The Observer's Blog

Teaching Assistantship Contest

Having been in Hawaii for about 48 hours now, I've already begun preparations for classes which begin next week. The first day I was here, I talked to the two professors I will be TAing for, and one of them asked me what I'm interested in within the first few sentences. I said "star formation," and he told me he meant like outside of science, but I was still puzzled. Apparently he includes mini-biographies of himself and his TA on the course syllabus, which is something I've never heard of. Anyway, I was and still am really struggling for an interesting tidbit to put on the syllabus that wouldn't make me sound like a total git. Almost everything I can think of is at best dorky and at worst inappropriate in that it would undermine my position of authority. So I'm welcoming ideas from the masses, but be quick, I'm not sure when he's going to run-off the syllabi. This is the titular TA Contest. Also I have no computer still, but I may be getting an office soon, in which case that will be remedied.

Oh, and as an afterthought, today I underwent Day One of university-wide "TA Training." This was all well and good, but halfway through the strange thought that all TA's from accross the entire school were gathered in one auditorium. Just imagine what an undergraduate would think if they entered that room. Their astronomy TA sitting next to their English TA and making jokes about their Math TA's haircut.