[Maayan]

1. Ben:

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2. Jake:

Talking about ground tissue in a herbaceous monocot (note, this is
entirely made up just to illustrate what you would write):

Ground tissues here are all primary of origin (from the "blank"
meristem). From Figure 3, we see that pith contains a variety of
different ground tissue cells. All of them are stained pink which
suggest some contain primary cell walls, yet there are columnar, oval
and elliptical cells arranged in a pseudo checkerboard fashion
surrounding a large duct in the center. This could mean that each of
those cells store slightly different substances at different volumes
which are released into the man transport duct. The transport duct is
purported to have many differents forms, since this ring of this duct
is stained blue, then this monocot produces Power Ranger transport
ducts (Optimus Prime, 1984).

Q2: What qualities do you appreciate in a teaching assistant?

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Looks and sarcasm.

[Monte314]

I hated all of my TA's. I thought they were jerks... because they were jerks.

Of course, when I became a TA and saw what they have to put up with, it made more sense.

When I became a faculty member, I got my own TA's. Everybody wanted to be Monte's TA, because I didn't trust them, so I didn't let them do ANYTHING... I didn't want them talking to my students, grading papers, ... NOTHIN'. Being Monte's TA was a free ride.

Now I don't even take TA's anymore. Let 'em mess up someone else's students....

[Merle]

What exactly are Teaching Assistants in the University context?-- we don't have them here (UK).
I had a DPhil student supervise my thesis because it was on the same subject as his DPhil thesis, would he be considered a TA?

[Monte314]

Teaching assistants (TA's) are generally first or second-year graduate students who handle grading, lab classes, and problem sessions for faculty. More senior graduate student TA's often serve as adjuncts, teaching (undergraduate) classes of their own. They usually receive free tuition and a small stipend.

I actually served as a TA for a professor in a couple of graduate classes while I was still an undergraduate (since I started my Masters Degree while an undergrad). I graded his students' homework papers, but had no professional contact with his students.

[MaleVolentworld]

	Originally Posted by Merle To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	What exactly are Teaching Assistants in the University context?-- we don't have them here (UK). I had a DPhil student supervise my thesis because it was on the same subject as his DPhil thesis, would he be considered a TA?

Dr Phil is now a university lecturer? what channel is it on?

[Merle]

So as a TA you would be grading etc straight after your Bachelor's (or not in Monte's case)? Wow, that seems pretty inexperienced (particularly when the American Bachelor's are less specialized and more supervised than they are here)... you're not allowed near any sort of teaching/marking etc here until about your second year of a PHd-which would be, at the least, two years of further study on from your Bachelor's.

[Monte314]

Yes, it's great experience for the TA, but I don't know how good it is for their "victims". I don't tolerate it.

[Zilal]

The TAs in my major have all been great. Smart people with great senses of humor. I have become friends with many of them. Outside my major it's been a mixed bag... some clearly more interested in what they were doing than others, but nobody who was incompetent.

At my school the TAs usually run the lab sessions and grade homework. Test grading (beyond simple multiple-choice tests) is done by the professors.

[eternaltriangle]

	Originally Posted by Monte314 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I hated all of my TA's. I thought they were jerks... because they were jerks. Of course, when I became a TA and saw what they have to put up with, it made more sense.

So true - people expect TA's to be good teachers although absolutely nothing about the grad student admission process has any bearing on our teaching skills. My TA training basically consisted of this:
"There are multiple schools of thought in teaching. Some people say, don't sleep with your students. Others say if you sleep with your students the school admin will personally do you in with a crowbar. In conclusion, don't sleep with your damn students."

The workload is not actually that bad, the problem is that we TA's are also grad students, and tend to be studying for midterms at the same time we are grading your stuff. Moreover, it becomes really easy to view the students as "the enemy". We tend only to meet students when they are grubbing for more grades (often without a principled basis beyond a student's inherent sense of self-worth). Even if we get our own tutorial we are teaching somebody else's stuff - often in a subject we are not an expert in (sure give the Canadian intro to American politics).

It is actually a pretty sweet ride though, in retrospect. This year I worked for an academic journal, which was pure torture. I would TA or teach in a heartbeat.

PS:
eternaltriangle's theory of TA's
1. Talk in class/after class about the subject. You will probably get the benefit of the doubt on assignments/tests. Those bright-eyed students that are interested in the field remind us of... us.

2. Regardless of objective standards, grading is an inherently relative thing, particularly in the social sciences/humanities. Do not shoot to meet some objective criteria (knowing the definition of X). Shoot to have a better answer than your peers. You will learn more in the process and get better grades. When I get 800,000 answers that are the exact same and find one gem that makes an interesting and different argument, I get very excited. University is about understanding concepts, and not just regurgitating or memorizing some definition or formula.

3. We can tell who was in a study-group and who wasn't. By the way, study groups (especially large ones) suffer from adverse selection. You can go to them, but only if you have read a lot and mostly have questions about finer points of the material (and are in a study group with people in the same boat). The loudest voice in study groups is not always the brightest.

4. Learn to write. All schools have tonnes of resources to help you. Most people coming out of high schools do not know how to write an essay.

(obviously this is my subjective experience as an undergrad and as a TA, 5. take all advice with a grain of salt)

[dijitalrayne]

My TAs as an undergrad were all outside of my major (physics). Now that I'm a grad student, I'm TAing an accelerated introductory physics class. My students are all physics majors, and are there because they are interested in the subject. It makes them a pleasure to teach. Furthermore, because it's accelerated, there are topics that are oftentimes glossed over by the professors, leaving me with two hour-long recitations a week to demonstrate my own examples, explore concepts from a different perspective, and mold the professors' words (there are two professors co-teaching the course) into a consistent format and notation that is more easily comprehensible to the students.

All in all, it's a ton of fun, and I have some students that skip lecture and only come to recitation. I would like to believe that not all TAs are bad, and not all TAing experiences have to be horrific. Yes, grading is a pain. We all know it, accept it, and move on. Fortunately, grading in physics is less subjective than in, say, a humanities class.

My two cents.

[Nomadofthehills]

Me. I was an undergrad TA for a 400 level herpetology course last semester as a junior.

[Valielen]

Think it is common in UK for undergraduate TA's to be PhD students. My genetics TA gave us all the answers for the little quiz at the end of practicals if you pressed him enough. It became a fun exercise to see how much you could get out of him.

Never really bonded with any of them though...