Penn State University - La Vie Yearbook (University Park, PA)

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4 Communication In The LASSROO lowly the students filed into the room, a wave of liThey hate me already. lim going to make a fool of mysellm thoughts roared through my mind. Bong, bong. bong.... I heard Old Main and knew that it was now or never. Deep breath...OK, uGood afternoon. My name is... First day teaching assistant jitters were not uncommon. Laura Golden, a biology TA, said, laughing. ill was only a junior when I started. I stuttered the whole way through the first one. llm really surprised the whole class just didnlt drop it. The worst part for many TAs was to get no reaction from the students. Nathalie Chevrin, a French 1 TA from France, said, uIf someone is a volunteer, you feel much better than if you have to ask someone to answer the question. Dennis Ngo, a chemistry TA echoed similar sentiments. lil don't get any response from the students. I feel that is very disappointing. l donit know if they don't understand or just don't care? Dennis had to face another potential problem. He was a foreign TA and was afraid that he would say something wrong or that his students would not understand him. Chiou-Shann Fuh. a computer science TA from Taiwan, said, ul am confident in my professional skill. The most problem is in my language proficiency. Communication problems such as these occurred frequently. Some students felt especially frustrated by foreign teaching assistants. Robin Evans. a senior in marketing, listed the ability to speak English as a top requirement for TAs, and Laurie Christiansen. a seventh semester marketing major, said she had difficulties in lower level math and economics most opting for back row seats. Suddenly, courses with foreign TAs. However. Steve Boyer, a transfer from Berks campus. said, bl donlt think it matters if they're foreign or not. It's pretty naive if you think theyire not good just because theyire foreign. ltis ridiculous. Junior Eric Barnett agreed and said that TAs try hard to help the students by explaining the labs and by demonstrating the equipment so that no one gets hurt. He felt very comfortable going to a TA for help. Laurie, on the other hand, said, iil try hard to avoid going to them. She explained that no matter how she phrased a question her TAs still did not understand it. uThey should have teaching qualities, not just intelligence. lntelligence is shown on paper. not in communicating. TAs were concerned about this. For Nathalie, low participation and few questions in her French class were a concern. illim just wondering if theyire asking all the questions they want to ask? she said. Fuh felt strongly toward his students as well. He said, uWhenever my students ask me a question, 1 will give them the best answer I can. One aspect of teaching was certain. However one felt about TAs, it was not an easy job. Laura said, All I want them ther studentsy to know is that I'm trying really hard. I'm just a student, just like they are. llm not necessarily a know-it-all type of person. The best part. though, according to Laura was that it felt good to be able to help so many people. iil had fun! she smiled. Article by-Pat Hogg Layout bymPat Hogg x- ., --a-.---.--- Dennis O'Connor A 1' THE BEGINNING OF CLASS. Japanese I TA. Craig Rittenhousc, lmndx brick SONIC homework assignments: GI VING SOME HELPFUL HINTS. Dr. Miirycllcn Gleason, head of the instructional dcvc'lopmcnl progrmn, counsels prolbxsors rind TAs on ht-cmning bcllcr teachers. Slew k rcpps Teaching Assistants

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ONE TO ONE INTERACTION is oflcn poss'iblc wilh TAs. Jim Miller Inkcx Iimc Io unsu'cr 21 question u! the cnd ol' the lab session LOOKING 0 VER THE IIANDOUTS from lhc lhll TA workshop, this TA roads the rccommcndulions on becoming a morc cl'li'clivc inslrucmr. VISUA L AIDS, xuch us the blackboard. urc cspcciully hclpl'ul teaching tools. This Japanese I TA makes :1 point during class, Ucnnix U'Cunnur FOCUSING THE MICROSCOPE, BI'oVOgy 10! teaching assistant Laura Golden. guides two of her students through :1 tricky part of the lab. Tracy Kciacr

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1'1 s. irlf:fa -5Q .45 aria WHERE TO DRA w THE LINE irighU between collaboration and copyin difficult decision. R EL YING ON HER OWN RESOURCES, ibclowi this student does her best while keeping her integrity. DESPITE EFFORTS TO URTAIL cheating, ibclow righU such as different test forms and proctors, cheating is surprisingly common. Joel Grubcr Joel 0:qu 26 Academic Dishonesty