So, I went to “Fostering Effective Classroom Discussions” to read more on how I can both be more present during class discussions as well as leading my own. Professor Kim and I talked about how it was useful for me to start off class with a short 5-minute informal discussion that basically asked for feedback or for students to talk about how they’re feeling about the current writing assignment that was due. I combined the first two strategies, “Set clear expectations for student participation in discussion sessions” and “Break the ice with informal talk outside of class” when I did my pre-class discussions because I wanted to be clear (Barton). Whenever class would start with a discussion that I was leading, I would tell the students to put their laptops and phones away because I just wanted to have a 5-minute open discussion about where they are. We realized that students were more inclined to say when they were struggling to me than to Professor Kim, even when he was just sitting right next to me. I think that this strategy is something that a lot of professors could utilize more with their teaching assistants; professors gain more insight and UTAs gain more involvement.
In relation to my presence in the classroom, I also tried to figure out more ways to engage with students and have them feel more comfortable reaching out to me. I realized a lot of the problem with students not reaching out UTAS is that they either feel like they don’t need to or they don’t feel comfortable enough. That’s why I did a lot of the suggestions that David Gooblar discussed in his article titled “How to Undermine Your Own Authority.” He encourages professors and those that have positions of power in the classroom to “actively give up some of our control” (Gooblar). Gooblar encourages us to not “act” like we are the teachers or teaching assistants; we should talk to our students in a way that still lets us “be human” at the end of the day (Gooblar). I really agreed with this point of view because I figured that students would want approach somebody that’s unapproachable. By being informal, being comfortable, and breaking that barrier with my students, I found that this semester I got many more students reaching out to me via e-mail. That’s why I think that this more informal and approachable strategy was effective and successful in the classroom – I literally had more students reaching out to me!
All in all, with my time as a UTA over, I can proudly say that I’ve grown. As not just a teaching assistant, but as a person too and I could not be more grateful for that. I worked on my presentation skills, which was something that I thought I was terrible at before, as I delivered multiple lesson plans throughout my three semesters. Personally, I used to struggle a lot with just speaking knowing that so many eyes were on me. But as I spent time being a UTA, I’ve gotten much more comfortable with it. Now, I’m happy to deliver that lesson plan in class just as I’m happy to deliver a final presentation in one of my major (finance) classes. In working on my presence in the classroom as a UTA, I’ve become more tentative in my other classes this semester as I am constantly striving to simply be more active and really learn instead of just being taught. Not only have I greatly impacted the classroom for Professor Kim and the students that I oversaw, but I can honestly say that I’ve positively impacted myself. This is an experience that I will never forget and it will be an experience that I carry with me in my future career and in the rest of my life.
Works Cited
Barton, Jennifer, et al. “Facilitating Effective Classroom Discussions.” McGraw Hill Higher Education, www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/pt/discussion/discussion.htm.
Gooblar, David. “How to Undermine Your Own Authority.” ChronicleVitae , 2018 The Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 Jan. 2017, chroniclevitae.com/news/1670-how-to-undermine-your-own-authority.
Saunders, Shari, and Diana Kardia. “Creating Inclusive College Classrooms.” Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan, 1997, www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p3_1.
Villanueva, Victor. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: a Reader. National Council of Teachers of English, 2003.
My Learning Artifact helped a lot with this semester’s goal of acting more as a peer and a mentor rather than a UTA that just grades. While I also helped students with their peer review experiences this semester, I had felt too comfortable and almost a little less excited than before. Once I had a plan for my Learning Artifact, I immediately felt excited again. According to University of Michigan’s list of assumptions in “Creating Inclusive College Classrooms,” it is frequently assumed that “students will seek help when they are struggling with a class” (Saunders and Kardia). Having this assumption in mind, I realized that making a presentation and lesson plan simply about how to have a successful Position Paper would help student stay on track. Especially in that point during the semester, I figured that delivering a simpler presentation, one that was less daunting, could be more helpful to those that needed the advice but didn’t want to reach out.
Another lesson plan, one that focused on outlining, that I delivered related back to my Learning Artifact but acted as an extension of it. This was mainly because of the due date of the Learning Artifact, but I like that I was able to remind the students of my advice the week after I first presented. I delivered my lesson plan on outlining with Donald Murray’s “Teach Writing as a Process Not Product” in mind because I wanted to emphasize that while outlining is imperative for my writing process, it might not be for others (Villanueva). I reiterated this multiple times when I delivered this lesson plan and I think that it went a long way. Now that I’m reflecting on this semester as a whole, I think going back to my presentation after I had already delivered it made the students remember that it was actually a resource for them and not just something that they were going to see once. I remember seeing that somebody (anonymous) was looking at my presentation on the day that their final drafts of the Position Paper were due. To me, the fact that even just one student went back to my presentation was enough.
Apart from my Learning Artifact and lesson plans, I took this semester to focus on being more present in the classroom. I started out my position as a UTA simply being a grader, and after two more semesters, I decided that I wanted to be more active and have a larger role. So, I went to “Fostering Effective Classroom Discussions” to read more on how I can both be more present during class discussions as well as leading my own. Professor Kim and I talked about how it was useful for me to start off class with a short 5-minute informal discussion that basically asked for feedback or for students to talk about how they’re feeling about the current writing assignment that was due. I combined the first two strategies, “Set clear expectations for student participation in discussion sessions” and “Break the ice with informal talk outside of class” when I did my pre-class discussions because I wanted to be clear (Barton). Whenever class would start with a discussion that I was leading, I would tell the students to put their laptops and phones away because I just wanted to have a 5-minute open discussion about where they are. We realized that students were more inclined to say when they were struggling to me than to Professor Kim, even when he was just sitting right next to me. I think that this strategy is something that a lot of professors could utilize more with their teaching assistants; professors gain more insight and UTAs gain more involvement.
In relation to my presence in the classroom, I also tried to figure out more ways to engage with students and have them feel more comfortable reaching out to me. I realized a lot of the problem with students not reaching out UTAS is that they either feel like they don’t need to or they don’t feel comfortable enough. That’s why I did a lot of the suggestions that David Gooblar discussed in his article titled “How to Undermine Your Own Authority.” He encourages professors and those that have positions of power in the classroom to “actively give up some of our control” (Gooblar). Gooblar encourages us to not “act” like we are the teachers or teaching assistants; we should talk to our students in a way that still lets us “be human” at the end of the day (Gooblar). I really agreed with this point of view because I figured that students would want approach somebody that’s unapproachable. By being informal, being comfortable, and breaking that barrier with my students, I found that this semester I got many more students reaching out to me via e-mail. That’s why I think that this more informal and approachable strategy was effective and successful in the classroom – I literally had more students reaching out to me!
All in all, with my time as a UTA over, I can proudly say that I’ve grown. As not just a teaching assistant, but as a person too and I could not be more grateful for that. I worked on my presentation skills, which was something that I thought I was terrible at before, as I delivered multiple lesson plans throughout my three semesters. Personally, I used to struggle a lot with just speaking knowing that so many eyes were on me. But as I spent time being a UTA, I’ve gotten much more comfortable with it. Now, I’m happy to deliver that lesson plan in class just as I’m happy to deliver a final presentation in one of my major (finance) classes. In working on my presence in the classroom as a UTA, I’ve become more tentative in my other classes this semester as I am constantly striving to simply be more active and really learn instead of just being taught. Not only have I greatly impacted the classroom for Professor Kim and the students that I oversaw, but I can honestly say that I’ve positively impacted myself. This is an experience that I will never forget and it will be an experience that I carry with me in my future career and in the rest of my life.
Works Cited
Barton, Jennifer, et al. “Facilitating Effective Classroom Discussions.” McGraw Hill Higher Education, www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/pt/discussion/discussion.htm.
Gooblar, David. “How to Undermine Your Own Authority.” ChronicleVitae , 2018 The Chronicle of Higher Education, 18 Jan. 2017, chroniclevitae.com/news/1670-how-to-undermine-your-own-authority.
Saunders, Shari, and Diana Kardia. “Creating Inclusive College Classrooms.” Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan, 1997, www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p3_1.
Villanueva, Victor. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: a Reader. National Council of Teachers of English, 2003.